Egypt

As I’m writing this, it’s exactly 5 weeks that I’m here. Time just flies so fast and 5 weeks are gone!

There were some decisions made today. The project was postponed until further notice and I’ll be on my way back to KL this week, depending on the flight availability. Even though the project was scheduled to be for 3 months, I can foresee something is to happen from the first week I was here. It’s just a matter of time.

Sixth sense maybe? No. I can see things that will happen quite well.

I already started thinking since the past 2 weeks, “What if I’m really going back?”

You know, I’m actually divided on this. Usually when I know I’m going back, I’ll feel happy and glad. But not this time around.

One side of myself was saying, “Yes, go back! go back! I’ll get to do all my favorite activities in KL. I miss KL.”

But, another side of myself was saying, “No, don’t go back until 3 month ends. Otherwise you’ve got to look for other projects (which sometimes can be hard). What about the $$$? That’s a lot!”

So, when it was actually confirmed today that I’m going back, I didn’t felt anything. My reaction was, “Hmm, okay let’s go then..”

Now, it’s back to my normal lifestyle. Work, sleep and gym. It’s not like I don’t work or sleep over here, I do! But I really miss the RPM sessions in the gym a lot. Used to go 7-9 hours a week without fail, but after 5 weeks without it, I just feel like my body is going haywire, or maybe soon.

Okay, till then. Goodbye Egypt! It was good experience visiting the Pyramids, Mediterranean Sea, Red Sea and Cairo. You’ve been nice and pleasant place to me for the past 5 weeks, minus the traffic of course!

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I give up!

You know, my friends in KL told me that the traffic in Penang is bad enough. Motorcycles suddenly appearing on both sides of your car, zig zagging through the traffic, aggressive drivers at the junctions, etc.

Then I went to India. India was even worse I thought. My driver used to go off-road with our old, yet durable TATA car (looks like Kancil) to avoid the traffic jam, or going in the opposite direction.

Not forgetting that he was screaming and cursing most of the time while driving and I had to bear with all those Hindi foul languages.

And before I came here, I was warned by my colleagues that the traffic here is crazy. Absolute madness.

I was on the way from the airport to my hotel at midnight and I was surprised how much traffic they had in the middle of the night. And I realized, it’s a desert here and people only come out at night.

Ok, back to the crazy traffic and drivers. All these are my daily 3-4 hours journey observation for the past 1 month.

• There are no such thing as traffic rules and traffic lights. Side and rear mirror are almost non-existent.
• Stop and slow down is something the drivers don’t know about, and will never.
• What they do know : floor the accelerator
• Honk! Honk! means either Hello pretty! fuck off! I’m going first! Move out of my way! Moveee!
• It also means, Mr Traffic Police, I can’t wait anymore. It’s my turn to move!
• Hazard lights on means, Don’t overtake me, there’s no space in front for you!
• Right signal light followed by left signal light means you’re a bitch/asshole!
• You can drive in any direction you want, even on the highways. I’ve seen lorries going in opposite direction in a 3 lane highway.
• They have amazing skills to maximize the use of the roads in terms of space. A two-way street will look like a one-way street. A two-lane street will look like a double parking roadside carpark and a three-lane street.
• There are no such thing as lanes. As long they can find the tiniest space possible to squeeze their car in at 100km/h, they will go for it.
• It’s normal that a two-way street will become one-way street. You won’t realize it until you see a fast approaching car honking and flashing the headlights. What happens next? Your car is stucked in the opposite lane and the opposite driver starts screaming and honking while the cars in your lane don’t give a damn about it but start honking.
• All traffic lights seems to be on display mode. None are functioning. The traffic police is the traffic light. And sometimes you’ll need to wait 10 minutes for your turn to move because he went for a smoke!
• When there are no traffic police manning the junction, no one gives a damn way!
• Pedestrian crossings are non-existent. Drivers treat passers-by as nuisance but they have the skills to avoid passers-by standing in the middle of the road even when driving at 100km/h, or above. And the passers-by have the guts to stand in the middle of the road with driving at 100km/h!
• Most roads are 2-4 lanes wide. But only half are used for traffic. The remaining are for parking, even it’s a highway. Double/triple parking is not an offense even at the highways.
• Pickup trucks carry everything under the sun that you can imagine of. From people to donkeys to households.
• The vehicle is not from Cairo if there is not a single dent or scratches.

Never, ever drive in Cairo even if you’re Michael Schumacher.

