O Captain, My Captain

You put a lot of trust into the captain of the ship. He pilots the ships and makes sure everything is ok. Piloting is especially important when on the Nile and your in a felucca (traditional sail boat), because there's a ton of huge cruise ships that also cross the Nile. This guy, to the left here, surprisingly was an amazing captain. He also smoked, literally, 18 hours a day.

Initially, I was against the idea of sailing up the Nile for 2 days. I thought it may be too cliche and the experience dull. I don't know if I talked myself into it, or the guy selling me this tour, or the dreaded Korean-Brazilian I met talking about it, but I decided to do it. The romantic in me wanted to be in a sail boat, instead of a train, sleep under the stars, and eat whatever there was on the boat. This turned out to be a great idea.

This was our vessel. I shared it with the captain, his "first mate", 2 of the nicest people from Sweden, and a guy from Columbia. It was a small boat, but no matter, for 6 people, it was quite comfortable. The 4 passengers slept outside under the tarp, while the captain and his mate where inside in what they called "The Magic Room". The Colombian guy didn't really speak English and looked like a douche, so we really didn't have much to say to each other. The couple from Sweden were in Cairo because of an arts scholarship, but didn't find the inspiration they were hoping for.

This is not surprising.

Cairo isn't exactly an arts inspiring city.

All of us ended up on the same boat, sailing the Nile, trying to relax and get away from all of the craziness that are Egyptian cities.

We had lunch on the boat, and as I am Asian, I decided to fulfill my stereotype and take a picture of it. It was actually really good. Nothing like falafels, pita, beans and tomatoes. At this point, I noticed my first potential problem. Everything is washed in the Nile. Nile river water is cold and seemed refreshing and clean, but if you remember, Cairo is dirty, so is most all of Egypt. Most of the trash is thrown into the Nile or some gully that feeds into the Nile. There's also something called West Nile Virus. Put two and two together, and you'll see my concern.

Without any second option offered, I quietly accepted the fact that I will probably have the runs for the next couple of days and should watch out for any signs of flu-like symptoms and/or worsening GI issues. But this wasn't going to ruin my time, I will be ok.

Egypt is 98% desert. The only land that has water are a few oasis in the west and the Nile banks. But the areas that are not desert was amazingly lush and green. Maybe it's the contrast that you see, or maybe the grass is just much greener, but there's something about it that is absolutely stunning.

We started sailing at 1PM, and sailed until it was dark, which was a disappointingly short period of time, since sunset is about 6PM. We tied the boat down, and went ashore to a "Nubian village", or so the captain described. The "Nubian village" turned out to be nothing more than a small town with Nubians living there. There wasn't exactly Nubian culture or especial architecture, it was just Nubians living there. We did end up finding a coffee shop, got some Turkish coffee, and learned to play dominoes. Dinner was served on the boat, in the dark, and you ate whatever was in front of you.

This bull was not happy I was on his bank. Almost charged me.

The next day, we woke up, with no real concept of what time it was, and saw our captain smoking and cooking breakfast. As I said before, he smoked 18 hours a day. This was what his smoking schedule looked like:

I smoke two joints in the morning...I smoke two joints at night

1. Wake up, pack sheesha and smoke it while cooking breakfast.
2. Eat, while first mate rolls a couple of hash blunts.
3. Smoke said hash blunt.
4. Smoke at least 3 cigarettes
5. Pack sheesha again and smoke while cooking lunch.
6. More blunts

So, for more than 8 hours a day, I had a high captain. The rest of the time, it was just tobacco.

The trip was really enjoyable, though short. I felt quite relaxed and ready to for the craziness of Egypt. Who knew the next day the world was going to go crazy????

Cairo and people watching in Cairo

Cairo is old. It is very very old. It has seen everything from the start of civilization to the new Arab Spring. My initial thoughts was that it would reflect all of it's character from ancient Egypt through Ottoman and Arab Empires and the new smell of revolution. Sadly, what you see today is the revolution, or at least what is left after the Arab Spring.

Note the burned out police building on the right. I feel bad for whomever invested in the Ritz-Carlton pre-revolution

The city is a dusty, dirty, grimy, congested, mixing bowl of Arab north Africa. With a booming population of 22 million people, it can barely sustain itself. Every year there are pessimists that claim that this year will be the fall of Cairo and all will be lost. Yet, every year Cairo survives. From the ancient city of Memphis, to the Giza Pyramids, Al-Azhar mosque, Coptic cathedrals, and Tahrir Square, Cairo always survives.

My experience with Cairo was more brief than I had planned it to be. I was supposed to stay for 4 days, but ended up with only 2 and a half. Mainly because I, personally, cannot stand the city. The air quality is pretty awful, traffic is horrendous (I got hit with a side view mirror 2 times), and you fear everyone around the corner is trying to rip you off. I still believe people should go for the experience of it all, especially the pyramids (photos here). There is a certain charm to the city, so says many of my friends, but I wasn't able to appreciate it all that much.

