there's no Phad Thai in Egypt

Not every country plops you down in the sand on a beach with a cold beer, a plate of spicy food, and an attractive Asian woman offering a message…I guess if you limit yourself to those places, you’d never get to Egypt…

pyramids and ponies

First, a few notes from the 24 hour journey to get here.
Vancouver airport looks brand new – just in time for the Olympics. Really nice, but it seems to be set up to handle about 2 dozen passengers at a time. Could find its limits…Air Canada new Airbus 330s are fantastic! Air Canada lounges are very nice too. Good food and beverage selection, though I’ve found I actually sleep better on long flights w/o the booze.

Arrived in Cairo 15 minutes late – not bad for a 24 hour journey. I kind of anticipated my bag getting lost (which it did), so I went through the process (baggage style #22 – soft upright with wheels – remember that) and headed to my hotel. Got a call on the way from the hotel manager that there was a “problem” with my room, so he booked me into another hotel for the night. No big deal ,and I was glad to have him taking care of things for me. Slept for the next 10 hours anyway, so it made no difference.

Cairo skyline from the Citadel

Cairo is an interesting city – a blend of expectations formed from my trips to Istanbul and Chennai, my impressions from reading my travel guides, and my experience shooting Nazis in Egyptian cities in Call of Duty 2 (can picture myself jumping from rooftop to rooftop)…It’s not as chaotic as India, not as pushy as Istanbul…dirty and all one color (tan/dirt) with a combination of European metropolitan, Islamic beauty & fuddy duddyness, pollution and garbage that are hard to ignore, and a mixture of ancient identity and branding with modern 2nd world buzz. They like Obama and hate Bush, and I’ve already been told that “American people are good, just not your government” by a couple of people.

Egyptian Museum in Cairo

I had planned a day of transition – just relaxing and wandering the city. Instead, I found myself wandering into the Egypt Museum – something that I had planned to save for later. But there I was in front of it, and what I’m finding is that momentum here matters, and if you find yourself in a line, that’s probably where you’re going…The museum artifacts are (as expected) magnificent. After many offers from “Egyptian archeologist” guides, I managed to wind my way on my own through the two floors and many wings of statues, sarcophagi, jewelry and death masks…The Tutankhamen pieces were definitely the highlight. The death mask that’s become iconic for Egypt is amazing, as are the three layers of sarcophagi that interned him like Russian stacking dolls (or whatever you call them). I get excited finding a dollar on the ground. I can’t imagine what it would be like to find this kind of stuff buried for a few thousand years.

chubby Egyptians

A few things I’ve noticed:
• There’s a definite “teen scene” in the streets and people 13-early 20 something seem to be everywhere with few small kids or elderly in the mix.
• 50% of girls over 12 are “chubby” with a good 25% being “really chubby”. Fat seems to be the fashion for most older women and many of the men.
• Guys dress much more stylishly than girls with their knock off jeans and jackets. Girls with their head scarves, knit dresses or polyester housecoats over full length knit shirts look like they’ve been dressed by the Islamic version of K-Mart circa 1970. Bloody awful. I don’t even want to know how the ones that do the full head-to-toe veil (eyes only) hook up – though they seem to.