Final Day

On May 30th, my final day in the city of Cairo, Jim and I decided to do something that should have been done a long time ago: visit the Egypt National Museum. It nearly became one of those "I'm here for four months and will have plenty of opportunities to go but never actually do by the time I leave" instances. I can't remember now whether we walked or cabbed there, but I for sure remember that we cabbed back (more on that later!). The museum was very much oriented towards the "week-long tour of Egypt" set, and this is perhaps why we had avoided it for so long. Unlike the quainter or more difficult to reach places we had visited through the semester, the museum is a must-see stop on any tour of Egypt and the Western crowd that this place attracted dampened my spirits. One day before returning to the US, here I was standing awkwardly in a crowd of Europeans and Americans, dressed in shorts, muscle shirts, tank tops, gleefully bearing shoulders and thighs, willfully ignorant of Egyptian social customs. I doubt the Egyptians are as bothered by this as I am; at the end of the day these tourists are responsible for many people's livelihoods. They understand that they come from a different culture and do not intend to insult. And I suppose I should have just found the sight of confused Westerners humorous and went on my way but for some reason I didn't. I see every Western person in Egypt as responsible for representing Western culture, and I want that culture to be represented well. I want the message to at the very least be "Hey, at least I'm making an effort to broaden my viewpoint, even if it doesn't change," not, "Hey! This is like a theme park but bigger and everyone's in costume. Point me to the ancient crap!"

As far as the museum goes, it was great. Too many artifacts to take in all in one day, and definitely worth getting a guide to help explain it all to you. I mean you are literally tripping over stuff as you walk through the place. Highlights were King Tut's gold and the mummy room. The mummy room did anger me a bit though. After paying the general museum admission, it was an extra 100LE fee to get into the mummy room. Luckily the student price knocked it down to 60LE (still a huge price). Too bad I wasn't Arab. They get in for 5LE. At places like this I forget that most foreigners aren't students living on a student budget. Most foreigners are tourists, who find 100LE a fair price to pay for seeing some of the world's greatest artifacts. And those foreigners who aren't tourists but ex-pats, living and working in Egypt, still get paid salaries on par with those of their home nation and not Egypt. The special Arab price keeps the museums affordable for Egyptians while allowing maximum income from foreigners. I guess I'll keep all that in mind and try not to get so upset next time.

Once finished we grabbed a cab back to our dorm. We got in one of the black and white ones waiting outside of the museum. We both knew better than to take a taxi waiting outside such an obvious tourist attraction, but either for some reason we hopped in. We told him where we were going and exchanged pleasantries in Arabic. At this point the guy realized we weren't completely ignorant of the way things worked in Egypt and decided he better set his price now before he got too far away from the cash-cow that is the museum. He said in a friendly manner "25 pounds. Good, no?" Jim and I laughed, saying la, la, la, khamsa. He says "no way," we motion for him to stop the car and we get out. He turns around and heads back to the musuem, most likely upset at getting tricked by picking up the some of the only white guys in the whole place that knew anyting about taxi prices and hoping to have better luck next time. Just as he left another taxi pulled up, perfectly happy to take us back to Zamalek for 5LE.

I spent the rest of the day packing. I was surprised to fit everything, incuding the shisha pipe and souveniers, all in two bags. Later that night I met with Abdel one last time. Tonight we went to the muhandis club he had taken Mark and I to on our first night in Egypt. We sat and talked again about Egypt and his time at Notre Dame as a grad student. I tried a hummus "drink" made from vinegar, lime, salt, and hummus beans. Then we watched a wedding taking place at the club and listened for Abdel's name among the 99 recited at the wedding reception (Abdel means "servant of" and is followed by one of the 99 names of God, i.e., the magnificant, the all-knowing, etc.). Before finally saying goodbye he gave me an extensive list of people to say hi to for him at the Notre Dame engineering department once I got back to school.

As soon as I left Abdel I met up with Ali, Chris, and Jake. We brought some stuff from Drinkies and enjoyed it on one ride down the Nile on one of the loud motor-driven falucha boats. There were a number of Egyptian families out on the river that night too.

At 2am the Yellow Cab we booked pulled up to take us all to the aiport. In fitting fashion, Egypt left me with one last scam. These cabs are metered so one can't really negotiate the fare (or jack up the price for foreigners). To get around this cabbies often simply take longer routes. The fastest way to the airport is through the heart of the city, and at this time of night traffic was not a problem. But instead our cab took us to the airport via the ring-road, about twice the distance. We protested but no matter what we said the cabbie pretended not to understand, we were already captive inside his car. Our final fare was nearly 80LE. The direct route's fair is about 35LE. He didnt' stop there, though. He tried to tack an extra five onto the cost of the parking lot's entrance fee. I'd been to the airport enough times to know that its 10, not 15, and managed to at least save us this miniscule amount.

Three plane rides and about 18 hours later I was in my grandma's Honda minivan driving down I-70 to my house in the St. Louis suburbs. It was the strangest sensation to be exploring thousand-year old buildings in a Middle-Eastern city and less than a day later be sitting in the middle of America, so far removed from the place that for the past four months I had called home.

The taxi scam left me with a bad last impression of Egypt, but it didn't linger for long. As June wore on I really began to miss the adventures of living in Cairo; the exotic quality of simply living day-to-day life. I cannot hop in car and just visit for a day or two. Egypt is now back to what it was before my trip, a distant place visited through books and pictures, not first-hand experiences. Its remoteness now in miles and in time gives my time spent there a dream-like quality. Did I really spend four months of my life in Cairo? Was there really a time when I didn't think twice about taking a weekend trip to Lebanon, riding the train to Alexandria for the day, spending spring break in southern Kenya? Did I really meet all of these people, stand on the satellite-covered roof of a friends apartment complex, practice Arabic with boabs?

I'm starting to sound pretty wishy-washy, so that's where I'll leave it. It's no good living in the past anyway. I'm sure I will be back to Egypt at some point, and there are still so many places to go. I still need to see Syria and Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Who knows, Iraq might even be a viable destination sometime soon! And my friend Tom spent the past semester in Australia and taveling all around Oceania. That sounds pretty cool too. I'll have to add it to the list.