Jejak Mesir 2006: Day 3 - When in Egypt...

1st February 2006

Today is the day where I split up with Anna and Im because the girls had their own agenda today, meeting up with several of Im's old friends at their apartment. So Halim and Md.Nor devised a way to keep me entertained for the rest of the day. Unfortunately we couldn't do much because I was down with the flu, but I absolutely refused to be kept cooped inside the apartment. Hence, donning my winter jacket I set out with them to prowl the streets of Cairo, not caring that I looked weird in my jacket on an otherwise mildly cold day where guys usually would wear a light jacket instead of winter jacket. It would be a waste if I stayed in for the whole day.

So after the previous night's 'disaster' with dinner, we were promised authentic Egyptian foods, ones that we were looking for. Thus the first thing to do that morning was to look for the ingredients. Halim had sup kaki kambing in his mind, which he claimed to be a favorite amongst his friends. His friend agreed to cook it for us as long as we bought the ingredients for him. I was asked whether I was up to live the life of a regular Azharian student who wanted to go marketing for food stuffs, meaning going to wet markets and dusty streets for good bargains. Not exactly what I had in mind while vacationing, but still you know what they say...

When in Rome, do what the Romans do.

Okay, so I wasn't in Rome. It's just a saying. Change Rome to Egypt, Romans to Egyptians, and there you go. :)

We took a bus to go to the city, and were dropped right smack in the middle of the city...I think. Anyway from there we set on foot towards our destination. I didn't have any idea where the market was so all I did was following Halim and Md.Nor blindly, while listening to their commentaries about Egypt and Egyptians in general, while still trying to not let the fever get the better of me. I was eating chocolate while on the bus, and I kept on holding the chocolate wrapper after we got off because I wanted to look for a trashbin. After minutes of walking, I still couldn't locate any trashbin and my friends began to notice my peculiar behavior. I told them I was looking for a trashbin, and instantly Md.Nor took the wrapper, and to my surprise, let it go right in the middle of the dirty, dusty streets. "They don't have a lot of trashcans around here because the people would just throw them on the street anway," I was told. Hmmm.... Well, back to the saying I mentioned earlier. While in Rome...

Okay, okay, while in Egypt.... Savvy?







We arrived at the market and I marvelled at the sights of fresh meat. Haha yeah, I know, weird huh. I actually liked watching fresh meats being hung around. And suddenly I stopped and gaped at a stall....with a lot of animal heads placed in a row. At first glance they looked like the heads of pigs, but that's impossible. The ustazs assured me that they were cows' heads although they did look almost like pigs. They touched them to prove their point. Then I heard the sound of something being ripped and sliced, and glanced behind...and I think I just got sicker. Saw the butchers cleaning out the intestines of cows, and then placed the cleaned intestines on the shelves. Halim informed that in Egypt, almost all parts of the cows were deemed edible by the Egyptians. Then Halim sauntered to the stall with the kaki kambing that he was looking for. Md.Nor told me to just stand around the stalls so that he could take some pictures. The butchers saw this and realized that I was a tourist. I did look out of place with my jacket, cap and I think I heard Md.Nor telling them that I'm from Japan. They wanted a photo with me, which we took, which they never got anyway because it was Md.Nor's camera.



After finishing up with the marketing, we went to have lunch. I was asked to be specific of what I really wanted to eat and I described the kebabs and all those meat stuffs that I dreamed of eating. I was taken to a restaurant which sold just that. I waited at the booth while the ustazs went to get the foods. Being a bit sick that day I couldn't eat much, but they were delicious and exactly what we had in mind. They were Shwarma (pretty much like a kebab) and Macarona (cheese lasagnia with meat fillings) A couple of veiled female Egyptians who were sitting on the booth beside us kept looking and whispering at our direction, specifically towards me, because I was eating only one Shwarma. They ate two shwarmas each. Whoa, one shwarma is filling enough, whatmore with the pasta I had along as well. Or maybe they were staring at me because I kept on glancing at them, curious of how they were going to eat with their purdahs on. :P Silly me. We then went up to the roof to have some tea, while watching the local kids there playing pool. Egyptians seem to love their tea, which I couldn't really drink without wrinkling up my face in wonder - the serbuk teh is just too thick and accumulated nearly half the glass. Where's the uncang teh when you need them? One thing funny enough to note; the Egyptians have really YELLOW teeth, a testament of how much they love their tea.