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It was not that far away from where my hotel is, about 40 minutes away with a slow and pleasant drive in the afternoon. This step pyramid in Saqqara is not so high profile and famous as the ones in Giza so the number of tourists there are much lesser. It was only about 20 tour buses. Wait till you see the tour buses in Giza.

Entrance fees was 50LE (RM30). You pay for everything in Egypt. Even for taking this photo of the camel. The guy jumped out of nowhere and start complaining that I took a photo of his camel without his permission, etc etc. Gave him 1LE (RM0.60) and he was more than happy. 1LE can do wonders in Egypt

The other 2 attractions were the Tombs of Mereruka. It consists of 32 rooms and was built for Mereruka and his family. Discovered in 1893, it is located 20m to the north of the Pyramid of King Titi. I almost got lost inside this tomb!

Beside it is the Pyramid of Titi. You get to go inside the pyramid! It’s a 45 degrees steep, small walkway down 30m into the burial chamber.

And again, tips and tips and tips everywhere!

Other photos can be found here.

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The first thing I noticed upon walking out of the hotel this morning was;

“How come it smells so weird outside…”

and then,

“uh huh…today’s cloudy at 8am. Where’s the sun?”

That was something you seldom get in Cairo. And later on, I realized it was not a cloudy day actually. There was a sandstorm last night.

Being curious, I asked big brother, Wikipedia what is a sandstorm, or dust storm.

A dust storm or sandstorm is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions and arises when a gust front passes or when the wind force exceeds the threshold value where loose sand and dust are removed from the dry surface. Particles are transported by saltation and suspension, causing soil erosion from one place and deposition in another.

The term sandstorm is used most often in the context of desert sandstorms, especially in the Sahara, when, in addition to fine particles obscuring visibility, a considerable amount of larger sand particles are blown closer to the surface. The term dust storm is more likely to be used when finer particles are blown long distances, especially when the dust storm affects urban areas.

It looked like a hazy day in Malaysia. Remember the very bad haze in KL back in 2005? Something like that. But the sky wasn’t grey, it was actually brown!

The photo above is how it looked like from my office window at noon. Forgot to bring my camera along, so I’ll have to live with the camera phone for this shot.

And it rained in the evening! But only a few drops…

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I was chatting with a friend of mine one morning, after our breakfast in our hotel in Cairo. We arrived the day before.

Me : “Where to go today? Any plans?”

Friend : “Err…Pyramids?”

Me : “Let’s go then…”

The journey from my hotel in Ma’adi (dubbed the posh area in Cairo) to the Giza Pyramids is not that long. It takes around 30 minutes when the traffic is at it’s worse. 10 minutes if there’s no traffic jam, but that will almost never happen here. It costs 30LE (RM18) to reach there with an air-conditioned taxi (not those signature black & white Cairo taxis – they are usually cheaper).

I was getting real excited about the seeing the Giza pyramids for the first time ever in my life. I’ve only seen them either on prints or TV. This time I’m seeing them for real.

It was my first time going around Cairo and it was all brown and dusty. The traffic was C-R-A-Z-Y, just crazy. I’ll talk about this next time, in another post. The taxi stopped us at the horse stable.

The stable boss asked, “Camel? or Horse?”

Looks like I either get a horse or camel ride into the desert to go to the Pyramids. It was quite a distance to walk under the sun, and considering it’s 12pm. I must be nuts to go into the desert at noon!

But, it was all windy and chilly. Not that bad after all..

The tour around the Pyramids took 2 hours. Took some pictures here and there with those typical tourist poses. Most of them turn out to be so-so. Maybe I should bring my small digital cam along that day and put it on auto mode for the tour guide instead of giving him my SLR. Then he can click on the shutter however much he wants.

The pyramid tour took about 2 hours and we went back to the horse stable. Back there, this old man, who I suppose is the owner of all the horses asked for 50 EUROs for the 2 hours horse ride. What a rip off! He didn’t mention a single thing earlier on before the horse ride (NOTE : It is a practice in Egypt not to ask the price before hand. After you’ve paid them later on and they are not satisfied, they’ll start complaining). But, finally after 15 minutes of bargaining, we settled to 30 USD per person for the 2 hours horse ride, which I’m still not satisfied.

Later on, I found out from my Lonely Planet guide that it costs only 12LE (RM7) for an hour’s ride, but that has to be done at the tourist office at the other end of the desert. So, I guess I’m gonna go there again before going back to Malaysia.

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