Let my People Go

When I sit down and reflect on Egypt I find it hard to come up with any conclusive and concrete emotions or feelings within my being. Egypt was beautiful, and ancient, and full of all sorts of people. It was the first “Middle Eastern” Arab state I have ever been to, and I must come out and say this. I need you to throw out every single preconceived notion you have about the middle east… because they aren’t true. Egypt for me was the demolition of any sort of stereotype or previous “knowledge” that I had about the Middle East. Egypt is a place where the ancient and modern dwell on the same street, and where people love Americans (but absolutely hate Bush). Egypt was nothing like what I was expecting, and I have a few stories to prove it. Here’s the skinny.

Day One:

I was originally planning on going to Luxor with a few friends, but I backed out in the final days to travel with the same guys I traveled with in Thailand. (We all dyed our hair black to look more like Egyptians). Our first and only task once we got off the ship was to climb Mt. Sinai that very night. So we got off the ship, bought a rain ticket to Cairo, and then caught some lunch. We met this guy on the street that could tell we were confused, so he directed us to a restaurant, sat us down, and ordered for us. Because we were “habibi” (or friends), we dines like kings for about 30 cents a piece. This guy was one of the few people all week that did not ask for Baksheesh (tips). We had falafel and hummus and it was delicious (eating as a vegetarian was quite easy in Egypt; however I am terribly sick of falafel). On the train to Cairo we got a good taste of agrarian and rural communities in Lower Egypt (even though its upper on the map, Lower Egypt is in the north because of the Nile’s flow). The train followed this river where there was really fertile land and thus cotton, grape, and all sorts of other farms. Most of the workers that I saw were young boys (13 or so) that were holding sickles and harvesting by hand. The villages were built out of dilapidated concrete buildings (and often sprung out of the middle of nowhere). Out of the thousands of concrete buildings we saw, none of them was finished (because you don’t pay taxes on a building under construction), and most of them did not have roofs (but rather leaves and plywood). The filth and litter was amazing, and the condition of the river was disgusting. The river had dead horses floating next to fisherman, next to pumps that pumped the water into the fields for irrigation. Point made… anyway. We get to Cairo and meet up with this Taxi driver who is willing to take us the 500 or so kilometers for about 400 pounds (80 dollars). We get in his taxi; he drives about ten minutes… gets out, and leaves for about 40 minutes. He comes back, gets to the nearest freeway, parks on the street (freaking scary by the way) and gets out again. We wait about 15 minutes, and another car pulls up behind us, we hop in and that guy takes us about an hour to the Suez tunnel where we hop in ANOTHER car, and yada yada we wind up in St. Catherine’s national park at about 1 in the morning. I guess this is the point where day 2 starts.

Day 2:

1 AM: We get to the monastery and are greeted by a pack of Bedouins (nomadic people who live in the desert) that serve as sherpas on the mountain. We get this one guy that will not leave us alone, we kept telling him that we didn’t want a guide, and we wanted to climb ourselves and what not… he followed us incessantly and for a good reason (getting up that thing alone would have been a task). We took these steps that are called the steps of repentance (they were built by a monk as his act of repentance, there are 3,750 of them). There was a second path that kind of swerves up the mountain, and that is accessible by camels, but we are men… and well, yea, we are men… anyway, climbing up this thing at night was amazing. The eeriness of the mountain was tamed by the incredible source of light that emitted from the heavens. Even though we climbed from 1-3:15 AM, the mountain was lit up like it was the late afternoon. The stars were indescribable and the moon was blinding. We climbed through valleys, and ancient arches and past deteriorating monasteries to the very top. And common knowledge would say “its Egypt, and the elevation is not that high, so it should be relatively cool, but certainly not cold at the top right”… common knowledge was bastardly wrong. It was freezing (probably around 40, wind chill maybe lower), and we were not sufficiently dressed to say the least. So we borrowed some blankets from the Bedouins at the top (rattled with fleas and lice), and slept on a ledge on the very top of the mountain (for the record, I also peed over the edge of a massive cliff). We settled in the sleep around 4AM, and were woken up rudely by the sun at around 5. The sunrise was certainly incomparable, the purples and oranges were unlike anything I had ever seen before. A huge crowd that cameled the way up gathered behind us, and underneath us... but being the only people stupid enough to sleep on the mountain we had the prime spot. After dicking around on the top for a few hours (boulder jumping and climbing and so forth (and after a breakfast of Borios (knockoff oreos), ho ho’s, and star crunch bars)) we took the steps back down the mountain. We met this one Bedouin on the top that said he hadn’t been off the mountain in 15 years, and then tried to buy our ipods, backpacks, pocketknives, shoes and everything else we had with the convenient stack of American 20 dollar bills he had in his pocket. After coming down the mountain we payed our chain-smoking/binge drinking guide about 10 bucks and an ink pen (his baksheesh) and visited the monastery at the bottom. The monastery was erected in the 11^th century and has what they say was the “burning bush” within the grounds. I was pretty stinking cool. In fact, the whole area around there had a certain vibe. I am not going to say that “the presence of God was there” or anything like that, because that would be a stretch. It certainly felt like holy and sacred ground though. I mean, waking up and reading the story in Exodus about the presence of God encompassing the mountain while the Israelites were in the valley worshiping a golden calf… while looking down on the valley from the top where the presence of God was… incredible, right?

