OUR TRIP TO EGYPT
When I received an invitation to participate in
and speak at a United Nations crime conference being held in Cairo, Egypt
during part of June 1995, I jumped at the opportunity. Neither I nor my wife,
Ayako had ever been to Egypt however, we knew in that year that it would be a
fascinating country to visit—which it turned out to be. At that time, Egypt wasn’t
in turmoil then as it was at the time of writing this article.
We
first saw Egypt from the air as we flew over the Nile delta from Israel. I was
amazed at just how green the land looked below us. However, only 3 percent (7
million acres, 12,500 square miles) of Egypt’s total land (386,660 square
miles) is arable and most of it was below us as we flew over the delta. There
are about six million acres of farmland in the Nile delta in which
approximately 60 million people farm the land. The desert claims 96 percent of
Egypt.
About
an hour later, we saw the city of Cairo in the distance and within minutes, we
were flying over that huge city. There were almost 13 million people living in
Cairo when we were there so that gives you some idea of just how large that
city is. It is the largest city in Africa.
As
a matter of interest, 96 percent of the inhabitants of Egypt live in cities, towns,
villages and its rural area which represents only four percent of the land and
that is the delta of the Nile, Cairo and Alexandra, and the communities up and
down both sides of the Nile.
While
we were still in the air, we saw the pyramids below us at the western edge of
Giza (which is like a suburb of Cairo) with the Nile River going between the two cities along with two long but not so wide islands in the
center of the Nile. We later learned
that many thousands of inhabitants live and work on those two islands.
After
our plane landed and we were processed through immigration and customs, we
headed out of the air-conditioned terminal (which was not the terminal at the
main airport but instead the terminal at the smaller Almaza Airport) into the
warm air outside. We got into a taxi (in Cairo they are all black and white)
and told the driver what hotel we wanted him to take us to.
I
gave him the street number and the name of the street in English. What I didn’t
know was that although the streets are named in English on the street map, they
are in Arabic on the street signs. And considering the fact that I was probably
mispronouncing the street name, the driver had a terrible time trying to find
our hotel. He had to get out a few times and make inquires. He finally found
the hotel an hour later and only charged us about $5 Canadian. That is 10
percent of what a middle class bank official made in one month.
It
turned out that our hotel was on the El
Gezira Island (one of the two islands in the Nile River which is approximately 14 kilometers, 8.7 miles from the
airport) It was the larger of the two islands. It was approximately 3.8
kilometers—(2.3 miles) in length and 850 meters (slightly more than half a
mile) in width. The southern part of the island is where the parks are and the
northern half of the island is the one where most of the embassies are located
and because of that, there was a soldier posted at each intersection of every
street on that part of the island, armed with a rifle, 24 hours a day. I felt
sorry for them because they had to stand, hour after hour at those
intersections during their twelve-hour shifts before they were relieved. It
must have been extremely boring and tiring for them.
Cairo
is on the eastern shore of the Nile and Giza (which encompassed 80 former small
towns and villages until it became a large city in its own right) is on the
western shore, both cities separated by our island and the one south of us.
If
you ask anyone how many people are in these cities, they will ask you "Day
or night?" The question is a valid one because during the days, hundreds
of thousands of people from the surrounding areas come into Cairo and Giza in
the early dawn with their wares to sell and then at night, they take their
buses and cars back to their towns and villages resulting in the roads being choked
with the commuters. Thousands upon thousands of people (teachers and clerks
living outside of Cairo and Giza) take the buses and subway into Cairo because
they can’t afford the rent in Cairo or Giza. The subway (called the Metro) runs
parallel along the Nile. Ironically, the rent isn’t that high but because they
make very little money, they need to be prudent on how they spend it.
Nevertheless, Cairo and Giza are overflowing with inhabitants. There are
thousands of inhabitants per square mile in these cities. It’s a common saying
among the Cairenes that if you faint in their apartment, you will do so still
standing up. Of course that is an exaggeration but it’s not uncommon to have
three generations of families living in each apartment, sometimes seven or
eight people to a room. Thousands more live in row boats covered by tents of
plastic or canvas, boats that seem to line the shores of the Nile.
