aggienaut | LJ Idol - Topic 3

Current Location: Cairo, Egypt

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LJ Idol - Topic 3 - Smile

Hurghada, Egypt, last night, 2:25am - "Dude, that's a 200!" Mark informed me impatiently
"Yes, that is a 200," also sounding impatient, the taxi driver weighed in on the subject. I, however, hate to take anyone's word for anything, much less how much money I'm pulling out of my wallet, so I continued to hold the bill in the dim light of the window looking for clues. Because I'm OCD like that I always arrange the bills in my wallet largest to smallest, and had pulled it from the back, so everything pointed to it in fact being a 200 but still, when pulling a bill worth 50 USD out of my wallet I'm going to need visual verification on that.
   Being as the digits we use with the latin alphabet (123 etc) are "arabic numerals" I was surprised to learn that apparently modern arabic has new, utterly different, "arabic" numerals. So the money in Egypt is printed with "arabic numerals" on one side and "arabic" numerals on the other. Additionally the numbers are written small and in only two corners of each side, so I had to turn the bill over several times and really squint before I could see for myself that it did, in fact, have a 2 followed by two 0s on it. I handed it over to Mark who impatiently forwarded it to the taxi driver and it disappeared behind the front seat.

   The original fare my local friend Michael had negotiated with the driver was 20 pounds. Because taxi drivers try to scam us every time practically without fail I make it a point to clarify the rate the moment I'm in the car. Unfortunately this time it was too late. Michael said 20, we got in the car, the door closed, I asked "20 right?" and as the car pulled away the driver said "no, 50!"

   Mark tried arguing with the driver the entire drive back (which wasn't more than 10 minutes, definitely no more than a 20 pound fare in these parts) but only managed to get it down to 40. Still ridiculous but $10 isn't goign to kill me and I knew it wasn't worth getting my blood in a boil over something that wasn't going to change.
   Egyptians for some reason HATE making change. It is their least favourite thing. They would rather you asked them to eat a pineapple whole than make change for a 100 or 200 pound bill. Incidentally ATMs only dispense 100 or 200 pound bills.
   Mark had smaller bills but for some reason in order to make change with what the driver had he wanted a 200 from me. I wasn't really sure what kind of silly math he was up to, I was tired and anxious to get back to the hotel to pack my stuff in the 20 minutes we had before the bus left for Cairo, and not entirely sober because we'd spent one last evening at a club with our local friends.

   "Dude you gave him a 20!" admonishes Mark disapprovingly, as a bill comes back over the seat. The first thing I notice is that even in the dim light I can tell its not the same colour bill I just handed over. The driver is insisting that I handed him a 20 and not a 200. Between the two of them telling me it was a 200 originally and pulling it out of the back of my wallet and seeing the 200 with my own eyes before handing it over I don't think I could possibly be more certain I'd handed him a 200. Egypt!
   Funny thing, we can make correct change now that there's a 20 mysteriously floating about. Arguing that it was a 200 is utterly fruitless so I just count it as a loss and proceed to the hotel more or less totally pissed off.

   Arriving at the hotel we are met by our companion Aaron coming out with several bags, including mine. "Fuck you guys, I had to pack your stuff for you" he says in as friendly a manner as one can say that.
   Now, like with my wallet, I don't ever like to have to take anyone's word for that my stuff is packed, and like having my bills in a certain order, I like to have my stuff packed in a certain order (stuff I'm less likely to need on the bottom). Now recall also that I was already totally pissed off.
"What?! Why'd you do that???"
"You guys weren't here, the bus leaves in 20 minutes!"
"I could pack my stuff TWICE in twenty minutes!!"
Aaron's wife Amalie chimes in: "Well we have to check out fifteen minutes before we leave, and that is now"
"Well I could pack while you check out then!"
"No you couldn't" says she. If she were a dude I think I might have punched her. Instead I go do exactly what she said I couldn't possibly be able to do. I go to the room. Inside I look everywhere I've put anything and it all seems to not be left behind at least.
   But between being cheated out of $50 for a $5 cab ride, having my stuff packed by someone else, and being given attitude about it, I'm veritably seething at this point.

