Back to Cairo
After a short flight (about an hour) from Sharm el-Sheikh, we find ourselves back in Cairo. We have a really early (5:30am) flight back to Redmond in a couple of days so are staying in Heliopolis, which is much closer to the airport. It is a bit more higher end of an area (as higher end goes in Egypt), and is where many of the embassies and the presidential palace are. We don’t really have anything pressing on our list, so figure we can use this last little bit of time to try and find a few more things to bring back with us, including some cotton things like towels and such (what better place for Egyptian Cotton than Egypt goes the thinking). Other than a handful of souvenirs, we really haven’t found much to buy here (which is good both on the pocketbook and on my back, as my pack is still fairly light), leaving a bit of room yet in the budget.
Ever up for a challenge, Ang quickly rings the till in one of the shops in the hotel lobby, buying silver cartouche bracelets for the boys with their names in hieroglyphics. That’s just a warm up though, as the real target is an area of downtown where we’re told we can find good cotton. We figure we’ll just take a cab to the subway, but the doorman puts the hard sell on taking the cab all the way downtown and we finally relent. We find out later that cabs picking up at the hotels have to kick back 10% of the fare to the hotel staff, which certainly explains why getting somewhere from the hotel is always more expensive than getting back. On the upside, we end up with a hilarious driver, who ends up being out entertainment for most of the day.
Omar drives one of the typical beat up old Fiat cabs, this one about 31 years old. He calls it his Jaguar, and on the way downtown points out some of the buildings we pass like the presidential palace (where his cousin Hosni lives), the soccer stadium (where his cousin Mohamed Zidan plays) and the local Jaguar dealer, where he gets his car serviced. His English is quite good and he seems to have a fair amount of information on the history of Cairo, so sign him up to be our driver for the rest of the day, and to mix in a bit of sightseeing with our shopping.
The latter ends up being a bust, as when we say “we don’t want to go to the places the tourists go and get ripped off so take us to the places locals buy their cotton goods”, this translates to “we’re looking for dirt cheap stuff, so take us to the Egyptian equivalent of Wal-Mart.” We take a look to be polite, but its not really what we’re after so return to the car empty handed. A shopping district downtown is a bit better, but still off the mark (although we find some fantastic ice cream which makes up for it, at least for me).
On the sightseeing front, we spend some time in the Coptic area of Cairo, which is one of the oldest parts of the city and where many of the religions that came with various conquerors of Egypt co-exist. In the span of a few blocks, there are Christian churches, synagogues, and mosques, each hundreds of years old. The churches are the most interesting in terms of decoration (they are filled with artwork and stained glass), but the highlight is mosque, where Ang has to put on a fetching green loaner outfit to get through the door.
All this pales however to just sitting in the backseat of the Jaguar listening to Omar. Between destinations he tells us some of his philosophies on marriage: “all women in Egypt are fat, or waiting to be fat when they get married”; tourism: “Sharm el-Sheik is where the women who are 50 and 60 come from Europe to have the sex with the young Egyptian man who doesn’t care that they are old and fat”; and romance: “I buy my girlfriend presents from this store because the cost is low, but I will take them out of this bag and put them in one from a nicer shop before I give to her.” We also learn from him things that interest us like how their religion works, how difficult it is for Egyptians to leave the country, and how strongly the system in Egypt favors the wealthy.
As an example of the latter, he breaks down for us how his job works. For the full day he drives us around, we agree on a price of 300 Egyptian Pounds. From that, he has to pay the hotel 10% as their kickback. He then needs to pay the owner of the beaten up old Fiat 75% of what is left (the owner provides the car, maintenance and gas), making his gross about 68 Egyptian Pounds. From that, he also needs to pay the bribes to the police officers to not give him a ticket while we waits for us to go into stores and churches. At the end of it all, he finishes up with around 50 Egyptian Pounds, or roughly $9 for the effort, while the rest goes out the door as payoffs.
Our last stop with Omar is a restaurant for one final shawarma and one final falafel. Back at the hotel, we take time out for a drink, before packing up and turning in. Our wake up call is set for 2:15am, and shortly after, for us, Egypt will be just the memories.