From there, we went to Halim's penthouse. It's a simple apartment above the roof of an apartment complex, and it's where we would be having our special dinner later that night. Passed the kaki kambing (somehow saying it in English as...goat's feet??...didn't bode well with me) to his friend so that he could start preparing our dinner. I went to the corner of the rooftop and marveled at the sight of the Cairo city in bright daylight. Never before have I seen a city so....brown. The color of the sands.







After prayers the three of us headed to the International Book Fair. It seems that every year there will be a book fair in Cairo. Im and Anna would be going there as well so it was like a rendezvous point for all of us. However there were just too many people around and we never did encounter the girls while we were there. There were many medical books sold there at competetive prices, but I didn't plan on buying anything and I never did, because I didn't have enough luggage space and what space I did have then I wanted to use for souvenirs. Besides, books are heavy! I don't need that extra weight to bring back to Russia. After realizing that there was no meeting the girls there at the book fair, we decided to set up a new meeting point - at a local history museum or something not too far from the book fair, a place called the Panorama.

To enter the Panorama we needed to buy tickets. Halim and Md.Nor wanted to spare me the burden of having to pay the tourists price, which was why each of them had an Al-Azhar student card they borrowed from their friends, in order for me to be able to get in with half price or discounted price. However, it wasn't a foolproof plan - the guards didn't believe that I'm even a Malaysian. It literally took a battle of words between the guards and the ustazs (while I slowly fade in the background, tugging down my cap so that I could hide the blonde hair strands). The ustazs went as far as getting the guards' superior to get down and dirty as well before finally it was settled: I just have to show my IC, and there it showed me with Malaysian and Islam printed on it. I got in with discounted price, although no doubt the guards were dubious still because the student card used didn't match the fella that got in. Hahaha.





Now, Panorama is a museum which tells about the history of Egypt and the wars it had gotten into. Im, Anna and her friends were also there, having arrived earlier than we did. Right after we got in, we went straight ahead to the auditorium because there was a screening of Egypt's history - how Egypt was able to recapture Sinai from the Israels. The whole movie was in Arabic, which is why I was lucky because Md.Nor was there to translate everything and all I had to do was listen intently - the history is fascinating.







From one auditorium we headed to another, a circular one where we all stood in the middle. The walls around us were decorated with paintings depicting the story of how recapturing Sinai was done - the platform where we stood spun around slowly so that we could get a good view of everything around us - the paintings, some props and even some pieces of the real deal were thrown in for good measures. As the story was already told to me by Md.Nor I took the chance to snap photos instead. Well actually it wasn't my camera to begin with - friends have been so kind to photograph my memoirs here.



The girls went back to their friends' apartment so the three of us guys went to a small mall instead because I wanted to look for Strepsils for my sore throat. Found it, and after praying and some unplanned shopping done (CK Eternity perfume, Reader's Digest magazine and Archie comic books) we all headed to Halim's penthouse for our dinner.



It was my first time having a dinner on top of a building, underneath the clear night sky with the twinkling stars, with the cool night breeze sweeping past. It was a perfect setting for a dinner, and the dish cooked up by Halim's friend was marvelous.





Im and Anna looked rather excited about something and they shared it with me there and then: they wanted to extend the vacation. From one week only, to ten days. I agreed readily. The ustazs had no problems with that since they too were on a holiday. By extending our trip there we'd get to visit Gunung Sinai, the Red Sea and lots of other historical places outside Cairo.

It was settled. The next day, the first thing we had to do is to look for a travel agency. Change of plans, but looking back now I'm glad we decided to do it. And....that wouldn't be the only time we extended our Jejak Mesir trip. :)