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Cairo The next morning when we looked out of our 10th floor window, we were amazed to see the scrap wood, plaster, and debris on the rooftops of the adjacent buildings. As we looked more closely, we noticed many shanty type hovels constructed on the rooftops. We watched one woman feeding her chickens and hanging out clothes to dry while keeping an eye on her two toddlers. In the midst of her chores, she walked to the edge of the roof and had a lengthy conversation with another woman on the next building, the Egyptian equivalent of gossiping over the backyard fence.
The other striking aspect of Cairo, and everywhere we visited in
Egypt, was the number of policemen. Even our two star low budget
hotel had two armed policemen guarding it 24 hours a day. We also
found that the stairwells in our hotel were locked for our security.
In the event of a fire, they told us we would have to learn to fly.
We weren't quite as amused as they were. After spending the past several weeks on sleepy Greek islands, Cairo was a shock to the senses. With a population more than half of the state of California crammed within the city limits, it was intense to be a part of the crowds, noise, traffic, and pollution. It had been awhile since we had been in a third world city, and had forgotten how doing even the simplest things like finding a book store, catching a bus, or walking down a street avoiding the hawkers requires much more time, patience, and energy. Crossing the major streets is something like walking across a U.S. freeway during Friday afternoon rush hour, except that the drivers don't stay in their lanes. Luckily, the Cairo drivers seemed fairly adept at missing pedestrians. One afternoon, we took a taxi to the pyramids on the outskirts of town. Although we had seen many pictures and TV specials, they were much more spectacular than we anticipated. We stayed for the laser light show that night. Although loaded with bus tour groups and a bit melodramatic, it was still awesome to see the pyramids and the sphinx lit up under the clear night sky.
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One afternoon, we took a taxi to the pyramids on the outskirts of town. Although we had seen many pictures and TV specials, they were much more spectacular than we anticipated. We stayed for the laser light show that night. Although loaded with bus tour groups and a bit melodramatic, it was still awesome to see the pyramids and the sphinx lit up under the clear night sky.
Luxor After enduring the two-hour process of purchasing our train tickets the night before, we arrived at the Cairo train station at 6:00 in the morning and loaded our gear onto the first class car. The head of the train's security, with a side arm on his belt, was carrying an Uzi, and directed us to the last car of the train to stow our bikes (guarded by 4 other armed policemen). The 10 hour train ride followed the Nile River valley, with mile after mile of farmers tending their lush green fields bordered with palm trees, ox driven carts, kids riding donkeys, and, of course, the placid Nile River. We began anticipating biking from Luxor to Aswan.
Luxor is a major tourist town on the Nile due to its proximity to incredibly well preserved ruins and tombs dating from 2,000 to 4,000 BC. On our second day we decided to cross the Nile and ride our bikes to the Valley of the Kings where over 40 tombs have been excavated, including the tomb of King Tutankhamun. The ride into the remote desert valley was a bit eerie. The tombs were far better preserved than we expected, with the intricate hieroglyphics looking a mere 100 years old rather than 4,000-5,000 years old. It is hard to describe the sense of awe seeing these ancient drawings and trying to imagine what life must have been like so many years ago.
Maria's Impressions of the Public Ferry Ride across the Nile Since we usually try to travel among the locals, we took the public ferry instead of the tourist ferry to cross the Nile. As we walked down the dusty steps to where the boat was docked, we had to politely but repeatedly turn down "offers" from men who wanted to ferry us across the river in their private boats, at three times the usual price. The ferry was filling up quickly and held about 150 closely packed people, mostly men who were talking among themselves, some linking arms, while stealing occasion glances in our direction. Most of the men were barefoot and wore white turbans
and the typical flowing robes, covered with dust at the hems from
rubbing along the dirt roads. Most everyone had discolored teeth;
one man with a full beard had no front teeth. Of the few women,
two had their heads uncovered and wore Western style attire. But
even they were conservatively dressed with mid-calf length skirts
and long sleeve blouses, buttoned to the throat. A slightly built
young man dragged a heavy bundle wrapped in a cloth. As he stepped
from the dock onto the ferry, several men helped him hoist it
onto his shoulders. He staggered under the weight and could not
quite straighten up again.
A dark skinned boy of about 15 was standing behind a makeshift counter with three large round tin pans holding various sweets. He would cut a piece with a short spatula that he kept in a Sprite can on a shelf behind him. Then he would wrap the sweet, which was dripping with honey, with a page of a worn schoolbook that he would tear off one sheet at a time. I watched as an old woman, dressed in black from head to toe, dug into her pocket and gave a young boy a few coins. He eagerly scrambled over several people, squeezing himself between my bike and me to get to the sweets vendor. An older man was holding onto the pole that supported
the top deck, but when we pushed off from the dock, I noticed
the entire pole swayed. It had ripped out at the bottom. One man
stared at us and shyly smiled as he said to Jim, "Beautiful bikes".
I had the urge to take out the camera and click a few shots to
preserve the moment, but decided against it - too intrusive. The
ride to the opposite bank lasted a mere 10 minutes, and as we
left the ferry, I felt fortunate to experience, for just a brief
moment, life as it is ordinarily lived by these exotic, friendly
people.
Genoa to Nice We really enjoyed both Genoa and Nice. Genoa has a great old town and a lively, crusty seaport feel to it. Nice has its renowned beachfront and lots of steep hills and great views. Being tourist towns, both have a plethora of restaurants for all budgets. We left Nice and trained back to Milan for our flight to San Francisco, and the end of the first leg of our trip. Thanks
Many thanks to all of the friends, who came to visit
us, brought fresh supplies and then took back our spent film,
used bike gear, dirty laundry, souvenirs and Christmas gifts.
Thanks to Pam and Hillary for making all the England reservations
and plans and for sharing the pub food and the awesome London
flat. And thanks to Christine for securing our fabulous accomodations
in Tuscany. Thanks to Chari for coming to Italy to accomodate
our schedule during such a critical time in your life and to Tom,
for coming to visit us twice! And for lugging home the cappuccino
machine. And for letting us camp out in your house in El Cerrito.
We owe you big time. Thanks to Anne from Sacramento who visited
us, took home and developed our photos from Prague and then delivered
them to us! And thanks to Asha and Meagan who visited us in the
Czech Republic, giving up a visit to Budapest. It was a blast!
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