Next Post and Cairo

First of all, my big news is that I accepted a handshake offer for my next assignment after Egypt. I’ll be heading back to Sub-Saharan Africa, but this time to the US Embassy in Gaborone, Botswana. I’ll be honest, it wasn’t my first choice (Valetta, Malta), but I’m satisfied and relieved that the Department didn’t try to send me somewhere horrible like Vladivostok, Russia or Georgetown, Guyana (both of which had no bidders). Botswana is actually a very stable economically thriving democracy, something unusual for the continent. Granted Gaborone (Gabs) is not going to be the most exciting of cities, but it’s only about a four-plus hour drive from Johannesburg and about 45 minutes to Chobe National Park (for Safaris) so I’ll survive. For those of you who didn’t make it down to South Africa while I was there last time, you now have three years to plan your trip (which could/should include a stop in Capetown). You all know I love having visitors and Botswana has great game parks, so keep it in mind.

I don’t think I’ve written about my trip into Cairo, so I’ll do that before moving on to other less important/interesting things.

I was actually in Cairo about 6 years back, but other than an afternoon trip to the Giza plateau, spent my whole time sitting through a conference in a non-descript western hotel. The State Department always seems to do this; they fly us from all over the world to an exotic location and then trap us indoors the entire time. We might as well be sitting at a Marriott in Des Moines for all we know. Anyway, since the prospect of a long weekend at north camp didn’t overly thrill me, I decided to spend it in Cairo with the hope of getting a better feel for the city and learning how to show people around when they come to visit. I hoped in a taxi after our weekly staff meeting and literally flew across the Sinai to the peace bridge over the Suez Canal. To say that it was a harrowing ride is monumental understatement. I am somewhat accustomed to crazy driving after all the places I’ve been, but even I ended up just closing my eyes and holding on tight. That being said, we did make amazing time and were in the city within 3 hours. Of course the next two we sat in the infamous Cairo traffic hardly moving, but what can you do.

I decided to treat myself to Four Season hotel on the Nile and wow, what an amazing place. I felt somewhat out of my league and usually underdressed, but it is really easy to get used to such luxury and extravagance. From the over-the-top flowers filling the lobby, sumptuous rooms, elegant restaurants and lounge, to the solicitous staff, it was quite the experience. So much so that I really was tempted to just stay in the hotel and not even leave. But, antiquity was calling, so I arranged with the concierge to reserve a taxi to take me out to the pyramids at the far end of the pyramid field in Dahshur. Most people are just familiar with the big three at Giza, but there are lots of others lining the western banks of the Nile that go 20+ kilometers out of the city. My taxi driver swore he knew how to get to the Bent and Red Pyramids, but it became evident after our fifth stop to ask for directions that he was an idiot. We finally made it there, paid my entrance fee and made my first stop at the Red Pyramid, so called because of the red tones of the limestone used to clad it. It’s actually the oldest true pyramid in Egypt and bigger than the two of the three more famous ones at Giza. I had read in my book that tour groups seldom made it down this far, and true enough, I was the only person there other than the antiquity police and a few camels. It was pretty much hotter than hell and I stumbled in the sand checking out the exterior when the police told me the inside was open. I walked about a quarter of the way up one side and an weathered old man sitting at the entrance gave me an flashlight “in case the lights went out.” That didn’t inspire much confidence, but since I’d never been inside a pyramid decided to give it a go. The entrance is basically a 180 foot slanting tunnel that I hand to bend over so far that I could barely fit. They’ve built wooden slats on the floor to keep you from sliding down and bare light bulbs every so often give you enough light to partially see where you are going. Now I’ve never really been claustrophobic before, but let me tell you, 180 feet is a really long way down. By the time I got to the bottom, I was really beginning to wonder what I’d gotten myself into. The tunnel opened into a pretty spectacular ante-chamber with 30+ foot corbelled ceilings. They had some sort of ventilation system to bring fresh air into the interior, but I am not convinced it was working because the smell was getting pretty putrid at this point and I was huffing and puffing quite a bit. I walked up a rickety wooden staircase at the end to bring me into the actual burial chamber and by the time I got up there, the smell was really indescribable, about 4,000 years of stale air, mildew, bat guano, and the like. It actually burnt your throat and I was having difficult time breathing. So there I was, standing in this burial chamber all alone, gagging on what little air there was, and thinking about the tons of rocks overhead, and the unreliable Egyptian electrical infrastructure, when I worked myself into a full on moment of anxiety like none before. I scrambled out of the burial chamber, back through the ante-room and started up the long way to the entrance. If you can imagine, it was even harder to get up than down, and I ended up crawling part of the way. By the time I burst into the sunshine and 100 degree heat I was literally dripping wet and wondering what the hell had possessed me to do such a thing.

The slanted pyramid is a couple hundred meters away and is really unusual looking with a very steep angle on the lower 2/3’s, and then the more traditional angle the last third of the way up. Because of this, it actually still has most of its original limestone cladding (harder to steal like they did with all the other pyramids). It actually gives you an idea of what all the pyramids used to look like in their original state and it really is quite different than what we see today.

From this pyramid field I could see the famous Step Pyramid in Saqqara a few km away and thought since I was so close, it would be silly not make a quick stop. At the start of the day I had agreed to pay the taxi driver 200 Egyptian pounds, high-way robbery, but what can you expect from the Four Seasons . He of course spoke no English, so I called my friend Hossam on the phone and asked if he could talk to the driver and explain what I wanted. I could tell the conversation wasn’t going well when the driver started to scream and yell, slammed on the breaks, and stopped in the middle of the road. When I finally got the phone back, Hossam said the driver was mentally unbalanced and to be careful with him. After more shouting and erratic behavior, the driver finally agreed to take me to Saqqara.

