Riding a Camel Isn't as Comfortable as it Looks
When you arrive at the Pyramids in Giza, you experience a familiar scenario. As soon as local hawkers catch a glimpse of my Chuck Taylors and blonde hair, they flock - offering me everthing from personal, guided tours of the pyramids, monuments and tombs and camel and horse rides.
I managed to buy a ticket in relative peace, before a guy introduced himself to me as an official guide, showing me a badge whose legitimacy I, obviously, had no way of authenticating. He showed me along the pyramids and tombs for a bit, before he insisted that I ride a camel, since the distance between pyramids was far. I tried convincing him that walking was fine, but, figuring I probably won't have the chance to ride a camel in the near future, I accepted his offer and climbed onto a gangly-looking camel named Moses. I asked if he was 900 years old, but Ali, my guide, didn't really get the joke and said he was 10. Oh, well. Moses, for all his horrid teeth and awkward joints, was friendly enough and maintained a steady pace, which is definitely what you want, when you're perched precariously 10 feet up on creature with stilts for legs.
After a few minutes on the camel, we reached a more secluded area, and Ali stopped to tell me what the rates were for various tours. Of course, I had not expected any part of the experience to come without a price, but the underhanded way he handled didn't sit particularly well with me. Despite that, we came to an agreement on a reasonable price, and since I repeated I was a student, I managed to get a somewhat discounted rate. Over the course of two hours, Moses took to me to all nine pyramids (three large, six small) and the Sphinx. I even entered one of the Pyramids, whose significance escapes me, a feat that is definitely to be avoided by the claustrophobic. Scaling down a tunnel only 4 feet high and angled at 45 degrees, in 90 degree weather is not for the faint of heart. About a hundred feet down, even I started to have my doubts, but I just kept sipping on my water, telling myself that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Back to the camel - let me just say, two hours straddling a giant hump is not as much fun as it seems. Just 24 hours later, I am limping along like I spent yesterday wrestling with a 300 lb gorilla. Since a camel's body is significantly wider than that of a horse, the process basically involves pulling your legs in directions they were never intended to move, while you use your stomach muscles to maintain some type of balance. Needless to say, nothing I have ever done at the gym replicates this combination of muscle strain.
After my adventure to the pyramids, I retreated to lounge by the pool. My evening plans involved meeting a friend of a friend, H, who is studying in Cairo, for dinner. Luckily, getting together wasn't too difficult, since I stick out like a sore thumb. She took me to a delightful Lebanese restaurant, where I continued to indulge my recent diet of hummus, babaganouj and kofta. It is always interesting to meet other ex-pats, especially those immersed in different cultures, because while we share different experiences in many aspects, living abroad unites all of us some fundamental ways.
Luckily, we hit it off, so H invited me to join her with her university friends for a weekly event known as Sufi dancing, an art form practiced by devout, mystic Moslems. The dance ritual is based on the principle that the act of spinning can bring you closer to God and create a state of rapture. Bizarre as it sounds, it was a fascinating blend of atonal music (windpipes, drums), and a few dancers, dressed in brightly colored, layered skirts, that spun in tandem with their movements, like giant, cloth hula-hoops.
Afterwards, the two of us went to Khan-al-Khalil market, where I had been the day before, but to a famous ahwa (hookah lounge), Fishawi's coffeehouse, to smoke cantaloupe flavored tobacco and drink hibiscus and mint tea. After a few hours of lounging, people watching and talking, we parted ways. Experiences like these are virtually impossible to have on your own, and I am grateful to have met an ex-pat who revealed these elements of Cairo.
Today, I ventured into Coptic Cairo, the only Christian section of the city. While Copitic Christians have lived essentially in peace with their Arab brothers, there has been some tension in recent years. There are some obvious cultural differences at the onset - mainly, you can tell you are in the Christian section of the city by the noticeable lack of harrassment from male passersby. You also notice more women without veils, although many commute through the area, so it is not totally isolated from the rest of Cairo. The churches run the gamot of traditional Coptic (similar to Greek Orthodox), Greek-Orthodox and Greek-Catholic. The interiors are beautiful, but very similar to standard Orthodox/Byzantine iconography.
Afterward, I met H again for lunch at a cheap, cafeteria style restaurant downtown and we spent a few hours on a walking tour of the city. This evening, I will probably join her with her university friends, but the rest of the day will be spent by the pool, trying to keep my core temperature below boiling.
I had intended to go to Alexandria this trip, but Cairo is a city of 20 million, with many notable historical monuments, so I will probably have to save that for a future trip. All in all, despite all the inappropriate comments from men, I like many elements of Egyptian culture. It is obvious that culture is divided between old values and modernity and only time will tell how this division will continue to manifest itself.