We then departed and went to Sharm El Sheik. We got a hotel and then chilled for the rest of the day. We went to a beach that overlooked the red sea, and had dinner (at the only reputable and clean restaurant we visited all week, and hung out with this Danish Guy names Ollie. Ollie moved here about 5 years ago and has a hand in everything. He regaled us with stories about how he bribes the cops and has never paid taxes once in his life… the kind of cat that you would expect to find in a resort village. We sat in a back alley, on plastic crates, swarmed by stray cats, drinking a beer (which was drawn out significantly) for HOURS. We had some Sheesha (I had this about 7 times in Egypt… you couldn’t go more than 50 meters or so without coming across a “hookah” (argileh) bar. We called it a night.

Day 3: not much happened today, we snorkeled and then headed back to cairo.

Once we got into Cairo, i split from the group and went alone for the next day in a half. I went and looked up the 1-star hotels and town and found the CIAO hotel. I checked in and met this guy named BJ in the lobby. BJ was a black man from South Africa that was on his way to Toronto (he was a fashion designer). We went to church together, and walked around the city, and sat down in the square and talked for a couple hours (his English was not very good, so the conversation could have been 20 minutes). BJ really wanted to come on the ship, and offered me money to talk to the captain so I could get him on. He was really upset when I told him there was no chance for him…

We went back to the hotel, and I bought some of his clothes (from his suitcase in his hotel room), and then headed out. I walked down the Nile for a while, and then used the phones (where for the first time this trip I felt really homesick)… walked around the US embassy (the largest embassy in the world), the Egyptian Presidents house, and the National museum. As a whole, Cairo has a ton of beautiful European architecture, and the streets are wide, and relatively clean. I then had some tea and sheesha (for 20 cents) and then got in a Taxi and went to the Nile where I booked a night cruise. The night cruise was cool because this couple was getting married, so there was a huge procession with dancing and live music and so forth. I met up with some SAS kids there, and we ate, danced with a middle aged/overweight/rough skinned (from smoking heavily) belly dancer (every single person I met in Egypt smokes… EVERY PERSON). That was a good time, and so was seeing the modern banks of the Nile from the middle of it. It was hard to step out of the present and to imagine the rich history of it, because it looks like every other River in the world (and was stinking filthy). I went to bed around 2, alone, in a really shady 1-star hotel room.

Day 4: I woke up with the morning prayer call at around 5:15. Put a pillow over my head, and slept till around 8. The prayer calls are omnipresent throughout the entire country. I was hard pressed to go more than about a block without seeing a minaret that rose into the sky, equipped with a sound system that carried the prayers into every open (and closed) space. The prayers really are a beautiful thing, and so is Arabic, when it is spoken softly (on the street, it is yelled, even conversationally). Prayers happen 5 times a day, and every public space has mats laid out (train stations, restaraunts, etc) for people to hit the ground. Men have bumps and gray scabs on their foreheads from praying so often. The religiosity of a given man could easily be determined by the size, color, and breadth of his scar. Anyway…

At this point I would love to discuss my general hygene in Egypt. Heres my list.

Showers: 1.5 (no soap for the second, 1-star hotel quality)

Tooth Brushings: 0

Clothe Changing’s: 2.5

Deodorant applications: 0

Sock wearings: 0

Contact cleanings: 0

I was one gross man, mainly because I left my toiletries in Sharm.

