Egypt: Final Report from Egypt!

After another very eventful bus ride (more on this later) we are back in Cairo! Yesterday's journey was on a slightly better bus, but it was about ten hours long, which enabled us to see not one, but two fights break out on the bus! We have quickly come to notice that when an argument ensues here, it is very rarely restricted to just the two arguing parties. More often than not the argument will soon escalate into a full blown riot with every person within a 50-yard radius involved in the screaming. Being an infidel American I have modestly deferred from participating in the yelling thus far (though it does look fun). I think this is because as Americans, we have been conditioned with three automatic responses whenever we hear loud screaming in Arabic:

1. Urinate ourselves;
2. Hit the ground; or
3. Flee.

None of these were options on the bus yesterday, unfortunately. Here is my summary on both arguments:

Fight Number 1: So we're riding up a steep hill in the middle of the desert when suddenly our bus engine is cut, and we start rolling backwards (never a great feeling by the way). Our bus driver pulls over to the side of the road and storms to the middle of the bus (where we were sitting of course) and starts screaming at a passenger. The passenger begins screaming back. Soon thereafter, about ten others have all jumped up and are screaming as well. I rise to scream at this point too but Rich pulls me back (kill joy). After five unproductive minutes of screaming a jovial passenger from the front starts collecting money (we can only assume that the passenger the driver yelled at was short on this fare, though why he picked a mountain side to start this argument is beyond me) from everyone, and he hands it to the driver (along with a cigarette) to appease him. Argument solved.

Fight Number 2: We pull into a stop to pick up more passengers when it appears that a seat has been double-booked. This is does not surprise us American infidels because we have noticed that the system of selling bus tickets is antiquated. Everything is done manually by hand, even the manifests are handwritten. Since each bus station sells tickets this same way, it is easy to see how one station might sell the same seat as another station 200 miles away. Again, shouting ensues and about 15 people begin hollering and screaming for at least 10 minutes. Eventually amid much fury, some seat shuffling is done and the argument is eventually solved. I only got to throw three punches before it ended. So kinda lame.

Otherwise, the rest of our journey was rather uneventful. Our only real regret was not spending more time in the Red Sea. It's hard to believe that the entire stretch of coastline is all coral reef. I can see why divers consider the Red Sea to be the world's 'crown jewel' of dive spots. Since I've already chronicled the special joy I feel while swimming among droves of fish I stayed closer to the shore and gathered seashells.

These shells were not for me, they were actually for sentimental Rich, who keeps a scrap of nearly every admission/train ticket we are ever given. And since he's decided that the 4,237,545 scraps of little paper are not enough, he's now taken up rock collecting as well. I see hoarding in our future. On this trip alone we now have dirt and granite from Mt. Sinai, quartz from the Valley of the Kings, and a shell from the Red Sea. Wonderful...possibly illegal as well.

Today we're heading to a patisserie (J. Groppi's) that was in it's heydey (according to our guidebook), the most celebrated patisserie this side of the Mediterranean. It hosted ritzy high teas and galas for the wealthy, but is now somewhat of a shadow of it's former self, which is why riff raff such as me is now allowed through their elegant doors (it's still the Godiva of Egypt I'm told). We need to get a few souvenirs for people, and though I'd hoped to get more traditional Egyptian foods, honestly, most of the food items here have already expired (and I'd feel kinda bad handing someone cummin and curry powder that was packaged back in 1972). So off to J. Groppi's we go!

From there we plan on walking along the Nile and getting me more kushari (it's been 3-4 days since I've had a bowl and I'm jonesing for it). Kushari by the way, is a national staple...it's like a vegetarian spaghetti. It's spaghetti noodles, macaroni, rice, and vermicelli covered with fried onions, chickpeas and lentils. It's covered with a combination of tomato sauce and lemon oil. As we say in the islands- hooo....broke 'da mouth! And unlike all the pricier hotel meals we eat here (restaurants are not as common since most cannot afford to eat at them), it's cheap. Less than a dollar per heaping bowl.

All in all, the trip was like any other- exhilarating but exhausting. For some reason, the poverty here really took me aback. I've travelled in many other similarly poor countries, but the poverty here seemed even more pervasive (65% or more are below middle class and 50% cannot read). Much of even downtown Cairo is like looking at a city that has been trapped in time. Plumbing is sketchy, electric not always available, ceilings with holes in them. I've seen very little, and I mean very little, new construction. The situation in many ways seems quite hopeless with the current 'semi democracy' in place.

Though everyone works more than one job to survive, the unemployment rate is atrocious and there are a lot of people simply sitting or standing around for lack of better options. Yet there is very little to no begging. Amazing. As a female here, I have been left alone nearly the entire trip. That is a first. I did get my boob grabbed once by a disgusting groper at a temple, but that was it.

Though Egyptian women are more liberated today than ever before, and Egypt is quite flexible in it's adherence to Islam, I could count on one hand the number of women I saw driving a car (one in almost 3 weeks), and on the combined 17 hours we spent on buses, I saw only two Egyptian women riding them. I'm not saying my experience is typical or the norm, it's just what I saw when I was paying attention. Once I get back I'll try to summarize a list of highlights and low lights for everyone. Until then...ma'as salaama (goodbye)!