CAIRO, EGYPT

You are supposed to have a visa before you enter Egypt, according to the travel agent who sold me my ticket, but my book said you could easily get a visa when you arrive if you are from a civilized country. I went by the Egyptian Embassy in Athens, but they told me to come back the next morning so I decided to trust the book and attempt to get one upon arrival. One of the things I really love about this trip is going on one-way tickets so I can stay for any length of time I want. You are supposed to have an onward ticket from Egypt before you get on an Egypt-bound plane, but I didn’t. I figured the worst-case scenario was that I buy a full fare ticket to somewhere else from the Athens airport and then return it for a refund, but I didn’t have to do that. After some discussion with her supervisor, the girl at the counter checked me in so I was on my way back to Africa.

If Egypt was going to be much like Morocco — and I expected it to be — I knew I didn’t want to stay for more than a few days. A ticket from Egypt to India was around €500 in Greece so I hoped to find a cheaper one in Cairo. My original plan was to stay a minimum of 3 days and perhaps over a week if I really liked what I saw when I arrived. I figured I would spend a few days in Cairo and then could take a train down to Luxor or Aswan and go on a cheap but luxurious Nile cruise for a few days if I was in the mood. Cairo is a city of 12 million people — the largest in the Muslim world — so I knew it would be crowded. As the plane circled the city to line up for landing I got a good look at the unbelievable density and decided right then I would try to find a flight to India on Friday (3 days time from then). It’s pure desert and then suddenly this huge city with virtually no parks or open space. From the air it didn’t even look like there were streets but rather just cheaply built apartment buildings touching each other on every side.

We landed and I was slightly worried about the entry visa situation. I’ve never been deported before and sometimes when you don’t have the right paperwork they keep you at the airport and send you back from where you came on the next flight. Since I wasn’t sure how long I would stay I didn’t want to go to an ATM and pull out hundreds of dollars worth of Egyptian Pounds (approximately 6 to $1) so I just went to an exchange place right in baggage claim and changed my remaining €55 for about £E400. I noticed another guy asked for a visa there so I enquired. Getting a visa from a consulate usually means paying a fee, handing over passport size photos and waiting, but it turns out getting a visa upon entering Egypt requires giving a guy in the exchange booth €15 or $15 and him handing you two small stickers to paste into your passport. Luckily I had some greenbacks on me so I saved about $5 by using those instead of my euros.

I went through customs in just a few seconds and got my backpack from the baggage claim carousel. I was planning on getting a taxi into Cairo straight to a hotel I chose out of my book but had no reservation for. Cairo is yet another place famous for its taxi and hotel tout scams and I was ready. A man with a Tourist Board badge approached me and asked if I had a hotel and/or a taxi. I had read extensively on these scams so I knew the badge just meant he had a license to operate at the airport, but wasn’t an “official”. I told him I had a hotel reservation then he offered just a taxi ride. Evidently the going rate for tourists is £E50 (a bit over $8) even though locals pay about half that. The airport is a long way from town so I was just going to pay the £E50 once outside and this guy said he would take me for that price. Great. We started walking and he handed me off to another guy and told him our deal. That guy walked me passed some other taxi booths and handed me off to another guy who took me to his taxi booth where I prepaid the £E50. Each guy spoke less English than the last and the third guy finally introduced me to my actual driver who spoke almost no English.

This is the kind of thing that makes people crazy. The first guy told me he would take me himself and I told him he’d be better off at the airport finding another sucker by the carousel, but he insisted he should take me. Four people later and I am being driven by Mohammad the non-English speaking taxi driver. As it turned out, the driver did a great job and even flagged down an English-speaking friend of his to interpret for us when we got close to my hotel. There were no other surprises so I gave him £E5 (80 cents) tip more even though locals don’t tip.

