Nov/090
Egypt
Coming from India Egypt felt like a first world future city where everything is immaculate and civilized... where you can get a diet coke that tastes like diet coke and doesn't make you sick, where you can get food that doesn't make you sick, where the air doesn't make you sick, and they actually pick up the garbage. I had really gotten used to pollution being everywhere in every part of life... and Cairo felt like a safe haven from the all of stomach aches and pneumonia that went away almost instantly when I landed.
As we began our descent over Sinai, I saw how much desert this place is... endless sand, with nothing else. Egypt is really just a strip of civilization running up the nile, largey empty, but inhabiting 80 million people. This was my first time in an Arab, Muslim country, and touching down on the Egyptian tarmac I was sweating - wondering if I wouldbe searched for having an American passport, what if they demanded my itinerary and saw my next flight is from Tel Aviv?
Customs ended up not to be a problem, although it was highly unorganized. You have to buy your visa from a bank in the airport, and there are no signs to tell you this. I wanted in line four times before I figured it out, as the only instructions given were a grunt and a point to away from customs. Immediately the people at the car service station were curious if I liked George Bush or Obama better. Obama seemed to be the better choice but they said they were ok with Bush too. Strange.
The streets are some of the most fascinating Ive seen - rural and urban worlds coexisting... goats passing by electronics stores, a ritz carlton next to open air meat markets. Life here is lived on the street, people are out, drinking coffee, smoking sheesha... and after walking for a few hours you could feel the heart of these folks... a passionate welcoming and curious people... and for the first time I could feel the heart of the muslim people... and it was a vibe that I felt much more at home in than ANY asian country I visited. There was a authenticity and a vigor that was familiar to the streets of New York.
I got the the hostel - an eight story elevator ride to a roof with bungalows on the top, and the first guy I met was a photographer - Dan Seltzer from Tel Aviv. One brave dude - who never hesitated to tell the locals where he was from. In the few weeks he was in Cairo he seemed to carve out a lot of relationships with the locals, from the barber on the corner and the street food vendors people knew him, knew who he was, and seemed curious about him. I watched one man who worked at the hostel ask him if he was from Iran, and Dan told him he was from Tel Aviv - and the reaction was of pure shock, mouth open. Dan told me that he could be in potential danger just being who he is in Egypt... which was no joke. I never did ask him why he wanted to tell everyone where he was from... but you cant help to think that Egyptians meeting a single smiling Israeli photographer in their home town eating the local food and being at ease makes a big difference in how these folks see Jewish people.
At the end of my journey I went to see the Pyramids. After taking 3 local busses that cost 10 cents in the wrong direction I found the place. The site is surprisingly butted up against the city, walled off with the desert behind it. When I was the pyramids as a little kid in school I figured the pyramids were far off in the desert - not on the side of an urban town. I was warned that the hustle would be worse here in Giza that almost anywhere in the world. Which wasn’t the case. People left you alone once you told them no thanks, but they there are dozens of people who downright lie to you... that the site is closed, that you need a camel to get in, that you have to get a government license to camp to go in.. wacky stuff. The sphinx at first glance was really small, and the pyramids were big, but i guess I expected them to rival the size of a skyscraper... I met a couple of Arab dudes who I drank coffee with near by who invited me to their roof to watch the light show where they project lazers with images illustrating the history of the pyramids in Japanese. The guys then took us to a perfume store... it was half hustle half genuine friendship... all kind of uneasy.
Overall the experience was great... to see the images that decorated your kindergarten classroom in real life. The pyramids were cool... and watching the folks around the pyramids I realized how many egyptians were cast for Stargate. When I first saw Stargate I just thought they cast people who looked ind of like space aliens... but the milky skin dark hair and eyes in an egyptian thing... and I’ve never seen any group look quite like it... and growing up in queens thats saying something!
Beyond the streets and the pyramids the best thing in Egypt was the food. For a couple bucks you would get a multiple course street meal - foul, some kind of friend foul that is crunchier than falaffel but similar, called felfela... greens, pickles, all kinds of salads. AMAZING. I already miss it. Another highlight was watching Survivor series 1994 at a sheesha bar drinking coffee... of yeah ... turkish coffee is my new fav. I do need to learn how to make it at home.
Ill write tomorrow about my time in Israel... in London now with the family. In a week ill be home.