Cairo time!

I arrived in Cairo on Monday, and words cannot describe the cacophony of sights and sounds that I have experienced in this city.

I had the craziest 5 days of my life, starting with where I'm living.

1) My new home

The local AIESECer has arranged for me to stay at an apartment in Dokki. I was initially surprised to find soldiers with rifles patrolling my street. But the enhanced security made sense when I realized that my apartment building is right beside the Syrian Embassy and a huge-ass palace that belongs to some important Egyptian. Have yet to investigate this palace.

I had to be stealth when I took this picture, because people aren't supposed to take pictures of the soldiers.

This is the palace, taken from my balcony. You can barely see it behind all the trees.

2) Animals

Homeless cats are everywhere. I was surprised to find a cat in front of my door one day, meowing for food. There are also quite a few homeless dogs too, though they don't look as friendly or cute (maybe they're rabid?) as the cats.

Cars have to share roads with donkeys, horses, and camels. I'm surprised that I haven't seen road-kill in Cairo yet...

Typical road in Cairo.

3) Cars

Hands down to Cairo's drivers. They know how to navigate non-existent lanes (seriously...there is no concept of traffic lanes in Cairo) and dodge other cars at breakneck speed. And they don't use headlights at night either, except to signal to other cars when they want to pass them.

I'm glad I'm still alive after having had 5 car rides, with one being 12-hours long.

4) Pedestrians

There is no such thing as sidewalks or crosswalks for pedestrians. I don't even know if the term "pedestrian" exists in the Cairo city planner's vocabulary, because they obviously didn't plan for people to walk around the city!

Basically this forces everyone to be a jay-walker.

5) Public transportation

I go to work using the Metro. It totally reminds me of Hong Kong. Commuters are packed sardines, except with no AC which makes for a very stifling and sweaty experience. You feel marinated in sweat by the time you get out of the train. But I'm glad for one thing: the train always has a couple of sections reserved for women. A male Egyptian friend told me that he was caught in the women's section one time (for a legit reason) and was fined 100 Egyptian pounds for his infraction. They take gender segregation seriously here.


6) Being stared at

Totally not creeped out by both men and women who stare at me wherever I go, from the Metro all the way to the Syrian soldiers outside my house. So I have toned down my dress code from grab-the-nearest-shirt-and-shorts to dressing super modest. By modest I mean no showing skin, even your arms.

Okay...so I broke that rule a couple of times (it's freakin 40 degreees here in Cairo!). But I guess it wouldn't really matter because people are still going to stare at me for being Asian. I can kind of understand their curiosity. I haven't seen a single Asian since Monday, which is making me have these Asian withdrawal symptoms, like sudden cravings for kimchi ramen or sushi. WHERE ARE ALL MY AZN FRDS?!


7) Touristy things

I was able to watch the stars and bask in the glory of the Pyramids of Giza at night till morn. It was quite an experience, thanks to my roommate who knew a friend who knew somebody who owned this rooftop that I got to spend the night on (I slept on that roof staring at pyramids my 2nd night in Cairo). I caught a fever the day after.

Nonetheless, I was a trooper and I battled it out by sleeping 14 hours straight (Maas is right...sleep does miracles). The following day, I went on a road trip to Saint Katherine, where Mount Sinai is located (remember Moses and his 10 Commandments?) . We got to Saint Katherine after a harrowing 6-hour drive through highways that were not lit (it was really scary...I felt like we were going to drive off the road any minute).

We arrived at the bottom of Mount Sinai at around midnight. A young lad by the name of Jimmy was our personal guide for going up the mountain. On the way up, we saw Australians, Russians, nuns from the local monastery, and a whole slew of other religious climbers and local Bedouins and their camels. We reached the top of Mount Sinai after 4 hours of climbing in the dark.

The whole experience was worth it. I saw the Milky Way for the first time, and made a wish to a shooting star. I saw the sunrise from the summit, which was an absolutely amazing scene.

View from the top of Mount Sinai.

On the way down from the summit.

Me chilling on the rooftop with pyramids behind me.

I will have better resolution pictures uploaded to Facebook as soon as I find internet that takes less than an hour to upload one picture.

That's it for now! I'll be going to Alexandria sometime next week, along with Saint Paul's monastery by the Red Sea.

XOXO,
Esther