Cairo, Eygypt 25 hours after landing
Jet lag is a bitch, or is it? its 5.30 am and im wide awake though i'll be getting up at this time for the next 4 months so maybe the whole jetlag thing is working in my favor for a change. The flight is what flights are though I can only say good things about the staff on KLM, not because they where hot for a change, but because they actually seemed to enjoy their job. The dutch are and always will be efficient and clean people, but the service was friendly and genuine - why is that missed so much elsewhere nowadays?
So to Cairo, from whta I had heard I was bracing myself from the moment we hit the ground - dirty, boisterous, hard work, rude, scary and numerous other words have been used to describe this place to me but we strolled out of the airport without being accosted once. This worked well to make me more suspicious so much so I figured they must have already robed us somewhere along the line and somehow they all knew.
Spent yesterday adjusting, quick walk along the Nile then building bikes with Alex much to the astonishment of the hotel staff, I think every guy in the place has come to see the bikes and they are all a bit confused by the whole thing. Explained the tour d'afrique, but as one of the men put it - I have had my car 12 months and I have done 8,000 kms why would you want to ride 12,000? they are again incredibly friendly still making me suspicious!
We headed out to hit the streets on the bikes and see if how the bikes are, why anyone bothers to paint white lines on the road here is beyond me, lane discipline is non existent, but the way the traffic flows is incredible, it seems so long as you are leaning on your horn your car is invincible and no one else matters, but they don't it all just flows along at a similar speed and get through the small gaps left by bad parking, random missing parts of road, people, horses, police (who just stand in the road at times) and anything else you can think of really. the way the traffic flows reminds me of a cycling bunch and how it moves around, get on the outside your ok, get stuck in the middle your going to the back quickly.
As for the cleanliness, sure Cairo is dirty and dusty, but it seems that a few good days rain would change this place drastically, something I think they have been waiting thousands of years for!
So to Cairo, from whta I had heard I was bracing myself from the moment we hit the ground - dirty, boisterous, hard work, rude, scary and numerous other words have been used to describe this place to me but we strolled out of the airport without being accosted once. This worked well to make me more suspicious so much so I figured they must have already robed us somewhere along the line and somehow they all knew.
Spent yesterday adjusting, quick walk along the Nile then building bikes with Alex much to the astonishment of the hotel staff, I think every guy in the place has come to see the bikes and they are all a bit confused by the whole thing. Explained the tour d'afrique, but as one of the men put it - I have had my car 12 months and I have done 8,000 kms why would you want to ride 12,000? they are again incredibly friendly still making me suspicious!
We headed out to hit the streets on the bikes and see if how the bikes are, why anyone bothers to paint white lines on the road here is beyond me, lane discipline is non existent, but the way the traffic flows is incredible, it seems so long as you are leaning on your horn your car is invincible and no one else matters, but they don't it all just flows along at a similar speed and get through the small gaps left by bad parking, random missing parts of road, people, horses, police (who just stand in the road at times) and anything else you can think of really. the way the traffic flows reminds me of a cycling bunch and how it moves around, get on the outside your ok, get stuck in the middle your going to the back quickly.
As for the cleanliness, sure Cairo is dirty and dusty, but it seems that a few good days rain would change this place drastically, something I think they have been waiting thousands of years for!
posted by Markos at
7:29 p.m.
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