Egypt part 1

 

The role of 11+ 

This was 11+ year for my youngest. She is at a good school and can stay there till A-levels. But she decided, with some encouragement from me, to appear for a grammar school. (Grammar school entrance exams are very competitive, even more so in London. The speed and accuracy required in these exams are of an extremely high standard. But more about the 11+ in a different blog post.) 

Planning for the trip 

We booked our tickets about 10 months ago. It gave us something to look forward to for the time we were studying. During the year, we also were able to convince my daughter's best friend and her family to also visit Egypt during the same time. While both families did not fly in and out of Egypt together or on the same dates, we were together for 8 out of the 10 days we were in Egypt. 

The wife and I hold a different approach to travel planning. She likes to research and plan out things, while I like to visit the highlights, and then walk the streets. As it happens, we end up following the wife's plans in every trip. 

A number of my friends have been to Egypt, so we had a good list of recommendations. 

We decided to:  

1) Not go on a cruise to save time in going from A to B

2) Visit Abu Simbel by flying to Aswan 

3) Pyramids and GEM

4) Go to the White desert* 

* decided by the wife 

Itinerary

Day	Night	Activity
Wed	Cairo	Reach Cairo
Thu	White desert	Desert safari
Fri	Cairo	Back to Cairo
Sat	Cairo	Pryamids of Giza (32 mins by Car), Khan Market (45 Mins)
Sun	Cairo	Gems Meusuem (13 Mins) + Cairo Tower + Feluca ride with dinner
Mon	Luxor	East Luxor - Luxor Temple , Karnak temple
Tue	Luxor	West Luxor - Valley of Kings and Balloon Ride in evening . Hatshetput, colosimemon
Wed	Hurgada	Morning Hot Air Ballon in Luxor + Head to Hurghada
Thu	Hurgada	Chill
Friday	Hurgada	Deep Chill
Sat	Cairo	Fly to Cairo / 5.30 pm Flight to London

Flying to Egypt 

We landed on a Wednesday at 9pm, flying Egypt Air. The airline had some frightening reviews online. I was not overly worried - I am from India, it is a 5 hour direct flight - how bad could it be. 

I was pleasantly surprised - the flight was on time, the check-in was smooth, the crew were friendly and took care of us. The only dampener - no vegetarian options. EgyptAir will only carry vegetarian food if you ask for it, else its 'chicken or beef' with a huge smile. 

      Athens at night

The immigration lines were short, and the officer was quick - they did stamp a 'register within 7 days' stamp on our passport, but we did not notice it then. 

We reached the hotel (Novotel Al Borg) in an Uber. (Uber works well in Cairo to a large extent)

Overnight to the White Desert

Most of the desert tours pick up tourists from central hotels in downtown Cairo or from Giza necropolis. We were picked up from our hotel (as our hotel was close to Tahrir Square in central Cairo) in a 10 seater van. This van picked up people from a few other places then left Cairo. 

We headed to the Bahariya Oasis, which is about 400km from Cairo in the desert. The desert starts almost immediately after leaving Cairo. Egypt is essentially all desert except for the Nile. So, if you head away from the Nile in any direction, you reach the desert.  

I was not in a good mood when the journey began. It could be because of the early morning wake up, the not very comfortable seats in the van, the prospect of 4+ hours in it, etc, and I might have moaned a bit to the wife. 

But things picked up. 

The road was fantastic. 2 lanes each way separated by an extra wide central verge. Smooth surface, flat and straight. The van was soon doing 130-140 kmph. 

The kids were behaving much better than me. They were sleepy, but were not complaining and were busy reading and listening to music. 

 

At Bahariya, we had lunch and shifted into a 4x4 drive with Ala. Ala was going to be our guide, driver, cook and valet for the next 20 hours. 

(Ala and me)

We went for another 200km - similar roads continued into the desert towards the oasis at Farfara. Our destination was the White Desert National park, which gets its name from the white chalk rock formations, formed due to the erosion of by wind and sand. 

It reminded me of a sea bed - sand and On the way, we did off-road driving (120+kmph), some sand boarding (approx 15kmph), visited the black desert and a crystal mountain. We also found many fossilised marine creatures encrusted within the  limestone at a few places.  

Just before sunset, we arrived at our tent. Ala got busy - he made a small wind break next to the car, and then began preparing food for us. We huddled next to a small fire and watched the sun set. 

Soon after sunset, the stars came out. I had been looking forward to this. Long ago, the night time view was like this every night. The sky would be littered with stars. The view was well worth the effort. We spent the night in the tents.

In the morning, we work up to watch the sunrise and had breakfast at the same time. We wrapped up and left the tent at 7.30am. On the way back, we stopped at a hot water spring. After that, we bade farewell to Ala, and sat in the van to head back to Cairo.

