From Cairo to Beirut

Riding down to Cairo on a Thursday evening via four wheels is never advisable. You want a train if you are traveling with fewer than four. With that said six of us piled into a van and braced for a long ride. Four hours later of battling traffic and the driver's Best of Bryan Adams CD we made it to our usual hotel, The President in the heart of Zamalek. It was time for a pre-dinner beverage at the Cairo Cellar located in the hotel's basement. A new Indian Restaurant opened over the summer and we decided to give it a shot. Our first clue should have been the lack of an Indian staff but we stayed for the pasty white and bland curry dishes. When the plates were cleared, it was unanimously decided that our meal definitely wasn't Indian. The following statement I'm about to make might come across as a form of prejudice and even hint at discrimination. I'm going to make it a rule that if I'm going to dine at an "ethnic" establishment then the owner, cook, and at least one server should be native to the country they represent. In other words I don't want a non-Cuban making me a plate of Ropa Vieja. When I lived in Alabama, my then wife Janet, her mom, and I were thrift store shopping on the west end and worked up an appetite for Chinese. We passed by a place with an all African-American staff cooking up eggrolls and fried rice. Where on earth have you ever seen non-Chinese operate a Chinese Restaurant?   

After the Indian fare we checked out the Khan al-Khalili for a nighttime shopping adventure. On our way to catch a cab back to the hotel Ana and I debated on which one of these paintings would look best in our apartment. As of yet a decision is still to been made. If we sign a third year contract then I'm pushing for the one on the top left. Sonny thinks it favors me most.

Christine feels that any of the magic and power the Pyramids once had has gone by the way side. Imagine if you didn't have a slew of salesmen leeching on to you trying to hock Chinese made souvenirs. How many times can you say no to a camel ride? Our driver Mohammed said "nothing is ever free" damn straight!

Muslim ladies with a Coors Light cooler, maybe they are keeping their Jimmy Dean sausages cool.

Mohammed drove us back to the Khan as more shops would be open from the previous night. Sonny and Christine scored some goods for friends and family back home. Next destination was City of the Dead (al Qarafa aka "The Cemetery") which is a long grid of enclosed family tombs stretching four miles. The departure from the insanity of Cairo into al Qarafa is quite drastic. Photos don't capture the eeriness the physical presence does, hence I will not be posting any pictures of the few I snapped. We later ended up driving down the narrow paths of Old Cairo.

Friday morning Prayer. Photo by Sonny.

Maybe this is an ironic statement of getting a benign brain tumor from excessive cell phone usage.

Our last supper in Cairo was at Gad. We were served up hearty portions of falafel, fries, hummus, eggplant dishes, and bread. Christine made a couple of falafel sandwiches to take on the road and several days later in Lebanon she was still in possession of them. We stopped off at City Stars Mall en route to the airport. What can you say, it was big and filled with shoppers. Sonny did manage to find the Fulla dolls he was searching for. To learn more about the Muslim-like Barbie chick here .
The above photo is the Razanne doll predating Fulla. "As with the other Muslim dolls, Fulla is kind and generous and loves and respects her friends and family"

The flight to Beirut was pleasant and uncontested. The driver taking us to our hotel was waiting at the gate past customs, that is service. You are pretty much golden entering the country as long as you don't have a stamp from Israel. Our first couple of nights were spent in Gemmayze at the Port View Hotel. Last year when Ana and I arrived the scene was significantly mellower. I get it, you aren't getting laid and you won't anytime soon so you have to be obnoxious and crank your stereo and peel away on your motorcycle. Sonny thought we had landed in some Euro trash neighborhood, I wouldn't have gone that far, it was a weekend night. We stopped off at the Bulldog for a couple pints of Almaza (Lebanese beer). To make matters worse, a girl walked into a bar passing out cans of a new energy drink called "Pussy" I'm sure Sonny's mom wasn't overly impressed. It was time to call it a night.   

There are several ruins sitting between buildings in Nejmeh Square near the Green Line. The Green Line is the road that divides Beirut between the west (Muslim) and east (Christian).  

