Postcard from Eqypt: Cairo, November 3rd

It’s our first day of sightseeing, and the first stop is the Egyptian Museum.  It opened in 1901, and it feels as though not much has changed in how things are displayed since then.  Lots of wood and glass cabinets with typewritten cards identifying the objects, and priceless 3000 year-old sarcophagi just sitting on a platform somewhere.  It adds something appropriate, however, to the experience of the antiquities – something Indiana Jones-like.

1. 

Interior of the Egyptian Museum

The Tutankhamun artifacts are spectacular.  And seeing his funeral mask up close is like seeing the Mona Lisa in the Louvre or the statue of David in Florence – it’s such an iconic image already burned into your psyche with all sorts of associations, that you feel a deep connection to it and a fascination with it.  I looked at it from every angle for a very long time.

Almost as compelling an attraction for our group, is the former National Democratic Party headquarters building – that of Hosni Mubarak’s party – just behind the museum, which was set on fire by protesters during the recent revolution.  Its burned-out hulk adds some sobering realism to the romance of the revolution.

National Democratic Party Headquarters, just off Tahrir Square

Our second stop is the 14th-century Citadel of Salah Al-Din with the 19th-century mosque added by Mameluke ruler, Muhammad Ali.  It’s a lovely Turkish-style building, but the real charmer is the lighting inside the prayer hall.

Interior of Muhammad Ali's Alabaster Mosque

We have lunch in the Khan El Khalini market, an oppressive gauntlet of cheap souvenir hawkers, but it’s nothing a cappuccino at the Shaik Shaban Café can’t assuage.

View from the Shaik Shaban Cafe

In the evening, we take in the sound and light show at the Pyramids of Giza, which we’ll visit tomorrow.  A mangy dog wanders in the sand in the foreground, and when the music swells at a momentous, triumphal moment in the story, he howls – almost on cue – like a cartoon cliché of a howling dog.  As were leaving, he prowls among us, and I congratulate him on his performance.  He looks up at me, as if to say, “Why, Thank You.”

Postcard from Egypt: Cairo, October 31st

I’ve arrived in Egypt two days in advance of the official start of the Toto Tours “River of the Pharaohs” Tour, which I’m hosting.  Over the next two days, 16 others will arrive and we’ll start our Egyptian adventure together.

I have an 11-1/2 hour, overnight flight from New York to Amman, Jordan on Royal Jordanian Airlines, and then 4 hours layover in Queen Alia International Airport.  My only other experience of the Arab world is Dubai, which is flooded with Western ex-pats.  Here, I’m definitely one of the few.  I see a greater variety of robed men and veiled women than I ever saw in Dubai.  Including six or eight men with a sort of white sarong wrapped and belted around their waist, wearing sandals.  They’re shirtless, with just a matching white shawl draped around their arms and shoulders.  They’re constantly adjusting these shawls, momentarily baring their torsos.  And they all have wristwatches and cellphones.  I assume they’re some particular local tribe; but they seem utterly incongruous in the business-class lounge.  It’s almost comical, as though they’re on their way to a convention of John the Baptist impersonators.

It’s just over an hour from Amman to Cairo.  As I step off the shuttlebus from the airplane to the terminal, I’m met by Rafik from the tour company, who whisks me through the visa process, immigration and customs.  We gather my luggage and meet Ahmed, our tour guide.  He’s insanely charming and tells me he will be the group’s shadow everywhere we go, except one place.  “Where’s that?” I ask.  “The toilet,” he says, “you’re on your own there.”

They check me into my hotel, the Ramses Hilton on Tahrir Square.  In my room, I step out on the balcony, which overlooks the Nile.  There’s a cacophony of car horns and people shouting and laughing – but I don’t think it’s anything to do with protests: just another night in the heart of this city of almost 20 million residents and commuters with the second- highest population density in the world.

The Nile at night from my balcony