Last Thoughts

Home now. Got up at 5AM and trying to get back on colorado time. KB is still sleeping in a bit. Yesterday was a long day and we're all glad to be home; even Ben.

Happy Chinese New Year by the way.

Traffic-22 million people all trying to go somewhere. While seemingly no rules and no traffic signals, the place works. There are no lanes, only an occasional traffic cop at some major intersections to control cross flow and pedestrians pour in and out of traffic while virtually everywhere. But again, it works. There is a complicated system of horn tapping and turn signals that allow other drivers to know what you intend. Our driver would make a left turn from the right "lane" and for the most part, the other drivers understand and accomodate. The margin though can be unconfortably small if you haven't experienced this before. Any gap, forward or laterally, gets filled in by a car, motorcycle or moped (and sometimes a donkey drawn cart-even on the bigger highways) It looks like chaos but it's really not. Only once, did we see an actual incident (a very small fender bender, that stopped our "lanes of traffic" until some yelling occured and then everything was back to normal. The bus drivers here are amazing. they would take a large tour bus down small streets with ease. Quite impressive, actually.

Taxi-Very easy and cheap to get a tax. As a matter of fact, the trouble you'll have is choosing which driver will give you good price. If you are at a tourist stop, you'll get offers by the dozens. They wisely sit and wait there and offer their services. One stop rides will turn into negotiations for the driver to wait and take you to your next destination(s) for a price. KB is a master at this and simply doesn't say much to the driver until he gets to a price that sounds reasonable for what is being discussed. Looking back the 200 pound price for the driver to take me to Dashur, Sakkara, Memphis and Giza was pretty dang good. Driver was at hotel at 7 (I saw him down there out of our patio, even though we told him 9) and he drove us a LONG way for 7 hours, before taking us back to hotel. the standard fare one way 15 minute drive across town seemed to be about 30. So, all in all 200 seemed very reasonable. And did I mention that brilliant falafel sandwich, oranges (different than we got at hotel)and water that he got me at lunch time. Thank you Mostafa.

Subway- Two lines, one way, anywhere the two lines run for 1 pound, regardless of distance. It can get you quite a ways around town. Metro stop Dokki was two blocks from our hotel. Always busy no matter what hour and cars are packed. but well worth taking. Doesn't go east to Khan al Khalili or Citadel area (they showed a broken yellow line on Metro maps; possibly line is down or in construction). Middle cars seem to be reserved for traditional women and children. KB and I rode in the other cars; minorities for sure, KB even more so.

Shopping-Stuff to buy EVERYWHERE. Be prepared to haggle, be prepared to be bombarded with offers just to look. Take the tea or coffee if you intend to buy something. it's not free, you'll pay for it a bit in the price of whatever you buy, but a good experience. In the market, they are vendors lining the walkways. However, if you agree to 'look' you'll most likely also be taken to their shop which may be upstairs or back in another alley. They seem to pay young men to bring people in and then hand you over to another. Bargain hard. Prices at Market are substantially higher than elsewhere in town (and a good chance you'll find what you want NOT at the market). It is crazy there but well worth walking though it. The one thing I did not find that I was looking for was art. No where in the market was anyone selling middle east paintings. I kind of wanted a small painting of a cairo street scene or something and didn't see anything remotely close. just a billion trinkets.

People-The egyptians men are foward but also very polite. I only encountered one guy that was a little rude; Giza (my driver on thursday was just angry, nice to me, but angry at the other drivers) The women here are beautiful. Most wear head scarf, a small percent wear the full burka, but amazingly attractive. Any tourist site, you'll be constantly hit up to buy trinkets, etc. Young men will start giving you tour information only to expect money for two cents of information. sometimes it's worth it, most times not. This was especially true at Giza where we encountered one guy that was rude and physically tried to take our tickets claiming he "worked there". of course what he was doing was taking you for a short ride and only way to get your ticket back was to pay him. Lots of young boys selling trinkets, too. Amazingly these kids know at least greetings in many languages which is cool. One of the first questions you'll get is where are you from. You say US, inevitably you'll get a welcome and some comment about Obama. you say Germany, France (or other places) and you'll get a better price on what you are trying to buy. I told several I was from Italy, threw in some Italian and then switched to broken english and had a good experience.

Food- I didn't get my fix of street food, becuase it was intimidating. The "fastfood" places are usually packed (good sign) and everything in arabic. So, I had no idea what or how to order. One stop we made was to have a roasted chicken and swaarma. Cheap and tasty. Mostafa was awesome at getting us falafel at a small street side stop off of the tourist path. Our hotel had a very good Lebanese appetizer plate. Short of that they seemed to be geared towards "international" taste. The breakfast buffet had the usual omelets, potatos, coffee. The one restuarant in our hotel was Asian (sushi) Our hotel, did have nice hibiscus tea, guava juice, awesome olives and feta type cheese. But I wanted more middle eastern foods. Next time, we'll have to get a local to take us to local places. I asked the bellhop about grilled fish (one of KB's co-workers suggested a riverboat restaurant called "fish market" where you could pick your fish and they grill it for you. Oddly, right next to the TGIFridays' riverboat restuarant. I asked the bell hop about this and he suggested a local place three blocks from hotel. it was a LOT of food. The grilled fish (sea bass) was indeed very good. Eggplant was awesome, hummus, grilled flatbread, shrimp (with dill which KB can't stand right now) were all really really good. That beer I bought was twice as much as hotel beer (which was also expensive) so stick to local drinks to keep the price in line.