As long as I’m dreaming, let’s throw in a DeLorean for tooling around Cairo’s busy streets, because given the view from the balcony my first morning in Egypt, its Back to the Future for Jimmy and me as we bounce between the ancient world and the 21st century.
The Nile has taken on a new look!
How else does one rationalize a modern hotel juxtaposed against the ancient Pyramids of Giza?
Besides, I’m going to need a vehicle to work wonders in getting around this land of ancient wonders. The traffic in this third world country is craaaazy! Of course that’s just the tip of the iceberg for the 83 million Muslims, give or take a few Christians, struggling for economic and political independence since the Lotus Revolution of 2011 signaled the masses had had enough of the corruption and oppression of the Mubarak regime. Egypt is currently a country struggling to do more than just survive.
I never realized what transportation alone said about survival until this, my first trip to a third world country. Watching all manner of vehicles make their way through Cairo’s streets, there’s a lot to be said for anyone willing to listening.
I never realized what transportation alone said about survival until this, my first trip to a third world country. Watching all manner of vehicles make their way through Cairo’s streets, there’s a lot to be said for anyone willing to listening.
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Very few of those battered and war-torn streets, many remnants of the Lotus Revolution of 2011, came with lane markings, speed limits (volume of traffic basically dictated the speed), or traffic lights; all were frivolous for a struggling nation trying on democracy for size.
What's the opposite of potholes? Large masses of cement debris.
Driving in Cairo, such a basic modern commodity outside third world countries, was both obstacle course and bumper cars, although amazingly there was very little bumping of said cars on Cairo’s streets,
Let's add to the chaos and stop in the middle of a four lane highway after a fender bender.
but minute by minute the potential was there. Fortunately Jimmy and I were not doing the driving. That requires a very different kind of driver's ed.
Our magic carpet!
It was organized chaos in the streets (a lot like the government), particularly in intersections devoid of traffic signals, of which there were many. The vehicles moved en mass, their passage regularly punctuated with honking as if a flock of disgruntled geese had taken to the streets of Cairo, sharing their chagrin as often as they changed lanes.
Rush hour traffic had morphed into a monster (a lot like the former regime) stalking the streets of Cairo every moment of the day and night. Well, truthfully, I can’t speak for the wee hours of the morning, but does a city of 23 million ever really sleep. Straddling the poverty line in search of basic needs requires constant vigilance.
Rush hour traffic had morphed into a monster (a lot like the former regime) stalking the streets of Cairo every moment of the day and night. Well, truthfully, I can’t speak for the wee hours of the morning, but does a city of 23 million ever really sleep. Straddling the poverty line in search of basic needs requires constant vigilance.
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I'd traveled halfway round the world to see one of civilization’s greatest contributions to all of humanity; crazy or not, what was a little traffic on the road to a better life for that now struggling civilization.
If ever Egypt needed a prophet to emerge from the desert, this would be the time.
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