Scrapes in Downtown Cairo

Our 2nd day in Cairo was much different having decided to leave the organised tour and do it ourselves for half the price and more choice of destinations in the city. We`d met 4 people on the tour the day before - a really nice couple (Jo and Louise) who were to stalk us on our Nile cruise later and another couple with a woman who seemed to have a downer on all things Egyptian and had been on the rest of our tour to come and was keen to tell us that we would be disappointed with many aspects of it. Thanks for that - and you were wrong!
Ignoring the cheapest and riskiest option of flagging a cab down in the street without any regulatory meters we booked a hotel sponsored taxi and for the sum of just £35 had a driver t take us anywhere we wanted to go waiting for us at each visit until we wanted to go on. brilliant and so good to see Cairo driving up close! It is chaos. No lanes, no give way lines, no traffic lights - just a mass of horns, heading  for non-existent gaps alongside camels, overloaded motor bikes / vans and pick ups, donkey carts and people selling toilet rolls and tissues in the middle of 6 converging lanes. Great stuff! We got to everywhere we wanted and more!

Despite some safety alerts we were able to visit the Cairo Museum and see it`s treasures as well as pass by the main square. Looked no more than an occupy the city camp - peacefully displaying banners with food stalls set up. There was an effigy of Mubarak hanging from a lamp post Mussolini style that I would have ;liked to have shot but the guidelines were clear - no photography round the main square of they might think we were government / military spies.

The Citadel and the main mosques of the city.

The City of the Dead. On the southern outskirts of the city this started as attempts by some to live near their departed loved ones. These are all tombs and people actually live amongst them. Nowadays it is also the city`s poorest who live there. Our taxi driver could not believe I wanted to shoot there and warned me not to go too far in. I did come across a group of younger people living there who asked if I wanted tea. Granted they followed that up with some Arabic words making others laugh that might not have been so welcoming in tone and I left.

Having decided I was crazy our taxi driver said if you like this I`ll take you to the Tomb of Mohammad Ali and his 100 followers in another City of the Dead. He took us down the narrowest streets I`ve driven through with barely an inch each side of the car as if it was a major road. We came upon this more established house which was amongst the tombs.

Inside the tomb it was very dark but had great walls of marble, rooms of bronze and finest carvings / stained glass which seemed rarely visited and covering in dust.

You see this roof? The keeper took us up a spiral staircase and onto the roof helping me clamber over those domes for better views. Sue bottled out and I had a real case of disco leg as I leapt from one to the next. Shame the Cairo smog spoiled the views to some extent but amazing to see.

And there is the proof.

Roof top dwelling in the city of the dead. Nearly 500,000 people live in such "cities" amongst the dead with very poor living conditions and virtually no services.

 So many photos of this day but we ended up at the Coptic Church and bazaar area. Highest visible security there with tanks, road blocks with armed troops and yet everyone was very nice to us and actually less hassle from sellers than elsewhere. The last couple of shots are of tombs in the church graveyard - actually in better condition than the places people were living in in the cities of the dead

So many photos of this holiday it`s hard to know what to put in! But what of the scrapes I hear you say? It happened on the way back to the hotel - having begged the driver to take us home as he wanted to show us more and more of his home city. He was carefully picking his way through the crowded streets when a huge truck decided to go for the same non-existent gap. Suddenly we heard the grating of metal on metal - the truck driver`s fault  fault from our perspective and we later saw probably £2000 worth of damage done all the way down the side of our taxi. What happened? The taxi driver calmly got out , discussed why the truck driver had not seen him for about 40 seconds and then both got back behind the wheel and drove on. No trade of insurance details / no police / no shouting - just one of those things. Evidently most have insurance but if there is no death / serious injury it is not worth involving them and that explains why every car in Cairo has scrapes / dents and impact damage on it. Much healthier attitude towards cars than we adopt I feel when a mere shopping trolley EMT can send us over the edge!