Back to business. I headed out early to the most famous bakery in Cairo called El Abd. As any opulent man should I had Baklava for breakfast. The stuff freaking melted in my mouth, and I was very happy. I had some tea and observed the street traffic for a while. There was this one kid that kept popping in and out of a building carrying a tray full of glasses with tea every few minutes, delivering it to all of the shop owners and then reloading. Tea was everywhere, I mean, some of these folks probably had upwards of 20 glasses per day. And this kid was making some bank. I then went out to Al Azhar and to Islamic Cairo where I spent the next 4 hours of my day. It was pretty amazing really. Bazaars, beautiful mosques (al azhar is actually the oldest university in the world, it had a dorm that was founded in the 9^th century), and culture was commonplace. I don’t really know how to describe Islamic Cairo (you see, some cities have “old” and “new” parts of town, Cairo is all old, so they split it into the dominant traditions of the town for namesake), other than that it was the most beautiful and enriching part of any city I have ever been to. I met this guy names Mido next to the Citadel and we hung out for a few hours. I walked me down this 1300 year old street, and to a Mosque that served as a charity. I could tell that this place was not really a tourist place, but desperately yearned to be one. I put a few bucks in a bucket, and sat with Mido as he taught me the architecture and design of Mosques. Stuff like, there are 99 adjectives for God, and this particular mosque had 99 columns to correspond. Anyway, I then got VIP treatment, and a door was unlocked, and I climbed up this Minaret (that looked like nobody had climbed for years), and at the top had a view of the entire freaking city. Mido lived in the neighborhood, so we had some tea, and he told me that he was getting married he next day. So I gave him my email, and he is going to mail me the pictures. He wrote me this note that wished Dava and I happiness, and in return I wrote him one back, and gave him a wedding present (20 pounds, what I could affod). We split ways, and I went to Coptic Cairo which is the Christian Heritage part of town. There was a crypt of the Holy Family where they were said to have lived for a while, and a Church that Hung over nothing (called the Hanging Church) and yada. I then went to a park, sat in the shade and read/laid down/snacked/hung out for a few hours. I think parks are my thing. I have been to one in every country, and each one has a different feel. For instance, this park was the only place in Egypt that I saw obvious and unconcealed signs of affection between men and women. And I saw a few people in western clothes (which was shocking), and most importantly I saw Zero tourists, so I stuck out like a sore thumb (which I love deply). I then hopped in a Taxi, and went out to Giza. Everyone around Giza is in Cahoots with each other for money. The pyramids were the most commercialized/money spoiled place I have ever been. Men bombared me with offers for camels, and my driver wouldn’t take me to the real entrance, and the cops would purposely not be helpful… and so forth. I ended up walking down this alley with tons of poverty and filth (in the shadows of the great pyramids), trying to find my way to the entrance (this was at night now). I ended up paying this guy like 4 dollars to let me hop on his horse, and this undernourished horse somehow managed to not fall (he slipped on the sewage caps and stumbled often) and took me to the “light show”. I did not originally plan on going to the light show, but it wasn’t that expensive and it sounded like the cheesiest and most ridiculous thing I could do at the time, so I went. And it sure did live up to my expectation. The show lights up the Sphinx and Pyramids with lasers and lights and has a loud booming voice that says stuff life “I SAW CLEOPATRA, AND CESAER, AND ANTONY… blah blah blah”. It was hilariously bad, and greatly entertaining. After the show I ran into some friends, and we went to Pizza hut (that had a window view of the pyramids and Sphinx)… and then set out to bribe the guards. We had this amazing vision to climb the to the top at night right, so he walked up to the gaurds and said “habibi”, and “baksheesh” and gave them cigarettes and so on… We ended up climbing through this hole in the gate, and meeting this guy around the side where we bribed him and his friends. It was good fun. He was a bit expensive so we went to another set where we met Moussa. Moussa was the hustler, and the money maker of the climbing operation. He organized nightly trips, but I had no trust in him… because everyone around there only tried to screw you (some of the stories my friends tell me are incredible). I told Moussa that I didn’t trust him, and went away to talk to another set of gaurds, my friends stayed and chatted with him and told me later that Moussa said he was afraid of me because I was ruining his reputation (funny right?). Anyway we get the guys down to about 50 dollars per person, and realize that that’s a load of money to waste on something that wont even be that satisfying… so we went to bed.

