Cairo by van

Flying in to Cairo, I stole Jen’s window seat just in time to get my first glimpse of Africa—a wide beach, followed by endless emerald green farms, all in narrow rectangles.  There were dust colored tightly packed clusters of houses, at first small, but growing as we neared Cairo. Rivers and canals cut through the green—I realized that this was the Nile Delta.  Continuing along, the wide channel of the Nile appeared, and then the huge sprawling city of Cairo.  As we descended, we could make out the thousands of satellite TV dishes on the roofs, and then the city ended and the pale desert appeared.  For a second we hurtled past the Pyramids and Sphinx.

Cairo’s airport seemed deserted. Only two flights were in—ours from the US and one from England.

  I had read that people with layovers got free tours of the Pyramids and other sights in Cairo, but there was no one in the tiny Karnak tours office.  We waited an hour or so for the tour operator to appear.  Finally he showed up, and we sat down with him to arrange a trip.  In the end we paid $45 each, plus $15 for Visas.

One the other hand, we were comped two hotel rooms, with meals for the day, which came in handy later.

When we met Mohammed, the tour agent, finally, he explained that we needed a visa from Egypt.  We could wait in line for a long time and get a free transit visa, or we could just go to the bank booth next door and get a visa for $15.  That was what he recommended.  This was really the fist good natured recommendation we got that probably had some sort of self-interested motive attached to it.

We then had to get our visas stamped at the immigration line.  There was no lane open, no one in line, and no one working, apparently.  We finally flagged down someone who then told us to go get a card somewhere else, and then return after we had filled it out.  This was not the first time we were told something like that.

We filled out the cards as best we could, but some questions did not make sense.  What is trip number?  Address in Egypt? When we asked what to put in these spaces, the immigration officer just said “not important,” stamped our visa page, and then sent us on our way.

As we were driven—just the two of us—in a van through Cairo, it was hard not to notice two things. First, garbage.  It was in piles in the street, the bottoms of hills, empty lots, and floating in the numerous canals and ditches.   

Second, despite the abundance of cell phones, no one texts and drives.  Also there are no lines or lanes on the very wide avenues.  These are connected as follows:  If you text and drive, you will miss the fact that someone is cutting you off, tailgating you  or trying to pass you in the ¾ lane that is to your right or left.  Also, it turns out that yes, a family of four, or five even, can ride a motorcycle together.  No helmets necessary—just hold the baby on your lap.

Cairo is vast, and filled with garbage and hundreds of unfinished buildings.  Apartment block after apartment block were topped with iron rods, awaiting concrete.  Finished buildings are topped with satellite dishes—I guess that’s how you know they’re done.  We passed amazing mosques, castles, some from the Abbassids, some from the Fatimids, some obviously built by European hands, in the crusades, I think.  And may were built by King Muhammed Ali, in the style of the above.  We crossed the Nile, and stopped in the middle of the highway to get out and take some photos.

Though there is an indeterminate government in Egypt now--there was a coup just weeks ago, there were few signs of unrest visible.  A few flags draped on buildings, a few trucks filled with women in Islamic dress.  Lots of graffiti--almost all in Arabic, but sometimes saying "No Coup".