A
great deal of the men and boys we saw on the streets wore plain or striped
galabias (long robes) over their regular clothes but it was not uncommon to see
women and men dressed quite smartly in Western garb.
Our
hotel which was two blocks north of the main street crossing the center of the
island we were on (26 of July Street) which our hotel seemed nice enough except
that the elevator was always breaking down. We had a suite that comprised of a
living room, (with TV) kitchen, bedroom and bathroom. Ayako and I went to a
nearby modern grocery store and bought eggs, bacon, bread, margarine, jam, and
soup along with some tinned fruit. We would eat our own breakfasts in our
suite, our lunch at the Conference Center and a fine roast beef supper at the
restaurant in the hotel. That meal came with the room each night we were there.
The
next day, we checked into the Conference Center and were given identification
cards that we were to hang around our necks at all times while in the center.
The Conference Centre is one of the finest in the world. It is in the Cairene
suburb of Helliopolis, approximately 5 miles from the centre of Cairo.
At
six in the evening, (and every day) we left the Center and met a certain
Egyptian taxi driver on the street near the main entrance who spoke passable
English. For the next four days, he drove us to and from the conference center
every day. He didn’t charge us too much. I think it was about $3 Canadian a
trip. We passed the president’s palace on the way to and from the Centre and I
kidded with our cabbie by telling him that we really knew that that magnificent
palace was really his home. He smiled and responded, "No. No. My home not
that good."
It
was while he was driving us about Cairo that I appreciate why all tourists are
advised not to rent cars in Cairo. The motorists tailgate and squeeze by other
cars with an inch to spare and yet all the time we were there, we only saw one
minor rear-end fender bender. I couldn’t believe how easy our cabbie squeezed
in between cars on the narrow streets without once hitting one. No-one has insurance
for their cars in Egypt and because of that, the drivers are extremely polite
to one another and careful on how they drive. They wave other motorists to get
ahead of them if that is the other motorist’s wish. Despite the fact that they
rarely obey traffic signals, and even go through red lights even when the
traffic cop is standing on the corner, we still didn’t see any accidents except
that minor one. Of course if a tourists is foolish enough to rent a car, he or
she would be faced with one major problem, finding a place to park it. There
has to be a million cars in those two cities and they were either parked along
the streets or being driven on the streets themselves. You would walk further
trying to find a parking spot than if you merely walked to your destination, or
so it seems.
One
day our cabbie took us to a one-story building in Giza which was very modern
both outside and inside. The store sold beautiful paintings which were painted
on real papyrus paper. We purchased three, two small ones and one very large
one and paid about two hundred dollars in Canadian money for them. The ones you
can get on the street are not painted on real papyrus and they sell for about a
dollar a piece. The young man that sold us the paintings told us that he is the
son of the owner and that the owner painted the ones we were looking at. His
father beamed when I praised his work and my praise was genuine because his
work was magnificent. The son joked and told us that his father would punish him
if he didn’t sell us one of his father’s works. I turned to the father and
said, "If we don’t buy a painting from your son, he says he will be
punished, is this so? The father looked at his big strapping son and smiled and
then laughingly said, "Yes. I will turn him over my knee and spank
him." I replied, "Well I don’t want this young man spanked so I will
buy three of them." We all laughed. Buying the three works of art on real
papyrus was well worth the money we paid for them and everyone who sees then in
our home praises us for our selection.
We
learned about an interesting custom that is prevalent in Egypt. When a
taxi-driver takes you into a shop, he is seated and given coffee by the sales
people or the owner and the tourists are given a cold Coke or Pepsi. It’s the
custom. You don’t have to buy anything. It’s simply part of the Egyptian
hospitality that is accorded to tourists and I suspect anyone else who shops in
the stores. The Coca Cola and Pepsi companies must make a mint in Egypt.
One
day our cabby pulled up to a small building and took us inside. It was on one
of the main streets. It turned out that this was where the late Egyptian
president Sadat and his wife were entombed. Both of their caskets were in two
raised marble-like sarcophagus. Sadat had been murdered in 1981 by several of
his soldiers who were Islamic Fundamentalists. Sadat was standing as his
soldiers paraded by him and several soldiers jumped from their passing truck
and ran towards him with their machine guns firing. Instead of hiding behind
the barricade in front of Sadat, he remained standing and as such, was
machine-gunned to death by one of the soldiers who managed to get up close to
him. The soldiers were captured and later hanged.
