I was in Cairo from 21 to 24 May 2010. I also visited Alexandria briefly.
Some random thoughts:
The traffic in Cairo is simply chaotic. They change lanes randomly without indicating, run red lights and honk all the time. Sometimes they honk for no apparent reason at all, even if there isn’t any other car around. Also most of the cars are very very old. There are Dacias, Ladas, some Peugeot 504 and Fiat 128 and some turkish Tofas. When we were returning from Alexandria to Cairo every couple of miles we would see a car stopped on the side of the road with the hood popped open or changing a tyre.
-Many buildings have bare brick walls not covered with mortar or paint, no windows, etc. As our guide explained, they intentionally leave the building unfinished so they don’t have to pay taxes.
-You have to go through metal detectors and bag checks almost everywhere, museums, restaurants, hotels etc.
-There’s no paper in their toilets. Instead there’s a faucet somewhere at the base of the toilet bowl and when you turn it on there’s a jet of water aiming straight to your ass!
-There are thousands of policemen around the city doing nothing, simply standing on their post and sometimes sleeping. According to our guide their salary is something like 60 euros per month. Also they all have guns but I doubt if they have any bullets.
-There are two kinds of cabs, the older black cabs with no meter and the newer white cabs with functioning meter. Non-locals should avoid black cabs if possible.
-Egyptian men act like they have never seen a woman before.
-Don’t recall seeing many traffic lights, or indeed many traffic control systems at all. But, yes, the drivers were absolutely crazy
-While metal detectors are almost everywhere, guards didn’t seem to pay too much attention to Westerners that set off detectors
-The Tourism Police seemed to be everywhere, and certainly gave the illusion of security. But I wonder how easily a Tourism police officer could have been compromised/faked.
-More ubiquitous, were the street vendors- they were everywhere and most were very aggressive.
I was in Cairo for one day during my honeymoon last June (Mediterranean cruise) and the traffic was shocking. I was also surprised to see donkey carts amidst the cars, and certain traffic signs with donkey cart logos on them. Also, children on horses (skinny horses with ribs showing) wandering through busy intersections–our bus almost hit one!
One thing that really got to me, too, was seeing open air markets with a dead pig hanging on a hook out over the sidewalk in the heat. Made me glad I’m a vegetarian :eek:
Also: at the pyramids, there were people dressed as police who weren’t police (according to our tourguide) who would offer to take your picture with them and then try to charge you money for it.
The pyramids were amazing, though. We did a brief camel ride at the pyramids which was interesting but I felt bad for the camels
I lived in Cairo for five months back in about 1986, both in Zamalek and in Giza. The traffic along the river was murderous and chaotic, with amazing carnage being wrought with every accident. When it rained, the streets were clogged with cars whose wiring had shorted out. Headlights were not left on after dark and only used sporadically in order to save gas. The honking: oy, the honking. I tried to get a bumper sticker made in Arabic that said “Honk if you love Jesus”, but had no luck. To Egyptian men, all western women are whores: they don’t know whether they should kill you or lust after you, so they settle for wild-eyed staring.
I’ve never had so many people touch my hair in my whole life!
I loved Cairo (and the rest of Egypt). We’ve done a lot of travelling the last 6 years but this was probably the most distinctive cultural experience of them all. Certainly completely different to my own life experience. The donkeys mingling with the insanity of Cairo traffic and the women carrying baskets on their heads were an interesting blend of old world meets new.
Lying on a felluca at 4 or 5 in the morning, listening to the call to prayer ring out over the Nile was probably THE coolest.
