Cairo Cab Ride, 2-2-2006 Cab Ride in Cairo an Experience

By Bob Van Leer

(Cairo, Egypt, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2006) - Today Betty and I rented a cab for five hours and drove around Cairo.

The cab ride itself is a real learning experience. I believe downtown Cairo traffic is the worst in the world, or at least what I have seen of it.

The horn is an essential instrument of driving and all drivers use it frequently. Clearances are measured in single-digit inches. If there is room, you go. Thus, a two-lane road can become a three-lane road. If you get an opening of at least three car lengths in front of you, you floorboard the accelerator.

If you can get an inch of your nose in front of the other guy you have the right of way. But it is a game of chicken to see who gets that inch. Drivers roar straight at pedestrians at the best speed they can make. At the last minute the driver may slow down a bit and the pedestrian move slightly. On a couple of instances I saw the pedestrian's clothing be brushed by our cab, but neither driver nor pedestrian seemed to be perturbed.

In spite of all of this, we haven't seen a single accident. However, all cabs and a lot of other vehicles have wrinkled fenders and side panels. An interesting driving method is that at night many vehicles use only their parking lights. A number of vehicles use no lights at all. The streets are fairly well lit, but not that much.

We started by driving to the office of the Arab League. This is an influential organization in the world and is composed of all the Arab states from Saudi Arabia west to Morocco on the Atlantic Ocean. It is headquartered in Cairo. I wanted to learn more about the league and felt the headquarters was the place to go. Wrong. I made it through the entrance to the reception desk. After cooling my heels for 15 minutes, a man with limited English told me that some other time someone might talk to me. It is curious the league has no profile in Cairo. Our guide, Hussein, who is well versed in things in Egypt has never heard of the league. It has no visible signs on its building. There were a number of police right outside of the building directing traffic to the Egyptian Museum. It took two supervisors to determine we were standing in front of the building I was looking for.

We went from there to the Cairo Tower. It is a commemorative tower built under the presidency of Gamal Abdel Nasser with Soviet assistance and can't be more than about 30 years old. Already it is deteriorating and there is a major repair project underway. It is 187 meters high with concrete lattice work. There is a spectacular view from the top, but this was constrained by smog.

While there, we met an extended Cairo family with ties to the U. S. I had been looking for any signs of anti-Americanism and so far have found none. But we are meeting mostly people working in the tourist industry. I asked members of this family about it and one man didn't like George Bush but didn't think Egyptians had anything against Americans. We are readily recognized as Americans and have received many friendly comments.

From there we went to Khan el-Khalili, Cairo's largest bazaar, and a "must" stop for any visitor. Walking into the entrance is like stepping into another world. El-Khalili is strictly pedestrian. I don't know how big it is, because I've never been through more than a small part of it. There is a main road, about the width of a narrow one-lane road. Smaller side roads branch off of this and still smaller roads branch off the side roads, and still more branches off these. There appears to be a grid pattern, but you can get back so far you wonder if you can ever find your way out. Our guide also didn't know its size, but thought it was at least a hundred acres.

About every kind of craft made in the Mideast and Africa is for sale at tiny little shops. Merchants are very aggressive and you don't want to touch anything if you don't plan to buy it. These people are very insistent. The price of everything is by bargaining. Our guide, Hussein, suggests starting at about 25% of the asking price and figure to compromise at half. Walking away is a good bargaining tool. That way I bought a shirt priced at $25 for $10.

Tomorrow's tour is billed as "Spiritual Cairo", religious buildings of all faiths, plus another visit to el-Khalili.
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