One
day our taxi-driver took us to see the pyramids at Giza. These huge stone
edifices are about 8 kilometers from the Nile
and the base of the largest pyramid of the three, the Great Pyramid of Khufu (the Greek spelling is Cheops) which was
built around 2600 B.C. and is 230 meters (756 feet) at the base of all four sides. Its height is 147 meters (482
feet) It is as high as a 42-story building. That may not seem high when
comparing it with the immensely tall buildings around the world of today but
considering the fact that each of the stones are 2.5 to 15 tons in size, (between
the size of a small bus) and that there are 2.3 million of them placed in an
area of 13 square acres and that there are enough stones in that pyramid to
build a ten foot (3 meter) wall around the entire country of France and that
the cubic area of the inside of that pyramid (which is almost solid stone) is
so large that St. Peter's in Rome, St. Paul's and Westminster Abby in London
and the cathedrals in Florence and Milan could be placed inside this pyramid
with room to spare, one cannot help but conclude that this has to be history's
greatest man-made feat as it relates to the building of structures. It took
70,000 men 20 years to build it.
Incidentally, the workers were not all slaves. Most of them were farmers and
when they had finished farming for the year, they worked on the pyramids for
payment so that they could feed their families and buy more seed for their
farms.
You
have to stand at the base of one of the corners of the Great Pyramid of Khufu to truly appreciate its tremendous size. I
think the only other two comparable awe-inspiring edifices in the world are the
Taj Mahal in India and the Eiffel Tower in Paris. Up to the beginning of the
Twentieth Century, it was the tallest structure
in the world and at that time, it was second only to the Eiffel Tower with
respect to the tallest man-made structures.
My
wife and I decided that we would like to go for a camel ride and ride around
the pyramids. When I got on one, with coloured pompoms hanging around its eyes,
it suddenly got up and if I hadn’t been hanging on for dear life, I would have
been catapulted into the sand. Ayako then got on hers and then the owner of the
camels told us that that would cost us 40 Egyptian pounds apiece. That was
approximately $16.80 in Canadian money in today’s market. I figured that I
could live with that. Then he asked if we were prepared to pay ten pounds for
the horse. I told him that we didn’t need a horse as we were riding his camels.
He replied that the horse isn’t for us, it’s for the guide. I said OK. This
camel ride would cost us $17.00 American. I could live with that. After all how
often does anyone in North America ever get to ride real camels in a real
desert?
We
started across the desert sands towards the pyramids and within a minute, a man
appeared out of nowhere. He handed me an open bottle of orange pop and when I
said no, he replied, "Please, it’s a gift." Well, I didn’t want to
insult him by turning him down so I accepted his gift. A minute later, while he
was walking along side of me, he asked for an Egyptian pound note. I looked at
my guide riding his horse on the other side of me and I then implored, "If
it was a gift, why is he asking me for money?" The guide replied,
"He’s now asking for money because he is a beggar." My wife couldn’t
stifle her laugh and she whispered with great glee, "Beware of Egyptians
bearing gifts." I reached into my pocket and pulled out 100 piastas and
gave it to the beggar and asked him, "Do you know what the English word
SHOO means? He nodded his head in the affirmative and when I looked back
towards him, he was gone, as was my 100 piastas. A couple of minutes later, a
woman carrying what appeared to be a baby in her arms came out of nowhere and
approached us and asked for some money. Do these people live in hidden caves
buried under the sand? I refused to contribute again and talked myself into
believing that the baby was in fact just a doll—which it probably was.
I
didn’t realize how long it took us to go around the pyramids but by the time we
were heading back, the sun had gone down and the lights of Giza were twinkling
in the distance.
