Wednesday, July 2, 2008

A Man For The Car


Cairo is a city where it is virtually impossible to park. There are supposed to be about 20 million people here and I'm sure that there are about 10 million cars and buses. Most areas of the city have men, young or old, to help you find a parking place or to move the car that's parked in front of you while you are in a shop. Many of the parking men in Maadi were older men or teenagers, most of whom had never driven a car in their lives, and in the family venacular they became known as parking trolls because all too often they were not seen when you were looking for them and they only appeared as you were about to leave, when they assumed that you would pay them for their supposed services. In all fairness, the parking trolls like this young man do a valuable service for their tips. It would be totally impossible to find a spot to park on the Corniche in Giza without their help.

3 comments:

Harry Makertia said...

We have a similar situation here in Bandung and Jakarta - Indonesia! Watching your photo, just like watching my hometown!

Anonymous said...

Gosh ... you have almost as many cars in Cairo as we have people in Portugal!

Susan said...

It always drove me nuts when one guy would collect when you arrived (he'd be gone before you got back, of course), and another joker would try and collect as you left. *Shaking head*

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