A Lesson Learned

I have escaped the clutches of the tour operators! Never wanting to be in their greedy hands I was rather upset to find that no one here will make any simple arrangements for just what you want. Even taxi drivers try to take you on a huge itinerary. That was actually useful once, but only once for me. I wanted a train ticket to Luxor, they were happy to obilige at the hotel. However that quickly became a full itinerary for my full trip all over Egypt with a $1000 price tag. I allowed that I might be interested in a bit of it, but not with all the hotels. They'd be happy to do that, but they could not be persuaded not to charge me for the hotels anyway. Eventually gave up and walked out, feeling much much better already. I might be in a strange land with no idea what would happen next, but I am very happy that way, and totally unhappy having other people make plans for me that I don't want and treating me like a private gold mine.

Things instantly started looking much better, and I began to enjoy Cairo. The cab driver started up an impromptu Arabic lesson as we drove to the train station. He kept the words and grammar coming fast enough that I had to rush to write it all down, but I can massacre several useful phrases now. The train station was noticably empty of foreigners, and everything is in Arabic of course. (The trains that foreigners are allowed to go on at in the morning or at night.) My guidebook led me to platform 11 where I was momentarily stumped by a lack of communication. Everything I've read, and of course the hotel people, said that you can't get tickets yourself, you need an agent who knows the right people to give baksheesh to and can speak Arabic. In practice it was super simple. A tourist policeman asked me where I was going and if I had a ticket, then led me to the right window and ordered it for me. He also translated everything so I would have the train, car, and seat number and the time. It was only LE82, perhaps $15.

Now my trusty knapsack and I are wandering downtown Cairo, hanging out at internet cafes andeating and relaxing. Everyone I've run into has been wonderfully helpful and friendly and almost none of them are trying to sell me anything. The police wanted to know where I was going when I first left the station. Actually, they wanted to know my nationality. Then they were full of useful directions to the metro and Tahrir square and the internet cafes. As I left I heard one (the car had three of them in it) say to the others "Canada OK."

Yesterday's rather expensive hotel-arranged tour included the pyramids, and for me that was a highlight and worth putting up with a lot. I don't recall when I first got interested in the pyramids, but I was quite young. All young boys fall in love with ancient Egypt, I think, and I was no exception. Part of why I'm here now, of course! I'd heard that they only let in 150 people each morning, but it costs LE100 extra, so I guess not too many do it. Also there's probably no time allowed for it on the group tours that most people take. After reading about and imagining the insides of this place for three decades, I was definitely going in! I'm afraid I can't describe it in a way that will be more meaningful than anything else you've read, but I have to say it was a wonderful and worthwhile experience for me.

Now I am waiting for the night train with my little cardboard rectangle of scrawled pen-marks and a flimsy scrap of paper. One of them is my ticket, probably the paper :-) I wish I could upload pictures, but like most places this cafe uses Microsoft Windows and so they are (properly) afraid of security problems around mounting USB drives. Oh for a world of Linux :-) I did get some pictures that I think are good, and I hope they survive the trip, and that I can upload them somewhere along the line.