egypt: pyramids and poverty

egypt was the most interesting place i've been to since China. it is definitely part of North Africa vs. Europe, and markedly poorer than even Turkey. sure, we saw donkey carts and goat herders in Turkey, but the standard of living there was much higher than that in alexandria, and definitely of that in giza where the roads are dirt, carcasses are floating in the irrigation canals, and a few people live in palm-leaf houses.


for this trip we opted for the cruise-led excursion. our guide, Zara (it means 'flower' in arabic), lived many years in California and was eager to prove to us that egypt is modernizing and full of culture.

• "the head scarves, they are culture, fashion; it is not a religious thing. women in egypt do not cover their faces." false. sure, most of the women use scarves as fashion accessories, but we saw a few head-to-toe pseudo burkha wearers.


• "alexandria is a cosmopolitan european city -- clean and modern." unless you consider horse carcasses clean, also false.


• "there are many religions in egypt. in one muslim tradition, if your daughter is not a virgin when she is married, the family kills her. yes, it is culture. just culture." um, that sounds like murder, not so much 'culture.' sorry, Zara, egypt has a ways to go.


• "there are no terrorists in egypt, except for in that huge prison complex where the Muslim Brotherhood members are kept." yeah, except them.

nonetheless, it was amazing seeing the pyramids -- 2500BC and absolutely amazing. come to find out, there are more than 125 pyramids in western egypt, we saw about a two dozen, give or take. surprisingly, the sphinx is teeny compared with the pyramids. the photos one sees are quite deceptive.


but the pyramids are not like going to a national monument in the U.S. imagine heading up to mount rushmore and having 6-9 twelve-year-olds hawking postcards, insistently, for a euro, add in three or four dudes on camels trying to give you a ride, or charge you a euro for even taking a photo. picture a few dozen tour buses and at least a million empty, sandy, crushed soda and water bottles. the place was a garbage dump. yes, folks, the last remaining wonder of the ancient world is home to pepsi bottle caps and camel dung. luckily we have young legs and sprinted past the melee to enjoy our 30 minutes with ancient history.

after the pyramids, we had an "interesting" egyptian lunch followed by a pharoh's tomb, a jeep ride through the dunes of the sahara, and a camel ride back to our bus. it was a long freakin' day, but worth every penny.

the next morning, we decided to venture out on our own into the port city of alexandria. as soon as we left the secure port, the egyptian cabbies swarmed us like flies on camel dung. it was insane -- about four dudes were fighting over who could take us on a 'tour' of the city, for just 10 euro! they followed us up and down the street, grabbing the arms of the guys and trying to lead us about. it was horrible. a testament to the desperation and competition for business in a country where the average male earns just $250 a month. after about 20 minutes, taking a detour through a food market (my favorite part of the day) and yelling 'no' in the faces of these guys, we were left alone, sort of.

as we walked down the street, every single horse-drawn-carriage driver would call to us, tail us if he could, yelling out the price of his one hour tour. no-no-no-no-no. thank you.

we found our way to the alexandria library -- actually a pretty cool place, the second largest biblioteca in the world after the library of congress -- where we took a little tour. as erin went in to submit some homework, i sat outside enjoying the people watching. this was a better egypt.

one woman called out "welcome to egypt!" as she passed, waving and smiling. as i stood up to take a photo of the rainbow of headscarves, a teenage girl walked right up to me and said "hello!" and then stood there awkwardly, because that was the only word she knew. i tried to pantomime that i thought her scarf was very beautiful, but i'm not sure if she got the message. "hello! thank you!" she said and re-joined her friends, again, more smiles and waves. and right before we left the library, a teenage couple sitting next to us on the bench politely shared their snack with us -- a sweet date bar. so, just like china, even though you can be appalled at the conditions, the poverty, and the insanity, the people can be warm and friendly.

it seems there were quite a few people that were truly happy to have us visiting and enjoying egypt. although, there were also quite a few that glared at us for wearing short sleeves. ying and yang i guess!

side note: we happened to stop by a hookah bar to have a couple-a egyptian beers. after casually drinking 1 liter of Sakkara, my friends somehow steered the conversation so as i accidentally blurted out the word "jihad" in the middle of the fine establishment. oops, holy crap. we split soon thereafter.