Day 5:

I slept on the floor in my friends hotel room, put on the same pants I wore for pretty much the whole trip… and after a powdered sugar and strawberry jam filled pita breakfast we went to the pyramids. They were awesome. I cant really say much else. We climbed into the great pyramid, and up the shaft… and at one point I tried to do a flip off a block (bad idea, I landed straight on my ass), and rode some camels (about 20 feet, for a buck (most people paid like 50-100 dollars for the day to be escorted on Camels all day (lame…)) At one point, we went around the far side of the middle period where we tried to bribe a guard… it was way too easy ( everyone in Egypt has a price), for 2 bucks (for 4 people) he let up climb half the way up the middle pyramid while he abandoned his post for a while. It was good, cheap fun… We then trekked through the desert (one side was city, one side was a huge desert) to the sphinx. The sphinx is a tiny little guy, I mean next to the mass that is the pyramids. The greed of the camel oweners ruined the place for me though. I mean, they would have somebody on their camel, and follwed us for hundreds of feet pestering us about getting on their camel. Their fountain of lies (you cant walk here, you cant enter the sphinx without a camel) were amzing and disappointing. The people of Egypt were nice and helpful, but the tourist leeches were unbelievable.

We bounced that town, got a cab back to Cairo… hitched a 2^nd class train back to Alexandria, and went back to the ship. The line at the ship was like a mile long so we went to the Library of Alexandria (Aaron and myself, who is one of the best men I have ever met in my life) which was amazing. The place was built as a result of a contest held by tons of architects. And the winning design was flooring… The place was A) huge, B) sleek, and C) ostentatious but perfect. My favorite part was this computer they had (I have always wanted to see one of these since reading Free Culture by Lawrence Lessig) that contained a virtual copy of the entire internet starting in 1996. You see, unlike newspapers ( that have physical copies) the internet has no way of recording history without computers like this. So this thing could hold 50 BILLION pages or 1.5 petra bytes (10 ^ 15^th)… it was nuts. I used the computer there, had one last Argileh and Tea session and got back on the ship…

Reflection:

- the food in Egypt came as a delicious surprise. Eating as a vegetarian definitely limited my options (and my convictions for not eating meat were definitely confirmed by seeing the terrible conditions in which they had huge quarters of cows, and pigeons, and all sorts of meat in the back of trucks covered in flies: it made me sick), but falafel and hummus never really got old. However, meals from stands and street vendors for pocket change wreaked its havoc today when I got pretty freaking ill (mummy tummy)

- side note, I really hope I do not become one of those pretentious and arrogant vegetarians that condescendingly look down upon meat eaters, those people suck

- Cairo is probably my favorite of all of the big cities we have gone to, I mean, its hard to have any favorites at all, but if I had to choose, Cairo would take it due to its uniqueness ( a trait that is hard for any big city to possess because “big city culture” takes all of the flavor out of urban conglomerations

- Egypt had some nasty wasteland… the Sinai peninsula had like 50 people living on it, and had check points every 25 kilometers or so where they would check passports and visas, this was at most times the only sign of life around

- Taxi drivers, in every single city in the world… are dicks

- I feel like this voyage is close to over, but I still one third left… nuts right. In turkey I am traveling with my friend Aaron, and we are going to see some country side

- The middle east feels safe to me now… If you are close family or a friend, email Lisa, and she will forward you my attachment to this (that deals with some more personal things)

- The de-mystifying nature of my trip tore down every idea that I believed about the place… they hate Americans (wrong)( they do hate bush though, and Mumbarak too, and Israel BIG TIME), they all wear turbans (wrong), most smoke sheesha and do inefficient and unnecessary jobs all day (true).

- It was weird seeing American Gas stations there, until Jake pointed out to me that all of our freaking oil comes from there

I got more… but I will spare you. Egypt surely was beautiful, and Sinai was life changing. I hope to soak in the next 3 ports, and thank God daily for the life I live. I miss home, and cant wait to sleep in my bed. My back is sore from spending 2 nights sleeping on floors, one nights in a bus, and one night in a cot… home would be really nice right about now. I have 16 days left on the ship, and 15 days left in port. I think the last third of the trip has been much better for me than the first third, and I hope my progress as a man continues at the same pace. I finished “The winter of our discontent” and started on Langston Hughes “Big Sea” and Hellers “Catch-22”, and an currently reading the book of revelations for my study of scripture. If you want to inform me on how your lives are, please send me an email… or write me some mail, they deliver it to our ship (and I am the only student I know that hasn’t received mail… wahhhh wahhhh wahhh…) I love you all, Tal