The issue, I found, with Cairo is the post-revolution government. There is none. Morsi runs around the international circuit making peace plans and touting the Muslim Brotherhood, which is all fine and well. But governing is much more than that. Things back home need to be done, and not just consolidating power. Trash needs to be pick up (which it hasn't), Ministry of Tourism needs to regulate the industry (woefully lacking), traffic patterns needs to be restored (driving wrong way on a one way is not that uncommon), and people need jobs (not more sheeshah and coffee shops). The problem with post-revolution Egypt is that the Muslim Brotherhood has no idea how to run a country, especially it's massive bureaucracy. The touts and vendors have free reign in the country.

It was explained to me that the vendors are much more aggressive because the police don't really want to do anything, because they have been seen as the "bad guys" during the revolution. So, now, people will try to push the limits of what they can get away with, especially with tourists, foreign and domestic.

A Trip to the Pyramids from Cairo

I was getting a cab to the pyramids from Giza train station, and the cabbie spoke no English, which is fine because I learned, or so I thought, how to say the pyramids in Arabic (al-ahram). Not surprisingly, he did not understand my Arabic. So, I ended up drawing a picture of three pyramids for him and he finally understood. He charged me 20EP (Egyptian Pounds) which is really good considering my guidebook said expect 30EP. About 20 minutes into the trip (the pyramids are 8km away from the train station, but due to traffic, it takes about 40 minutes to get there), a guy jumps into the cab. This is not unexpected, since hitching a ride is not uncommon in most countries. The guy starts talking to me about how he works at the pyramids and then starts talking to the driver in Arab. The driver looks irritated by this man, and keeps waving his finger at me.

The guy starts telling me that I need a camel or horse to get into the pyramids and that he will cut me a good deal. I don't know what was said between him and the driver, but the driver ended up taking me to this guy's "stable". I use the term "stable" very loosely, as it was just 4 camels and 3 horses tied to 2 trees outside an office with a couple of coaches and a TV in it. The driver knows I don't want to be there, and gestures that he will wait for me until this other guy finishes his con. This guy explains to me that it's US$120 to get a 4 hour tour of the pyramids by camel or horse and that you CANNOT enter the pyramids without a horse of camel. He became aggressive and I finally had to tell him to fuck off.

I jump back into my cab and the drive gives me a "told you so, don't trust motherfuckers" look, and then start driving to the main entrance. In about 3 minutes, another guy jumps in, and makes the same schpeel. This guy, though, says "I'm the police, and I'm telling you that you cannot walk around the pyramids". REALLY DUDE?!?! You're the police??? That is what you decided to come up with??? Right...

I tell him to fuck off with a nice "khalas" in Arabic, meaning "enough". He keeps asking me "why don't you want a camel?" proceeds to smack me on the back of the head and runs away before I can do anything. The drivers takes me to the main entrance and I gave him a little more than 20EP for not abandoning me and feeding me to the other 2 assholes. Thank god for good taxi drivers.

If you like riding animals, take a camel. I feel the experience is overrated. They smell REALLY bad and are not exactly comfortable to ride. The other reason I will not ride is camel or horse or anything for that matter is that they treat these animals completely inhumanely. It's disgusting and I do not condone animal cruelty. Let's just say at the end of the day I saw a dead horse laying right outside of the pyramids with no one to move it or dispose of it.

Amazing. Still standing after 5000 years

The problem with the pyramids, minus the animal cruelty, everyone bothering inside and out for camel and horse rides, the amount of animal poop all over the pyramids, and the cops that want baksheesh (tips) is that you are nickle and dimed for everything. Here a quick breakdown of costs:

1) Admission fee: 60EP
2) Entering the actual pyramids: 100EP for Cheops, 50EP for the lesser 2
3) Solar Barque museum: 60EP

The price is half off with an international student ID, which I do not have nor know what it is. What you CAN do, is show your drivers license, hope they don't read English, and say "am'ma taliban" (i'm a student) in Arabic and hope they buy it. It has worked 4 times for me. The rest... they read English and immediately knew it was a drivers license.

And everything has it's own ticket office. Can't you just offer me one price for everything? Not to say that it was not a great life experience, but I could have done without the 20 people asking me for camel rides or asking me to buy stuff. Of all the things though, the solar barque museum is worth the visit. The barque is massive (100+meters) and took 18 years to reconstruct.

Pretty impressive

I didn't enter the Pyramids, since the guidebook says it's not really worth it. The trip out to Giza is absolutely worth it. The pyramids are HUGE and the sphinx is anti-climatically small, though still impressive. It is a stressful journey to and through the pyramids, mainly because of the people, but well worth it. I found one quiet little space for about 20 minutes and just sat there admiring the work and it is truly awe inspiring. Then the crowds and sellers came back...