   Throughout the trip we'd heard about what a miserably filthy place Cairo is. As we drove towards it this morning you could tell where it was on the horizon by the black smog around it. However to get to this internet cafe (computer use: 3 egyptian pounds an hour -- that's 68 cents!!) I walked maybe a mile down a crowded street alone at night (well 10pm) and no one bothered me. Cars and taxis (all 80s era volkswagon vans painted white, and they drive with the sliding passenger door open) share the road with donkey carts and herds of sheep and goats (yes in the middle of Cairo!) (no pigs though, apparently they had them ALL killed due to misplaced swine-flu fears. Trash they normally ate is consequently building up on the streets), and pedestrians. (Michael commented on once traveling to Amsterdam and finding "there are so many rules! About when you can cross the street and where you can walk...")

   Despite the shenanigans of this morning and dire warnings about this city from everyone we'd talked to earlier in the trip who'd been here, and especially despite that I ordinarily HATE big cities, I found myself walking down the crowded street an hour ago (composing this entry in my head while doing so ;) ) and smiling.

   Sometimes I think the best part about a vacation is when the plan goes completely out the window and things go haywire. When I drove around three states in New England by myself during Epic Roadtrip 2007, when the itinerary was already totally out the window by day 3 of Epic Roadtrip 2008, unplanned marooning in Portland last October, when Kerri an I accidentally became separated in Zaragoza, Spain, last May ... these were all some of my favourite times of the trips.
   Some people hate to travel because they're stressed out about what they'll do if their plans go awry. Some people travel but then are miserably upset when plans DO go awry. Some people stress about staying on itinerary and make their companions miserable in so doing. I think the secret to enjoying your vacation is remembering that you're on vacation. Don't stress. Remember that the very reason you travel is to experience things. (:

Cairo, Egypt, the next day, 23:45 - I wash my hands and the bathroom attendant hands me a paper towel. I mumble "shukren" (sp? Arabic for thank-you) and turn to exit the airport bathroom, but the attendant blocks my path in a "none shall pass!" manner and puts out his hand for a tip.
   I place a 1 pound bill in his hand and start to step forward but he doesn't budge, making another "give me money" gesture and holding up two fingers. This is a bit saucy since I know one pound is an entirely acceptable tip for handing me paper towels. I open my wallet and show him I don't HAVE any more one pound bills -- the smallest I have is a ten. He points at it eagerly. HAH. "Can you give me nine back in change?" I ask him. I don't even know why I was humouring him this much, I guess I was in a good mood, and anyway I didn't expect him to be able to (recall, they loathe making change). He nods enthusiastically so I skeptically hand him the ten. He hands me back 5 shiny one pound coins. "Hah are you serious?!" I exclaim, followed by "whatever dude" and I go on my way shaking my head, and smiling. It's only about $1.10 anyway.
   As counterintuitive as it may seem, because of it I had a smile all the way back to my gate. It was just.. so Egypt. Such a fitting end for my stay.

Picture that Should Have Been Posted Last Week of the Day

Sunrise over Mt Sinai. I finally managed to upload some pictures at an internet cafe so I put up the ones pertaining to the trek up Mt Sinai I described last week.

Unrelated to LJ Idol Entry, but to those who care -- I'll be arriving in NYC around 6am this Friday (the 6th). I'll be in the general area for about a week (by "general area" I mean I'm liable to rent a car and show up anywhere within say 12 hours driving distance) and have no solid plans (its sort of a vacation from my vacation (which will be followed by a two week vacation from my vacation vacation before I start my next endeavour). So if you want to meet up drop me a line.
In particular, the person I'm probably crashing with this first weekend presumably has work during the day on Friday so it might be nice if someone who lives in the city has a place I can stop by during the day and not feel totally homeless all day (:

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I'm always in awe of people who can just pick up and travel like you're doing. I would have been curled in a corner of the hotel crying my eyes out if I'd been in the same situation as you. Safe travels!

The constant attempts at scamming are pretty annoying but you get used to it... you just learn not to trust strangers literally any further than it would be POSSIBLE for them to scam you (because otherwise they will)

I hope you knock some shoes off again in NY, Playa.

