A brief excursion with the family

I have just returned from an absolutely fantastic break away from work with my spirits refreshed and my outlook on Cairo revitalised.  Ithink it was a wise person who said that laughter is the best medicine and it is safe to say that I have done a lot of that during the past 7 days.

I have come to the conclusion in my time here so far that the easiest way for me, at least, to deal with the sometimes incomparable differences between Egyptian and British life, and the inevitable culture shock that I have suffered and continue to suffer from, is to look at all the events which unfold with a good sense of humour. Nothing has allowed me to do this more than the timely arrival of my sister and her boyfriend, who both tend to see the funny side of everything and so encourage me to do the same; and hence we indulge in relentless witty banter whenever we get together.

Reunited with my sibling after a four month separation, we took to the road in a night bus almost immediately after their arrival in order to get to Sharm El Sheikh where she – a hardcore fish fan–was going to put her new diving certification to use in her first ever open water dive.

A little note here about the safety of the coach journey, as I know that there have been a number of recent and historic incidents in the local news about bus crashes and tourist deaths in the desert. In fact, even on my return from holiday today I have been informed by a colleague that local news had reported a fatal crash whilst I was away and at the same time as I was travelling; which was a little unnerving to say the least.All I can say is yes, there is a risk when travelling by bus and this can’t be escaped. I have talked about the apparent lack of road rule adherence and enforcement in Cairo in a previous blog and to be honest the same carelessness definitely seems to apply even in the tourist areas and, by comparison to the UK at least I have good reason to suspect that there is a very high accident rate on the roads. However, in the defence of the coach companies the news reports of the road accidents that have happened in recent months should be looked at in context. Dozens of coaches make their way from Cairo to Sharm(and all around the area) both night and day, on a daily basis, reinforcing the fact that you can definitely get to Cairo from Sharm in one piece!If you are a little perturbed by the thought of travelling long distance by local bus then the best way to go would be via domestic flight. These range from between 300 to 800 LE and are frequently departing from Cairo International airport.

With the coach journey survived, we took a cab to the basic yet perfectly adequate and quite pretty self-catering holiday resort called Delta Sharm. Sharm El Sheikh is quite simply a long strip of touristic resorts and beaches, broken up by expanses of desert. The area itself, the Red Sea, is most famous for its coral reef, which is quite probably being over-exploited by the tourist industry and which has almost certainly benefited from the acute lack of tourism that the area has seen in the last 12 months, due to the effects of the revolution.

Nevertheless, the Sharm coral is one of the only winners of this particular era (and Red Sea conservation is another whole topic). The unfortunate side-effect of the Egyptian Revolution is that the tourist industry in the country has plummeted and many, many people have lost their jobs and businesses in the aftermath.

When I first started my Egyptian adventure 12 months ago to the day, it was simply with a holiday with a friend to a fantastic little hotel called the Royal Albatross. At this time Egypt and its rioting was in international news almost daily and as a direct result the Red Sea area was like the Mary Celeste; totally abandoned, despite being 7 hours away from the violence and completely unaffected.

In June last year, on my second Sharm holiday, we still saw very little by way of tourism and workers seemed grateful for our custom. However, one year on and it is safe to say that small glimmers of life are beginning to reappear which is very good news for locals whose livelihoods are this industry. This time around I saw many Egyptians holidaying with us and taking advantage of the off peak season, but I also saw a  fair amount of foreigners taking their chances despite any bad press that Sinai and its surrounds has had.

I must admit even I had been having my reservations about the mini-break after hearing the news of the multiple kidnappings. However I did my research and went to a tour company owned by a friend who I trusted for adviceand to book all of the trips so we remained safe and felt very well looked after during our stay. We even ventured into the desert and into a Bedouin tent on a fantastic quad bike safari! I personally erred on the side of caution still, and opted not to bookany of the long desert trips that are on offeron the recommendation of the tour company. These trips take you to remote areas that are not as well policed,which is not really a good idea at present. In fact, even the British Embassy site itself recommends only essential travel to these parts of the country at the moment.I am sure that will change in due course.

Diving and snorkeling, beach fun and the nightlife are all still happening and we took advantage of them all! I cannot wait to take another trip in the height of the holiday season, when more people are filling the resorts and the bars and bringing the buzz back to the area.

Back in Cairo we also saw signs of tourism still happening as people from all nationalities, including Egyptians,enjoyed the famous landmarks and tourist attraction alongside us. It was a positive sign but there is still a long way to go until the industry is restored back to full health. The presidential elections are this year and so the topic of tourism will hopefully be a priority for the newly instated government. One can only hope so, as without tourism a very large chunk of Egypt’s workforce will continue to remain unemployed and spiraling into poverty. IH Cairo ILI is still working hard to send students off to experience the sights and sounds of the city and hopefully our work and the work of other companies like ours will help to slowly bring this brilliant holiday destination back to its former heyday.

The museum of Egypt

Patience is a Virtue!

Before my main blog I just want to take a minute to express my sadness at the continued clashes in Tahrir over the weekend. Although I must stress that the rest of Cairo remains peaceful, here at the college we all feel very deeply for those who have been caught up in the violence and we hope and pray that the situation stabilises again soon. 

Now, to continue

I can say with complete confidence that I have never in my life known traffic as bad as Cairo's. On Wednesday and Thursday last week the second phase of elections was held for residents of the metropolitan area of Giza, during which time my 11 Kilometre commute home from work took no less than 4 hours each night! To put it into perspective, I could have flow to England for the night and come back again the next day in the time I spent sat in the car. 

