Egypt Journal #5

JOURNAL: November 20, 2006 - Monday - 8:25 a.m.

I finally got to an Internet cafe last night, by the way. It costs 3 Egyptian pounds for 30 minutes, or the equivalent of about 60 cents. At the airport in Amsterdam, it cost 6 Euros for 15 minutes, which is about 7 bucks or so. Go figure.

We just got on the bus to head to Alexandria. Not much to write right now. I thought about a couple of observations on the trip thus far:

- The mass of humanity on the streets of Cairo is just remarkable. It makes Lima, Peru, look tame (well, almost). There are huge crowds EVERYWHERE. And it never stops. 8:00 last night and 8:00 this morning, the sidewalks and streets were packed.

- The "essence" store we went to last night was called "Royal Perfume" (signs here are almost universally in English as well as Arabic. Samir said that is a legacy of British colonialism, but I imagine that the tourist industry here has had a big impact in more recent years). Our salesman's name at the Royan Perfume was Hisam. He was a round, jovial young Egyptian guy who must have been born to sell that stuff. I thought he did a good job convincing me to buy, as I went into the store having no intention to do so. I was so impressed I asked to take a picture with him.

More on Alexandria later.