Trip to Cairo.....

I took a train to Cairo early morning on Sunday. We were four of us. The journey was smooth and we reached Cairo within 3 hours. Once there, my colleague, S's cousin was there to recieve us at the station.We took a taxi and thats when we got a real taste of Cairo. Its like any other metropolis ....with horrible traffic snarls. The taxi driver convinced us to visit a certain New Garden Palace Hotel , waxing eloquently about its various facilities!!! The location of the hotel was without doubt impressive...it was amidst the big names in the Hotel Industry....the Hilton, the Grand Hyatt, the Four Seasons as well as the British, Nigerian and the American Embassies, near the River Nile. After driving through the rather posh streets, we came across a neon sign on a ramshackle building proudly displaying the name "New Garden Palace Hotel". The foyer looked pretty neat but with an eerie blue hue. Anyway, the taxi ride was long and we were quite tired by then. So we decided to have a look at the rooms. We were given the option of either taking a 4 bedded room or two double rooms in the 5th and 8th floor respectively. So we boarded the elevator and never in my entire life been in such a rickety old elevator. It was just a boxand there was a gap between the door and the box (it was just a box!!!), so if you looked down through the gap ,you could see the empty space and I always got the dreadful feeling that the elevator would plummet and that would be the end of my trip to Egypt!!!

Anyway, to cut the long story short, after the horrid experience in the elevator, the rooms were no better. So we decided on the 4 bedded room on the 5th floor. There was a funny odour in the room and things in the room looked ancient but at 70 Egyptian pounds per person (including breakfast), thats roughly $ 13, in a peak tourist season, we decided to take it.

So we booked the room and visited the bookshop in the American University. The University campus looked anywhere other than Egypt. The students were a cosmopolitan lot and very fashionable, no head scarf, no burqa....... normal teens with a strong American accent. Probably most of the children of the elite in Egypt as well as the Diplomats stationed there, frequented this University. It was quite an expensive institution, annual fees totalled $ 12,000. The bookshop had a good collection but they didn't have too many books on Gender Studies. I got an edited book on Political Islam by John Esposito, an edited book on Gender and Development Thought by Naila Kabeer and a book on the Status of Women In Islam by a scholar from Bangladesh. The books were quite expensive especially since most of them were published by foreign publishing houses.

After our work was over, we visited a souvenir market in the Al Azhar square. Picked up some curios but it was like Janpath in New Delhi. The prices were steep and it is a touristy place. Bus loads of people from all over the world visit that place everyday, during the tourist season. Like India, Egyptian markets are bright and very colourful. Lots of foreign tourists had bought portable sheeshas to take back home. Anyway, it was evening by the time we had lunch....the food was very good........and by that time all we wanted to go back to our rooms.

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The next day (thats yesterday), we went to a bookshop that sold French books...as two of my colleagues wanted books in French. Since we had some time in our hands, we visited the Al Azhar University. The University has two campuses: the old campus is adjacent to the mosque and the new campus is in the suburbs. We wanted to visit the Department of Islamic studies there but we couldn't meet anyone. The language barrier was a big problem ....they mistook us for foreign students seeking admission. Anyway, we visited the old campus and the UNESCO Identity did the trick and we could finally meet a few lecturers there, but even they spoke Arabic. Both the campuses are beautiful.....wide green spaces, palm trees and flowers, but photography is banned. There were lots of Asian students..... mostly from Malaysia and Indonesia.

On our way to the mosque, I saw what looked like the ramparts of an old settlement on either side of the road. It resembled the ruins of an old settlement.....just the walls...with windows....but no roofs. When i made some enquiries, i was told that they were not old settlements, but cemeteries. Each family had a house, where they buried their dead. Probably they built it like a house to provide the departed souls with a homely feeling....i don't know...it is very fascinating!!!

Yesterday , I also had the opportunity to visit the Al Azhar Mosque...women are allowed inside...provided they wear a scarf. Its a beautiful mosque and the atmosphere is very serene. It was my first time in a mosque and I loved it. We also visted the inner sanctum housing the tomb of the Caliph Al Azhar.

In the evening, we took a shared minivan back to Alexandria. On the whole, the Cairo trip was fruitful. Its a cosmopolitan environment but it has all the trappings of a big metropolis...its noisy, congested and dirty. Alexandria, on the other hand, has a lovely climate...thanks to the sea. It is also less crowded. I am glad I am back in Alexandria.