By the numbers, part II

Since I'm now 12 weeks in (one quarter of the way through!) to my RTW trip (and since it was requested), I figured it was time for more stats. If you missed part one, you can find it here.

* Ridden on a motorcycle in two countries (Athens and India)
* 1 pickpocket scare (just a scare - the guy behind me was very close behind me, shuffling with his money, and I thought he was going after mine - I checked, though, and all was good)
* 20 nights paid accommodations
* 9 countries and 6 different currencies
* I've learned how to say "go away" in one language (jao, it's Hindi and it rhymes with how)
* 2 random meetings of people I'd met in other places (1st: I ran into a guy I met at the airport in Dubai in Mumbai - a city of 20 million, how is that even possible?! 2nd: I ran into Miguel from Khaj in Agra.)
* 3 offers by strangers for me to stay with them (Do you remember all of them? The last two are recent, so you probably do.)
* 2580 pages read (4 novels, plus 45 pages or so into the 5th)
* 1 bus accident
* Met people from 29 different countries (Should I list them all?)
* 11 flights taken, who even knows how many countless trains, buses, taxis, metro, and rickshaw rides
* 8 CS hosts
* 1080 pictures taken, but probably more by the time this posts
* Longest train ride: 29 hours
* Longest bus ride: 12 hours
* 0 major itinerary changes in India, although there were a couple of places I stayed a day longer because I couldn't get the train or bus that I wanted
* Visited 8 cities in 4 different countries that weren't on my original itinerary

Egypt: A public service announcement for Americans

Some of my more conservative friends and family at home were concerned about me traveling by myself in an Arab country. And more than one Egyptian that I met asked me if I thought all Egyptians were terrorists. After the experience I had in Egypt, I thought it was my duty to spread the word.

So what was my experience? I am not exaggerating at all when I say that Egypt has some of the warmest, friendliest, most generous, selfless, and nicest people I've ever met. At every turn, people went above and beyond the call of duty for me and I'm not just talking about people who were friends of friends; I'm also talking about complete strangers (and, let's face it, even the friends of friends were strangers to me who didn't have to help me).Salama picked me up at the airport. Tatio let me stay a night at his house and Amiri's sister, Dina, let me stay three nights. Gaafar took me to the bazaar and introduced me to a lot of traditional foods. A random stranger saw my confusion as I got off the microbus and walked me (out of his way, mind you) to Lebanon Square where I needed to go to catch a cab. Lots of people invited me to tea. Remember when I mentioned my trick for crossing busy Cairo streets? Half the time I didn't even have to pull that trick because people would see that I was a foreigner and they would guide me across the street with them. Peet told me that if the cab didn't come the morning I was scheduled to leave for Sharm, to call him and he'd take me to the airport. Moussa left a bar where his favorite local band was getting ready to play to drive me home, even though I said I could just take a cab.One thing I found interesting is that Egyptians have a really high sense of fairness and justice. More than one person told me that if someone tries to grab your bag and run off, just yell the Arabic word for thief (haramy) and an entire crowd will go after that person, detain them, and get your bag back for you. They just feel that people work hard and it's not fair or right for someone else to profit from that work. Make sense? I'm probably not doing a good job of explaining it. Just know that this is part of the Egyptian psyche.

I also mentioned before that there were two things that happened on my last day that I needed to expound upon. First thing: On the plane to Cairo from Sharm I was talking to my seatmate, Tarek, about work and travels and such, and I said that I hadn't yet arranged for my transportation from Cairo to Alex even though I needed to be there that same day. Tarek said that once we landed, he'd have his driver drop us off at Starbucks for coffee and then send him to the train station to check the schedule and buy my ticket for me. There was a lot of traffic, more than usual, in Cairo that day because of the soccer match that was being played. (Have you seen my video of the aftermath?) Tarek couldn't wait with me for the driver to get back, so he said goodbye and was off. The driver eventually arrived and took me to the station. I asked him how much the cab ride was and, in very broken English, he told me that Tarek had taken care of it. Are you sure? Yes, he was sure. Then I tried to pay him for my train ticket (50 Egyptian pounds) and he indicated that had been paid for, too. I thought maybe he didn't understand so I showed the ticket to him. But no, Tarek had paid for that, as well. The driver wouldn't even allow me to give him a tip because all of it was to be taken care of, I suppose.