Suddenly
I heard the guide’s voice in the darkness. "You do intend to pay for my
services as your guide, don’t you? What was I going to say that wasn’t in
agreement with him? After all, he and the small boy holding the ropes to our
camels were our only way back to Giza. When we arrived back at Giza, I ran into
the shop where the camel owner was seated and complained most bitterly about
the additional charge. He poured us some wine and said, "Perhaps you will
feel better if I tell you that the extra ten pounds ($1.48 Canadian) will be
given to the boy who walked all that way through the desert as he led your two
camels." I asked the owner to call the boy in and when the boy entered the
shop, I smiled at him and handed him the ten-pound note. The boy gave me a nice
thank you and ran out of the shop. I hoped the guide didn’t take it off of him
but I suppose that was too much to hope for. In any case, the camel owner felt
bad in not disclosing every aspect of the costs to us before we went on the
ride and as a result, he gave Ayako a small bottle of perfume. The camel ride
cost me $21.50 Canadian. We left all smiles around although my smile was in a
fixed position all the while since my smile was sardonic but by then, I learned
an important lesson. Always ask up front what the costs are going to be no
matter where you are.
We
spent about twenty minutes standing about listening and watching the sound and
light show in which the pyramids and the Sphinx were lit up. The pyramids were
hardly noticeable but the Sphinx really stood out against the black sky. It’s
quite close to the road running between Giza and the pyramids.
I
learned from some Egyptians I met later that if the camel owner and I had
agreed on an amount and we shook on it and he tried to raise the cost after
that, I could refuse to pay it and then ask a nearby tourist police (they are
everywhere) for assistance. The police officer would send us on our way and
then when we were out of sight, the police officer would give the camel owner a
severe beating and tell him that next time there was a complaint, his place
would be shut down. I learned that because tourism is a big thing in Egypt, the
government lets the tourist police have free rein to make sure that tourists
are not hassled or hounded and especially, not cheated. Just say the words,
"tourist police" and then stand back and watch how nice the sales
people are to you and how the beggars will flee from you.
During
our drive back to our hotel, we passed the many nightclubs that are on both
sides of Pyramids Road that leads from the pyramids and carries on through the
city of Giza.
The
next day, our taxi driver brought us back to the pyramids so that we could
spend more time around the big one. We also spent an hour looking at the Sphinx
and the repairs being done to the base of it. From what we were told, the
Sphinx was built at least a thousand years earlier than the pyramids.
The
day after that, our taxi driver took us to Saladin’s Citadel that was about 4.5
kilometers south-east of our hotel. This huge stone Arabian complex was built
on the top of a small hill overlooking the city. It was built by Saladin, the
same man who fought Richard the Lion Heart during the Crusades. We entered the
fortress about half way up the hill and walked to the top and wandered around
the complex. The view of the city to the south, west and north of us was
magnificent. To the east, we could see the steep Muquattam Hills nearby.
At
the very top of the Citadel is the Muhammad Ali Mosque with two very high
minarets beside it. There were very big windows in the walls of the Mosque that
made it possible to see inside it. It was in the Citadel that former rulers
ruled Egypt. Incidentally, this is a good time to tell you that if you intend
to use a toilet in public tourist places in Egypt, bring your own toilet paper
because there are none in the stalls. Of course, there is always a woman with a
roll of toilet paper outside the washrooms that will give you some toilet paper
for a few coins. I discovered this while we were in the Citadel.
Prior
to that, we spent an hour in the area of the huge Rifai Mosque which is at the
base of the hill the Citadel is situated on. We didn’t go in because the men
were at prayers and infidels can be in real trouble if they enter a mosque when
the men are praying. I did want to go in however and see the green marble
sarcophagus that the last Shah of Iran (Pahlavi) is buried and visit the tomb
next to it where the last king of Egypt (Farouk) is buried. I later was friends
with the man who was the general who was the head of Farouk’s body guards. He
was living in Canada when I met him.
There
was also a market area nearby where there were many small stores and stalls
selling gold trinkets and chains and we spent an hour browsing through them.
