Egypt thoughts

Sorry, no more pictures, just words. Here are some additional random thoughts and observations about Egypt:

1. Traffic. You just can't imagine what it's like to drive around Cairo. There are no traffic lights in a city of 23 million people (more than three times the population of Switzerland). Cars just wedge themselves in wherever they can. The honking is constant. There's always a traffic jam. You never know how long it will take you to get from one place to another. Lane markers mean nothing. In addition, pedestrians are always dashing across the road. Occasionally, the lines of cars are interrupted by a cart being pulled by a donkey. I didn't take any pictures because pictures wouldn't do it justice. You have to experience it.

2. Politics. I talked with our tour guide for hours about the revolution, the future of Egypt, and the Egyptian view of the United States. It took some doing, but I finally got him to open up a bit. Egyptians feel like Mubarak stole their future. As I mentioned in a earlier posting, they feel like they've been passed by by other countries like Turkey and Malaysia. And there's a good amount of resentment against the United States for supporting Mubarak. That's international diplomacy, I guess. Sometimes you have to make a deal with the devil. The U.S. supported Mubarak because he made life much easier for us in the Middle East, but there's a good argument to be made that we compromised some of our principles in doing so. It's not the first time we've done that, and it won't be the last. International diplomacy is messy and often unpleasant. Our guide was somewhat proud that the U.S. now has to go to all the trouble of dealing with a legitimately-elected parliament rather than just a single dictator.

There's also resentment against the U.S. for supporting Israel's actions against the Palestinians. (I'm not taking sides here, just reporting the Egyptian position.) Israel wouldn't be able to do what it does without the backing of the U.S., and that makes Egyptians angry when they see the conditions in which the Palestinians are living. (We didn't get into the issue of suicide bombers, missiles fired by Hamas from Gaza, and such. I just listened.)

3. The tourism industry, which is a major part of Egypt's economy, is really hurting. I asked one of our tour representatives if it was really worth it to them to run a group tour with just seven people. He told me that these days, he'd run a group tour with two people if that's all he could get. They're really desperate.

4. One thing that's kind of cool about being in a Muslim country like Turkey or Egypt is hearing the call to prayer five times a day. I guess it's like church bells in Switzerland. You get used to them after a while, but you really notice it if you're not used to it.

5. The vendors are incredibly aggressive at the tourist areas and the markets. You learn how to handle them after a while, but it's quite different from other places I've been.

6. You tip for everything in Egypt. The U.S. is in the middle of the extremes. You hardly ever tip in Europe; you occasionally tip in the U.S.; and you always tip in Egypt. We put our tip money into a "tip kitty" at the beginning of our time there, and our tour guide took care of handing out the tips as we went along. That was nice, because it's a never-ending part of life there.

7. Egyptian men often greet each other with a kiss on each cheek.

8. It was a little jarring seeing the dam in Aswan being guarded by a tank and soldiers. They're worried about someone trying to blow it up. You just don't see that kind of thing in Lakeville. But we felt completely safe the whole time we were there, even while we were right in the heart of Cairo. I never felt like we were in any danger.

And so, that about does it for Egypt. My two favorite trips since I've been in Switzerland have been Norway and Egypt. Extreme opposites, yes, but both were great places to spend some time.