Last day at cairo

will add more to this when i get time..

Hi all..
this is sri ram venkat aditya sri abhilash somanchi's last post from
cairo. this is a brief of what i did today.

morning.. woke up at 9 o clock.. had breakfast.. went to the pyramids
and sphinx.. took closeups.. entered the great pyramid of cheops.. two
things about that.. first. that they dont allow photos inside.. second
that its a steep climb.. about 70 m at 60 degrees.. and the air inside
the pyramids is not surprisingly low on oxygen( as if the mummies
needed em) nyways.. so put major fight and got to the burial chamber
of the pharaoh.. which gave me a strange breathless feeling.. only
when u enter the chamber do u realise how much of a grave the pyramids
are.. the feeling u get when u touch the mummy case is amazing.. but
to be experienced before u are 40.. if u are 40+ then u are better off
leaving the great pyramid alone.. u can stay happy with the cheaper..
smaller pyramid of khufu.. but the exertion was worth it.. now i have
bid farewell to the pyramids .. probably for life.. but they have
given me some really awe inspiring moments..

a note about the sphinx.. its smaller than u expect it to be.. and is
badly damaged.. not just the nose.. looks like a guys face would after
a tiger mauled it..

after that.. had a meeting with the head of E&Y's consulting head of
here.. mr keiran gandy.. not a spelling mistake.. yeah he's an indian
by origin.. not by birth. couldnt take the journey from ghatkopar to
kolaba so ditched india altogether.. had a cool meeting with him..

overall am feeling very happy at the prospect of returning to mumbai..
and having some good dal makhani .. paratha.. and a good dosa..

Pyramids..part 1

yesterday yours truly decided in the afternoon that enough is enough..
lets see the pyramids .. so i did. after a gruelling 2 hour journey by
horse ( my ass and lower back is still paining) .. but it was worth
it.. the feel of touching the pyramids... the feel of the desert wind
blowing in your face.. the sight of horses galloping across the
hillock - mummy esshtyle.. but above all the majestic sight of the
pyramids... going on a horse.. .like napoleon( i think he passed em
that way) .. braving the desert wind to see em touch em.. the
experience is mind blowing.. but strictly once in a lifetime..

the egyptians dont care about the pyramids, they are in a sad shape..
the guy who went with me on another horse ( acting as my guide with
extremely limited english - 10-15 word vocabulary) callously broke a
piece off one of the smaller pyramids and gave it to me as a
remembrance.. then i began to realise why the pyramids tops had eroded
off... more due to man than nature. i saw the entrance to the pyramids
.. extremely dingy.. and after the sneezing bout i had at the egyptian
museum.. near some of the statues .. i decided not to go inside..
given i had already seen what was inside of them.. to see what the
grave robbers ( read egyptian museum) had left of them.\, esp after
seeing how u had to bend ur back to enter ( not after 2 hours of
struggling with a horse).. nyways so that is that.. will return to the
sphinx twice.. once in the day to get some closeups ( paisa khatam ho
gya tha last time ) and to see the night show..jiska trailer dekha
hai..

the worst part happened when we were leaving the pyramids.. this
character..the one who was on the other horse.. takes me further into
the desert and starts raving about how some people tip him 30$ some
40$ .. i told him i will tip him when i reach my taxi.. not before..
nyway so that is that..as soon as i saw a taxi.. i ran for my life..

arbit note

had gatecrashed an egyptian wedding yesterday.. had a ball there..

people here dont speak english.. mostly friendly tho..
i sorta feel like a bihari who doesnt speak english would feel in chennai..
or like dyan in north bihar...

gals are hot tho.. music is good..
most importantly.. have cash..
here the names of indians people know are amitabh bacchan( every 2nd
egyptian i talk to tells me he heas seen coolie.. one even talked
about the takle ke sar pe omlette ka scene from this movie..ganga
yamuna saraswati.. et al..

the other one is mithun chakraborty.... gunda rocks..

report 18th may 2005

just one note for today..
had a business meeting with a french millionaire at the grand hyatt cairo..

The best of cairo?

so far my best experience in egypt happened yesterday.

I was getting bored in the evening, so i decided to go to the sound
and light show at the pyramids..

the show consists of the sphinx telling his story, and that of the
egyptian civilisation with it..

the pyramids speak( or seem to nyway ) telling each of their
individual pharaoh's tale.

totally amazing, better than any movie ive seen.. in fact was so
amazing that i hardly have words to describe it. so i will leave it at
that. let it be known that the amazing backdrop of the pyramids and
the sphinx provided for me the most amazing spellbinding show that ive
seen. took some 22 pics of the show, dunno how they will turn out..
but the show itself has been one of the most impressive and mind
boggling spectacles in my life.


ps: also had my first sane non commerical conversation here.. a group
of americans spreading an anti -aids.. awareness campaign in kenya.
had a nice time with them

cairene weekend

the weekend ends tommorow for me.. but these are some of the details
which people might find interesting :

thursday night dinner : got sick of chicken.. and non veg food.. so
decided to have some vegetarian food.. went to a nearby hotel bang in
front of the pyramids .. called Mena House - Oberoi . had simple dal
makhani and veg biryani with some fresh( really fresh ) mango juice..
all this while with a classical indian musical ( santoor , tabla and
the harmonium thingy) with a cool vocal.. she sang some really nice
songs ....overall a very awesome experience.. one to be repeated soon.