Our
taxi driver then took us to the Northern Cemetery which is called the City of the Dead which is one of two huge cemeteries along the
south and eastern part of Cairo which has thousands of domed mausoleums in
which over a quarter of a million inhabitants of Cairo have moved into them
because of the housing shortage. Officially they are not supposed to live there
but the authorities have turned a blind eye because to them, it’s probably
better that the homeless inhabitants live in the cemeteries than on the
streets. The government even supplies them with water and lights. The
inhabitants aren’t even considered as squatters anymore. Of course some of the
mausoleums are guarded by the police and /or watch men because past rulers are
entombed in them. We visited one that was fairly large and well guarded.
It
was unfortunate then that there was a 20 percent unemployment rate however in Cairo
in 2016, it was 12.5 percent. Many of the Cairenes in Cairo or Giza held then
and probably hold now, only part-time jobs. Sidewalks were teeming with
unemployed youth who held their hands out in hopes that some small service on
their part will result in a small token of appreciation being placed on their
outstretched hands. Small children, some with missing limbs, sitting on the
sidewalk with outstretched hands, are hard to ignore even when they can’t offer
a service to the tourists.
This
is a city of odd jobs; where both young and old wash cars, hawk imitation and
real papyri, act as impromptu tour guides. (ask where a street is and be
prepared to drop a coin in an outstretched hand in return) Of course, no steady
work means no marriage which results in decade-long court ships in which the
partners long for privacy in which they can be intimate. Of course being
intimate in the privacy of one’s home in Cairo is akin to an ant having a private
room in an ant hill.
We
decided to spend the weekend in Luxor which is 400 miles (643 kilometers) south
of Cairo as the conference wasn’t having proceedings going on over the weekend.
There are really only two ways you can go to that city that is on the east bank
of the Lower Nile—by air or by train. Forget going by bus. The train leaves
around eight in the evening and arrives at six the following morning. I paid
several hundred dollars Canadian for the two of us for the return trip with a
sleeper. You have to make the reservations well in advance so I made them
before we even left Canada. I picked up the tickets at the train station which
is situated beside one of the major thoroughfares in Cairo. (Ramses Street) Two
days later, we caught the train but before we did, we switched hotels because
the elevator in ours was still not working. We chose the Presidential Hotel on
the island and they reserved a room I picked out for us for the following
Monday and the rest of the week.
We
arrived at the train station around eight in the evening and climbed aboard.
Our sleeper had a upper and lower bunk, and a toilet and wash basin so for the
entire trip, we had the privacy of our sleeper. When Ayako and I were sitting
on the soft seats of our air-conditioned sleeper on the train, I looked out of
the large window and saw a train sitting beside us. It must have been third
class. Its windows were open and people sitting on the seats were trying to fan
themselves with newspapers. It was extremely hot outside. I was glad that Ayako
and I weren’t going south on that train. As our train slowly pulled out of
Cairo and headed south, I looked at the apartment buildings that were very
close to the tracks as our train was passing them. None of them had glass
windows. Why would they need glass windows? All the time we were in Egypt, we
never saw one cloud. The sky was always blue until the sun went down. Moments
later, the sky was black. The reason is because with no clouds in the sky to
reflect the setting sun, once the sun goes over the horizon, the area you are
in turns black within minutes if you are outside a city or village.
Our
train arrived in Luxor around 6:00 in the morning and it was still dark
outside. The cabbies were out there waiting for us and a young cabby and a friend
of his who was in the cab with him, drove us towards the hotel I had chosen
earlier to go to but on the way there, the cab driver took us to a different
hotel. I insisted that he take us to the one I told him to take us to in the
first place and he complied. When we arrived at the hotel’s front desk, I paid
him for the trip. He asked for additional money because he took us to another
hotel first. The man at the front desk told him to get the hell out of the
hotel before he threw him out. If he didn’t throw the little cheat out, I was
going to.
The
hotel was a three-story hotel and was built in the earlier part of the century.
As it turned out, my wife and I were the only residents in the hotel that day.
Two days later, a huge contingent of tourists arrived. There was a large swimming
pool outside and it was the only swimming pool in Luxor and because of this,
sometimes customers of other hotels nearby would pay several Egyptian pounds to
our hotel for the privilege of swimming in our pool. The hotel is just half a
block from the main street and that street (in the area of the hotel) borders
the eastern shore of the Nile River.