I had chosen the Carlton Hotel from my Rough Guide to Egypt book for its central location. It said it was cheap and the rooms were decent as well. I noticed the street outside was very dirty, but I later discovered that virtually all of Cairo is dirty with the possible exception of the streets in front of the many 4 and 5 star hotels overlooking the Nile. The lobby was very nice and quite grand, but well worn. I asked if they had rooms and the man said they had two types to choose from. One was about $20 and the other about $25 and he gave both keys to the bellboy who led me to the elevator to show me the rooms. I had read that many mid and low price hotels in Cairo occupy the upper floors of office buildings and I think that’s a great idea. The lobby is on a side entrance on ground level, but all the hotel rooms are on the 7th, 8th, and 9th floors. The bellboy showed me the cheap room first and that was nice, but the more expensive room had a great view of the street below and was very large. I chose the large room and finished checking in.

After I got settled the first order of business was to find a travel agent and look into a ticket to India. I went down the main street to the addresses I found in my book, but when I got there I discovered the recommended ones were closed. I asked a few others and they had similar fares of around $450 on Egypt Air, but none seemed to be savvy enough to try other airlines so I figured I would work it out the next morning. I came back to my hotel and bought a few beers from the liquor store nearby and for dinner I ordered some take out from a busy place on the corner. I ordered shish kebab and this rice, pasta and spicy sauce dish for about $3 total. It was actually enough for two meals and was delicious. I drank my beers while watching the highly entertaining Egyptian music television and called it a night.

Since I had at least two more full days in Cairo I decided to put off the Pyramids until my third day so the plan this day was to hit the famous museum after I figured out the airline schedule. I went to the place at the top of the recommended list in my book and decided to deal with them. From the previous day and doing some other research I had discovered that there are many travel agencies in town who should not be trusted, as they will tack on some bogus tax or fee after you have started the transaction. The bottom line was the cheapest flight was on Kuwaiti Airlines leaving at 5 p.m. every day with a 90-minute layover in Kuwait City and arriving in Mumbai at 5:10 a.m. The fare was a little under $400 and for some reason the thought of changing planes in Kuwait seemed like an appealing idea to me. The other decent option was the Egypt Air flight for about $30 more, but it leaves at 2 a.m. and gets in at noon and only goes twice a week. I made a reservation on the Saturday Kuwait flight, but their system was partially down so I would have to actually buy the ticket the next day.

I then headed for the museum. Along the way I met a few of the notorious tour and hotel touts. Rather than describe the whole thing let me just say that it can be anything from comical to infuriating. Many people on the street welcome you to Egypt and ask where you are from, but some of them then start walking with you and suggesting alternatives they guarantee are better. I have read all about this and experienced a number of them already so I know the game, but I haven’t figured out a way to deal with them that works every time. Part of the problem is that lots of people in Egypt (just like Morocco) try to help you with only good intentions and if you ignore all of it then you miss out on a big part of the experience. They always walk with you even if you thank them and tell them you don’t need any more help. It’s not scary at all, but often annoying.

People try to take you to their friend’s travel agencies or hotels or whatever and sometimes they are just helping, but usually they are trying to get a commission. If they are the commission types and they spend a lot of time with you they can even get insulting if you don’t buy anything with them. One guy went into this routine that he was being so friendly and why was I acting like this, is it because I am American and hate Muslims? After steering me into a dubious travel agency he asked for a favor. He wanted me to buy three bottles of Duty Free vodka and right on cue he said they were for his sister’s wedding, just like my book predicted. The real scam is they resell the vodka to bars for a profit or sometimes buy something else, like a TV, on your passport and when you leave the country you have to pay tax on the TV since you don’t have it with you.

Another really annoying type of incident happened to me on the way to the museum. I was walking toward the museum and was slightly unsure whether I should cross the street in one place or another. A nicely dressed older man pointed at the museum and then pointed in the direction he suggested I go. I thanked him and started walking in that direction and he angrily said the he isn’t a guide and stuck his hand out for a tip. That is the other bizarre thing about these cultures, it’s called Baksheesh and sort of means a tip, but they expect it for almost everything including unsolicited help or advice. Luckily their money is worth so little that even giving most people 1 pound (17 cents) makes them happy.