One afternoon near my school in Alex, there were posters on a mosque depicting The Star of David with the Pepsi and Coca Cola logos. I took a photo of it which soon became a discussion with a couple of the locals hanging about. I asked for the meaning of the poster. One man answered that he didn't like the influence the west had over his country. I can't tell you how much western junk food products packages I see on the streets of Alex and other Muslim countries I've visited. They may hate the west and all but they still love their Micky D's and Twinkies.

Much of the area around Martyrs Square/Green Line area had been destroyed during the Civil War. We wondered how much of the ruins were affected. There are new buildings popping up all over. It is nice to see the city rebuild.

Ottoman Clock Tower still standing after a couple of decades of war.

We made our own walking tour from Gemmayze to Hamra to Piegon Rocks. We saw several reminders of the Civil War with security forces nearby making sure we didn't take any photos. Picture taking is a sensitive matter here.  

Newer building with unusual windows.

A creative solution to bullet holes,  just cover them up with a mural of doves.

In the states we call smoking flavored tobacco from a water pipe hooka, in Egypt it is called sheesha, and in Lebanon they call it nargileh. Well whatever you choose to call it, for $25 you can have it delivered to your home.

Sonny making his first Lebanese friend.

We figured that the import tax on BMWs and Mercedes Benz must be quite low as you see them everywhere.

In Lebanon they feed sheep apples and Egypt they cut their heads off. Happy Big Eid!

Pigeon Rocks on the west side. We enjoyed a lunch of Arabic cuisine overlooking Beiruts main attraction.

Keep out!

Just in case you didn't receive the memo "Falloutboy Roxs"

I'm thinking of a career change.

On the way towards Achrafieh/Ashrafiye through Mar Nicolas. The interesting about Beirut and Lebanon is all  the different ways a neighborhood or town can be spelled. Good luck using a map if you are looking for specifics.

Many of these types of buildings are being fixed or replaced. Ana found an interesting book: Beyroutes-A Guide to Beirut. The books opens with the chapter My City "A guide book is funny in many ways. Funny because you start writing its introduction only when you're about to finish its content." Along with the discussion that Beirut is a land of "small but hard headed refugees" it also includes a guided map to locations where assassinations took place. There is a bonus cut out guide to How to Survive in Dahiya (a Southern Beirut neighborhood). In Dahiya you will find Hizbollah (Party of God) thus making it a favorite target for Israeli missiles.  

Demetrius Cemetery in Achrafieh. It is located across ABC Mall.

Demetrius Cemetery in Achrafieh

Another image of Demetrius Cemetery in Achrafieh. The evening ended with The Greek Film Festival at Metropolis Empire Sofil. The movies were free and open to the public. Little Greek Godfather was first and was on par with watching a movie in Egypt (constant conversations and cell phones ringing). There was an unusual amount of kids in the audience. One kid got a bottle thrown at him for standing up too long, you gotta love instant justice. Between films we stopped at the snack bar and let me emphasize the term bar. I got a glass of wine and Ana got popcorn. Next up was Plato's Academy also staring the same actor from the previous film. We didn't have an opportunity to see the other four films but we figured he might be in those as well. Stay tuned for the drive up north!

Hello Cairo

Ana and I had been speculating when we would take a weekend jaunt down to Cairo, well my friends, that weekend finally arrived. There is quite a bit of history in the city of 12 million and it has to be taken in doses. Ana had been bugging me about going to the pyramids (the well known ones in Giza) and I told her, “we’ve already drove past them twice and we ate lunch while looking at them, what more do you want?” Somehow I don’t think I persuaded her, it’s just matter of time before you see the obligatory posting of an American couple posing with camels and pyramids. Just in case you’re wondering, both the pyramids and Sphinx are located in Cairo, actually in the burbs to be more precise, they are what Newark is to New York and if that isn’t the best of both worlds maybe I should also mention that KFC and Pizza Hut are right within walking distance...it would be a lot sweeter if there was a Walmart as well. I admit it, I haven’t exactly been excited or the least bit proactive in getting up close and personal with the remaining wonder of the ancient world. Perhaps the documentary I watched on the Discovery Channel when we had free cable was sufficient enough to satisfy my cravings.

