0W1D Cairo on Speed

Back to passports – sometimes I take for granted how lucky I am to have an American passport which allows me to easily get into most countries. To get a visa, all I had to do as soon as I got off the plane was hand a custom official 15USD to get a sticker on my passport. This allows me to be in Egypt for a month. And apparently getting an extension is even easier, which is what I plan to do.

My first day in Cairo was experienced in such a way that it was like trying to watch a 6 hour movie in 20 minutes. I also absorbed and learned more about this culture and the Arab world in the past 24 hours than I have in my whole life.

I arrived into Cairo at 3am (2 hours late – it seems as if time is of no issue here). As I mentioned in my email, I arrived to an Egyptian friend waiting patiently for me to arrive. I was dropped off at the place I am staying and quickly went to bed. I woke up to the call to prayer at 5am…and was immediately reminded that I was in Cairo. What a beautiful soothing sound… which also put me back to sleep because it was so soothing.

When I woke up the next day, II told myself that I would stay in and rest… but if you know me well enough that is not possible : )….So I ended up at Khan Al Khalili (market) with Julihana, a Brazilian girl who has been traveling throughout the Middle East for 9 months – who seemed to be the queen of bargaining.

Take below conversation for example (all numbers are Egyptian pounds):

Juliahana (trying to bargain for a sheesha set): How much?

Seller: I give you good price, tell me how much.

J: You tell me a good price and maybe I will buy it – it is a nice sheesha, very pretty.

S: How much do you want it for?

J: Do you have a metal box for it so when I take it home it will not break?

S: Yes, metal box is 280

J: 280, no way, 80

*S: No, no do you want to make me lose money? I cannot do that, I will lose money. No no I will

give it to you for 270

*J: No, 80, I only want it for 80 it’s nice but you have to give me a good price too

*S: (with a frustrated face) I cannot do that, I will lose money. No no I will give it to you for 270

*repeat about 12 more times each time seller deducts 10 while Julihana raises to 125

J: But I’m from Brazil, I have no money, this is all I have, you give me a good price

*S: (still with a frustrated face) No, no, give me a good price

*repeat 10 more times

S: (big sigh) Okay, but only for you because I like you.

J: Thank you! (big smile)

S: (speaks in Arabic to other seller while wrapping up sheesha in metal box)

As we walk out the other seller turns to us and says:

Other seller: Very clever girl.

Moral of the story? You can bargain everything. It is all a game and you each start at the other end and meet somewhere in the middle. We later found that what she brought is usually sold to Egyptians for around 40 Egyptian pounds, and to a foreigner the lowest that our host has seen it sold is 100 Egyptian pounds.

We proceeded to go home, but of course not before getting lost, being verbally hassled by Egyptian men, me trying to speak Arabic to find our way home...Julihana and I finally made it home to Dokki to have dinner and then went to meet some of her friends on the Nile river for some tea around 10pm. This is where I learned that Cairo is a 24 hour city. By the time I made it home, it was 4am.

The character of the city is also a little different because of Ramadan. During Ramadan, Muslims fast from 4am until sunset. When the sun sets, they can eat their if tar aka breakfast. During if tar the streets are quite quiet. But as 8 or 9 comes around, shops are open once again, people and cars crowd the streets without regard for traffic lights, speeding cars, jay walking pedestrians… actually there is disregard all the time…no driving rules, red lights means go, green light means go faster.

Fast forward a few hours – we are still walking through Islamic Cairo, where Julihana’s friend Ahmed gives me a history of Islamic religion, the Koran, Mecca and the Medina (second holiest city in Saudi Arabia). We sit in a square in front of a mosque in Islamic Cairo and have some tea. There are so many people out, including children (it is 4am by now) just sitting, chatting, having tea. I am lucky to have someone to show me this side of the culture – if I was by myself I would not have been walking out this late. In a somewhat ironic way, it is quite refreshing to see this gritty crowded in your face interaction.

I was constantly comparing this huge gathering of people and 24 hour culture to my time in Korea – where 24 hour culture meant drinking, eating, partying, and being out with your friends. Here that culture does not involve alcohol (never have a seen such a large gathering of people out at night without alcohol or dancing), and does not involve overindulgence. There were a lot of families out with children and babies! The Egyptians are very welcoming and really listen to every word you say - I could almost say I feel close to “home”.

It seems as if there are two extremes – on the one hand you hear stories of women getting verbally hassled and tourists being hounded by shop keepers, but on the other hand Egpytians are VERY welcoming and open to showing you around as if you had been their friend forever.

I think I might start reading the English version of the Koran to get a better understanding of how the culture thinks here and how that might be reflected in the architecture. I have seen so many different styles here already that it has been quite difficult to keep track of…Italian, French, English, Islamic, Orthodox, Egyptian…etc and I’m sure I will be seeing Heliopolis style when I go to celebrate Eid with a family this weekend.

Fun fact: According to Lonely Planet, a published survey says that the highest rate of depression in 2000 in Egypt was among architects.