It was a big headache actually getting to the museum. I could clearly see it across the giant intersection that is considered the town square, but had trouble getting to it. There was a protest by the Muslim Brotherhood three days prior and there was another protest planned for this day, I found out afterward, so the government responded by placing thousands of armed troops and riot police every few feet around the entire area. They blocked some streets off and I eventually had to use the metro station beneath the square to find the closest exit so I could actually walk the rest of the way to the museum.

Once there it I could see it was a zoo outside. You have to go through metal detectors to get inside the courtyard to buy tickets then more to get inside. Once inside they told me I had to check my camera out front so I had to go back out and check my camera before reentering. There are almost no English signs there even though a huge majority of the museumgoers are English speaking. All the confusion of getting to and into the museum really put me in a bad mood, but I tried to calm down and enjoy it.

It’s a very large and impressively laid out museum filled with almost all the antiquities taken from the Pyramids and other tombs and sights in the country, and there were English explanations on everything, but they amounted to a tiny index card that was often hard to even see, much less read. It was interesting, but a bit frustrating at the same time. All the caskets and sculptures from King Tut’s tomb and others like them were nice to see, but I was actually most impressed by the gold jewelry. I had no idea they were able to make intricate designs in gold 3,000 or more years ago. It looked just like stuff you see in stores today. It cost about $7 to get into the museum, but it was an additional $12 if you wanted to go into the humidity-controlled room to see 12 mummies. That’s a lot of money for a small display and my book said most people are disappointed so I passed on that.

After leaving there I decided I wanted to leave Cairo ASAP, which meant Friday, so I would see the Pyramids and Sphinx the next day and leave the day after. That evening I was in my hotel room and for some reason remembered that India might be a visa requiring country. Oh no! I looked in my Lonely Planet book and there it was in black and white: A visa is required before you arrive in India and they usually take 2 or 3 days to process. Fortunately the Indian Consulate was located about 5 minutes from my hotel and they were open the next morning (Thursday), but they were closed on Fridays and Saturdays. I knew it was a longshot to get a visa in one day, but I had to try or I would be staying in Egypt for several more days.

The next morning I found the tiny consulate and arrived before they opened. A few staff members showed up and I quickly learned that a same day visa was impossible. I had to get two passport-size photos and then wait at least 3 days. They said it might be ready on Sunday, but more than likely Monday and possibly even Tuesday. This did not make me happy, but there is nothing that could be done. Fortunately the weather was nearly perfect and Egypt is very cheap so staying a couple extra days would not be the same sort of hardship as being trapped in an expensive country with bad weather. I got eight photos taken a few blocks away for $2.50 and submitted my paperwork back at the consulate.

I was thinking about visiting Luxor or even Aswan, which are the two main touristy cities on the Nile, but they are a 9 and 12 hour train ride, respectively, from Cairo so a round trip journey would take most of two days just on the train. I had heard and read that the tout situation in those places is far more intense than in Cairo and I was already sick of it there. It wasn’t too terrible in Cairo actually, but remembering my experiences from Morocco it made me uneasy about journeying into the belly of the tout-beast so I was thinking about going to Alexandria for a couple of days over the weekend to wait out the India visa. I went back and forth considering both possibilities as I could easily change my plane reservation to leave a day later if I went to Luxor, although the main thing that attracted me to the Nile Valley, as they call it, was the possibility of a Nile cruise. Evidently for around $40 per day you can get a cabin and all meals on a reasonably luxurious boat, but the cruises last at least 3 days so that would leave me in Egypt for many more days.

I knew I would go to one or the other on Friday so I had to use Thursday to see the Pyramids. One of the various touts I met on the street that day worked at a hotel and was relentlessly trying to sell me a 3-day, 2-night Luxor trip. I wanted a guide for the day to drive me to the pyramids and he eventually got me to agree to that, although I am sure I overpaid a bit, and I figured I would gauge my satisfaction on that day tour to see if I might agree to a Luxor trip, which would leave the following evening. The price kept dropping and he got so insistent that that alone made me suspicious. I later read in my book that many people who book Luxor “tours” in Cairo are dissatisfied and feel they overpaid. The guy arranged for a driver for the day to the local sights and at that point I was just happy to be rid of him, although he ended up jumping in the car with us for the first few blocks still pressuring me for the Luxor trip.