today: the day began with a visit to the egyptian museu, yeah yeah the
one with tutankhamen's tomb artifacts and the royal mummies. at the
front gate my iimcal id worked .. so got a 50% discount on entry but
in the royal mummy room, it dint.. so had to pay the full price -
about 560 rs.. but the sight was awesome. the sad part is that photos
are not allowed inside the museum. so it is sort of only for personal
experience. saw some really awesome statues .. will post details
later.

after that, did some shopping in the biggest bazaar of cairo .
khan-el-khalili ..
then went and had lunch at the revolving restaurant in cairo towers -
with an awesome, spellbinding view of the whole city. have some cool
pics of that to show.

kal din me pyramids ka tour maarunga, to get some closeups and raat me
light show dekhunga.

egyptian scare

i had a scare at the ministry of investment office (GAFI - Gafinet)
today. I had gone to first extend my visa, as I had taken an invite
from stadco with me. the passport officer there was like- this is a
tourist visa - no employment permitted. first i told him i am a
student, took out my iimcal id. then he called another person. so now
i took out the visiting card of mr Mohammed gazaly - the person i met
before - who works in that building.So now i was taken to another
beaurocrat -who started asking me if i worked for stadco and what was
stadco. i told him i met mr gazzaly before, who told me i could get my
visa extended here if i get an invite from a local company.that stadco
is a local company. then I showed him my institute i card and gave him
cards of three four stadco employees and told him this is my contact.
he then called up mr ahmed desoky,( my first contact there) and
started talking in arabic. in the meanwhile he offered me chiclets,
cigarette( asked me if i smoke - i said not now the first time, the
second time i accepted) and juice. in the meanwhile arabic was flowing
left right and center of me and i was thouroughly confused and a bit
scared ki kya ho raha hai.In the middle of the call, a woman ( from
the passport office - the one who had brought me to him) took my
passport for stamping an extension. finally when she returned with my
passport, this guys chat finished. by then a couple of people from
stadco had arrived to take me to minapharm.i had taken a couple of
sips from the juice bottle. this guy ( old - with grey hair like a
prof) says - finish it. then he has another chat in arabic with the
person from stadco who had arrived. finally he tells me that my visa
is extended and to meet him if i have time( he is ironically with the
tourism development authority) . i gave him my card, collected his
card, and told him i would be coming to visit the ministry of health
representative and would definitely meet him. While leaving the
building i breathed a sigh of relief at iimcal's id and glenmark.

cairo report continued

by now i have got thoroughly used to communicating in sign language..
even the fucking taxiwalas here have to be told in sign language how
much is the fare.. for addresses, i get them written in arabic to show
to the taxi wala..

seen the start of the light show on the pyramids.. will return someday
to complete the show. plan to go the pyramids tommorow..
can go anytime as the foking morons work from 8-3 here
see the nile daily, am not in the mood to go for a cruise on it..
i think a cruise in mumbai will be more fun.. more so because u
actually have someone to talk to .. here it is difficult to find
people who talk in english...
so the most lucid time i have is when i am in an office or a ministry
or an embassy..yeah yeah have been to ministries and embassies here..

on a personal note, have taken to living on kfc and mc donalds.. i
still maintain that pizza hut sucks.. not just in india.. everywhere..
kfc rocks tho..
i think i will now shift to an all kfc and fruit juice diet.

cairo report continued

cairo is a lot like an indian city except for the fact that hardly
nyone understands english here properly.
i think i will become an expert in sign language by the time i get out of here.

yeah the pyramids can be seen from the top of my hotel, looks like a
very rustic location.
even the comp which i am using is pretty run down.

will mail a bit in detail later,
for now a small tidbit:

almost missed the connecting flight from kuwait because of the delay
in my flight from mumbai. the flight from kuwait was much better - non
veg meals, nice and maal air hostesses, also had a window seat unlike
the first one when i had an aisle seat. flying is fun esp the landing
and take off, which feel like an essel world ride.
however such is not the case if u have a landing like i had in cairo.
due to excess traffic at the airport, the plane hovered around for
half an hour giving me a cairo tour at very low altitude. the landing
itself was sort of rough, seemed exciting so long as we were high up,
when we went low altitude, the wings started shaking, i was reminded
of final destination. ..

cairo report.. more to follow

I am situated in Giza Which is a bit outside the city, but that is
okay because the addresses which I have to go to are also spaced all
over the city.

The city has a weather slighly cooler than mumbai so heat is not a problem.

People look a lot like Indians, in fact today I used the metro to
commute for a distance. wasnt much of a problem , however it turns out
to be a problem in rush hour as I am informed.

the city has two kinds of people - tourists and non tourists.the
difference in rates demanded of tourists and non tourists is there is
as much as double maybe triple in some cases.

one has to bargain here for roughly everything, most importantly cab
fares. prepaid taxis are no good either. The good part is that one can
find helpful people around.

language is an issue here. people speak english but their
comprehension leaves a lot to be desired. today while taking the metro
rail, i had to rely pretty much on sign language to find out which
track to go on, this was inspite of knowing that i had to change
trains at which station. most people dont understand what a
bill/receipt means. As such, i have been forced to eat at bigger
hotels.Even the hotel staff which speaks reasonable english has some
issues.