Images of Egypt: Cairo Street Scenes

A regular tourist's glimpse at Cairo street life

The view from any motorcoach window is of an exotic, vibrant city. There's nothing unusual or privileged in these images, which were all taken with a point-and-shoot on common tourist routes from venue to venue. Excuse the occasional glare, reflection or shaky focus. Of course, there is a modern Cairo too and many citizens who go about their business in Western garb, but these images are more interesting and more, well, Egyptian.

Along the Nile

And no, this drive-by didn't make me homesick

I Fought Jet Lag and the Jet Lag Won

Cairo to Colorado: nine time zones and an 11 1/2-hour flight just to reach New York

For the record, I rarely have serious jet lag flying eastbound across the Atlantic. It's always an overnight flight with a morning arrival on the other side, and whether it's a short or long flight, and I sleep well on airplanes (especially if I've had a bit of wine with dinner on board). More to the point, I'm excited to land someplace new or someplace I've been before and love. The adrenalin kicks in upon landing, I stay awake all day, go to sleep the first night and wake up my first full day wherever, more or less adjusted.

Westbound is another story entirely. Departure is during the day (usually late morning), arrival on the East Coast is sometime in the afternoon and, now that I live in Colorado, the day stretches even longer because I have another flight and two more time zones.

In the past I've tried:

• Melatonin - No significant effect on me.
• No Jet-Lag pills (right), an over-the-counter, homeopathic formulation that I buy at Changes in Latitude, a local travel store. It seemed to work a little better, but I forgot to get some this time.
• Flying from the US West Coast, which means for longer flights, which is even better for my body clock on the eastbound portion but makes the westbound trip even longer, because I have to backtrack one time zone.

I have not tried:

• Sleeping pills, mainly because on principle, I don't take sleeping pills on land, let alone in the air. I'd rather be tired than drugged.
• The anti-jet leg lag diet, because it's complicated and requires a multi-day regimen of meal manipulation.

This time, flying from the West Coast was not an option, because Egyptair only flies from New York. And I rejected melatonin, which I have at home, because it doesn't work all that well for me and besides, I recently read a post on Upgrade: Travel Better about a traveler who was jailed in Dubai for possession of of melatonin. Egypt and Dubai are not the same place, law-wise, but they might be on the same Moslem wave length. If it worked better for me, I might have put some in an aspirin bottle, but it doesn't, so I didn't.

My epic return journey from Cairo to Colorado on Tuesday, February 10, was as follows:

• 7:30 a.m.: Departure from hotel in Cairo.
• 8:00 a.m. +/-: Arrival at airport to stand in long line for baggage X-ray/metal detector just to get into the terminal. Once inside, long line to check bag and get boarding pass. Long line for X-ray of carry-ons and stroll through metal detector. Short line for Egyptian passport control. Wait for boarding.
• 10:15 a.m.: After a third X-ray/metal detector process that included TSA requirements (shoes off, laptop out of case, discard bottled water except that sealed and presented with a receipt from an airport shop) and another presentation of the boarding pass to an official stationed on the jetway, boarded the plane for the scheduled departure of Egyptair 985 from Cairo.
• 3:15 p.m. Eastern Time: Arrival at JFK International Airport. Mercifully short line for immigration, bag landed on the carousel fairly quickly, walk through customs and on to Delta terminal.
• 6:55 p.m. Eastern Time: Departure of Delta 167.
• 10:46 p.m. Mountain Time: Arrival in Denver, which meant that I got to the main terminal and baggage claim a few minutes after the 10:18/10:25 RTD bus left for Boulder. I toughed it out for the bus an hour later. As I walked toward the bus, whose door was open, my water bottle fell out of the side pocket out of my day pack, which I had over one shoulder. I bent over to retrieve the water bottle without smashing my laptop against the concrete, and when I stood up, the bus was pulling out.
• 11:35 p.m.: I gave up on RTD and took SuperShuttle, which dropped me off at my door an hour later.

My failed Wednesday, February 11, attempt at combating jet lag, which is the point of this post, involved waking up at 3:30 a.m. after less than four hours of sleep, staying up all day even if not hitting on all cylinders, attending a media event in Denver (I didn't drive and I didn't drink) and going to bed at 8:45 p.m., shortly after I got home. Result: Another short night (I woke up at about the same time on Thursday, February 12 but took three lengthy naps in the course of the day and evening. I woke up in the wee hours again today (Friday, February 13), but at least I've overcome my sleep debt, even if I'm not over jet lag yet.

I am trying to draw a conclusion or learn a lesson from this, but so far, I haven't succeeded. I do know that seeing Egypt's incomparable antiquities was worth the jet-lag misery. And at the end of the travel day, that's all that matters.