I paid about $23 for a driver for the afternoon who would take me to the Pyramids and some other famous archeological sights further afield. That might not sound like much, but it’s actually possible to get a car and driver for about $15 for the day if you really bargain hard. The driver was a kind, older guy with a beard that seemed like he must be very religious, but he was otherwise normal and very nice. We finally got underway a bit after noon and we had to hurry a bit since the Pyramids stop letting people in at 4 p.m. We drove through Cairo and across the Nile into and through the city of Giza, which is the large city directly across the Nile from Cairo and where the Pyramids are located. I was surprised by how lush the land was. The desert itself was far more lifeless than anything in Arizona, but for a long way on either side of the Nile and its canals there is lush farmland. I suppose if it wasn’t good farmland there wouldn’t be much of a city there.

We arrived at the second most famous sight around 1 p.m. and I paid a very small fee to enter one section. There are a couple of pyramids there, but they are falling apart to varying degrees. There are also the remains of a large fort-type building and a few other buildings. It was interesting, but not a real home run of an attraction. I got back in the car and he drove me about 5 minutes to the other side of the place and I got out to look around there. There is another pyramid there that is all but fallen apart and a local guy standing at the entrance asked where I was from and suddenly started guiding me around the complex. This is another thing that can be annoying and is very common. Very often my tour book will have vivid descriptions of sights like this so I really don’t need a guide, but these guys just start and are quite pushy about it. They will claim it’s free, but will always ask for a tip at the end and sometimes insult you if you don’t tip enough.

As it happens this “guide” was pretty good and I couldn’t really follow the sights in my book anyway. He led me around and then down into the tomb area of the pyramid that was falling apart. That was really unique, but you have to walk, or crawl, at such an angle that it is quite uncomfortable for a taller person. I gave the guy a dollar or so and he was happy. I got back in the car and we drove to toward the Great Pyramids of Giza, but first we stopped for lunch. The driver asked if I wanted lunch before or after that first stop, but didn’t ask if I wanted lunch or where I might want to eat.

He pulled the car into a large tourist restaurant on the roadside that is used by tour buses and private tours and nothing else. There was a band that played authentic music for about 15 seconds anytime someone was walking in or out, but were otherwise silent. The place was a series of large patios and I was told they had a set lunch for about $6. That sounded good to me and the place looked nice enough. I asked my driver before we went in if he eats there too and he gave me a vague answer. After I was seated they took him toward the back where I am sure he got a free locals meal based on bringing me. I was fine with that actually and relieved I didn’t have to pay full price for him.

The meal turned out to be excellent, surprisingly enough. I washed it down with a couple of cheap beers and I was ready for the Pyramids. We got back in the car and we drove back into Giza and toward the entrance. Before we got to the actual parking lot we detoured into a place where he insisted I should rent a horse or camel. I had read that the sights are close enough that you can see them on foot easily enough, but pressure to rent an animal will be there anyway. I was seated in a small shop where a guy explained the “tours” they offered and then quoted me a very high price. By this time it was after 3 and I knew I had limited time. He insisted that if I rented an animal and guide I could stay inside the park area until sunset (around 6 p.m.) and then come back and watch the Sound and Light Show from the roof of their building, saving over $10 in the process.

I didn’t really want to do it, but I eventually gave in. I really wanted to see the Sound and Light Show at 6:30 and if I didn’t do their tour it would mean a short trip inside the Pyramids area then waiting 2 hours and then paying $11 for the show later on. I got the price down to about $25 and that included everything, including park admission. The price was a bit high, but they had me over a barrel. I was bitter about being trapped like that, but I also thought a sunset ride by the pyramids would probably be unforgettable one way or another.

I had no interest in riding a clumsy and jittery camel, even though they are bigger and probably better suited to someone of my stature. Before I knew it I was aboard a horse and my guide was aboard his. We rode around a back entrance to the park area and instead of “admission” my guide paid the guards some bribe (baksheesh) money to let us in. The whole society seems to be based on bribes and rule bending.

