Yet Another Trip: this time to Egypt

We recently returned from a two week holiday in Egypt (which we had planned long before the Arab Spring and all the calamitous events taking place all across the Middle East. We took this trip in spite of almost everybody we know asking us if we had lost our minds). Actually we watched Khadafi meet his end on CNN while in Cairo, which, in a way, was quite surreal, since Libya was right next door. The tourist trade, the number one industry there, is down almost 70% and the effects are horrendous. The restaurants, museums, cafes, and shops are empty. We had the Pyramids almost to ourselves, and even the camels (there for tourist rides) seemed bored to tears with nothing to do. When we were there during the last two weeks of October, we at all times felt quite safe, moving about freely, and it was our hope that the tourist trade would recover soon. Now only a few weeks later, the protests and violence have re-emerged to an alarming degree, and sadly, the prospect of peace and recovery seems far into the future. It appears we were lucky in our timing.


Top to bottom: a bored camel; street wares on display - spices,

fruits, goats (adjacent to butcher store); pita bakers,

pita delivery man; whirling dervish; Irwin bargains

for roses with street vendors.



Our experience was brilliant. We were a very small group of six and an Egyptologist (along with an armed guard!) and we visited Cairo and, during a Nile cruise, we stopped in Abu Simbel, Aswan, Esna, Luxor, and Dendera. Egypt’s history transcends thousands of years and the antiquities we saw were exquisite and awe-inspiring. However, there are so very many gods, goddesses, kings, pharaohs, dynasties, and myths to learn about in just a few days, that our Egyptologist, Azza, would question us and lament that we scored “zero minus”! Actually, Irwin knows his history, but he suggested that we were all experts of the “Moronic Period” and we all readily agreed. We were a great group.

We started out in Cairo for a few days. We arrived a day early, as is our practice, so we could spend some time touring the city with an eye towards seeing as much as we could about our favorite subject: the food. We hired Azza as our private guide that first day and we visited a small and ancient bakery with ovens even blacker than in the cashew factory in India, saw a typical local supermarket, and walked through a vast souk where the locals did most of their daily shopping. In Cairo, almost all of the food is displayed right on the sidewalks; neat piles, gorgeous fruit and vegetables (especially the tomatoes which taste like pure sugar), along with the spices, the fish, and the meat (no refrigeration whatsoever). Wherever we looked there was food being displayed, all over the city, everyplace. There were small herds of sheep near each butcher shop, with hanging meat up front; tomorrow’s dinner for sure. We saw very few European-style bakeries as there are in India and Vietnam, but huge trays of fresh warm pita and lavash breads were constantly being carried to various destinations all over the city.

Cairo is, by far, the dirtiest city we have ever seen during our travels. Debris is everywhere, and burned out vehicles surround the blackened hulk of Mubarak’s original political Headquarters There are no refuse pails, and we saw no evidence whatever of any sanitation pick-up system. Azza admitted it wasn’t much different even before the revolution. In some areas there were individuals with brooms doing their best to bring some order. In contrast, in India, garbage is an industry and nothing is wasted. So there are vast piles of neat garbage, with all the scraps of fabric, food, metals, and so on, sorted to be sold, or otherwise used.

Also, there are no traffic lights in Cairo and any painted traffic lines are just for decoration! It’s every man for himself, and to cross the street, we just put our hands up and plunged into the street. It was a very hectic city; we loved it!



The food is excellent everywhere we went. We had two memorable typical Egyptian meals while in Cairo. One was at a restaurant named Abou el Cid, an atmospheric and elegant place where there was a hookah at every table, all low to the ground with couches for seating. They offered a specialty called haman, rice-stuffed whole pigeon, but I opted for the grilled quail instead, and we shared many other typical Egyptian dishes that the waiter suggested, and tons of the ubiquitous hot fresh pita bread. Another typical local meal we had was at a famous place called Andrea, where they have their own pita oven and bring out fresh hot ones every few minutes. Their specialties are spit-roasted chicken and a myriad of Middle Eastern salads and hors d’oeuvres. They showered us with so much food, which we shared with a thousand flies since this was an outdoor patio; local color which we managed to survive.

The rest of Egypt that we visited was, by contrast, quite beautiful; pristine, orderly, and lush.

From the top: Sugar cane growing

along the banks of the Nile;

a giant vase with the iconic

"evil eye" greets visitors to

Esna; the scene of a car accident

in Cairo; a bakery in the city.



Our cruise ship was a luxurious yacht with accommodations for 36, but there were only the six of us plus one British couple-- eight of us and a staff of 45 (down from 58); another amazing experience, but, sadly, frustrating and upsetting for the crew. Professional to the core, they never showed it.

I toured the kitchen and the chef did a cooking demonstration for the few of us; I noticed during the tour that the double convection oven (a major space saver) was the exact one that I had in my garage when I started out almost 40 years ago. A newer model, of course, but the same, nevertheless… It made me smile.

The best word I can use to describe the Nile is unbelievably lush, verdant on both sides for at least ten miles; sugar cane, corn, many other crops and vegetables as far as the eye could see. And each site, such as the Valley of the Kings, was more awe-inspiring than the prior one. A feast for the eyes!

Back in Cairo we did a lot of walking through the ancient thoroughfares of the old city, toured the Coptic (Christian) areas with their own beautiful architecture, visited the famous Ben Ezra synagogue, wandered around in the Khan El-Kahlili market, Cairo’s vast street market, with both its tourist traps as well as aromatic spice shops and food stalls where all the locals shop daily.

For us, nothing is more intrinsic to anyplace we have ever traveled than its food, conveying its true essence. But in Egypt, the antiquities may have surpassed anything else.

 

 
Until next time...make someone happy —serve them dessert!

http://www.loveandquiches.com/