I took these on the first night of Ramadan.
Hopefully I will have more after this weekend.
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Can you imagine?
6 October is a big national holiday in Egypt. It celebrates the victory of Egypt over Israel in reclaiming the Sinai.
There really isn’t anything equivalent in the US.
It isn’t as big as say, July 4th, but it is certainly bigger than V-E day or Veterans day or anything like that.
So, this year October 6th is on a Friday, which is a day off anyway.
It is also Ramadan.
So on SUNDAY, OCTOBER 1st(!), the Egyptian government decided
“Oh what the hell. It is Ramadan, nothing is getting done anyway, lets give everybody October 5th off as well for a long weekend”
Can you imagine that happening in the US?
I mean the US plays games with holidays to make long weekends all the time, but it is not done 4 days before the holiday!
So classes are cancelled, government offices, banks, etc will be closed.
The reality is that it won’t have a large impact because we are in the middle of Ramadan anyway, and most places already have irregular and abbreviated hours as it is..
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Arabic numbers
I thought the west used arabic numbers. I was wrong. The numbers in arabic are represented by different symbols. Who knew?
That would be ok, if they some of them didn’t look like the numbers used in the west.
A “5” is a “0”, a “6” is a “7” and a “7” is a “V”, a “0” is a “.” a “4” is “E”. gah.
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Small money…
“Mafiish fakka” = “I have no change”
Nobody here has change.
Giving anything as “large” as a 20 pound note (for, say, an LE8 purchase) brings the question, “fiih fakka”. (Do you have change?)
When answered in the negative, there is much sighing and eye-rollling.
Today I wanted to buy a small bottle of water. LE1.25. All I had was a 10LE note. The cashier asked if I had change. I did not. Much sighing. At the table next to him was a guy who obviously collects the cash and stocks the cash register. He had piles of bills. I pointed at him and said, “go get change”.
He went over and there was much gesticulating and talking and (seemingly) arguing. The cashier came back.
He gave me LE8.75 change. All in 50piaster notes (1/2 pound). I could SEE the 1 pound notes sitting on the table. But nooooo….
The other oddity (to me) is that there are NO coins. None.
The pound is divided into piastres. I have seen:
- 50 piaster notes
- 25 piaster notes
- 10 piaster notes (which are very colorful and cheaply made. I swear they look like play money).
All the cash registers will ring up the “actual” purchase price. Say, LE8.78. If you give the cashier LE10, if you are lucky, you’ll get LE1.25 back. More likely you will get LE1.20, and more likely still, LE1.
It is the first (non-US) country I have been in that doesn’t have coins for the “change”, let alone coins for the small denominations (LE1, LE5 etc).
And there does not appear to be any official “retiring” of money. It keeps getting circulated until it falls apart. You will often get bills taped together, sometimes with multiple pieces of tape.
Some merchants will refuse to take money that is “too” torn. The idea is to keep the “good” notes and give out the torn ones.
What a country.
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Dates
In the days before Ramadan, people buy lots of sweets and treats to have with their Iftar, which is the meal at the end of the day that breaks the Ramadan fast.
One of these treats is dates. Traditional holds that the Prophet broke his fast each day with a date and water (or milk, depending on who you believe). So this time of year, dates are very popular.
It has been a tradition for the Cairo fruit peddlers to name the different dates after different people that are in the news.
The best/most expensive dates get favorable names. The poorest/cheapest dates get unfavorable names.
This year the sweetest, most expensive dates are called “Nasrallah”, at around LE24/kg.
Close runners-up are Ahmadinejad, around LE18/kg and Chavez at LE14.
The cheapest are Olmerts, priced at about LE1.5.
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A few misc photos
Nothing earth shattering, just a few that were on my camera.
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Pyramids
We went to the pyramids today.
It is an interesting experience.
The pyramids (at giza) are on the outskirts of Cairo. About a half hour drive from downtown, depending on traffic.
Cairo is in a canyon of sorts. Centuries of the Nile flooding and changing course has dug a canyon through the limestone. Cairo sits by the river bank at the bottom of that canyon.
The pyramids are on the ledge at the top of that canyon. All you really have to do is climb out of the canyon to reach them.
They are actually visible from town on a clear day. For the record: a clear day comes about once a year after a rainstorm washes all the pollution and dust from the air.
I only mention the canyon/ledge thing because it was something I never quite realized until someone pointed out that, I quote, “Cairo sits at the bottom of the grand canyon of egypt.”
I took some shots. Some of them are here .
Visiting the pyramids is surreal in some ways. I mean, these are some 4500 years old. It is hard to wrap your head around. Our guide described it as “every childs dream is to visit the pyramids”.
I am learning that the AUC bus tours should be treated as scouting missions. They give you just enough time to get the lay of the land, a sense of location and a clear plan on what to do when you come back on your own.
