Cairo Cab Ride

Here's another portion of the article By Challiss McDonough Cairo 29 June 2006 in the Voice of America. It definately sums up the traffic in Cairo:

Visitors to Cairo usually describe the traffic as "terrifying." The streets are packed with cars, and there seem to be no rules about how they should behave. There are white lines painted on the roads, but everyone ignores them. There are traffic lights on many corners, flashing from red to green, but nobody pays attention to them.
Veterinarian Sameh Abdel-Fatah describes navigating the streets of Cairo as a very bitter experience.
"There are no rules, just people and cars everywhere, and traffic, traffic, traffic," he says.

I didn't film during the peak hours of traffic. This video was taken around 2:00 in the afternoon. I wanted viewers to get a feel for the pedestrian game of "Frogger" going on while we drive through the city.

(Disclaimer): No pedestrians were injured during the taping of this video. Have a nice day.

Cairo Subway

I took a portion of this article written By Challiss McDonough Cairo 29 June 2006 in Voice of America. It does a great job introducing a video I tapped of the subway system here in Cairo:

"Traffic in Cairo is notorious. It can sometimes take hours to drive from one side of the massive city to the other. But the city is also home to Africa's only subway system, one that is surprisingly modern, clean and efficient, especially compared to the chaos on the streets."

My next video will show you the "chaos of the streets."

The Beach in Alexandria

You know how they say a picture says a thousand words? Take a look at this picture of the public beach in Alexandria.

At the end of the video I also show the private beach.

The Sounds of Cairo

I was walking along after visiting the Nile Hilton and decided to stop at a corner and film the traffic and sounds. The result couldn't have been more perfect because right on cue, the sounds get louder and louder.

Watch and listen as I say extremely loud.

Alabastor Household

Here's a view of an Egyptian families house. This particular family makes their living through alabaster. They take the alabaster and create different types of vases, statues and artwork. They gave us a tour of their house and followed up with a demonstration on how they shape the alabaster into different items.

This home was right around the bend from the Temple of Hatshepsut. So our guide made their house and business part of our tour.

Watch the video when I go into the basement. The basement is actually an ancient tomb. This family, along with other families built their homes around old tombs. This is how many archaeologists found significant sites. They asked the native Egyptians whether they had seen anything resembling an ancient hole in the ground. The indigenous people often have lived their daily lives around tombs or archaeological landmarks for thousands of years. So to them, that hole in the ground is their basement, or a landmark on their way to work.

In the case of this family, the tomb is their basement/storeroom. You can see an oven and some of their grandfathers old clothes.

Realization

I was just going over my past posts and realized that my videos are not necessarily overcoming the stereotypes typically associated with Egypt and the Middle East. I think that when a lot of people think about Egypt, they automatically turn to the images perpetuated by film. This images that come to mind typically include camels and pyramids. And as tourists, we have been typically led to these areas of interest for tourism. I also realize now that my film of riding camels and visiting the pyramids don't help the one sided view of a region that includes a lot more.

So, I think that I have fully covered the tourist attractions of Egypt and will now focus my efforts on the daily lives of Egyptians. The truth is that the pyramids and temples are national treasures that bring in a lot of revenue for the people of Egypt. However, the reality of today is Egypt and Cairo especially are societies that are facing very modern problems. Overcrowding, poverty, political corruption, polution, environmental concerns, and economic vitality in a global economy are among a few of the Egyptian concerns.

Therefore, I am going to try and capture these realities on video for all of you. I know, these aren't as fun as pyramids and camels, but I think that I would be commiting a huge injustice to the people of Egypt if I continued to perpetuate the images conveyed by such movies as "The Mummy" and "Sahara." Nothing against those movies, you just need a more contemporary images to take away from our trip.

Thank you for listening to my rant and I'll post again soon.

Erik

Temple of Hatshepsut

There is one word that sums up the day in the Valley of the Kings and Hatshepsuts Temple and that word is hot. When you see me being videotaped here, I'm not very talkative.

We're literally right around the corner from the Valley of the Kings. You can even see the pyramid shaped hill in the background of the temple.

I also take a good shot of the Nile River Valley at the end of the video. It gives you a great perspective on how the Nile acts as a vein of fertility in the region. On each side of the Nile there is a small green belt and beyond that there is only desert.

So the quote by Herodotus that " Egypt is truly a gift of the Nile", could not be more appropriate.

Valley of the Kings

This is our group at the Valley of the Kings. Sorry, they didn't allow video equipment inside, so I could only shoot through the outside gate. But I took the extra time I had to film members of our group missing food from home. We're into the final stretch of our trip and morale is low about food. We are really missing the comforts of home.

I visited four tombs including King Tut's Tomb. Very interesting, but extremely hot. One tomb was huge, but it had no ventilation so it felt like 130 degrees inside.

King Tutankhamen's tomb was small, but still had the mummy of Tutankhamen inside. We also saw the Tutankhamen exhibit at the Cairo Museum last week.