Oh the NYC shoe supply won't know what hit them!

I wonder how locals handle the constant attempts at theft? I just don't know how to handle situations like that...

Great entry though!

I think they target people who are obviously non-locals (my skin colour gives me away if nothing else) exponentially more than other locals, but I'm sure the general spirit of trying to get over on people all the time still translates to a fair bit of scamming even among locals.

When I went to Hawaii with my parents, they unpacked everything. They put it in dressers, hung things up, etc.

I don't unpack. I like to keep things as packed as possible. If the hotel room catches on fire, I like to be able to grab my bag and run for it. If I change clothes, I'll put my dirty clothes in a bag, repack anything clean into my luggage, and then leave the dirty bag right by the luggage, too.

I'm crazy like that. But I wouldn't have had your problem. :)

I don't usually unpack everything either but in this case I had needed to get something from the very bottom of my bag (I have a military duffelbag/backpack/seabag) and we were stayign at this place for a week so I just dumped it out.

Oh heyy I actually wrote you a postcard but I need your address!

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pavel-lishin.livejournal.com - 2009-11-04 23:22 (UTC) - Expand

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emo-snal.livejournal.com - 2009-11-04 23:25 (UTC) - Expand

i think when plan go awry thats the only time you have to not think about anythign and just explore, and that can indeed be the best part of a trip

I've always said that (: I'm getting better at pre-empting it by not making plans in the first place ;)

I would have never let that cab driver get away with that, even if I had to rob him to get my change back. I've heard a lot of bad things about people in Egypt ripping tourists off, I doubt I'd ever want to go just because of that.

Yeah I'd heard all about it before coming here as well and was quite concerned about it. All I can say is you get used to it d:

Egypt sounds like somewhere I never want to go! That bargaining/ripping off tourists bullshit would piss me off like nothing you've ever seen. I'd be one bitchy kitty from beginning to end!

On what planet is "general area" a 12 hour radius? Anyway, I'm nine hours away from NYC, so if you've ever wanted to see the sunny Carolinas let me know.

Yeah I never would have wanted to come here except that you know, the pyramids and things. One has to see those at least once. I was thinking for the longest time "ugh, I just need to see them things so I can never come back here" .. but now I have friends in Hugharda I'd really like to see again!

And yes I am known to range far and wide on a whim. I'll take note of the Carolinas (:

Love this for many reasons. The clear vivid picture of taking a taxi in Cairo. That you like order in your wallet, biggest to smallest (I do too). And that you can smile in the face of chaos, because that's beautiful and wise, and sometimes the most incredible experiences happen when you just let go. :)

sometimes the most incredible experiences happen when you just let go.

exactly. (:

if you've got no plans on Friday night, I could totally meet up with you and we would go to a really cool Open Mic spot, known as the Grind. And then you'd get to see me play guitar in front of people and we'd have a drink there as well. Usually there's an after-party where people go to some bar or to the hosts house.

If you can't do Friday night, we can meet up friday afternoon and I can show you the now famous $1 pizza store around 42nd street and 9th avenue. Afterwards, we can stroll through Times Square, look at all the stores and stuff. Just go walking downtown afterwards... I don't know?

I've got a busy weekend planned with choir and singing, but I'd be more than happy to make time for you.

YOU'RE in NYC?! I'd definitely be interested in meeting you. Additionally I happen to have zero plans Friday afternoon. My phone probably won't be working because it de-charged and I don't have the charger, but you could give me your number and I could find a pay-phone (if they still exist) and/or we could make plans to meet at a specific time/place. Email me at

winged_s
nail@
yahoo.com

but without the line breaks (:

Re: hello from NYC

memeworrywort.livejournal.com - 2009-11-05 16:03 (UTC) - Expand

I've always wanted to go to Egypt....

It's never too late! ....until it descends into anarchic chaos...

oh my! I can and can't believe all that with the money. I just shake my head. Liked your descrption of Cairo. i'd like your kind of vacation. In fact, when I travel, the thing I know best is that I don't want any kind of itinerary and schedule!

I like to have a general idea of what my options in the area I'm going are, but other than that be just free to wake up every morning and go.

