First Foray into the Mother of the World

First off, I would like to wish to you and all your family and friends happy holidays! May this be a time of joy and harmony.

Now, back to my adventure!
Last Thursday, I finally made it to what is essentially Egypt, La Qahira aka Cairo. This metropolis had more than 20 million people leaving in its belly and it shows!
I took the train from Alex and I was able to take the metro to my hotel room. Cairo has the only metro in Africa.It's very modern and not much different from any metro in the world, from Montreal to Munich. It's much more modern than the one in Paris or London!
To get to my hotel, I had to walk on the busiest streets in this already humongous city. The noise level is very high and I have a headache to this day from it...
I found my hotel, a budget place ( eh, I'm paying with my own pockets) that was 5$ US a night! No, it wasn't a slum.It was clean and I was served breakfast the next day.
After a quick shower, I met with a coworker in Giza, where the pyramids are.
In pics and on TV, you can always think that the Pyramids are in the desert. They are not, at least not anymore! They are now part of a suburb of Cairo.
We tried to go to this African club and after a while, we found the place. They were playing some hip hop like Get By, and they even played Frontin... My coworker was not feeling the vibe and I had to wake up early so it was a short night.
The next morning, I went to the Egyptian Museum, one of the greatest museums in the world and arguably the least organized one.
I got to see a lot of Japanese tourists, statues, mummies of all these legendary Pharaohs, Ramses II, Seti I. There is a room in the museum where there are maybe a dozen of these mummies. Some of them look like a roasted chicken that spent too much time in the oven. It's incredible to see these faces with their hair still on their head after 1000s of years. I also saw Toutankhamon's treasures and of course, the notorious mask.It looks much better than in pics.
After 3 hours, I was overwhelmed with so much history and I decided to leave.

After a stop in the posh area of Zamalek where I had a great lunch at one of the nicest restaurants in Cairo,for 10$ US, which is expensive for here,I decided to check out the Pyramids. There was supposed to be a bus going from the museum straight to the Pyramids for 2 Egyptian Pounds(30 cents US).
I tried to find the stop for 45 minutes and I had to give up since crossing streets here is a hazard to one's life.
I finally arrived there by cab and the taxi driver brought me straight to some stables where there was a big number of hustlers trying to get money from me, telling me all kinds of lies, like if I rent a camel, I won't have to pay for the ticket to the pyramids,etc....

They were getting so much on my nerves that I basically ran away. When I found out that I only had 30 mins to visit the Pyramids, I decided to go and I found the bus I had been looking for earlier that day and took it. It's not a nice feeling to be looked at as a walking dollar bill but that is what tourism is about.
A quick walk around the city and I was back on the metro, going straight to the train station.
I arrived in Alex 2 hours later, happy to be back in more familiar surroundings.

I will go back to Cairo 2 more times now that I know my way around but it's definitely not a place I would ever see myself living or staying a long period of time.

There is still a lot to see there such as Islamic Cairo, the old part of town, the Citadel,etc... I intend to take a tour next Friday of the Pyramids around Cairo from the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx to the pyramid in Saqarah with


Here is the link of my first pics made in Egypt. You will notice a beautiful palace, this is the view from my hotel room..... More pics to come soon

http://www.imagestation.com/album/?id=4288356397


Ralph

One Week in Misr

Hello all,
It will have been a week now that I have been in Alexandria, named after Alexander the Great who designed the plans of the city and made it its capital.
During this week, I was able to see a bit more of the lively metropolis, strong of 5 million people.
It's not a party town in the Western sense but damn, these people go to bed late. We usually go to coffee shops and have Turkish coffees and sheeshas.
I usually have dinner with some young engineers working on the same project and I am happy to get to my hotel by 12pm since I wake up at 5 the next day!
So far, I have been to a few restaurants. There are a few places where you can choose your own fish and have it cooked the way you want it.I have been having a lot of calamari lately. It is so much tender than in Canada.
I also went to this place in downtown Alex where I had traditional Egyptian fare: falafel and foul ( red beans, similar to chili or pwa rouj for the Haitians on the list). There was no meat but this meal was so good! I could turn vegetarian if I had that stuff every day.

I don't only eat out, I also work out. I found this gym close to my hotel where I get a personal trainer who is making me suffer but no pain no gain as they say.
Alexandria is a very dense city. I don't even know if there are individual houses. Even the village ( now, more of a suburb of Alex), Abou Kir, where the power plant is, is full of high rises.I assume Tokyo or Ozaka would be like that.

I also took the train for fun once from my hotel to downtown. It was so cheap (like 10 cents). There are some really nice malls there as well. However, I prefer the more typical stores of Alexandria. They have a lot of stores with French names, reminder of the French presence in the city.
Waiters also say "merci". My arabic is improving. I might know like 10 words now but I can write arabic numbers now...

I managed to go to a movie theatre in the city. One funny thing is that they assign you a seat number. There are no numbers on the seat so you have to wait for the usher to show you your seat.I checked out the Greco-Roman museum and the Catacombs, 35 metres underground. It's kind of spooky to be in place where there were 300 corpses buried once.I also went to the largest library in the world, a beautiful building.

In the next update, I will provide you with a link with my first pics from Egypt...

Until then, have a nice week!

YYC-YUL-FRA-CAI-ALY

Hello all,
I arrived in Cairo on Monday afternoon after a 20-hour flight.
The weather was much nicer and cooler than I expected.
The first thing I noticed was the smog.It is worse than in LA.
I stayed one night at the Sheraton Heliopolis, a 5 star hotel.
The people working there were very nice. It didn't seem like they were nice just to get a tip but rather, it came from a genuine love for people.
Egyptians have a very diverse look to them. Same thing that goes for the women, I saw girls wearing the latest fashions and women draped in all black with only their eyes showing.
In general , Egypt is a definitely not an integrist society.Beer is readily available.

At the hotel, I played tennis for the first time on a clay court.
I also tried to attend a belly-dancing show at a restaurant but it was completely packed. Instead, I went to an Egyptian restaurant in the hotel gardens.
There, people were smoking sheeshas while having tea. Luxury hotels seem to attract well-heeled Egyptians as well.
I am impressed by the choice in TVsignals,.There are like 4 music channels showing from British bands to Egyptian divas.
Egypt is the capital of the Arab world,culturally-wise.
One thing about Egyptian singers on TV,they sure love their makeup...Sometimes too much is too much.....
I also can watch tv in German, Japanese (:-)), Spanish and French.
I saw Oooh Wee by Mark Ronson ( uncensored) right after some Egyptian singer on a music channel. I had no idea there was a video from that song,even Damon Dash is in it! lol

On Tuesday morning, I left Cairo's luxury for ALexandria, the second-biggest city in Egypt on the Mediterranean Sea.
My hotel is in the Montaza Gardens and I can see this huge palace built for a sultan from my window.
I can't wait to look at my view in the morning. I can see the sea as well.
It is definitely not summer here.I'd say it's more like 20C.

Ok, finally, for what I came to do in Egypt;work is alright. The plant is very dirty. The operators work 6 hour-days and stop to pray. They seem more relaxed and happier than North American folks.

One thing about the driving, it's considered impolite to drive in the city with your lights on at night. So, you get all these cars
around with no lights on. People take jaywalking to another level. They cross highways!

I better try to sleep now.It's 3 in the morning for me and somehow I woke up at 1AM by myself. I have to be at the plant by 7!