Cairo, Egypt- Week One

Ahlan was Sahlan or Hello and Welcome all! It is my intention to write my general thoughts and impressions here for all to read about my experiences and then to write email updates as to more direct things. I encourage you to hit me back with any feedback or questions you might have as I would love to discuss them with you further :).

I arrived in Cairo on Monday August 25th and I have preceeded to stay with my former Fulbright Arabic Teacher Mahmoud El-Sedawy and his family in Helwan, Egypt, or about an hour south of Cairo. Mahmoud and his family have to be some of the most caring individuals that I know. The family has taken me into their home and have been cooking me more that food then I can ever eat. The food is very good as I will eat almost all of it, with exception to some of the goat products. They just dont beat cow's milk products. After a few days of getting acclimated to Cairo, I decided to spend the first week with my friends Sihomara, Ashely and Stephanie, who were starting out a two month world tour of Europe, by visiting Cairo. The girls were to visit me for about a week and it was my intention to give them a quality glimpse into the culture of Arabs as much as I could. After their first night in Cairo, with a visit to a local cafe to drink Manga Asiir (Mango Juice) and to smoke some apple sheesha (hooka), the girls truely enjoyed the seemingly calm, laid back atmosphere that could exist within a town of 18+ million people.

In my first week here I have done a lot of touristy things. I started off in traditional Egyptain fashion by visiting one of the many hundreds of Egyptain cafes that are situated on just about every corner of Cairo's city blocks. The more away from the main streets you go to sit at a cafe, the better, as it is the real Egyptain culture, and the prices decrease from 15LE (Egyptain Pounds) to about 3LE for the same items. My favorite place that the girls and I visited quite a bit during our first week, in which Mahmoud highly approved of is, Cafe Zizo, located in a walking street across from the Meramis Hostle on Sabri Abou Alam St near Talat Harb Square. Sayyid the owner, is the best cafe manager that I have seen yet, and was always more than happy to have us in his Cafe.

One of the next few nights that girls and I took a dinner cruise on the Nile. The boat was called the Memphis and was extremely nice. Once inside they boat crew has a spread of Calamari, Ravilois, Egyptain Rice and Salads, as well as Samaka (fish) and Lamb in a buffet line ready to eat. We all dug in and proceeded to eat, when we noticed that a lot of the people around us were far more dressed up than we were. I asked what the occasion was and I was told that there were two Arab wedding receptions that were being held together. Instantly, I felt honored to observe the festivities. The reception were pretty similar to most American weddings, minus the alcohol of course, and the bride and groom took lots of pictures together, danced a bit and then cut the cake. After the cutting of the cake, a Sufi band played and a talented belly dancer took to the dance floor. She was very good and conservative as well. Soon, the belly dancer was pulling men and children out of their chairs to dance with her while everyone else took pictures. She pulled each of us from our group to the floor and we all enjoyed a little belly dancing. See the pictures. After the belly dancing we had a whirling durvish dance come out to the floor. If you do not know what this is, a whirling durvish is a man or woman who spins in circles for about 20-30 minutes doing dance routines and stunts with out getting dizzy. Soon, the dancer was also pulling people out onto the dance floor to let them try to dance/spin. Everyone the went up there became dizzy/sick within a few spins and has to sit down. It was a sight to see. So all in all the Nile cruise was far worth the 130LE pounds ($22) we each spent for such a great time.


The next night we took a overnight train to Luxor to see the Valley of the Kings and Queen Hapetshut's temple (spelling?). In Luxor alone, there are one third of the entire world's historical monuments. It is said that you need to take a least 4-5 day to really see everything. Unfortunately, we were only going to be there for a day. So in turn, we went to the Valley of King's first and second, the Queen's temple. We took an air conditioned van with our own personal Egyptologist guide. Both were amazing as it was surreal to walk on monuments and the paths where the original monuments were built 4000+ years ago. We were very lucky as the crowds were very low that day, and we were able to see a lot in just a little time. After visiting the girls and I had dinner on the Nile with our Egyptoligist Amal. She told us that she had just got accepted to Oxford to get her doctorate in Egyptology. It was very cool to have such an expert give us a tour in Luxor. However after dinner we had to return to our train to get us back to Cairo and about 9 hours later we were back to the hectic and crowded streets of Cairo.

The last day before the girls left we went to the Pyramids in the morning and rode camels. It was very cool to ride a camel as I think they are much more comfortable to ride than horses, however, they do spit, gurgle, drool, and fart more than horses do, so I must take the good with the bad... Seeing the pyramids is an amazing experience. Period. Just driving to Giza from Cairo, you can see the structures looming in the distance. Their massive presence dwarfs any other man made object, or any other object in the area. Then once you stand next the base of the big Pyramids, it is hard to fathom just what amount of effort and work it took to make them. It is an remarkable experience and even though I have seen them twice now, I would always accept another invitation to see them more and admire their majestic presence. Furthermore, the more I read and learn about the Pharaohs and the ideology that they had, with regards to the afterlife. It further makes an admirer out of me to appreciate the wisdom, intelligence and spirituality that the Ancient Egyptians lived in their everyday lives.











In the last night the girls were in Cairo, we met up with Baby Mo, once more, for some great Egyptian food in a nice place in Zamalek Island, in the middle of the Nile, and smoked some more sheesha. We had a great time that night and really for the week the girls were here. I am glad they were able to see it and maybe open there minds to such a contrasting culture to our own, and appreciate that good and bad points that each culture has. I will save the academic perspective of the cultural observations for future blogs, but for starting out I think it is better to write my blog to be generally informative to all with out going into further details. Maybe instead I'll save them for my graduate thesis papers, who knows... Anyway, please check back soon for more updates!

Maa'salamma (Go in Peace)

Mike