We tagged along with our friends Huck Finn and Jill Milk on a train ride from hell. We remained convinced for the duration of the ride that the passenger car was trying to simulate a walk-in freezer. The mixture of blowing cold air and cigarette smoke pouring out of the vents next to our feet plus random stops in the middle of nowhere for up to thirty minutes at a time was a little too much. We took matters into our own hands and hijacked a pair of seats when one of the smokers went to go do his thing, we figured that if he likes smoking so damn much maybe he’d like to sit next to the vents and go hog wild with second hand smoke. To add insult to injury, I took his paper and started on his Sudoku. When he returned he reclaimed his paper and found another seat.

We finally disembarked into human Tetris an hour and half after our projected arrival. Huck Finn knew all the tricks to avoid getting ripped off by taxi drivers, so we headed directly for the metro station and took a tram as far as we could and caught a cab to Harry’s Pub (located in the basement of the Marriot). Harry’s was pretty spectacular, an old murky bar with decades of cigar and cigarette smoke embed into its wooden walls. If you are singe man on a business trip and looking for some company for the evening chances are pretty good that you might find some here. We finished our pricey but worth it imported Belgian beer (non-inclusive to the 10% tax and the 12% service charge) and crossed the street over to Maison Thomas for what is billed as the best pizza in Egypt (owned by a Coptic family equals ham, beer, and wine). Delicious indeed. After our filling meal we walked to our hotel in the heart of Zamalek (an island on the Nile River in central Cairo-home to many Embassies, museums, the Cairo Tower, expats, and best of all...trees).

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The following morning, Ana and I walked on a bridge across the Nile to catch a taxi to historic Islamic Cairo to go to the Khan el-Khalili (the mother load of all bazaars established in the 14^th century-there is even an argument stating that if it wasn’t for the Khan, Columbus wouldn’t have discovered America) It is said that you can buy anything there; jewelry, clothing, spices, crafts, kidneys, etc. To tell you the truth we didn’t have the full-on Khan experience mainly because we went on a Friday, the Muslim day of prayer. Many shops were closed but that didn’t hamper our joys of exploring the labyrinth layout of the streets and swanky sales pitches like “come into my shop, I have something you have never seen before.” How could we not be curious? I’ve seen my share of souvenirs, crafts, and sweatshop crap over the years, so I was sort of hoping for something more exotic than a “stuffed jackalope,” needless to say I felt a little slighted when the shopkeeper produced an assortment of magnets and rulers. The junk and the bootleg selection was tops, Ana noticed a child’s shirt with a yellow ducky and the phrase “Lucky Dick” on it. We did manage to splurge and buy a wall hanging for our poor old bare walls. Overall the Khan was enjoyable and needs further investigation. We left in agreement that the Grand and Spice Bazaar in Istanbul trumps this one.

Our new wall hanging

8th wonder of the world- The Bearded Building

North of the Khan Khalili

The second part of the day was spent in Zamalek exploring boutique shops and enjoying Thai for lunch. It confirmed that we miss our selection of food offerings back in San Diego. In addition to missing food, clean air also ranks high on the list. The air quality in Cairo sucks, literally sucks the life out of you. Denver’s historic brown cloud and LA’s smog would be like a fresh tank of oxygen in these parts. At the hotel I did a little research on the air quality and the reports paint a pretty grim picture. We ended the evening with a bucket of KFC and some slaw at the foot of the Pyramids tossing chicken bones to the camels chanting U-S-A, U-S-A. Ok, not really. We did manage to have three-hour plus dinner with our friends at The Moghul Room in The Mena House (a hotel you can’t afford). The fare is Indian like you’ve never tasted set to the backdrop of a live trio preparing to seduce your taste buds. The interior was crafted all the way down to the salt and pepper shakers (which the owner thought we wanted, so she eyed us a couple of times). It was the high point of the trip.     

Yummy for your tummy

And just like that we were back on the streets of Giza hailing down a cab to haul us back to our little island. The main thoroughfare was congested and crowded, the driver dodged children and families trying to cross the road. After several minutes of that nonsense he opted to backtrack and hop on the freeway. Since air conditioning isn’t an option in cabs, this meant getting pelted with chunks of dirt and debris accompanied with warm air at high speeds weaving in-between semis and the occasional pedestrian.

Sights of Zamalek

The train ride back to Alex was a little less freezing and the smoke was replaced with ringing cell phones and crying babies, you have to compromise somewhere.