Something Cold?

Temperatures are cooling off but by most people's standards it's still hot in Giza. This gentleman is running what is basically a lemonade/anise juice stand just outside of the Beni Yusuf army base near the pyramids of Giza. Business will get better when some of the soldiers leave the base.

Need A Ride?

Cairo cab drivers are deserving of serious study. Most people swear that they are not entirely sane, and the fact that they spend their days driving the streets of the city is held as proof of this fact. It may be true, but I've also met some very decent cab drivers who may be the exceptions that prove the rule and there are many tales of cabbies hunting down the last fare to return a briefcase, bag or phone. Then there was the cab that had absolutely no interior other than the seats...just the steel of the roof and doors..or the apochryphal "red velvet taxi" that the girls shunned as high school students not just because it looked like a brothel on wheels, but because the driver seemed to feel that it was one. Life is never dull.

A Little Piece of Peace

This is not what one associates with downtown Cairo at all. But it is there and today as I was looking for the shop that would service a broken Swatch and driving through the hot streets, it was like a glimpse of heaven.

Helping To Clean

Egypt is dusty, but we are at one end of the Sahara, so it's expected. When people buy dry goods like beans or rice in bulk, they have to be sifted and washed to get the ambient sand and dust out. Even packaged rice has to be washed thoroughly. So sieves are important and they are made by hand by people like these.

Passing Time

Ramadan was coming and we wanted to get the farm a Ramadan lantern, known here as a fanous. The best place to get one of these is in Sayeda Aisha, an old area of Cairo, so despite temperatures at about 38 C, off we went. While walking to the area with the lanterns, I saw these women chatting together on a stone wall.

Bridge Fishing

It was 2 am and I was beat. My daughter had to catch an early flight to Amsterdam and then on to New York, so she had to be at the airport at 1:30 am. On the way back, the people on the Moneeb Bridge, the southernmost bridge across the Nile in Cairo, were still enjoying their picnics, tea, and fishing, so I pulled my jeep over to the right and took a few photos. I'm obviously not the best at night photography. Balancing car lights, advertising lights and the darkness is pretty much a mystery to me, but I liked the way the light caught the fishing lines.

The Greatest Pyramid

This isn't the pyramid that everyone takes pictures of, not one of the "three" that most of the world associates with Giza. The Great Pyramid at Giza is a wonderful sight, but for my money the Red Pyramid at Dahshur is the best. This was taken from the desert at sunset, something that is basically impossible to do if you are on a tour. The buses stay on the asphalt roads and they leave long before sunset. A local like myself with a jeep knows the odd ways in to be able to take this shot.

The pyramid itself was built by Sneferu after a couple of false starts with the pyramid at Meidum about 60 km south and the Bent Pyramid which is only about 300 metres south. It is made of red Aswan granite and somehow sits in the desert with much more comfort and authority than the Great Pyramid at Giza. Maybe it's the lack of all those horrible little men selling bad t-shirts and camel rides....

Taxi, Madame?

Recently had my children and a friend of theirs arrive in Cairo on three different flights over two separate days. Other than visiting with family, I've probably spent more time in the airport than anywhere else. This is pretty much what greets most travelers from outside Egypt on arrival. At least two thirds of the crowd are looking to get you a cab. Can be annoying.

Written On The Waterwheel

One of the astonishing things for many tourists is just how many Egyptians speak languages other than Arabic. Even in the villages students are started on English almost in kindergarten and the kids' attendance to their homework can be seen in the graffiti on this sakia, or waterwheel, in the countryside in Giza. I'm impressed. I couldn't write my name in Arabic on a waterwheel or anywhere else for that matter.

Free Delivery

So what do you do when you really need a wheelbarrow but the store is 20 km away and you only have a motorcycle?