Phil's Mideastern Meanderings

Greetings from Jordan! Sorry if I haven't replied to my GoogleMail, but the browser keeps crashing.

Well, I'm having the best time, it must be said. Where did I leave you? Ah yes, Cairo. Before I left on my trip I had a conversation with Emad, and Egyptian friend from church. Emad is a consultant psychiatrist by trade, with a wicked sense of humour, but has MS, and is now wheelchair-bound. I asked him what Cairo is like, and, as I leaned in close to make out his laboured speech, he said, "Cairo… is… Chaos." He's not wrong. The traffic is insane. Horns are in constant use as four lanes of traffic weave in and out along a road designed for three. Pedestrians and donkey-carts are narrowly avoided, and exuberant oaths fill the air. Crossing the road is a real experience.

If Cairo is chaos then Cairo in the evenings towards the end of Ramadan is doubly so. After sundown, people start to appear on the streets, and food-sellers materialize, selling barbecued corn, or a refreshing tea called karkady made from hibiscus flowers. The noise and crowds in Downtown Cairo are a sight to behold. All the shops open and the teenage alds are out, strutting their stuff. Especially by Eid, when they were all decked out in their posh new togs, rather frisky, and happy to utter any English they happen to know, however random or inappropriate.

Back to the tour. On Friday 12th, I got up early to tag along on a tour of the Pyramids and Cairo Museum. Our guide was Olla, a local Muslim woman. We took a minibus across the Nile and within half an hour or so were hurtling down Pyramid rd into Giza District. Olla urged us to look out on the left for the Pyramids, but the morning mist made them near-invisible(!) Suitably amused, we tumbled out of the bus into the tourist zoo that surrounds the only surviving Ancient Wonder of the World. The pyramids are pretty big. It's hard to get a real sense of perspective, and their shape belies their mass. Olla warned us about the hawkers and touts and, while I spent a good quarter of an hour fending them off with a polite la shukaran (no thanks), I was, of course, eventually kidnapped by an enterprising cameleer. One moment he was offering to take my photo, the next I was wearing a tea-towel on my head and was sitting on the back of Moses, his hefty pride and joy. He kept leading the beast further and further away "to get a better picture". At this point, I became slightly nervous and refused to go on. He took some ok photos, to be fair (and too many of my English pounds), but hey, that's his job ;^)

Right I'm just going to check the Posting works, and I'll be with you again…