Second thing: Islam was the friend of a friend who was to pick me up from the train station in Alexandria. He didn't find out until 9am on Saturday that I was arriving at 8:30pm that night, yet he was there waiting for me (for an extra half-hour, even, as the train was late). We only had a few hours til I had to be at the airport for my flight, so we drove around Alex for a whirlwind tour. Islam showed me all kinds of things and made it better with his narration and stories. We went out for dinner (I was told I HAD to eat seafood while in Alex) and whole fish, calamari, and various salads were ordered. The bill came and Islam refused to let me pay, even though he didn't even eat since he's on a diet. ("Don't you know that women don't pay in Egypt?" "Well, I was starting to get that impression, yes, but you didn't even eat anything!" "It doesn't matter. I'm paying.") We got to the airport and by this time it was about 1am. Islam waited with me and we chatted some more because he didn't want me to be alone for too long waiting for the plane.

These are just two examples of scenarios where people went above and beyond for me, expecting absolutely nothing in return. So the public service announcement that is the point of this whole post: if you are a person who has stereotypes in mind of what Egyptians specifically, or Arabs in general, are all about - rethink them. The hospitality and kindness I experienced was at a level I'd never experienced before. To all of my new Egyptian friends: thank you from the bottom of my heart for an amazing time. I hope to meet each of you again in the future.

Snorkeling in the Red Sea

Friday was my last full day in Sharm El Sheikh and I fully intended to make the most of it. I was planning to meet up with Essam and Marie, friends of friends (as with most of the people I've met in Egypt) that I'd met the night before to go to the beach. They must've needed more sleep than they realized, though, because they slept in quite late. I waited poolside to hear from them, so all wasn't lost. :-) We finally got to the beach and this one was a private beach on the Red Sea (the beach I had been going to was at Naama Bay).

You guys, it was beautiful there. The beach is kind of on a cliff, so you walk down stairs and there are different levels of beach you can choose from. All around you you see thatched umbrellas and desert right up next to sea and boats and shimmering water.Since Essam and Marie slept in, we got there kind of late, but it was perfect because it wasn't at all crowded. When they found out that I'd never been snorkeling before, they said I had to do it that day because the reef there is so amazing. They didn't exactly have to talk me into it!

After a couple of technical difficulties in which I figured out how the mask worked and everything, I was good to go. At this particular beach, you walk down this long pier, down some steps that put you right into the (still warm in November) water, and you're surrounded by reef. It was a bit disconcerting at first how you could hear yourself breath, but eventually I got used to it and it even is sort of meditative. I saw huge sea urchins, anemones, clownfish, and all kinds of fish that I don't even know the names of. After awhile I drifted towards the edge of the reef. Whoa. Did I ever tell anyone that I'm really sort of (irrationally) scared of deep/dark water? Yah, that fear came flooding back when I got to the edge of the reef. For a second I thought it was really kind of cool how far down you could see and how the color of the water changed. But. Then I got a little panicky and decided to get the hell out of dodge and back to the pier before I lost it. This is one of those things that I think I could overcome if I did it often enough, but for my first time ever snorkeling, I figured I'd pushed myself far enough.

The three of us were hungry by then so we ate pizza at the restaurant there at the beach. (Add to my list of new foods tried: anchovies on pizza. Verdict: actually good!) The sun was setting and I got this shot: Seems like a pretty nice way to end a vacation from my vacation, doesn't it?

Walk like an Egyptian

Scene - Airport in Sharm, trying to get a cab to my hotel.
Me to the driver - Royal Plaza hotel in Naama Bay. Bekam da? (How much?)
Driver - 100 (Egyptian pounds)
Me - What? That sounds high. How far away is the hotel and how long exactly will it take to get there.
Driver - 15 km. 100
Me - It didn't even cost that much to drive from 6th of October to the Cairo airport and that trip took more than an hour!
(At this point, I'm already in the cab and we're driving away)
Driver - Sharm is more expensive than Cairo.
(I decided to call someone who would know better than me what this trip should cost. Luckily, he picked up right away.)
Me - Amiri, how much is a cab from the Sharm airport to the hotel?
Amiri - 20 pounds
Me - Yah, that's what I thought. I knew this driver was trying to scam me. He told me 100!
Amiri - What?! Tell him to go eff himself! It shouldn't be that much and he's only giving you that rate because you're a foreigner.
(Meanwhile, the driver is listening to my phone conversation and pulls a u-turn to go back to the airport.) (And I didn't, for sure, tell him what Amiri told me to tell him!)
Long story longer, I got a new driver who wanted to charge me 50 and I told him 30. He kept trying to negotiate it and I finally told him that I knew the going rate was 20 and I was going to give him 30, so just drive me to the damn hotel already!