Egypt: Parking and Pollution

The automotive age challenges the land of the pharohs , the pyramids and the Nile

Cairo and Alexandria weren't built for vehicles. There's no room for them on ancient city streets. The highways and arterials are chronically congested. And when drivers want to park, there's no place for them all. As in the fast-sprawling cities of all developing countries, vehicles have become a necessity. Cairo has a two-line subway system, but average people ride buses and vans that spider out to place beyond the subway's reach. I haven't seen one that wasn't jammed. Passengers cram in -- all but sitting on the drivers' laps. Those who can afford to do so take taxis. The one I took last night from the Khan al-Khalili market area to the hotel had no shocks and, how shall I put it?, a well-broken-in back seat. I don't want to think about what came out of the exhaust pipe. And people who can really afford it have private cars.

Add to the traffid the steady flow of pedestrians who dart among vehicles at whim making moves that would probably get them run over in most countries, and in the middle of the mix, in some neighborhoods, are donkey carts, market stalls set up in the street and the ubiquitous roadside tire changers and car repairs . Traffic jams are traffic jams, but I can't resist sharing a few images of creative parking as practiced in Cairo and Alexandria, Egypt's two largest cities, that give eloquent testimony to the country's vehicular woes.

Parking Practices

Drivers park their cars bumper to bumper, up on the sidewalk, out in the street, wherever -- both a symptom of too many cars and a contributor to congestion.

Sharing the Road

As a bonus, I present the image below. Note that the cart is going against the traffic on a divided roadway:

Further Fall-Out: Bad Air

Wicked pollution (below), which harms health and damages buildings. This morning, the pollution layer is clearly visible from my 17th floor hotel room. I can enjoy the antiquities and ambiance of contemporary and traditional Egypt, and then leave. Millions of people must endure the air that is making my eyes sting and my throat hurt. A very sad byproduct of modern times.

Mega-Resorts on Egypt's North Coast. Who Knew?

Mansour Amer's AMER Group properties are huge -- and hugely popular

January and February are way low season on Egypt's North Coast, about a 110-mile-long strip between Alexandria on the east and El-Alamein on the west that is breaking out in resorts the way a kid with chicken pox develops spots. Even though people who live in snow country find days to be mild and sunny, this long resort strip is eerily empty right now. Not so, I am told, between June and August when the area's 100-degree heat and Mediterrranean breezes are a welcome relief for the truly heat-plagued citizens of Cairo (population 18+ million) and Alexandria (7 million in winter) come to cool off.

Of the dozens of resort developments, those in AMER Group's portfolio are the most impressive and aggressive. Mansour Abd El-Meguid Amer is CEO of the AMER Group, and when I look at the ambitious scale of his projects, I am persuaded that he is a direct descendant of Egypt's pyramid builders. AMER Group says that it specializes in "high-speed development." I'll say.

Golf Porto Marina

Under construction now is Golf Porto Marina (below). The first 6,000 of a projected 18,000 units are to be handed over to owners before the summer 2009 peak season kicks in. The 18-hole golf course designed by Raymond Hearn has been sodded and is a green space in the desert. Likewise, the swimming pools, Egypt's first dancing fountain and the gold course's water hazards water are wet spots in the desert. In addition to the condo units, a 300-room hotel should be open by next year, and additionally in the works are a huge aqua park, an "Olympic Sports Village" (does the IOC know about this?) and a California State University campus. What? Our Cal State?!?!?!?!


Porto Marina

If I just read this and weren't experiencing it at Porto Marina (upper photo below), the company's North Coast flagship, I wouldn't believe it. I'm staying in one of the 380 hotel rooms set among buildings with thousands of condo units, I might think this was an impossible Brobdinagian, Las Vegas without gambling, booze or broads fantasy. But it's no fantasy at all. It's a clean-cut, family-oriented resort development where swim-up bars serve nothing stronger than fruit smoothies, and women at "mixed" (i.e., co-ed) beaches and pools must covered in burkinis. There are separate, secluded, guarded ones for women who want to wear revealing swimwear.

In addition to the hotel, the property has hundreds (maybe thousands) of apartments and villas, a bunch of swimming pools (including a kiddie pool with several levels of water slides, middle photo) a 500-slip marina, conference facilities, shopping mall with name-brand retrailers and restaurants, and spa. It also has a Venetian-inspired "Grand Canal" (bottom photo). Because hardly anyone is here right now, the gondolas are beached. I kid you not.

BTW, these are just two of many AMER Group's projects.