The
first thing we did was visit the Valley
of the Kings in the Theban Hills
which is on the west side of the Nile. We went across the Nile on a small ferry
boat with a tour guide who had been called by our hotel on our behalf. He was a
young Egyptologist earning extra money giving private tours. He met us at the
hotel and we walked the short distance to the ferry. After we crossed, he
walked us to an air-conditioned van-like vehicle and the driver drove us to the
Valley of the Kings.
The
Valley of the Kings is not really a
valley but rather it is a small rocky canyon of which the 60-odd pharaonic tombs were
carved out of the rocky walls of the canyon in which a number of Pharaohs were
buried. Some tombs were even carved out of the valley floor. It is the place
where King Tut’s tomb was found. We visited his tomb (one of the smaller ones)
and stood about ten feet from where his sarcophagus is located. We visited one
other tomb in the ‘valley’ and walked quite some distance into the actual
burial chamber after passing through its winding passageways. The few tombs
that were open to tourists are lit up to some degree by overhanging lights or
floodlights and the electric fans blow some air inside them so it isn’t too hot
inside the tombs but quite frankly, I wasn’t all that excited having the
hieroglyphic text on the walls explained to me in inch by inch detail of the
postmortem rituals which at best are icky. There is a modern building near the
tombs where tourists can cool off and have cold soft drinks. I was more anxious
to be there. I needed to cool off and quench my thirst as the heat in some of
these tombs can be unbearably suffocating.
Before
we left the area, I observed some workman doing some digging nearby so I went
over to see why. Their foreman told me that they were looking for a tomb. I
jokingly pointed to another area on the valley floor and said, "You are
digging in the wrong place. The missing tomb is over there." We laughed
and went our separate ways. Two years later, I learned that the missing tomb
was finally discovered and it was found exactly where I pointed. No. I will not
be credited with the discovery. However, that wasn’t the first time I
forecasted an event. I can’t explain it but my mother did it a couple of times
also.
Our
tour guide then took us to the famous Temple
of Queen Hatshepsut. The structure looks imposing enough. It comprises of a
series of three broad terraces with many colonnades on each.
Two
years and a half years later, on (November 17, 1997) six men who were members
of the Islamic Group, an Egyptian Islamic Fundamentalist terrorist organization
called Gama’a Islamiya, massacred 4
Egyptians and another 58 Swiss tourists who were getting off the bus at the
site. Some of the victims had their noses cut off. The terrorists were hunted
down a few hours later by the police and all of them were shot to death.
The
sun was extremely hot (115 degrees Fahrenheit, 46 Celsius) and it was a
five-minute walk to the shade of the temple. As soon as we arrived, a beggar
came out from behind a colonnade and fanned us with a piece of paper and then
demanded payment of one Egyptian pound. I had enough of this and blessed him
and then waved him away. "SHOO!"
As
our young Egyptologist tour guide was painfully deciphering the hieroglyphics
and I was feeling faint, I stopped him and pointed to another area of the
inscriptions and said , "I too can read Egyptian hieroglyphics. Here, let
me show you." I pointed my finger towards the inscriptions and said,
"Canadian tourist is very hot and is melting in the sun and needs to get
out of this heat." He began laughing and said, “You’re right. I couldn’t
have transcribed it better than that. Let’s get out of here and into the shade.”
We moved into the nearby air-conditioned building where the restaurant was.
On
the way back to the ferry that was to take us across the river to Luxor, we
stopped to look at a rather large statue of some Pharaoh and marveled at how it
whistled when the wind blew around it. Our guide then took us to a small local
tomb (I can’t imagine why) and then to the ferry that was to take us across the
Nile to Luxor. He spent about four hours with us and his fee was $60.00 Canadian
which he came by the hotel later to pick up.
Luxor
(whose population then was approximately 159,000) is not only a stopping place
for the Nile cruises but it is famous for its two temples. The smaller temple
is right in the middle of the town. It is simply called, Luxor Temple. It covers an area of about three city blocks. It’s
right next to the street that runs along side the Nile. At night time, it is
lit up by amber floodlights.
The
second temple is something else again. It is the largest temple in the world.