* * * * *

Sharm is a LOT different than Cairo. For one thing, there's not nearly as many people here and it's filled with tourists. But it's still Egypt and still an Arab country through and through. After only five days here, I'm realizing that I'm picking up on a lot of the culture pretty quickly.

Regarding the title, people here don't really cross streets at an intersection when they have the right of way. They just cross when they feel like it. This amazed me the first time I saw it and I wondered why people weren't getting killed, but now I do it, too. You have to, otherwise you'd be waiting to cross forever. My trick, though, is to always try to cross at the narrowest part of the road and, if that's not possible, surround myself with Egyptians and cross when they do!

I'm also really good at the Egyptian 'no' which is kind of a tsking sound. It comes in handy when people are trying to sell things to you or get you into their store or restaurant. It's kind of like they respect you more if you tsk than if you just say no or shake your head.

Also, things are less conservative here than in Cairo, but I still felt really naked when I stepped out of my hotel room wearing a t-shirt and shorts. It had been a long time since I showed that much skin - showing a lot of skin just isn't done in Cairo (in Sharm, with all of the tourists, it's not a problem).

* * * * *

My vacation from my vacation is going swimmingly, though. I went to the pool yesterday after I arrived and then showered and went out. I had dinner and a shisha and then went to a club. Today I slept in a bit and then headed to the beach. It is warm and sunny here, such a nice change from all the cool, rainy weather I'd been seeing. Tonight I'm meeting up with friend of a friend, Kharboush, and some of his friends and we're going bowling. I haven't done that in ages! So, all around I'm just relaxing and taking it easy. It's a nice change of pace for the next few days before I'm back to all of the sightseeing.

Sharm El Sheikh

Just a very quick note to let everyone know that I arrived in Sharm El Sheikh safely. I'm currently using the hotel computer and it's insanely expensive - 20 Egyptian pounds for 1/2 hour - which equates to about $8 per hour. Yikes! So I'll try to find an internet cafe offsite somewhere to post something longer and upload more pics.

For now, I'm off to the pool with a book. It's time for a vacation from my vacation! :-)

Did you know they had pyramids here?

Today was a full day. I actually got some sightseeing in. :-) I went to see the pyramids in Giza and that was pretty wild. No matter how often you see the pyramids on television or in print, it's totally different in person. You're definitely in the desert out there, as evidenced by the fact that I'm fairly certain I still have sand in my contacts 12 hours later, and the pyramids are larger than life. But at the same time, it almost seems like they're not that big. I think it's because on tv it seems like the pyramids and Sphinx are in the middle of nowhere and that's just not true - there's a city all around it!

So I'm at the pyramids and of course a guy wants to get me to either a) buy a ticket to see the inside of the pyramid (I'd heard it wasn't worth it because there's nothing to actually see), or b) agree to a ride on a camel or horse. I told him I didn't have any money and I wasn't interested anyway and he told me to at least sit on the camel for a picture (using my camera). Ok, so I did that, but then he wanted me to give him money anyway for taking the picture! Uh, no. Moving on. . .

There are actually nine pyramids here, not just the Great one and the two others that most people are familiar with. Besides going into the pyramid where you can't really see anything, you can also go into the trap doors where you can see stuff. Check Flickr for pictures as my connection seems to be incredibly slow and nothing is uploading very fast. I'll try to add a couple to the actual post later.

I didn't hang out in Giza too terribly long because Dina was waiting for me and had Nadim with her in the car. Right about the time I decided I was ready to leave was also the time I decided I'd had enough wind in the desert (see above: sand in eyes). She popped me into a bus headed downtown so that she could put Nadim down for a nap. That was. . .an experience for sure. No one on the bus really spoke English and I didn't really know where I was going or when I was getting off, so it was interesting. (Plus, driving is different here in a big way. I'll have to talk about that more later.)

I did eventually make my way to the Egyptian Museum. It's a lot bigger than the Acropolis Museum in Athens and I easily spent 2 1/2 hours or so there. I don't think I even saw everything there was to see. I think perhaps the coolest part of the museum was the animal mummy room. You do know that it wasn't just humans who were mummified, don't you? I had heard this before, but I didn't realize there were different levels of animal mummification ranging from food (so a person would have something to eat in the afterlife) to pet to honorific (which isn't the right word, but it was when animals were mummified because it was believed that a god had manifested itself in that animal). There were mummified cats, dogs, shrews, baboons, birds, snakes, even a crocodile. Walking through the museum and thinking about how a lot of the antiquities were between five and seven thousand years old. . .just amazing.