More later.
I managed to buy a ticket in relative peace, before a guy introduced himself to me as an official guide, showing me a badge whose legitimacy I, obviously, had no way of authenticating. He showed me along the pyramids and tombs for a bit, before he insisted that I ride a camel, since the distance between pyramids was far. I tried convincing him that walking was fine, but, figuring I probably won't have the chance to ride a camel in the near future, I accepted his offer and climbed onto a gangly-looking camel named Moses. I asked if he was 900 years old, but Ali, my guide, didn't really get the joke and said he was 10. Oh, well. Moses, for all his horrid teeth and awkward joints, was friendly enough and maintained a steady pace, which is definitely what you want, when you're perched precariously 10 feet up on creature with stilts for legs.
After a few minutes on the camel, we reached a more secluded area, and Ali stopped to tell me what the rates were for various tours. Of course, I had not expected any part of the experience to come without a price, but the underhanded way he handled didn't sit particularly well with me. Despite that, we came to an agreement on a reasonable price, and since I repeated I was a student, I managed to get a somewhat discounted rate. Over the course of two hours, Moses took to me to all nine pyramids (three large, six small) and the Sphinx. I even entered one of the Pyramids, whose significance escapes me, a feat that is definitely to be avoided by the claustrophobic. Scaling down a tunnel only 4 feet high and angled at 45 degrees, in 90 degree weather is not for the faint of heart. About a hundred feet down, even I started to have my doubts, but I just kept sipping on my water, telling myself that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity.
Back to the camel - let me just say, two hours straddling a giant hump is not as much fun as it seems. Just 24 hours later, I am limping along like I spent yesterday wrestling with a 300 lb gorilla. Since a camel's body is significantly wider than that of a horse, the process basically involves pulling your legs in directions they were never intended to move, while you use your stomach muscles to maintain some type of balance. Needless to say, nothing I have ever done at the gym replicates this combination of muscle strain.
After my adventure to the pyramids, I retreated to lounge by the pool. My evening plans involved meeting a friend of a friend, H, who is studying in Cairo, for dinner. Luckily, getting together wasn't too difficult, since I stick out like a sore thumb. She took me to a delightful Lebanese restaurant, where I continued to indulge my recent diet of hummus, babaganouj and kofta. It is always interesting to meet other ex-pats, especially those immersed in different cultures, because while we share different experiences in many aspects, living abroad unites all of us some fundamental ways.
Luckily, we hit it off, so H invited me to join her with her university friends for a weekly event known as Sufi dancing, an art form practiced by devout, mystic Moslems. The dance ritual is based on the principle that the act of spinning can bring you closer to God and create a state of rapture. Bizarre as it sounds, it was a fascinating blend of atonal music (windpipes, drums), and a few dancers, dressed in brightly colored, layered skirts, that spun in tandem with their movements, like giant, cloth hula-hoops.
Afterwards, the two of us went to Khan-al-Khalil market, where I had been the day before, but to a famous ahwa (hookah lounge), Fishawi's coffeehouse, to smoke cantaloupe flavored tobacco and drink hibiscus and mint tea. After a few hours of lounging, people watching and talking, we parted ways. Experiences like these are virtually impossible to have on your own, and I am grateful to have met an ex-pat who revealed these elements of Cairo.
Today, I ventured into Coptic Cairo, the only Christian section of the city. While Copitic Christians have lived essentially in peace with their Arab brothers, there has been some tension in recent years. There are some obvious cultural differences at the onset - mainly, you can tell you are in the Christian section of the city by the noticeable lack of harrassment from male passersby. You also notice more women without veils, although many commute through the area, so it is not totally isolated from the rest of Cairo. The churches run the gamot of traditional Coptic (similar to Greek Orthodox), Greek-Orthodox and Greek-Catholic. The interiors are beautiful, but very similar to standard Orthodox/Byzantine iconography.
Afterward, I met H again for lunch at a cheap, cafeteria style restaurant downtown and we spent a few hours on a walking tour of the city. This evening, I will probably join her with her university friends, but the rest of the day will be spent by the pool, trying to keep my core temperature below boiling.
I had intended to go to Alexandria this trip, but Cairo is a city of 20 million, with many notable historical monuments, so I will probably have to save that for a future trip. All in all, despite all the inappropriate comments from men, I like many elements of Egyptian culture. It is obvious that culture is divided between old values and modernity and only time will tell how this division will continue to manifest itself.
More later.
posted by RedSonja at
1:10 PM
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