Trip to Philae Temple

We visited a lot of temples this week. Here we are at the Temple at Philae. It is an extremely interesting temple because it was submerged below water for approximately 40-50 years. This occurred after the high dam at Aswan was built and flooded many historical sites. It is only through the efforts of an international group that $40 million was raised to bring the temple stone by stone to an island nearby. There were about 47,000 pieces that were brought out from below the water and reassembled.

I also filmed two Egyptian men singing for the camera and then later I attempt to get them to sing again. You can't hear us talking, but I am basically asking them to describe the song and sing it again. They never sing again, but they do say, "America good" several times.

Someone in our group commented that it is odd to see an American talking to two Egyptians in galabias on a 2,000 year old temple column.

Our Trip to Luxor

Sorry that I haven't posted for the past week. We have been on the road (train, boat, bus). We began our trip Monday night on the train. This video begins with us getting our rooms on the train. We were on a sleeping car all night to get to Luxor, which is in Southern Egypt. We took the train to Luxor and then boarded our ship for the Nile cruise (5 days). We cruised on the Nile for four nights and visited:

• -The Temple at Karnak
• -The Valley of the Kings
• -The Temple at Luxor
• -The Temple of Hatshepsut
• -The Temple at Edfu
• - The Temple of Philae

We came back to Cairo by train this morning.

How Egyptians feel about America

• Here is a lecture given by Dr. Iman Hamdy. I edited down to a couple of minutes, but it gives you an understanding of how Egyptians differentiate between our current administration and the American people. This is the best representation of the attitudes of people in this region and Muslims in general about the war in Iraq.
  
  Watch the whole video, it's worth your time. I also understand that the audio is a little low. You can hear all of her words with headphones.
  
  A couple of facts about how we are tied to Egypt economically:
  
  - The U.S. has 5 Billion Dollars in investments in Egypt
  - 40% of Egyptian textiles are sold in America
  - The United States is the leading trade partner with Egypt
  
  So our armed guards and police escorts aren't much of a surprise when put into the context of these economic numbers.
  
  
  

Welcome to Posting Comments

I wanted to welcome everyone to posting comments. Under each video is a comments hyperlink. Click on the word comments and it will allow you to post. I would like to get an idea of how many people are viewing the videos. Thank you and I hope to hear from all of you soon.

Erik

Suez Canal Pt. 3

This is the third and final video of the Suez Canal. This video simply allows a lot of you to see your friends or family on the trip. I tried to get everyone, so hopefully I got your loved one in the shot.

Also, be sure to watch this video all the way to the end. We pass over a bridge dedicated by the Japanese that passes right over the canal. You can see the ships lined up and headed for the Mediteranean from the Red Sea. This really gives you a great perspective on how the canal works.

Suez Canal Part 2

I would go and take a look at a map to brush up on what the Suez Canal is and where it is located. It is kind of like the Panama Canal, except it is cut through the dessert and construction first began 4000 years ago. In 1859, Egypt used the same path cut by the pharoahs to build the Suez Canal. 1.5 million Egyptians helped build the canal.

The ships that we see are massive and the captain actually takes us into the canal.

The Suez Canal Part 1

We left for Al Arish on our usual tourist bus. No big deal, but then we quickly realized that we had a police escort. Which is also typical of many of our excursions, but then we realized that there were four tourist police vehicles escorting us to Al Arish. Don't worry, it was simply a precaution. We were going to the Suez Canal and near the Gaza Strip in Israel, so they don't want to take any chances. I've never felt so safe.

Bedouin Market Place Al Arish

This next video was taken at the Bedouin Market in Al Arish. Al Arish is along the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean waters are beautiful. Keeping this in mind, we were still entering a city living under third world conditions.
We were only about 50 miles from the Gaza Strip in Israel, and we were all put a little out of our comfort zone (I can't believe Cairo is our comfort zone now, but it is). Al Arish is nothing like Sharm al-Sheikh (Last weekends destination). Sharm al Sheik is where the rich and Europeans go to vacation. Al Arish is where people and families from Cairo go to vacation. So it was unusual for them to see westerners in this predominantly "locals only" city. Nobody was rude to us, however there were a lot of locals giving us the "stink eye." It wasn't to the point of hostility, but you can tell that a lot of locals were saying to themselves, "Is there no escaping these tourists!?" And I do want to point out that this never happens in Cairo. In Cairo, foreigners are so much a part of the city that they don't even give you a second look. I take that back, they give you a second look, but it's only because we might as well be wearing a giant money symbol on our back. And I don't say that with any blame at all. Because after watching this video, you can see how great we have it in America. We do have all the money in the world compared to a huge percent of the Egyptian population. But we do bring a lot of money to this marketplace and many of you will be receiving souvenirs from here.

