Cairo at night

Cairo, Egypt

8th November 2009

Breakfast this morning was so bad there's no surprise there is starvation in Africa. I wish I could have identified what random items they tried to serve. There was one pan with two or three really, really thin pancakes. Another pan full of broken egg shells. A few pieces of hardish bread, some juice which probably speeds up diabetes, some small packets which had arabic written on them, presumably some diary products of sorts. I eventually ate some mashed potatoes they had.

The moment I left the hotel there were street sellers running after me. One dragged on for ages, I thought that he was just never going to leave me alone and that he'd ruin my trip. I finally got rid of him after a kilometre. Stonewalling is the only effective mechanism I have to get rid of these shit heads.

Lots of people said hello to me as I walked around, a few took my picture on their mobile phones. There was a good 2 or 3 kilometres where no one tried to sell me anything, which was nice. I did see some other white people being hassled and struggling to come to terms with the local currency while being pressured into various sales. I consider this nothing short of exploitation. I cross a street and 10-12 taxi drivers were standing on the other side. I put my hands up like I was under arrest and they laughed.

After a few hours of walking around and taking photos I had a really good lunch at Chilis. There is an airport-style metal detector and search to get in like most places in the middle east but the staff were super friendly. The restaurant was on a boat and I looked out at the Nile at people going around on their boats. They look dirt poor and I still can't figure out what they were doing nor how they intended to make any money floating in the middle of the river all day. They seem perfectly content being exposed to the intense midday sun mucking about.

The only things which appear to be cheap here are the things of low quality. The things with the same quality as in the UK cost the same. I guess the difference is that there are fewer people here buying those higher quality items.

The sunset here is lovely, it feels so timeless. It's hard to contemplate that mankind has occupied this city for some 6 - 7,000 years and have witnessed well over 2.5 million sunsets here. It feels like a world away from Europe or North America.