I had some time to waste after the museum before meeting up with Gaafar, a friend of a friend, so I decided to go ahead and book my trip to Sharm El Sheikh. I'll be leaving by plane on Tuesday of this week and returning on Saturday. Sharm is a beach town and I was thinking that with all of the go go go (and rain!) that I've been having, that a few days to chill and do nothng might be just the ticket. I'll also check out the nightlife and may even go snorkeling or for a dive, but it will be mostly low-key - me and a book on the beach!

Anyway, then I met up with Gaafar and we went to Khan El Khalili, Cairo's bazaar. It's not as big as the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, but it's more interesting because the shops tend to have a wider selection (instead of all the same stuff like in GB). Gaafar had talked about maybe meeting up with a friend for dinner, but the friend bailed so I invited myself along. :-) I told him that I was up for anything as long as it was traditional Egyptian food.

At the restaurant, Gaafar was trying to be really sensitive to what I may or may not like, but I told him that after what I ate (and liked!) in Istanbul, I would seriously try anything, no worries at all. (Which reminds me - I have a food of Istanbul post planned, that I really need to get posted while it's all still fresh. Keep and eye out for it and someone remind me if you don't see it by the end of the week.) None of the food that we tried was particularly weird or anything, but some of it isn't very common in the US. We started with pickles, but in Cairo pickles means any vegetable that's been pickled. In our case it was cucumbers, onions, something purple that I forgot to ask about, and lemon (also known as preserved lemons). They were all pretty tasty, even if they were a tad too salty. Next was smoked herring and more pickled onions eaten as a sandwich on pita bread. The smoked herring actually tasted a bit like smoked salmon which I wouldn't have guessed (I also wouldn't have guessed that I'd like the way a smoked fish and onion sandwich tasted, but there you have it). Gaafar said he doesn't like either of these two things very much individually, but that he really likes them together. There were chicken livers; they can also be eaten as a sandwich with onions. I tried them plain and in sandwich form and I gotta say - the texture is a little weird, but these were also better than I expected. We had a rice dish that had hazelnuts, raisins, and maybe a bit of liver of some sort, and an orzo dish that had beef in it, but it's kind of hard to describe. I told Gaafar it was kind of like jambalaya, but that didn't mean a whole lot to him lol. What else? A soup that had spinach and (lots of) garlic. And a drink made from hibiscus flowers and a splash of 7Up. Everything was very good. This whole try-everything-because-you-never-know-you-might-just-like-it thing is working out well for me so far!

I have no real plan for tomorrow yet. I might reach out to some CSers, local and foreigners, and see if anyone wants to hang out.

No sightseeing yet

I've been in Cairo for about 36 hours now and I've still done no sightseeing. Well, not really anyway. I've seen a bit of Cairo at night and I've experienced the nightlife, but that's about it. Last night I went out for sushi and drinks with Salama and Tatio to this place called Asia (I think) and it was literally right on the Nile river. So I've seen the Nile! It looks like a river!

Today we slept in and then hung out for awhile before heading to a late lunch. It was actually a business meeting and I tagged along because I don't know Arabic so it didn't really matter that I was there. Later on I met up with Mohamed's sister, Dina, who I'll be staying with for the next few days. She has a two year old son named Nadeem and he's an absolute cutie. When I met him he was shy for about half a second til I crouched down to say hi and he ran over to me, gave me a hug, and proceeded to not let go of my hand for a half hour or so. My heart just about melted since he's the same age as my nephew, Joey. By the way, Nadeem doesn't speak English so the conversations he and I have are pretty interesting. I think he'll end up teaching me a few words of Arabic before all is said and done.

I sort of have a plan for my next few days. I plan to officially check out Cairo over the next couple of days. Some real sight-seeing, complete with pictures. On Tuesday I will probably fly to Sharm el Sheikh which is on the Red Sea and soak up some much needed rays. Maybe my bathing suit will even see some action! From there. . .well, my plans have changed so much already, so it's hard to say, but I think I'll probably stick around for a little while and see what I can see.

Cairo

Just a quick note to let everyone know that I am in Cairo. I arrived a few hours ago and was greeted at the airport by my friend Mohamed's friend, Salama. We drove to his other friend Tatio's house, where I'll be staying, and then went out for a late lunch.

I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I can already tell you that, as expected, it's a completely different environment all together. I'm excited! Also, it's warm and sunny here. . .although, from what I hear, it's now sunny and warm in Istanbul, too.