It was the backdrop for that famous movie, Murder
on the Nile, the mystery written by Agatha Christie. It’s a 15 minute ride
by horse-drawn carriage from the town and both at night and during the day, it
is a sight to behold. Actually, it is a series of temples, built next to each
other over a period of 13 centuries. It is called, the Great Temple of Karnak. It covers an area of sixty-two acres and is
surrounded by high walls. The 134 columns in 16 rows in one part of the temple
(Great Hypostylic Hall) are so huge;
it takes quite a few people holding hands to encircle each of them. It is the
largest columned space in the world. And the irony of this is that these many
columns are quite close to each other so one is forced to ask, why so many columns
in one small area? Walking among them is akin to walking on a giant chessboard
in a land of giants.
We
first visited this temple at ten at night to watch and hear the light and sound
show. As we were led through this temple which was entirely enveloped in
darkness except for the small areas that were lit up on occasion when that area
was being described, (though loud loudspeakers hidden in various places in the
temple) my wife told one of the guides that she had to go to the toilet. This
meant that a guide would have to take her because without a flashlight, it
would have been impossible to see her way out of the temple as it is pitch
black when there are no lights about. The public toilets were just outside the
main entrance.
When
we got near the end of the show, we were all led up some steps and seated on
rows of benches on a small mound that overlooked a small lake to our left and
the temple to our right. The lights in and around the temple lit this huge
edifice up in glorious amber and then a voice from the area of the lake in
which there were hidden speakers said in a booming voice, "And then the
great architect asked his Lord Pharaoh, ‘What is there left to build?” Before
the speakers hidden in the temple had an opportunity to reply, I yelled out
loud enough for everyone to hear, "More toilets for the tourists."
Well, the tourists exploded in laughter. I don’t think anyone heard what the
Lord Pharaoh had to say in reply after that, in any case, whatever it was,
wouldn’t have brought the house down like I did with my line.
Our
carriage driver took us back to our hotel by driving through the main street of
the town which, much to my surprise; was very busy at this time of night. It
was after midnight and yet despite that, the streets were packed with people of
all ages, black-clad women giggling as they dodged the horse pulling our
carriage, young and old men, some in their galabias, others in Western garb,
standing on street corners talking. Even small children were playing on the
streets.
The
next day we visited the Karnak Temple
again so that we could see it in all its spender in the light of the day. That
night, we ate at one of the restaurants in town and the food wasn’t that bad.
As we walked along the street bordering the Nile,
some young men pestered us trying to sell us their cheap paintings on imitation
papyrus. I turned to one of them and asked, "Do you speak English?"
He replied, "I speak good English." I asked, "Can you tell me
where the nearest tourist police are?" He replied, "No, No. No need
to see them. We leave now." And the young men turned and headed back in
the opposite direction we were going. Wow. Those two words work miracles in
Egypt. They can make pests disappear within seconds. David Copperfield, the
illusionist who makes 747 planes disappear should see what the words
"tourist police" can do in Egypt.
The
next day, we spent part of the day swimming in the pool in our hotel and some
of the afternoon sleeping in our room and the rest of the evening shopping for
trinkets.
I
remember the last night we were in Luxor with fondness. There was Egyptian
music in the background. My wife was in
my arms as we sat on a park bench overlooking the waters of the Nile with its cool breezes coming off of
the river. We watched the many feluccas
(sail boats, each with one sail) plying up and down the Nile, their sails silhouetted against the setting sun which created
the orange sky just above the hills in the distance, its light reflecting off
the water looking like thousands of bright orange sparkles, it was an
experience to relish forever.
Later
that night, we caught the night train back to Cairo. We arrived at the Cairo
station at 6:30 in the morning. As we headed along the platform towards the
main entrance, our cab driver was there waiting for us. He took us to our new
hotel, the President Hotel.
At
first, there was some confusion when we arrived at the hotel. They were going
to rent our room to someone else but I prevailed and we got the room the hotel
promised us before we left for Luxor. The room was on the tenth floor, the same
floor that their dining room was on. Our room was quite big and had a very
large patio which from which we could see some of the Nile River and much of
the city below us.
Very
early in the morning, we were awakened by what sounded like wailing of some sort.