We rode in and toward the Pyramids, almost never getting above a lazy walk, but in the soft sand it would take a person a ton of energy to walk anywhere near that speed. I finally got my first good look and I was shocked. Not shocked actually, but very impressed. I had read that the actual sight of them was often underwhelming so I was prepared to be disappointed, but I wasn't. They are enormous and stand so ominously there in the otherwise lifeless desert, even though it’s actually on the edge of town.

We rode for 10 minutes or so and the guide said I should take a picture since this is the closest we would get. I was unhappy about that as I could see many people on foot along a path that wound right in between the two largest structures and we were well over 100 yards away. It took a while to digest it, but that was my big sacrifice for going on horseback. You can go almost anywhere into the desert and around them, but you can’t take your horse right into the heart of it all. At the time I was disappointed, but not for long.

We then went around a few hills and near the Sphinx finally. The sun was getting ready to set directly behind it so I could see almost no detail of what’s left of its face. It’s also relatively small compared to the pyramids so I was not terribly impressed with it. We went up and down hills and through the raw and completely empty desert to some different vantage points. This is the type of desert with no insects crawling around, much less bushes or cactus. It is essentially sand dunes. We made it a couple miles up to a large hill where I could finally see all 9 pyramids lined up. I think most people don’t even realize how many there are because at different angles you can usually only see the three large ones and that’s it.

We finally got off the horses after almost 2 hours and sat on the sand, as the sun was about to set. He gave me some canned explanations of the area, but that was nice since he had said so little while we were actually riding. Near the beginning he insisted that I should think of him as a “friend” rather than a guide, but I just wish he had been a better guide.

After the sun set it was still light enough to climb back up and make it 20 minutes to the stable, but just before we did that he asked for his tip. I guess if he waits until the very end people can give a small amount and walk away, but this way he can try to get more. I hate the practice of people begging for a tip, but I guess with cheapskate Europeans out there some people need to be reminded that certain jobs are more based on tipping than others. I gave him about $5, which was more than I planned earlier on, but it was 3 hours and he did have to work a lot to keep the horses moving. He asked if that was the best I could do and I stared him right in the eye and said yes. Asking for a tip is bad, but then insulting a tip is ridiculous. I was slightly sorry that I gave him that much and there was no way I was giving more, but he kept hinting and asking if his service was okay. I told him it was fine and I thought that was a fair tip, especially since I didn’t really want to do the trip in the first place.

After we finally dismounted he then carefully took me into a showroom and seamlessly told me that this would be the final part of what I had paid for. I was seated, against my will, and offered mint tea (here we go again!). It turned out to be a perfume shop and this festively dressed girl kept producing bottles of oil and then rubbing a small amount of an open piece of my skin and asking for my opinion, then on and on and on. At the end it was like, ‘Okay sir, which ones shall we box up for you?’ That is really annoying, but as it turned out I really liked the very first one, lotus flower, a lot. The price they quoted was outrageous so I offered much less. To make a long story shorter, I got half a small bottle of lotus flower oil for about $8 and am still very happy with it. It’s small enough to fit in my backpack and smells incredible. They were lucky that I was actually receptive to that because I have left a wake of angry and slack-jawed salespeople on this trip as I just storm out.

After that ordeal I went up to the roof to watch the Sound and Light Show I had anticipated so much. No one in the world loves things like that more than I do and I had envisioned a laser spectacular with modern Egyptian music and smoke machines to top it off, but it turned out to be horribly boring. The show is in a different language each time and every other one is English. I was there for the Japanese show, but I had read that the narration is so corny it’s better if you don’t understand it.

Instead of lasers and Pink Floyd or whatever, it was amplified narration with almost no music that went on and on and on. From time to time a pyramid would light up pink, or yellow or sometimes two or all three mains ones would light up, and that’s it. It costs about $11 if you pay to get a seat in the center and I’m sure it’s more entertaining up close, but I had a good enough look at it to know it wasn’t anything near what I had imagined. After about 30 minutes I decided staying for the finale would only mean more traffic so I went downstairs and found my driver and we headed back to my hotel.

