Cairo Scenes

We arrived back in Cairo in the early evening, just in time for rush hour! Actually that's not true, as Cairo features a 24 hour rush hour. Our bus simply pulled off to the side of a very busy road, stopped in the merge lane, and off-loaded the luggage into traffic. Thank goodness our van driver was right there to rescue us. In this picture, the man to the right of Nancy is eating a big roasted corn on the cob, a snack food sold by vendors on the street.Here we are compressed into our tiny elevator in the Cairo hotel. The brass hinges are for the little swinging interior doors. Closing these was optional, i.e. the elevator operated with them open. Meaning if the elevator was moving and you wish to be maimed, you could just reach out and touch the elevator shaft wall as it went by. You did have to swing one of the doors partially closed in order to reach the control panel. Each floor had an elevator door and these swung back and forth and had to be closed in order for the elevator to go.Gas stations in Cairo were one of the most westernized operations we spotted. They were even well lit at night. One difference from America is they were overstaffed with uniformed helpers who pumped your gas. As we drove to the airport at 2 in the morning, the gas stations still had a half dozen uniformed staff ready to pump gas. Since half of Cairo was on the road at that hour, I guess this staffing level made sense.

These old white VW vans were everywhere. We were told they are for transport within the municipal area and run fixed routes for just a half pound a passenger (ten cents). Often times the vans would simply slow down at an exchange point and passengers would hop on or off. The side doors were always open, as were the rear engine covers.

We sent Craig to make our last ATM withdrawal. Note he is under the protection of the white coated Tourism Police.

We saw several of thse street sweepers in their green uniforms. Talk about an endless task! Note the lush grass in the median...the only place in Egypt we saw green.

Here's one of the reasons for the lush grass in the median, the watering guy. No automatic sprinklers here.