of Egypt, Part I --- First Impressions and Some Sight Seeing

I can't believe how quickly time passes away, yet when you think of the future, of the things to come, of the time till you get something you want, or the things you are waiting for, it feels like it will never pass, like my time to get out of Karachi e.g. ... anyway this post is about Egypt, which I was planning to write RIGHT after I got back, and believe it or not its been two months! Hence that little philosophizing about the nature of time.

To Cairo

One of the best things about my job is the traveling, not only because I want to, literally, see the entire planet, but also because its for free, and yes it gives me much much needed breaks from Karachi. To be away from here for 7-10 days is a blessing, even if part of it is spent in 8 hour transits at the Dubai airport. Helps me survive the next month or two. Anyway when the opportunity came not only to get out of Karachi, but to Egypt of all the places, obviously I couldn't be happier. Getting the visa was a hassle, apparently the fax machines in the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad don't work, so its impossible to get the 'invitation letter' by the company you're visiting in Egypt (which is by the way the requirement for a business visa) faxed to them in the first go. So after making numerous phone calls to both Cairo and Islamabad, my passport (with the visa) arrived at the Karachi airport the night before my flight to Cairo. Got picked up from there by a friend and delivered to my house. This is what it looks like (To think all this effort for a purple stamp, this brings me to a discussion about visas but thats for later)

Note the 'Brocter Wa Jaambal' written at the bottom left, thats Procter & Gamble for you in Arabic!

In Cairo

Cairo is a huge city by any standards. Home to about 70% people in Egypt. I landed at night, breaking my fast while in the plane (oh did I mention this was in Ramadan?). Much too tired to take blurry dark pictures from the moving car, I just chatted on my way to the hotel with this Finn who had come on the same flight from Dubai as me, and incidentally was staying at the same hotel, and had like me also called for the hotel meet & greet service. He was surprised to know that I was from Pakistan (something that has happened before to as people don't associate single women traveling alone on business with Pakistan), and then went into a reverie of how he has lived in Islamabad for 3 years and loves the city.

Anyway I was surprised to see how much more cleaner (and i hear safer) Cairo is as compared to Karachi, and you don't see a SINGLE beggar on the road, (maybe they hide them from people like us) and all the Egyptians I met were friendly (I had people telling me how bad Egyptians are) but that was maybe because I got mistaken for an Arab quite a number of times, which was good till people spoke to me in Arabic and I would be like 'wha?' And then they'd go "Oh I thought you were Arab"

Ramadan in Cairo is a festival. People literally stay up all night and just sit on the roadsides eating and chatting and smoking away. Its weird, seeing so many people on the road, very late in the night. The only time the roads are empty I guess is at Iftar (which they translate into 'breakfast' in English and had me confused for quite a bit). Oh and their word for Sheri is 'Suhoor', took a bit of time to figure that out as well.

The Nile

Sight Seeing

Though my work schedule turned out to be much more hectic than I thought, but going to Cairo and not sight seeing is I guess going to the moon and not getting any moon rock? So here goes, results of some hasty sight seeing:

Khan el Khalili & Jamia Al Azhar: Ancient egyptian bazaar in the heart of old Cairo, right next to the now derelict and abandoned, massive structure of Jamia Al-Azhar. The university is arguably one of the world's oldest, built as a mosque in 969 AD when Cairo was founded. The university now has moved to modern premises outside main Cairo where religious studies are augmented by modern education as well. The old Al-Azhar still serves as a mosque and a location for religious gatherings. Khan el Khalili is now the heaven for souvenir sellers, with a healthy spattering of traditional egyptian cafes, designed to attract the wandering tourist. Here are the pictures:

A shot of one facade of the ancient Jamia Al Azhar, wish I had more time to exlore it inside-out

"Khan el Khalili - The Quintessential Curio Street"

lil stuffed furry animals smoking mock shishas

yup thats a huge shisha

pyramids anyone?

beautifully crafted glass perfume bottles. Perfumary is one of the most ancient Egyptian secrets along with papyrus. Perfumes are sold seperately

lamp shop

A jeweled frog. This one is probably a pendant

Remember I was saying something about people sitting outside on the roads?

More later ...