I had told the guy who sold me the day tour that I would see him when I got back in the evening, but I had already decided I wasn’t going on his Luxor tour. The driver wanted to take me to the hotel where the guy worked, but I asked to be let out at my hotel. Actually I gave him the name of a nearby hotel just in case the first guy might come try to find me later or the next morning.

I got a quick haircut for about $2.50 and then found a nearby place to have dinner and walked around the area for a while. Only later did I realize how lucky I got with my hotel. It was just at the edge of an area with about 20 different restaurants and coffee shops along a few uncrowded streets. They supposedly call it the Champs Elysay of Cairo and that’s really a stretch, but it is the most pleasant restaurant area in town, unless you count the 4 and 5 star hotels along the Nile. Those places would be 5 times as expensive and you’d be dining only with other tourists where this area was almost free of western tourists. I had a nice shower to get the dirt and sand of the day off of me and called it a night, still unsure where I would go the following day.

By the morning I had decided to go to Alexandria — the second largest city in Egypt and famous for being the home of Cleopatra, but also a summer beach resort for Cairo people. The train takes a bit over two hours each way and I had to stop off at the travel agency in the morning so I decided to go on the noon train. I took a taxi for a bit under a dollar to the train station and then found the correct window to buy a tourist class ticket. I didn’t see it at first since most of the signs are in Arabic, but a man hanging out at the station walked me to it and then stuck his hand out for a tip. I gave him about a quarter I think. I bought my first class air con ticket for $6 and was soon on board.

I was a bit surprised by the luxury. This was not the most luxurious train on that route, but the seats were huge. It was a normal width train, but only 3 seats across instead of the normal 4. It was a little dirty, but overall very nice. The trip went by quickly and I got to see more Nile scenery. Alexandria is along the Mediterranean, but the trip goes along the river most of the way there.

SEE ALEXANDRIA

After taking the train back from Alexandria I caught a taxi right back to the same hotel and even room I was in before. I thought about trying another hotel, but this place was near all the restaurants and also 3 minutes away from the Indian Consulate. There was also something particularly fascinating about the view from the balcony. It faced a large government building to one side, I could also clearly see the traffic and pedestrians going through two large intersections below me. The fact that neither cars nor pedestrians wait for each other kept me entertained for a long time. A car or pedestrian would just go straight ahead until something was in their way then they would slow down or stop until it was gone. It is incredibly inefficient and dangerous, but Egyptians don’t seem to realize it or care. I asked my taxi driver for the pyramids if he had ever hit a pedestrian and he said yes and I asked a local guy I met if he had ever seen anyone get hit and he said he saw a boy killed by a bus right in front of him. Yikes!

The room in Cairo was only about $26 and it was large and comfortable. That evening I walked around the restaurant area for a while and then decided to try one of the coffee shops with the giant hookah pipes in them. I rented a pipe for about 50 cents and they filled it with apple flavored coal or something that burned like coal, it might have been dried apple for all I know because it was very mild and didn’t have the slightest tobacco taste or feel. I had two glasses of mint tea and watched the Egyptian music channel with the locals and really enjoyed it. There is nothing drug-related with these pipes by the way, the locals just find it a good way to relax.

The next morning was when I was to pick up my Indian visa. The hours for visas are 8:30 to 11:30 and I walked over a little before 10, but I had an uneasy feeling. They told me when I applied that it usually takes 3 days and might even be ready on Sunday, but it might not be ready by Monday, it all just depends on the clearance. I had a ticket booked on Kuwait Air for that evening and I was very anxious to leave Egypt at that point. I walked into the consulate office on the 3rd floor of a crumby office building on the main commercial street and the nice woman who helped me the week before just shook her head. She said they couldn’t get the fax through to New York the previous week so they faxed it to Washington DC and requested they forward it to New York. I never found out, but I guess the Indian Embassy there does some criminal search or something.

