Walk like an Egyptian - baby steps

Ok, after 15 days in Egypt, there is just way too much to say. So I think I will have to post a few times to try and cover it. This first post is just going to be some general observations and stuff. Subsequent posts will cover the actual trip I did. Just remember Egypt is a third world country so you have to be ready for a few differences. The people were generally very nice and helpful.

Fast Facts

Capital - Cairo

Other cities - I visited - Luxor, Aswan, Abu Simbel, Hurghada, Dahab. Didn't visit - Alexandria, Sharm El Sheik, Medium

Language - Arabic

Tourism is approximately 20% (if not more) of the GDP

Money - Egyptian pounds (LE), paper notes (200, 100, 50, 20, 10, 5, .50LE and .25LE) and coins (1LE, .50LE). portions of 1 LE are piastres (50 and 25)

Exchange for British Sterling that I received - £1 = 7.5 to 8.5 LE

Temperatures - high around 20 Celsius and low near 10 Celsius (not including the wind chill or temps on Mt. Sinai - both way colder!)

Arabic

Hello - Salam Sorry - Ana asef

Goodbye - Ma a'salama Let's go! - Yalla

My darling - Habibi Go away! - Em'shee

Thank you - Shokran OK - Mashi

Your welcome - Afwan Tea - Chay

No - La Coffee - Ahwa

No thank you - La shokran Water - Maya

Water

Most of the water in Egypt is provided by the Nile. However it is heavily chlorinated and otherwise treated. While this doesn't actually hurt you, it is way stronger than we are used to (especially higher levels of magnesium - which just like Milk of Magnesia, loosens you up a bit - whether you want it or not). This can put us foreigners in a bad way for a significant amount of time. So most cities I went to you can shower, brush your teeth and whatever with tap water, just don't drink it. However cities on the Red Sea (Hurgahdad and Dahab) cannot use the Nile and use collected rain water. This is definitely not potable or to be ingested in any way. Trust me. So we bought bottled water, a lot of bottled water. But it only cost about 2 LE for a liter bottle so no big deal (or about 6 or 8 LE for a 750ml Coke).

Food

Food is easy and can be cheap. If you want you can get all the comforts of home (KFC, Pizza Hut, McDonalds, Burger King) but there are tons of options for local cuisine. Falafel, mousaka, fattah, humus, pita, hibiscus tea, some weird bean dishes, baba gnoush, tahinni and others were among the favorites.

Transportation

During my travels I used buses, taxis, horse carriages, feluccas (Nile sail boats), motorboats and trams. There is a subway system in Cairo that is supposed to be ok and a national rail system that is regularly irregular (see subsequent posts). The roads we traveled on were a mix of good, ok, bad and holy *£&^%(" how can you drive this fast on this surface. Pedestrians basically cross a road whenever however they like. A bit like being in a college town. So to truly walk like an Egyptian, you cross the road at your pace, at your leisure and whenever you like. With a bit of caution though and a definite swagger. The cars will stop, usually but they might let you know that they weren't happy with you.

Driving

Driving around town, especially Cairo is a bit like driving in a demolition derby that includes cars, trucks (of all sizes and types), motorcycles, pedestrians, horse/donkey driven vehicles and basically anything else. The lane markings on the road are also more of a guideline than anything else. Just because it only has three lanes defined, doesn't mean that you can't fit 6 vehicles wide through it. Also Egyptians use their lights and horns just to let you know they are they. Now this means that horns beep constantly all night and if you are driving at night, an on coming car might not have their lights on until they think you are too close… Its an interesting experience and one that I am more than happy to have experienced but not participated in.

Security

You see Tourist Police all over the place and yes they are armed. Seriously armed - automatic rifles, riot barriers and various pursuit cars (usually beat up trucks, maybe a motorcycle too). Whilst driving around the country, you definitely notice the police presence. All major roads have road blocks at fairly regular occurrences. These are to ensure that tolls have been paid, drivers are legal and other issues. They didn't really bother us since we were on a tour bus. It was a bit surreal to see watch towers actually manned with AKs and such.

Bathrooms

Bathrooms can be an interesting experience. On the road there are various rest stops. These usually have a bathroom and cost about 1LE to use. However they can be in various states. The best method is to just grab some toilet paper form your bag (you generally want to carry some), try not too look around or breath too deep and go about your business. Some of them were actually ok, most were more like what you would expect in the movie Animal House. There were the occasional squat toilets too. If you couldn't guess, squats are basically a hole in the ground with elevated foot pads and grips on the wall (sometimes). Accuracy is needed. Thankfully most of them are "normal". The worst was probably the one on Mt. Sinai and then the various ones that no longer worked (apparently there sewer system was not meant to handle paper or at least not the amount the westerners use…)

Smoking - anywhere/anytime. Seriously. I think I saw two no smoking signs. The first was in a shopping mall and a guy was smoking right beneath it - effective. The other was in the hotel and actually only said "No smoking in Bed". There were ashtrays everywhere - restaurants (no separate smoking sections), elevators (talk about hot boxing it), bathrooms, cabs and well everywhere. I swear we even saw an ambulance driving smoking with his lights on! If you can occupy the space, you can probably smoke in it.

Touts/Baksheesh

So everywhere you go there are things to buy. Between the exchange rate and prices, things can be very affordable. At all of the major tourist attractions, you will have a bit of a shakedown street. Usually rows of little stalls with the usually fare for sale - little statues, scarves, pashminas, postcards, headscarves, t-shirts, books, alabaster and other items of mostly dubious quality. They touts are not bashful and have no problem trying to hawk their wares on you. Usually they try and start a conversation so they ask where are you from, do you like… (insert name of temple, statue, whatever), how long have you been in Egypt, or any manner of questions. The best were "You look Egyptian… you want papyrus?", "You have beard like Arabic man… need an AK? (ok not the second part but he did say the first) and "You walk like an Egyptian, strong (this was through traffic in Cairo), you need anything, my shop is over there. Come have a look, looking is free.". The touts get annoying but they can be fun. Some of the girls had a more difficult time with them, but then we sold some of the girls on our tour for some camels. And a guy offered me his entire shop for my IPod. Baksheesh is basically tipping, you can be asked for baksheesh for all manner of things, help finding a store (even if you weren't looking for one), help taking a picture (the police asked me for baksheesh a couple of times - when he let me under the cordon at the pyramids for a better picture and one when I took a picture of them) and just if some random guy gets in your photo, he will ask for baksheesh. You get used to ignoring them pretty quickly.

Ok so much for the brief primer on Egypt. I know this was fairly long. Then next one might be just as long but it will have more about the trip and places I saw.