As darkness falls over the Egyptian capital, the city turns into one big fun place
“Welcome to Cairo” was the immediate answer from Ahmed, a driver from my host organization in the Egyptian capital. We had just left Cairo International Airport and were en route to one of the hotels in the Dokki area of the city.
The reply followed my polite and rather naive enquiry as to the speed limits of Cairo. Seeing him driving at a cut-throat speed, zigzagging his way, in the night, through the fairly congested roads of Cairo was enough to send chills down almost anybody’s spine. And I believe I was justified in voicing that question.
I had always thought that Pakistanis were pretty reckless drivers, considering their ‘consideration’ of the traffic rules; but trust me, Cairoites tower far above us. If you can drive in Cairo, you can drive anywhere in the world.
“Never ask a Cairoite about speed limits,” Ahmed said and I accepted his piece of advice rather sheepishly.
Although I was in Cairo to attend an official meeting, I was also really interested in adding some first-hand practical experience to my academic understanding of a country that has one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Fortunately, or unfortunately, since I had to attend meetings during all days of my stay in Cairo, I had only evenings to go out and watch the life go by.
Evenings in Cairo have a certain element of romanticism attached to them. As the Sun sets, one can see Arabs thronging the restaurants and tea-shops to smoke ‘Sheesha’ and green tea. It appears quite pleasing to the senses just to see how they forget about their worries in life at that time and enjoy themselves thoroughly with friends and their families. Since competition is tough, some restaurants provide their customers more entertainment by screening (mostly Egyptian) movies on their television sets. Though I couldn’t understand a word said, but judging by the clip that I saw, water-drenched hero and heroine, standing in rain and whispering sweet-nothings, could definitely provide encouragement to our ‘Reemas’ and ‘Meeras’. Some restaurants also have ‘Tawla’, in addition, to attract customers. Tawla appears to be a game like carom with a small squared board with lots of counters on it. Four persons can easily play the game at a time.
One of the most interesting things that really took me by surprise was Egyptian belly-dancing. I was surprised mainly because the ‘dancing act’ seemed a complete departure from the kind of Islamic culture one would normally find in the streets of Cairo. The belly-dancing that we witnessed was arranged aboard a small cruise-ship over the River Nile.
The event began with a few singers singing songs in different languages and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a cage was brought in with a woman inside it. The male performers did a few dancing acts and then let out their female companion. The woman, pretty scantily dressed, then exhibited her skills. As the name indicates, belly dancing requires some fat around the tummy area which is precisely why one cannot expect supermodels, who usually possess pencil-thin stature, to be good belly-dancers. On the whole, this regular night-time event, rich in its flamboyance, can best be described as entertaining, but it hardly qualifies as a real piece of art. But whatever it is, it was good enough to force my boss to frantically search for extra film rolls so that he could take back home as many memories as possible of something that he could never find in Pakistan. I just hope he kept the rolls away from his wife or else he could definitely be in a lot of trouble.
The Pyramids hold most attraction for almost all the tourists who visit Cairo, and the Pyramids of Giza becomes more attractive when the sun sets and the light show begins. With the help of multi-coloured laser lights and sounds, an ambience is created wherein a person feels as if he was living in the Pharoanic times. While the laser lights created various beautiful images from the past, the background audio-narration of the history makes the event very interesting. Though the historical narrations became a bit boring at times, still it is a show which is worth spending the amount of money they charge.
Before you leave Cairo, make sure you have dined out a good number of times, particularly at small road-side restaurants where the actual taste exists. I really enjoyed Egyptian dishes particularly in the famous Sayida Zaynab area in a couple of chilly evenings. The traditional dishes such as Mashy Warak Anab (rice stuffed in grapevine leaves), Fattah (rice, lentils, macaroni), Tameya (falafel) and Masakaa (Aubergine, green peppers, tomato sauce) are a must for anyone travelling to Cairo or Egypt for that matter. So the next time you travel to Cairo, do make sure you enjoy the nights of Cairo as well for they really radiate colour and energy to make you want to visit the place again and again and give you a lot of memories to cherish for a long time to come.
As darkness falls over the Egyptian capital, the city turns into one big fun place
Although I was in Cairo to attend an official meeting, I was also really interested in adding some first-hand practical experience to my academic understanding of a country that has one of the oldest civilizations in the world. Fortunately, or unfortunately, since I had to attend meetings during all days of my stay in Cairo, I had only evenings to go out and watch the life go by.
The event began with a few singers singing songs in different languages and then all of a sudden, out of nowhere, a cage was brought in with a woman inside it. The male performers did a few dancing acts and then let out their female companion. The woman, pretty scantily dressed, then exhibited her skills. As the name indicates, belly dancing requires some fat around the tummy area which is precisely why one cannot expect supermodels, who usually possess pencil-thin stature, to be good belly-dancers. On the whole, this regular night-time event, rich in its flamboyance, can best be described as entertaining, but it hardly qualifies as a real piece of art. But whatever it is, it was good enough to force my boss to frantically search for extra film rolls so that he could take back home as many memories as possible of something that he could never find in Pakistan. I just hope he kept the rolls away from his wife or else he could definitely be in a lot of trouble.