Egypt: On the Road

Views along the coastal road linking Cairo and Alexandria

I have no delusions that a tour bus ride on the 130 or so miles between Egypt's two largest city provides great insights, but it does offer snippets of life along Egypt's north coast. Here are some random images:

Just getting out of Cairo (population about 18 million and growing fast) takes some time -- little wonder with crowded roads (below):

In a country fabled for antiquity, the capital is growing, growing and growing, as evidenced by the buildings under construction in the distant outskirts (below), some legally built and others illegally erected on designated agricultural land:

Surprisingly mixed in among the buildings are farm fields (below) that are still being worked by hand:

As our bus passed a moving open-bed truck, I was able to snap this picture of a barefoot man (below) squatting atop a load of bundled brochures. A guy doesn't need a seatbelt when he's not on a seat:

Fanciful Euro-Ottoman-inspired wedding cake building (below) on the outskirts of Cairo:

Large and small mosques dot the route. All are topped with a dome, and some (like the one below) have one minaret, others two, occasionally three:

Housing construction is making a sprawling city even 'sprawlinger" -- and Western-style real estate sales are taking hold (three images below):

The farther we rolled on from Cairo, the more pick-up trucks we saw (two images below) -- loaded with cargo, fruit, people, whatever. I saw one with washing machine, one with a cow and a calf, and one with a motorcycle. Chevrolet trucks are surprisingly common, even though Toyotas, Hyundais and Hondas seem to prevail in the car category:

The round-topped towers below are not Angkor Wat wannabes but pigeon houses:

At the Master rest stop (below)...

...there stilll is service, includng hand car wash (below):

There's a lot of roadside junk (below): crumbling buildings, broken-down cars, small businesses, stacks of tires and litter, lots of litter:

The eastern reaches of Alexandria display that city's first fanciful buildings, like the one below signal the approach into Egypt's second (and most European) city:

Cairo: Traffic Impressions

Cairo though the windshield: Seeing the largest city in the Middle East the way most tourist don't

When my friend Katy learned that I was coming to Egypt, she told me that her sister Louise, brother-in-law Brian and two neices are living here and put us in touch. E-mail is a wondrous thing. I wrote to Louise, who replied quickly and invited me over for dinner this evening (Friday) and sent a driver to pick me up at my hotel just six hours after I arrived. What a wonderful chance to meet some worldly expats. Ibrahim, a Filipino and therefore also an expat, picked me up and drove me to the Maadi area. We drove many miles outward from the city center, which took about an hour and gave me a chance to see the non-touristic side of Cairo. En route in whatever direction we were heading (Ibrahim didn't know), I noticed:

• Streetlights are yellow-ish rather than glaring white. Advertising signs are affixed partway up the lampposts on arterials in residential areas. Coupled with wicked, visible air pollution, the impression is a gray-yellow gloom. Stores are illuminated with glaring fluorescents that are far brighter than the streetlights.


• Very few traffic lights and even fewer traffic cops -- and then only at a few major intersections. Drivers don't pay strict attention to either.


• Vehicle lights are random. Drivers might use headlights (one sometimes broken), parking lights or no lights at all.


• Replacing some red tail lights and/or white parking lights with blue lights is a favorite example of automotive decoration. Really tricked-out cars have additional trim of alternating red and blue lights on the sides.


• The vast majority of cars have something dangling from the rearview mirror.


• On major arterials, four lanes of traffic where there should be three -- if lines have been painted at all. Also if there are actual lines, straddling one rather than driving between two is common, Motorscooters are a bonus. Helmets? What helmets?


• Broken-down cars are common in the right lane -- and occasionally even the left lane. Some are abadoned where they died; others have their hoods up and the driver and perhaps onlookers staring balefully at the engine.


• The farther from the airport or the city center, the more signs are only in Arabic.


• Instead of traffic circles or left turn lanes on divided roads, drivers make U-turns from the left lane. This creates sudden traffic jams when drivers in the two left lanes wait for the smallest break in oncoming traffic.


• Double and triple parking is the rule. Add cars stacked up for a left turn to the parked cars, and four lanes quickly neck down to two.


• Obeying one-way signs seems to be at the drivers' discretion.


• Whether the traffic is moving or inching along, drivers perform astonishing lane-changing feats.


• Horns are used as alerts ("I'm about to cut you off"), as explanations ("I just cut you off because I could") or automotive conversation ("Same to you, buster!")


• There are no crosswalks (though in fairness, people wouldn't pay attention anyway). Pedestrians cross where ever they wish and pose an extra challenge, especially when said pedestrians are fully veiled women in head-to-toe black who are camouflaged in the dark night.

I saw signs for rental-car agencies. Would I ever? Not on your life.

Cairo: Airport Impressions

You can't tell a book by it's cover, but I'm not sure whether or not there's a corollary about countries and their gateway airports, but here's my first impression of Egypt. Cairo International Airport (CAI) not only serves Egypt's capital and largest city but is also at the crossroads where the influences of the Gulf States, Africa and Europe meet. Terminal 1 has recently been renovated, Terminal 2 redevelopment has "been initiated" and a new Terminal 3 is "under construction and scheduled to open soon."

If you arrive without a visa, as many/most foreign tourists do, don't go straight to passport control. Go to the bank, where $15 will buy you a Monopoly money-size visa that will be pasted into your passport and decorated with an impressive official stamp. Also, don't expect anyone to take the entry or customs declaration forms that you filled out.

My initial impression therefore is of a bureaucratic country with systems that are not necessarily intuitive or logical to the outsider.