The Bedouin can be compared to the Native Americans in America. Most of them still live within a tribal system and don't necessarily associate themselves with national politics. They prefer to keep their ancient system of rules and traditions. The Egyptian government will take land away from the Bedouin to make way for new settlements, go back on their promises, and then the Bedouin will retaliate with small acts of violence (Sound Familiar history fans).
Sorry about the bouncing video. I had to walk with the camera by my side because the locals get a little irritated when you video tape them. Rightfully so, I'd be annoyed to if someone came to my town with a police escort, sirens blaring and started filming me shopping.

Along the Nile and McDonalds

I decided to film the Nile and McDonalds here in Cairo. It was the best McDonalds that I have ever had because of the atmosphere. It was actually quite comforting to be in familiar surroundings. Believe it or not McDonalds was actually in the top two nicest restaurants I've been in while in Cairo. I had a Big Mac, next time I will get the McArabia. Don't laugh there really is a McArabia. It's a chicken sandwich in a pita. While filming the menu at McDonalds an employee came up to me and asked how I was doing, I put down the camera and said fine. I thought that she was going to be mad but she was actually very concerned with what I was doing. I said I was filming the menu to show people in America what the menu looked like in Cairo. But she must have thought this to be so odd, that I must be an employee from the corporate office checking quality, Because I got the best service ever. She asked what do you want? And went behind the counter and got my order herself ahead of the rest of the line.

Watch the traffic as I talk on the bridge over the Nile. Traffic here is truly insane. And I know you may think I am exaggerating so I will film a taxi cab ride on a later video.

I also filmed children swimming in the Nile which is also insane. There is a virus in the Nile called Bilharzia and it is supposed to be contracted from swimming in the Nile. But don't worry, nobody in our group has any plans for swimming in the Nile.

Climbing Mt. Sinai Pt. 3

Here is Part 3 of Mt. Sinai (I would try to watch them in order):

Climbing Mt. Sinai Pt. 2

Here is Part 2 of Mt. Sinai:

Pyramids Tour July 1, 2008

The pyramids were exactly as spectacular as you would expect. However, their location was not how I pictured. In the video, you'll see how the city has sprawled to the edge of the pyramids. I pictured the pyramids being farther away from daily society.

It was 100 pounds (20 dollars) to go into the largest pyramid (Khufu pyramid). This pyramid costs more because it contains the longest inside passageway, the grand gallery and the burial chamber. So there is a lot to see inside, but it is difficult to maneuver. Most people don't take this tour because of the cramped passageways and difficult climbing inside. It is also extremely hot by the time you get to the burial chamber at the top of the passageway. There is no moving air. So when we are being interviewed on the video, I am about to pass out from heat exhaustion.

Camel Ride

Some of us really wanted to ride the camels, but our guide warned us to be careful when negotiating the price of the ride. The Bedouins give the camel rides and they have an interesting way of negotiating sometimes. Our guide Selma warned us that the Bedouins will say that it is 20 pounds to ride the camel (whick works out to about 4 dollars) but when you want to get off the camel they'll say 100 pounds to get off (20 dollars). They told you it was 20 pounds for the ride, they never told you how much it was to get off. So our guide told us, "I'll negotiate a ride for you." She got us a ride for 5o pounds (10 dollars). Even with the pre-negotiated price, the Bedouin owner of the camels attempts to get more money out of us when on the camels. You can even see this on the video. Watch when there is the wide shot of us coming from the right. When we get to the middle of the screen, you'll see the owner come up to me and try to get more money.

It's funny, our security guard after the ride says, "Bedouins bad! ahg."

Saqqara Pyramid

Our first day we went to the Saqqara Pyramid. The oldest stone structure on earth. This isn't the most exciting video, but you can see the pyramid. Saqqara is near Memhis, a site we also visited. Memphis is one of the oldest cities in the world. The oldest if you ask Egyptians. The relics were really amazing, the city was pretty much how you'd imagine the oldest city in the world to look. Most of the time I was at this site, I was harrassed by a street vendor to buy a necklace. I really didn't want the necklace in the end, but he had pursued my business for an hour so I finally bought it to get him off my back. This first day taught me not to be so nice to the vendors. If you say hello or make any eye contact, they're relentless. You can hear the street vendor helping me with the name Zossar, he was right next to me the whole tour. And in the end, it turns out he ripped me off on the price of the necklace. I thought I had done a good job of haggling, I was wrong.

Erik

Technical Difficulties

Hello from Cairo,

Sorry that there have been no videos posted as of yet. Turns out that Cairo isn't the easiest place to get internet access. Plus we have been very busy as a group. So that makes it very difficult to edit and post my videos. However, there are a lot of videos to post already. Yesterday, we visited the oldest stone structure in the world, and the Great Pyramids. So I already have great footage of these sites. I also have footage of me, Paul, Dan, Matt and Tristan riding camels. So please stay tuned and I'll try to have three videos up by tomorrow.

Erik