The Pyramids 

There are many pyramids around Cairo. The largest one is the Great Pyramid at Giza, which has three pyramids and the Sphinx.  You can buy an entry ticket and walk around the entire area. However, you will be approached by many people offering to show you around - by a car, or a tanga (horse-cart), or horses. 

We took a Tanga-wallah masquerading as a guide for $70. We were happy to have bargained it down from $180. However, the joke was on us. The tanga-wallah knew less about the pyramids than we did. 

For the money, we got photos like the ones below. 

We were a group of 4 adults, out of which the men were not very enthusiastic about a claustrophobic walk inside a 5500 year old tomb.  So, we decided not to go inside the pyramid. 

GEM 

The next day, we went to the Grand Egyptian Museum. It is a modern museum with impressive architecture and has an impressive collection of Egyptian artefacts. 

I will not recommend the guide tour offered by the GEM - it is usually very large (our tour had 50 people), so it is hard to talk to the guide or even see what the guide is talking about. By the time you reach the artefact that the guide has been talking about, the guide has moved on to the next thing. 

Another tip, the tour tickets include entry tickets, so do not buy the entry ticket if you have bought the tour tickets. We bought tour tickets, and then entry tickets as the language is not very clear on the GEM website. They were sympathetic but they have no way of refunding a ticket, so we ended up with double entry tickets for 8 people :( 

If you have already bought entry tickets, you can get your tickets upgraded for the tour at the museum (but not online). 

You can uber to GEM and uber back. In case your uber driver asks for payment by cash (we were asked for $20 for a ride which cost $3), just cancel and rebook and you will eventually find a driver who won't. See a similar conversation with another uber driver. 

Khan-el- Khalili Market 

Close to central Cairo is this market which reminded me of Delhi's Sarojini Nagar and Karol Bagh market. We went there at 9pm and it was not very busy then. There are shops for clothes, souvenirs, stone, glass, jewellery, cutlery  - and there is a lot of bargaining. 

The Egyptian salesmen

I was mildly irritated by the repeated sales pitches but this irritation changed to admiration gradually. Every person who approached me did so with a smile. They wanted to talk to me and get me to walk into their store. If I refused, they would persist as long as I was smiling. If I lost my smile, they would immediately withdraw. 

They would usually start to talk by identifying me as an Indian, saying Namaste, and then start talking about Bollywood. They would make jokes about how they dislike the actors in Bollywood as their wives like them, and how they are happy that the Bollywood stars are far away from them. 

They would always smile while negotiating on price. 

We adopted a 80% discount to the starting price. It was an extreme step, but once more, the joke was on us. Soon, we were suprised to note that the shopkeepers were happy to part with their wares at this discount. 

Egypt is not the richest of places. Their currency has been hammered in the last few years and months and is now at about 50EGP to 1 USD (down from 20EGP to the USD from a few months ago). So, I would imagine how a lot of things are more expensive now. Tourism has also been hit - earlier by Covid, and then by the war in Palestine. So, it must not be easy to earn your living in Egypt for many who depend on tourism. So, beneath the smiles, there was the serious business of earning a living. But the mask did not slip. 

For this, I admired them.

In the second part to this blog, I will cover the remaining part of the trip - Abu Simbel, Luxor and Hurghada. 

Indians and Pakistan

I was reading comments below a story on what Humans in New York did in Pakistan and I ended up addingmy comment. 

__________________________________

Hello. I am an Indian and have been a passionate Pakistan hater.

What I have realised gradually is this - both Indians and Pakistanis are poor victims of corruption and the arrogance of the State. Both our countries have failed by varying degrees in almost everything that a state is supposed to do for its citizens -  to provide a rule of law, of a just and fair society in which our children can grow safely.

As a victim of such a system, I now realise that I do not hate Pakistanis. They have never harmed me, And if I have hatred for the Pakistani State, then in that same moment, I do not really feel too much love for the Indian State.

The Indian State has a similar track record - misinformation about Indians, state sponsored killings and terrorism and a neglect for the minorities and for the tribals.

India might have a rock star PM. He reads our minds and has his fingers on the pulse of the nation.

Please realise that along with our history, our corruption riddled little lives are also very similar. It is in this stifling atmosphere that I realise that Pakistanis and Indians are closer to each other than what appears to be.

Our PM recently said that Indians used to feel ashamed of being born Indians. I would beg to differ - as an Indian, I feel ashamed every single day in this country. I feel ashamed of the corruption and inequality that is all around us. I feel ashamed that after 65+ years of independence, large parts of India are almost unliveable. I feel ashamed that my life within India is like within a bubble, with private security, water purification, power backup and transport. The only regular way in which the government touches my life is when I pay taxes. I feel ashamed of the country that I have brought my kids into.