We had to stop another five times for directions, and the entire way he mumbled under his breath and glared at me in the rear view mirror. Needless to say I was really beginning to feel a bit uncomfortable with the entire situation, but decided to just tough it out. We drove past the museum/visitor center up to the actual entrance to Saqqara, and when I went to pay my entrance fee, was told we had to return to the visitor center for tickets. I knew the driver would freak out, so I enlisted the help of a young guy working at the site to explain to the driver what we needed to do. When the young man went to talk to the driver, he flipped out all over again and started screaming and pounding the steering wheel. Next thing I knew, four antiquity police were on the scene and it quickly went downhill from there. I truly thought they were going to drag him out of the car and beat the shit out of him, and at this point would have cheered from the sidelines. This went on for over 10 minutes while a large crowd gathered to see what the fuss was about. When the driver finally took me down to get a ticket , I called the hotel to tell them what was going on. They were very sympathetic and advised me not to get back into the car, pay him half the agreed money, send him on his way, and they would dispatch a hotel car for me. I had another nice young guy working in the café give the news to the driver, and when he returned, he also said the guy was crazy. At this point the head of the antiquity police for the entire area arrived to speak with me, apologize, and ask if I’d like to file and official report against the driver. The officials were actually very nice and clearly embarrassed by what happened, but I declined. About 30 min later the hotel driver arrived and took me back up to see the pyramids. I did a cursory visit to the Step Pyramid, constructed over 4600 years ago and credited with being the first real example of architecture as we know it. It’s part of a huge funerary complex with lots to see, but I had lost all enthusiasm by this point and just wanted to go hide in my nice big hotel room.

That night I was supposed to meet up with my friend Hossam, but his dog decided to eat an entire chicken carcass, and he was stuck at the vet while his dog had emergency surgery. I ventured out on my own and decided to walk down around the main section of town along the Nile towards the Egyptian Museum. I was there during Ramadan, and since no one can eat or drink until the sun sets, evening is quite a busy time with people gorging themselves all over town at Iftar celebrations. My hotel faced the Nile, but one of the main roads sits in between it and the river. It’s theoretically about four lanes, but there are usually about five or six cars jockeying for position. Now Cairo, a city of over 15 million inhabitants, does have a few stop lights and cross walks, but none appear to be operational. I later asked Hossam what the deal is, and he said, even if they worked, no one would pay any attentions, so why bother fixing them. That’s all good and well, but after standing there for 15 minutes waiting for a break in the traffic to cross the street, I was beginning to lose patience. Finally one the hotel doormen took pity on me and came over to help. His advice was to look straight ahead and just walk, not to hesitate, not to look at the oncoming traffic, or try to avoid cars, etc., or it wouldn’t work. I couldn’t believe that was his solution, but I took a leap of faith and amazingly enough, I made it across. The center of the city is just so chaotic and crowded that I really didn’t know what to do with myself. I’m rarely intimidated by a place, but Cairo is just so daunting that I can barely manage it.

The next day I met up with Hossam and went into old Islamic section of town. It’s not named that because it was any more or less religious than any other section, but because for centuries it was the center of power in the Islamic world. We started at a famous 16th century home most recently owned by an English Major who was a big collector (some might say thief) of Egyptian and regional antiques. When he died in the late 40’s, he bequeathed his entire collection to the Egyptian government and it’s now a museum. One room in particular was even used as a set for The Spy who Loved Me. After that, we headed next store to one of the largest, oldest, and more important mosques in the area whose name I can’t remember because they all sound alike. You literally cannot throw a stone in this area without hitting some medieval mosque. The area is a maze of the narrow crooked streets teaming with people and animals. Thankfully there are spice and perfume stores here and there to help take the edge off some of the more unpleasant smells. All-in-all, it’s really disorienting area and more than a little intimidating. It wasn’t that I felt threatened or people were outright hostile, but this is truly a different world and some of the people harbor less than friendly feelings towards westerners and Americans in particular. So much so, that the MFO has decreed that the entire area is off limits for us during Friday afternoon prayers.

We wondered around and eventually made our way over to the Khan Al-Khalili (old market turned big tourist trap). It’s basically a variation on a theme from the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul or Medina in Tunis; a few nice things mixed in with lots of crap, hordes of aggressive stall owners trying to lure you into their establishment, and lots of place to sip on tea or Karkadai (a tasty hot or cold drink made from boiling dried hibiscus flowers). After I had exhausted my gift buying impulses, we headed to an authentic Egyptian restaurant for a delicious dinner. It was before sunset, so Hossam was the only Egyptian there. I asked him if he was uncomfortable, but he’s about as secular as they come and couldn’t care less. The Muslim Brotherhood has forced a very conservative dogmatic type of Islam into many parts of the country, and Egyptians seen eating or drinking during Ramadan can really be harassed or even arrested. There is a sizable Coptic Christian population throughout the country, and they have to be prepared to show their crosses around their necks, or some even get tattooed to avoid problems. Every day more and more women start to wear the head scarves or cover themselves completely in the Burka. You even see little girls completely covered, whereas in the past, this only happened after puberty. The main Imam in Cairo came out recently criticizing this growing trend, saying there is nothing in Islam supporting this, that it was a cultural, not religious practice that should be stopped. He went on to say that the Koran requires both sexes to dress modestly, not just women. It was quite a courageous and progressive statement, and one that will likely get him in lots of hot water with the more conservative elements of society.

Okay, once again, way too long of an update so I’ll end it here for now. I had some other things to write about, but they can wait until next time. For those of you in the US, have a nice and safe Thanksgiving holiday!