The biggest difference I usually have with travel companions is that I don't sleep much. I'm almost always the last one to bed and first one up. I get kind of annoyed when I'm ready to go out for the day at seven and other people don't crawl out of bed till noon! Fortunately that hasn't been the case on this trip at all but I've definitely traveled with people where that was the case. The wasted time just killlls me.

I had a similar taxi experience in Madrid, Spain. Got to the airport, guy pestered me to get in his taxi, saying it would be 20 Euros, then ended up charging me 50 when I arrived. I was PISSED. That was like AU$60 more than I expected to pay at the time. But he convinced me it was too far to walk to get to the train. I took the train back to the airport 10 days later, and it sure as hell was easier and cheaper than the taxi driver led me to believe.

I hate people who try to rip off tourists.

When I travel, I usually like to do so with no specific plan of what I'm going to do when I get there. Then I don't get pissed off if something goes wrong. Having said that, I have a fairly scheduled plan for Great Europe Trip 09-10, because there are shows I wanted to see in London and Cardiff. But whilst flights are booked for other destinations, I don't have specific plans for what to do when I get there. :)

Epic Roadtrip 2008 we had specific dates we were supposed to be in certain cities to pick people up or drop them off, so I unfortunately had to stress about staying on schedule and keeping us moving. It was kind of a reversal of the usual, because no one else seemed the least bit concerned but I was the one who was always "okay we gotta keep moving" and "we don't have time to do that." But I'm glad everyone else didn't have to worry, I just envy them. (: ...and the decision to pick up random people for different legs of the journey was still the best ever I think, so stressing about the schedule was a decent price to pay.

And re your taxi story, yeah I've heard of them changing the price on arrival, fortunately it hasn't happened to me. And definitely had taxi drivers pester me for rides I really didn't need (see my "arriving in Egypt" entry

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comedychick.livejournal.com - 2009-11-05 08:53 (UTC) - Expand

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emo-snal.livejournal.com - 2009-11-05 09:02 (UTC) - Expand

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comedychick.livejournal.com - 2009-11-05 09:12 (UTC) - Expand

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emo-snal.livejournal.com - 2009-11-05 09:16 (UTC) - Expand

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comedychick.livejournal.com - 2009-11-05 10:43 (UTC) - Expand

Well, as writers, when we get to that stage when we finally have our topic ideas all ready for composing, that's a smiling moment! The job's 1/2 over when I have the plan in my head. P.

Sounds like you're having a great time! :D

Always. I love traveling (:

Almost all of my favorite travel stories have been when things went horribly awry. Of course, at the TIME, all of these involved a lot of tears on my behalf ... but afterward, being left with some damn good stories is great! And it's given me an increasingly cocky attitude as I've gotten out of increasingly harder scrapes. Now I'm ready for anything to hit me. And the universe seems to take that as a challenge XD

Traveling like this sounds awesome, regardless of scammy cab drivers.

Indeed, indeed! (:

Very entertaining.

Thanks! (:

good entry...envious of the trip rip off artist cabbies and all

Yeah in the end they're just part of the adventure ;)

The reason we packed your things was because we didn't know when you were coming back. It was time to check-out and for all we knew you had problems getting a taxi and would be arriving later than expected. If we had known we would have left your stuff for you to pack. But it was check-out time, the bus was pulling up, and we didn't know if you were close to the hotel or still trying to find a taxi.

I never questioned your reasons.

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http://users.livejournal.com/amalie_/ - 2009-11-09 22:21 (UTC) - Expand

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emo-snal.livejournal.com - 2009-11-11 20:36 (UTC) - Expand

I like reading others' travelogues. I can't travel myself because of blood clot issues, but I sure would like to see some of those places. That's a gorgeous photo.

Aw thats terrible that you can't travel ):

I've so enjoyed your entries! I'm off on my own adventure to the Netherlands in 2 weeks. But I don't think my adventure will be equal to yours! Smile.

Hey Netherlands can be fun too! I've only spent about 24 hours in Amsterdam so far. I really want to see Bruges (admittedly entirely inspired by the In Bruges film lol)

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