We did not go into either of the 2 major pyramids. The pyramid of Khufu(aka Cheops) only allows about 100 tourists/day. The ticket booth opens at 8am. If you are not already in line, chances are you are not going to get a ticket to go in.
The other pyramid that allows entrace is the pyramid of Khafre. (This Pharoah is the one “depicted” on the face of the Sphinx). This one has a seperate ticket booth and allows unlimited tourists to visit. However, by the time we were done with the Solar Boat museum, we didn’t feel we had enough time to do it justice, though some of our tourmates did it.
We will return for these 2.
The Solar Boat museum. Apparently the pharoah was taken up the Nile to his tomb by this boat. After he was entombed, the boat was buried along side the pyramid. After the judgement, the pharoah would sail the boat to eternity.
It was discovered by accident (like most tombs, pyramids and other artifacts. I have heard that if there was truth in advertising most tourist sites in Egypt would have plaques that say “Found by burro, ca xxxx”). They were cleaning up the site for a presidential visit and found it.
It was in 160-something pieces at the bottom of a trench, covered with huge limestock blocks. There were no nails or screws holding it together, all of the pieces were held together with rope.
They pieced it all together and it is hanging in the solar boat museum. (see the pics mentioned above). Nothing in the museum is a replica. It is all the actual articles. Pretty impressive stuff.
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2 weeks.
A few years ago, the good doctor and I were travelling in Namibia and South Africa for a month or so.
We stayed at a neat hostel, owned by a very nice couple.
One night we were sitting around after dinner chatting with the owners and a n artist friend that lives near by, and 2 (iirc) german tourists that were staying there, all white.
Also in the room was the artists “colored” daughter.
The extremely earnest german couple were discussing the obvious, to them, “solutions” to all the problems of Namibia and South Africa (unemployment, poverty, HIV infection rate, illiteracy).
One of the owners of the hostel said
“Here, we have a joke:
Q: What is the difference between a tourist and a racist?
A: 2 weeks”
The owners and their friend and her daughter laughed a great deal. I thought it was amusing and telling.
The germans either didn’t get it, or didn’t think it was funny.
Many ex-pats (american, british, german, whatever) have been here a long time. Some of their views are interesting to listen to. I cringe when I hear some of them.
Maybe they are right and maybe when we have been here long enough, we will see that they are correct.
But I hope not.
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Teh
Anyone who has been on the intrawebernets for any period of time has seen the nearly ubiquitous “teh”.
It is everywhere. It is often used intentionally as a sign of… coolness? reverse chic?
Anyway, Kaddee and I have been taking (Egyptian) Arabic lessons. These lessons are starting to include reading and writing arabic. One of the letters is “teh“. I kid you not. Yeah, it looks like a smiley face.
It cracks me up everytime my instructor or kaddee or I say “teh”.
That is all.
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I went to Oktoberfest!
The beer is very sad. (unless all you like is fizzy yellow lagers)
The brands here are:
- Stella (not Stella Artois)
- Sakara
- Meister
- Heineken
Except for the Heineken, all the brands have a couple different formulations, though for the most part, they taste identical to me.
The Heineken is brewed here in Egypt under license. It is almost as “good” as Heineken you can get elsewhere.
The other day I met a gentleman from Munich (he lives here now). I asked him what he drank and he replied that he liked the Sakara Gold, but he told me of another beer.
There is a brand called Luxor that has been started by an upstart company here in Egypt. Well, they have a hefe-weizen. Supposedly, they have imported a Bavarian to be their brewmaster.
Found one last night at a restaurant. I hurriedly snatched the (1/2 liter) bottle from the waiter before he did something stupid with it.
I didn’t have the appropriate glass (sigh) so I poured off enough of it so that I could swirl the remainder to get the yeast in suspension. Then I topped off the glass.
It had some nice esters and good (mild) flavor with a clean finish. All in all a pleasant surprise. Now if I could just find in a store. (The major chain of liquor stores is owned by the Al Ahram brewing which is the competor for Luxor, so it isn’t carried there)
What about Oktoberfest?
Well, we were wandering around the other day, doing some clothing shopping to augment our meager supplies of linen and cotton clothing, when I saw a sign at the Sheraton for “An Oktoberfest Celebration”
They advertised “genuine” Bavarian food, beer and music.
Ok, this I gotta see.
So we went back a week later for the kickoff night of Oktoberfest. (Since Ramadan starts on the 22nd, I assume they had it early to avoid that conflict)
Well, they had a fenced off “bier garden” that had food, beer and an egypto-bavarian oompah band. (gack).
Unfortunately to get into the bier garden, you had to pay for the food buffet, which was LE110/person (about $20). We weren’t hungry enough to pay for a buffet.
Oh the Bavarian beer? They had Paulaner crystal and hefe in bottles. (And Sakara Gold on draught). The Paulaner was LE57 (about $10!). An outrageous price for Paulaner, even at the Sheraton.
We had one (at least they had the right glass) and went home.
This country is really starting to get on my nerves….