Of course, the democratic elections brought with them extenuating circumstances as people made their way to voting stations en masse and roads were closed to allow the safe transit of the voting slips. Hopefully the 4 hour commute doesn't become a regular occurrence! 

All of this mention of the traffic jams brings to the forefront of my mind one of the most irksome factors of Cairo life; the roads.  Everyone, at some point in their time here, will experience the sheer insanity of Egyptian roads. It is virtually impossible to escape it whether you are a driver, a passenger or even a pedestrian. 

Angry bellowing and unrelenting horn blowing seem to be part of the package with Cairo road travel! Where the roads are free of traffic, motorists miraculously morph into Lewis Hamilton and you have to hold on to your hats as the pedal hits the metal. There is never a mid-way point; it is always either high speeds or total gridlock. Road markings have a purely decorative purpose and seatbelts are optional, and often ignored. If there was a green cross code* for Caironean pedestrians it would have just two instructions: Number one – step off the pavement. Number two – pray. 

Nonetheless, I have come to realise that it is pointless harbouring any road-related fear or stress because if you want to get around and explore the city, taxis and tour buses are one of the only available options and one of the best. The key to overcoming any potential anxiety is to just to accept your experience of the roads as a rite of passage to surviving the city and just for goodness sake take care when out and about. When crossing the road, wherever possible, do what as one very famous travel guide suggests and buffer yourself behind some more experienced locals!

In heavy traffic, short of getting out and walking (if you know the way), there is nothing that can be done except waiting. Take a puzzle book or an ipod, and treat it like a short-haul plane flight. When sightseeing during big events in the Cairo calendar such as Eid, the trick is to be realistic with how much you plan into each day; that way you will not get disappointed if you don’t achieve everything on your ‘to do’ list. To give you an indication of time, a 20 minute journey seems to take around 40 minutes on average as you will inevitable get stuck somewhere. When the speedometer tips 100 it can be scary, but again, there is nothing to be done expect just sit back and enjoy the ride.

Small tip: As much as is possible, try and get the taxi driver to use air con when in traffic (the word in Arabic is “takif”). A lot of the vehicles here seem to be run until they fall apart; and then they are stuck back together with sticky tape and used some more! As a result, there are a lot of old engines running in this city and the fumes are unlike anything I have ever experienced. On the odd occasion when I have been too slow to shut my window, giant exhaust clouds have made their way straight into the car and onto my face. Needless to say, if you are particularly concerned by environmental issues, enough to be affected by very overt evidence of pollution, then a long-term stay in a place such as Cairo may not be the right move for you.

Egypt Time

Whether this phenomenon came around because traffic is just so appalling that people lose half their lives stuck in cars, or whether it is because most of the year it is simply too hot to do much, I am not sure. Whatever the cause, you will find that in Cairo you quickly begin to live on what I call ‘Egypt time’.  Egypt time is something that one must get used to quite quickly when dealing with Egyptian tradesmen and making appointments.  The populous generally seems to have a very laid-back attitude towards punctuality; when an Egyptian says 15 minutes they usually mean 5 hours; when they say they will ‘try and come today’ it is likely that they won’t.

In continuation, most things happen at night here. As a ‘night person’ myself, it is wonderful to be able to wander across to the supermarket to pick something up as late as 1am! Of course, the downside of this is that if you are a ‘morning person’ you may not find as much open in the small hours of the morning!

Mix Egypt time with a visit to one of the local stores mentioned in last week’s blog and you do not always have a recipe for success. A story that jumps to mind straight away is that of my new bed. When I first arrived here I needed to furnish my flat so I ordered an inexpensive bed from a friendly vendor that my boyfriend’s father knew. It arrived in pieces but when trying to fix it together it transpired that this kit was not one bed packaged and ready, but 3 bits of 3 different beds – none of which fitted together! To make matters worse the guy who dropped it off left and then tried to tell my boyfriend he wouldn’t be back to fix the problem until two days later! At this point I was still sleeping in my boyfriend’s parents’ apartment and I was unable to get used to my very traditional, hard cotton mattress. I was desperate to settle into my flat and this was not the first hiccup I had experienced, so you can imagine that the news about the delay was not borne with any great dignity! I turned into a crazed banshee, possibly causing seismic damage to my boyfriend’s hearing, after which he miraculously (out of desperation I imagine) managed to drag the poor fellow back the same evening, when they continued sawing and hammering my bed until 2.30am! To my delight (and warranting sincere thanks to my boyfriend and the furniture man) it is now a neat little job with some rather odd additions to the frame that certainly weren’t built into the design! I think he is now secretly a little jealous of my very comfy and reasonably priced bed!  

The biggest and quite possibly one of the hardest lessons that I have learnt over the past few weeks is ‘patience is a virtue’. Now, I expect delays and I expect everything to go wrong first time or to break after just a couple of uses; this way when things go right first time I am pleasantly surprised! To put it bluntly, Cairo’s infrastructure is not yet as well developed as that which we may be used to in big European or American cities and as a result familiar standards will be a long time coming. For example I never, until moving here, fully appreciated the beauty of the traffic light until seeing the mayhem at a crossroads during rush hour!

This time next week is Christmas Day! I have decided not to go back to England, so for the first time in my 27 year history I am spending Christmas away from my family, opting instead to experience Christmas Day in the desert! For this reason my blog will be a little late next week and so to compensate I will submit a second, brief blog at the end of this week (bringing you the promised feedback from my weekend of exploring the Ex-pat clubs.) Prepare yourself after Christmas for a review of my winter holiday in Nuwiba!

Season’s Greetings for a wonderful Christmas wherever you may be!

* Green Cross Code: An instruction book for British children telling them how to cross the road safely.