______________________

India seems to be become more depressing by the minute and very few seem to notice. Till when will the silent majority stay silent? Are they dumb or are they really dumb?

_____________________

And a funny video from our friends across the border

Lakeside living in Essel Towers Gurgaon

Like many other apartment blocks in Gurgaon, we woke up to find that there has been around 20mm (or some such number which is not alarming at all) of rain overnight.

Essel Tower Central Pier

Essel Tower Central Canal

The sad thing is that this happens every year in Gurgaon and in many other cities of India. It is even worse that a lot of this happens in the newer parts of town - the so-called 'planned extensions' of a city, which are always parts of a masterplan.

Gurgaon Manesar 2031 plan

Take a look at this plan - there are no rivers or canals here. There is no thought given to natural drainage. The idea probably s to budget for manmade drainage and not build it and pocket the money. Or, there is no idea.  I work for myself. A lot of my capabilities are channeled towards creating maximum possible money for myself - whether I do a good job or not is debatable. I think that government officials (Especially the Urban development variety) are experts at this skill.

Gurgaon is new - there are parts of Gurgaon which were farms less than 5 years ago. New or old does not matter really when it comes to incompetence of town planners or the indifference of town dwellers. No matter which part of such cities does one live in, we all go through this every year in the monsoons and do not really do anything about it.

For a country and a media which does not tire of aggrandizing itself ("India's PM has a 56" chest, Indian origin kid wins spelling bee, Granada now supports India's bid for UNSC permanence and so on), we should all hang our heads in shame.

T2

She turned one this week. And it was a very happy occasion. It was made special by so many people and so many big and small things. I want to record as many of them as I have already started forgetting...

All except T2 part 1

All except S2 part 2

So many who  care about T2 the most were present (the only exception was her Mama who wasn't here so that everyone else from Ranchi could be) - both sets of Grandparents, her Aunts and her Bhaiyas. So many of our friends - school, college, neighbours, childhood Uncles and Aunties turned up on a Tuesday evening to grace the occasion.

All my life party

There were quite a few who have known me all my life and I am 35 years old now.

I was thinking back of a time 5 years ago when S and I had started off on our life together when a similar gathering had taken place. And yes, also when S2 turned 1. S2 and T2 are the latest additions to this family. Further growth will come through husabnds and kids M and K. Eagerly awaited.

T2 - she is quite something.

There is a healthy, happy and well-developed head on those small shoulders - no question

She does not speak yet. But no one misses that. She puts forth her needs, wants, demands and expresses joy, satisfaction, disapproval and anger with murmurs and smiles and pointed fingers and short cries. An entire range of emotion  expressed with ease and confidence that speech seems overrated and at times, inadequate.

She is growing up so fast. S and I have talk about how much we will miss this time when she grows up. I want this time to pass slowly. Even though some times I cry out in frustration, I want time to slow down. I will not remember all the small things that they do – the first words, the baby talk, the walking and falling and the smiling.

[Ah the smiles. I think that adults, even when they are delirious with happiness, can not smile the way children do. I think that is because a child has not ever held back an emotion. Adults have their emotional pathways polluted  - holding back, distracted are just some of the things an adult does.]. If as a parent, I had to do anything differently, I would create a few hundred hours of video for S2 and the same for T2

T2 also enjoyed this birthday - S2 was not moving as confidently on his feet on his first. Not T2, she walked, moved, fell, crawled, played, was picked up, asked to be picked up, asked to be left alone and so on. She also pulled out gift wrappers, punched balloons, grabbed at gifts and food and had a few bites of the birthday cake. She happily held the knife for cutting the cake. The one time when T2 was a bit shaken and out of it was when everyone started singing 'Happy Birthday'. It was loud and unexpected and T2 was surprised for a bit. It did not lead to any crying - that's not her style.

Both of them are growing so fast - pictured below with my mother, who misses them the most!

T2's world

As a parent, I want to fill her life with hope and happiness. I want to her to also respect her environment and be conscious of the implications of her actions and inaction. I want her to read well and get through an Ivy League MBA as well, so that she can settle in Canada (given today’s world and weather) or the Sahara (who knows what will happen with the world and weather in 20 years).With the kids and the kind of random crime that we read about in the papers every day, I wish that I had not come back from the UK. Definitely a better life.

T2’s world is a world which is very strange. There are all kinds of bad things happening – global warming and climate change; wars for religion
and wars for water. There is a case to be made that some of the conflict the world has today is because of climate change. I feel sad that the world T2 and S2 will grow up will be a worse place than what it was when I was growing up. It will be hotter , with more extreme weather, richer but very unequal, healthier but with an accelerating species extinction rate and lesser forests .

We have no one else to blame as we hurtle down this path but remain deliriously happy in our little lives.