Home » Egypt » Cairo, Friday the 27th of August

I arrive back in Cairo in the early morning, for my last day in this vibrant city. I manage to convince a cyber café owner friend to look after my bags for the day. They are all locked and chained to his radiator.

Cairo, Friday the 27th of August

Degrubenc
2005-12-09 16:58:02

Displayed times (last time: )

I arrive back in Cairo in the early morning, for my last day in this vibrant city. I manage to convince a cyber café owner friend to look after my bags for the day. They are all locked and chained to his radiator.

I decide to walk along the Nile, to sample a bit more the atmosphere of this life giving, all important river. I have barely walked 10 minutes that I remember with a jolt that I am lazy in essence and would much rather sail along the Nile, in a felouque. It just so happens that there are a bunch of them just below me. The felouques are long, elegant wooden boats, traditionally driven by sails but mine seemed to use his sails for decoration rather than sailing, relying on his fat, noisy, outboard engine. The journey takes me about 2 hours. We go completely round the main island in Cairo and go further north, towards Giza, before he drops me off, back near the Ramses train station. I book my ticket for the following day to travel to Alexandria, first class of course.

I eat in a small mezze restaurant and make full use of the opportunity to watch everyone else lying on the floor, praying, while I am helping myself to large amounts of taboule (a fresh salad made with mint, cucumber and tomatoes all crushed together), tahina and hommos. For the main course, I help myself to my favourite foul, which is the national dish in Egypt and is mighty good: a sort of long, date-like fruit boiled and served with oil, lemon and spices. Very refreshing and filling. I spend most of the afternoon at an internet cafe catching up on my blog and mails.

In the evening, I go and watch the famous Giza sound and lights show. It starts at 20:00 and costs the extravagant price of 80 Egyptian Pounds. Most certainly not worth it. I make instead for the nearby terrace of the Pizza Hut, very close to the seating arena for those paying the full price. From the terrace of the restaurant, I have a very good view of the light; while the sounds are sometimes a little distant, they are nevertheless rather good. The show is magnificent, the pyramids and the sphinx seem to come alive with the voices of Andre Malreaux and the laser show. I practically expect the sphinx to stand up and devour us all.

After such emotions, I return to the house of Mr de Maurrissens for an early night’s sleep