Travel with Manfred

Travelogues from around the world

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Copyright © 2007 by Manfred Pfluegl. All rights reserved.

Nov 10 - 15, 2007

A Big City

Ordinary Days in Cairo

by

Manfred Pfluegl

Keywords: Egypt, Cairo, Giza, tourist, travel trip report, travel log, travelogue.

It is a pretty bad feeling when you arrive in Egypt at 3 a.m. and insert your credit card into an ATM to get the cash for your stay just to see a red warning flashing on the ATM screen saying "Card retained, call 17069". I could not believe it for a moment. But the card did not come out, no matter how long I waited. With tired and mistrusting eyes I looked at the paper slip that came from the machine. "Operation code: 2400, call 17069 24-hours." I was without cash and no public phone was in sight. After some talking to some officials someone tried to place the call for me. But every time he called he told me something differently. "The line is busy." followed by "Nobody is there" to "You have to go to the main office tomorrow during business hours." The most likely bet is that the person trying to make the call did not know how to dial an external number or the phone was not set up to dial a number outside the airport. Eventually someone let me use their mobile phone. The bank operator told me that the card has been retained because it was flagged as "hot" -- stolen -- and it would be sent to my bank sometime in the future. That was definitely bad news.

The good news in the bad moment was that I had some vision, some foresight. When I travel I typically just put 40 Euros in my wallet, 20 for the taxi to the airport and another 20 for the taxi from the airport back home on return. This time I had this inexplicable urge to put an extra 250 Euros in my wallet. What luck! I was saved. With cash in the pocket but a fuzzy feeling in the stomach I took the taxi to the hotel. Next surprise was that my mobile did not work as I tried to call my bank in the US to cancel the supposedly hot credit card. Nothing is working here. At 4 a.m. I went to the Internet cafe to call the bank via Skype. Apparently the activation process of the credit card was faulty. So the card was not used fraudulently, it was simply not unactivated properly.

At 5 a.m. I was finally ready to go to bed, just for 3 hours. In the office I tried to contact the bank again to order a new credit card, but the security at the office was the best I have ever seen. There were no phones except for the meeting rooms and they required a special key to place international calls. Since I could not call my bank, I thought about sending them an email. But the access on the Internet was filtered. Access to all web sites containing the word "mail" (or "correo") was cut off to avoid employees from reading their private email. So, I could log on to mail.yahoo.com nor to www.gmail.com or any similar site. In short, it was impossible to send an email. But security at the company was even better than that. In order to have the common printers print a document one had to swipe his id card.

Both the hotel and the place of work are in the borough of Giza. Giza is spread out over a vast area, it extends for miles. It took me an hour to get to work. The company is located in a business park called "Smart Village". It was sealed off and only employees and visitors allowed entrance. Smart Village is pretty much in the middle of nowhere. Without a car one is completely lost here. The distance from the company building to the entrance gate must be around 4km. It would be practically impossible to get anywhere on foot. One depends on a taxi. Since the nearest public road is 4km away, one has to order a taxi. The wait is very long. We ordered a taxi at 6 p.m. and the earliest taxi was available at 8 p.m. With a touch of nostalgia and sadness I remembered how leaving the office in Lima was. Not 30 seconds would pass by until some taxi driver in a Tico would honk his horn to convince you to get in and get a ride.

First the wait for the taxi to come, then another 60 to 90 minutes of journey on the Alexandria-Cairo highway to get to hotel which is in the same borough. The name certainly is very nice, Smart Village, so are the offices. The village might be smart, but it is certainly not convenient for the employees. Traffic is killing everyone.

Eaten credit card, mobile phone not working, traffic jams, ... A string of poor luck. The next unpleasant thing was that the hotel had no consistent supply of hot water. I was shivering in the shower due to the lukewarm H20. But they say that a cold shower in the morning should be very healthy, so I should not complain.

Cairo they say has the worst air, the most polluted one, of all mega cities on earth. Worse than the capital of Mexico. I feel so fortunate to live in Europe in a place with normal levels of pollution. I feel privileged to have a flat on the beach with clean air. We should consider ourselves lucky to be able to breath the fresh air of the Bay of Biscay coast line. Long live Bakio!

One evening I went out. After a bite to eat I sat down in a bar to drink tea and smoke shisha. Half way through the tea a young man, some 25 years maybe, started talking to me. It always starts with the same questions "Where are you from?" Each time I said "Austria" he understood "Russia". He is a painter and teaches painting in some college in Cairo. He went on how much he is interested in Russia and he always wanted to see how Russians paint. ... if I could help him visit Russia ... When I left he attached himself to me. Normally I hate this. I would get rid of these pesky followers in an instant, but that day I must have been in a good mood, at least I was very patient. So, I was not rude. I told him that I would prefer to walk by myself and that I am just doing a last round to take a few snaps before going back to the hotel. He insisted in accompanying me. He clang to me like a limpet. As we approached the hotel I said good-bye. But he would not take it. First he insisted to guide me up to the hotel entrance and then he insisted in coming up to my room. He started telling me "please, please, you make me very sad if you don't take me up to the room". I thought he was even going to cry on me. Who can put up with these kind of behavior? Don't you hate that! I told him a dozen times that he is not coming with me. But he just started his routine over and over again. "Just 5 minutes, it is very early." Early? I had no watch with me at this time, but later in the hotel room I checked my mobile phone. It was 11:30 p.m. But it does not matter how early or how late it is, I am not going to take some stranger to my hotel room. Certainly not a guy. Of course he wanted to meet next day to see this and that together, drink a coffee, etc. He lives only 100m from the hotel. I hope we are not running into each other by coincidence.