As we stood on our patio, we realized that the sounds were emanating from the
many minarets all over the city. Hundreds of loudspeakers were blaring
throughout the city. It was the religious leaders admonishing the faithful to
prayer. The calls went on for a few minutes and then all was silent again. This
happened every morning at about four.
While
I was attending the conference one day, my wife visited the main museum which
is close to the Nile just south of the 6 October Bridge that crosses the Nile
to get to the island and Giza and I later met her in the front of the building
and went into the museum by myself to see it for myself while she waited
outside under the shade of a tree. Quite frankly, I was rather disappointed.
It’s dingy inside and all you really see is sarcophagus after sarcophagus and
the only real exhibit worth seeing is the one of King Tut.
I
did get to pull off one of my practical jokes (of which I am renowned) when I
was in the museum. I asked to see the curator and was taken to his office. I
told him that I understood that if a tourist wanted to take an antique out of Egypt, it first had to be
appraised by him and if approved for removal from Egypt, he would sign a paper
authorizing its removal. He said that was true and asked me what I wanted to
take home with me. I reached into my pocket and pulled out one of Egypt’s
dirty, grubby ten-pound notes and showed it to him. I said, "That has to
be very old." He looked at it, smiled, showed it to his assistant who
responded with, "The gentleman is right. This one goes back a very long
way. At least twenty years." The curator handed it back to me and said,
"There is no need for my written authority to take this out of the
country. I have seen notes that are even older than this one." I asked,
"Have you ever seen a new one?" Both men smiled and shook their heads
in the negative. I smiled and said, “If you get your hands on one, I am sure
you will want to make it as an exhibit that will have to be placed behind
bullet-proof glass.” The brought more smiles to their faces.
It
was unfortunate that a few years later, Islamic Fundamental terrorists murdered
18 Greek tourists and wounded 21 more (thinking they were Israelis) who were getting
off of a bus in front of the museum on April 18, 1996. I understand that this
terrorist group has since decided not to murder tourists any more, or so they
said.
Ayako
and I went up to the top of the Cairo Tower which is in the middle of the
Island we lived on. The tower is surrounded by park land. I had to pay several
Egyptian pounds to get permission to take my video camera to the top.
Ironically enough, I discovered to my great disappointment, the video camera
wasn’t working at that time so I paid that money for nothing. The view at the
top of the tower is awesome. The tower is quite high and from the top, you get
a splendid view of Cairo, Giza, the islands, the Nile and the pyramids in the
desert.
The
last night we were in Cairo, we went to the eastern shore of the island we were
living on and rented a small boat and driver and he took us along the Nile as the sun was setting behind the
buildings on the island. We passed the huge El Gaziera Sheraton with the opera
house close by. The lights of the city twinkled as banks of light in what was
now black buildings silhouetted against the orange sky to our west and we could
hear the murmur of voices, the sounds of car horns and the general soft din of
a busy city in the background competing with the sounds of the slapping of the
water against the sides of our small boat.
We
later walked across the 26 July Bridge and walked along the western side of
Cairo in the narrow park-like setting that borders the eastern shore of the
Nile. When we got almost to the 6 October
Bridge, a carriage and driver pulled up alongside of us and asked us if we
wanted to be taken somewhere. We smiled and said no and continued walking
towards the bridge. He offered a price and we still shook our heads. He dropped
the price again and still we wouldn’t accept his offer. He lowered it again to
a really low price and it was too good to turn down so we agreed. We then went
on a twenty-minute ride through the various streets of the island leading to
our hotel. We gave him a tip because we knew that without it, the ride wasn’t a
moneymaker for him. I guess he counted on us tipping him.
We
were fascinated by the wonder of this interesting country. The people were
extremely friendly and not once did anyone attempt to rob us nor did we at any
time see anyone fighting with anyone else. We realized that begging in Egypt is
a way of life. Practically everyone had his or her hand out. But considering
how poor the people are, it is easy to see why. That’s why it is necessary to
keep plenty of coins with you when moving about Egypt. Despite that, it is
still a great country to visit and it is one that is hard to forget nor would
you want to forget it, once having visited it.
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