I wasn’t too shocked actually, but I was disappointed. I would have to spend at least one more day in Cairo. I went down to the travel agency and asked to have my ticket changed. They changed the reservation, but didn’t print out the new ticket just in case I couldn’t go the next day. I got one free change of day and after that it would be costly. It was a strange feeling being trapped in a foreign country by the inefficiency of another foreign country, but the good news was Cairo is cheap, my hotel was comfortable, and overall I was having a good time, but still looking forward to the next place.

That afternoon I finally decided to go see the old, Islamic part of town. I avoided it before because it isn’t too well known compared to those in Morocco and I had my fill of those already. I had no more excuse to avoid it and it would be free anyway as long as I walked. I headed down to the Nile, but had to cross about 50 lanes of traffic just to get there, but once I did it was a pleasant stroll south for about 30 minutes. The maps in my book were terrible so I was never sure where to turn left to enter the main part of the medina. I took a shot and after about 15 minutes of zig zagging around I was completely lost. I got a good look at what I had come to see, but I didn’t know how to get back to my hotel in the maze of streets. The signs were only in Arabic so my map was of no help even if I could find myself. I had a vague idea which way to go, but as I went in that direction the streets got smaller.

As I walked along a boy about 15 years old called out behind me, “Hey tourist!” At that point I was welcoming any English voice. I turned around and the boy ran toward me. He asked where I was going and I told him the Hilton, which is fairly close to my hotel. He started showing me the way and chatting the best he could in English. It was hard to understand him, but in that neighborhood English is rare so I was happy. He was dressed in the full on traditional clothes so he definitely lived in the Islamic part of town.

On we walked. I kept asking which way I needed to go and he just said yes and signaled that I should follow him. It was really annoying to not get any kind of answer, but I was happy he was helping regardless. I would have loved to know that it’s a few hundred meters in this direction then right then another right, but he said nothing and just kept walking. I assumed he was doing this for a tip and I was happy to give him 5 pounds (80 cents) but I decided to test him. We finally got to the edge of the new town and I could see where I was now and I was waiting for him to put his hand out or ask for a tip. I figured if I just gave him money automatically it would reinforce their idea that tourists are just a source of tips. If he gestured that he might want money I was prepared to give him some, but instead he just shook my hand and turned around and walked the other way. He walked with me for about a mile and was friendly just for the heck of it. Just when my faith in Muslims had disappeared this kid helped out a clumsy tourist just to be kind.

The next morning I had an early breakfast and went over to the Indian Consulate again. The woman told me they still hadn’t received my paperwork. What? At that point I was thinking they faxed my form into a black hole, which is one reason I don’t like or trust fax machines. I asked her if there is anything that could be done and she spoke to her boss. She came back and asked me several questions like why I hadn’t obtained a visa in the States. After about 10 minutes of this she told me if I brought my plane ticket for that day in she could give me a visa in a few hours. I was elated. I went down the street to the travel agency and had my ticket officially changed for that day’s flight and took it back to the consulate.

Once I got back in the office I showed her my ticket and she photocopied it and brought it to her boss. He then came out and asked me where the ticket leaving India was and I explained I was going to buy it in India. This is normally something you absolutely need to get into India, but after looking at my passport they were convinced that I was on a long trip and not planning on settling in their country. He accepted that, but then asked if he could have one or two more days for a visa. What? Now I had my ticket officially changed after she promised me I could get the visa and now he wants ONE or TWO more days? I told him that I was locked into the ticket based on what she told me and he went back into his office. Finally the woman came back and told me they would give me the visa if I came back after 12:30, but that gave me plenty of time to get to the airport.

I checked out of my hotel and used the Internet for a while then returned to pick up my visa. The woman had me write the answers to 3 questions of what I was planning on doing in India. Everything was fine, but their photocopy machine was now broken so I had to go photocopy all the pages out of my passport and bring them back. The people there were very friendly and they didn’t have to bend the rules so I was grateful, but it was nice to be done with that. She finally pasted the visa into my passport and I was good to go. I got a taxi to the airport and after 90 minutes in the heavy traffic I was at the Cairo Airport. Whew!