Even less I desire an encounter that is no coincidental. In short, this guy is capable in waiting for me at the hotel entrance when I get home the next day. And all this because I was friendly and responded to the question "Where are you from?". It nearly always bites you back. They trap you, they turn into limpets, and they don't let go, like a dog that will not give up the bone once he has clenched his teeth into it. I already formed a plan on what to do if the guy waits for me in front of the hotel. Every hotel has some 4 policemen protecting it, even the poor and run-down hotels. Because of past terrorism, because of the employment politics of the country police men abound. There is a lot of police all around and in particular all hotels have a police car parked in front full with uniformed officers. If I see this guy approaching me I will just tell the police officer that this gentleman is bothering me. I think that this will resolve the issue instantaneously.

A day went by. With 16 million people living in Cairo the chances of not running across the same person are very, very high. Mathematics, statistics were on my side. I did not meet this gentleman again and nobody was stalking me in front of the hotel.

After work at night I took my daily dose of "relax" in the form of sitting down, sipping tea and smoking a pipe of shisha (sheesha). I walk to a bar I had seen the day before which seemed quite popular. Popular with Egyptians. So far I have not seen a single tourist, they must all be hanging out in a different neighborhood. I counted 50 people in the cafe. All 50 people did the same thing: smoking shisha, drinking chai (tea) or coffee, watching some sports event on the television set (soccer? I could not see it, I just heard it.), and playing with their mobile phones. They are addicted to their cell phones. Even the low income people have one, and they always carry it with them. They fiddle around with them, playing the ring tones, watching it; the mobile phone is to the adults here what the pacifier is to the babies.

About the 50 people from the previous phrase. Let me correct that. 50 men. There was not a single woman. Even in the streets one sees few women, but in the coffee houses none. They are all at home cooking and taking care of the children I assume. What stir and attraction would my wife have created were she sitting next to me. The event of the day for many men in the cafe.

I order shisha (one of the 4 words I know in Arabic). Shisha literally means glass. Since the bowl of the water pipe is made of glass, they call the whole water pipe shisha today. The waiter then asks me which kind of tobacco. But that is too much here my Arabic stops. On the plane ride home I read about the various tobacco names. There is Maasel (maassal, maasil) which literal means "honeyed" because it is tobacco mixed with honey, fruit, and molasses. The second kind is Ajami which is pure tobacco. If the Maasel is made with apple then it is called Tofah because tofah is the Arabic word for apple. There are many possible flavors: melon, strawberry and so on but the apple flavor seems to be the most common one, the one most bars carry. Anyway, I think the waiter asked me if I want maasel or tofah. I answered "sweet" but the waiter did not understand me. Another guest said something in a couple of words to the waiter and the waiter ran off. I assume the helping guest translated the word "sweet". The waiter brought me the water pipe with a double pack of tobacco and the chai "Lipton". If you order tea they always bring Lipton. I was secretly hoping to get some masala chai, tea with cardamom and cinnamon flavor. I never got to try masala chai, everywhere I ordered chai they always brought me Lipton. Once I was lucky and they threw some mint leaves into the Lipton, that was already a step in the right direction. But even the plain Lipton with some sugar can have its charm. I slowly and peacefully smoked my two rations of tobacco with the shisha. I think I was there close to an hour smoking: slowly and with short breaths. A couple of young men were laughing. One of them asked me at the end if I am capable to inhale deeply. Maybe he thought I have a health problem and cannot inhale deeply. Since I normally don't smoke were I to take a really deep breath through the shisha I would most likely cough because of the smoke.

On the way to the hotel I took -- like every night -- a lot of photos of the night live in Giza in some calm side streets. Today's attention was on an old Mercedes 190 with part of the hood missing. Also on the way home I saw a bakery open. It was the typical hole-in-the-wall operation. There were no signs advertising that this is a bakery, there was no door, just a window. Inside a woman rolled a wooden cart towards the window. A long line of people (men) had formed. I got in the line. Eventually it was my turn. I signalled with my fingers that I want 2 breads. Most people bought it by the dozen. I gave the woman the second smallest paper bill: 50 piastres. There is also a 25 piastres note. 50 piastres are 10 cents US or less than 7 cents Euro. So, the 25 piastre is a paper bill worth 5 cents US and 3 cents Euro. They have paper money for 3 cents, incredible! Anyway, back to the bread buying. I handed the woman the 50 piastres note, she gives me 2 breads and I walk away. At a few meters of distance they all shouted. What's up? I came back and they gave me change, some 5 or 6 coins. I didn't even know that they also have coins in Egypt. You learn something new every day. It is fair to conclude that bread must be very cheap. You buy 2, give them 7 cents and get half a dozen of coins back.

The last impression of Cairo was on the way to the airport. I went from Smart Village by taxi to the airport and I think the cabbie took me for a ride, literally. I think he drove around just to drive up the taxi meter (and yes there are taxis with a meter in Cairo). He drove me through Media City, 6th of October City, Magic Land, etc. all before returning back to Giza and driving by the pyramids of Giza. The area around Media City is colossal, it is so vast and thousands of new buildings have been built here of the last few years. There is a building boom like in Dubai in the outskirts of Cairo. Phenomenal and scary. Apparently 16 million people is not yet enough in a single city. It is too much for my taste. From Smart Village in Giza to the airport the taxi drove 150km. Cairo is a big place and on top of that it is crowded. But it is a friendly crowd!