Woe is me … poor, poor pitiful me!!

It’s just not fair to have a place’s reputation affected by how the observer feels at the time of the “observing” – a comment I made just over a month ago when my quality of life improved dramatically with the arrival in Egypt of the love of my life. But now the table has been turned. As I write this, my darling Cathy is on her way back to Australia. So this makes my world dull and glum and much of the colour of Cairo has disappeared for me.

My remaining 2½ weeks here will, I expect, be largely now only of a work purpose. Before Cathy arrived I, pretty much, elected not to be a tourist and my enjoyment of my temporary “home town” rested mostly in the thrill of discovery. While I was with her (and we were blest with a number of bonus days when I could not be at work due to the holidays) we had a ball. Now I am without Cathy and I feel much more comfortable with Cairo so the spirit of adventure has waned. The next few weeks will seem mundane. While Cathy had Maryann with her while I was working, Cathy’s pleasure was much greater. So all of this highlights the sort of “home is where the heart is” argument and, for me is a timely reminder that the people in our lives are the very essence of our lives.

I had been very concerned that Cathy would be “bored” or frustrated by the days when she was alone here without either Maryann or me (I think 11 days in all). But Cathy is fairly irrepressible and although she spent a few days mostly reading and relaxing in the hotel room, she continued to “attack” Cairo – heading for new places on her own in subway trains and taxis, and revisiting the previously visited, discovering even more interest in them.

Perhaps demonstrative of her adventurous spirit and her gregarious nature, last week Cathy made a new friend in Cairo and they spent a couple of days together as Cathy showed her the ropes. Her friend had just arrived from Melbourne to spend some time with her husband who is working here for an even longer stint than me and they met in a dress shop. It is truly a small world when such things can happen. This chance event gave Cathy a boost for her last few days here and we two couples even managed a night out together at a Zamalek Italian restaurant.



My days of pleasant dinners with my bride in Cairo are over now and I have to face nights alone in my room where one is drawn to pathetic therapeutic activities like taking photos of one’s feet while watching CNN. But there will be a procession of work colleagues visiting Cairo in the next couple of weeks so I expect that I will have some company at most meals. Just as well perhaps as I doubt my resolve to dine alone in our now familiar dining rooms.

I truly am counting down the days now – with but 15 working days remaining and yet much to do, I have to make every work day a winner and this requires some careful juggling of the remaining hours I have here. And there are just two weekends left, likely to be spent working on my laptop and maybe re-visiting a couple of sites here that have particularly impressed me and pretty much lend themselves to a re-visit alone.

All this bodes for some fairly dull material for the blog so maybe we will see abridged versions in future.

Meanwhile, my thoughts are clearly with my darling wife as she negotiates the 27 hour journey from Cairo airport to Brisbane airport – a journey across half a world, a great gulf of tradition and culture, and across the seasons. I will be spiritually sharing every moment of her trip with her.

Those who have been worried by the recent news of our ill health will be much pleased that we are now fully recovered from the trials of food borne illness and are now as healthy as bulls (or cows).

We are just emerging from the Egyptian holiday season. It did make for a very quiet time at work because, while I was “shoulder to the wheel”, just about everyone else was away and taking it easy. Cairo was a very easy place to move about in during this period – the traffic was generally light, delays few and the pollution levels fairly low.

During the past week we have enjoyed some delightful days with bright blue skies and crisp airs. We have also had some bleak weather with clouds and winds and a sort of “bone-chilling” cold that is very unlike what one would expect of the Middle East.

We took advantage of one of those clear days to visit, or perhaps more accurately, to “make a pilgrimage” to, the Giza pyramids. We had made the visit in December 2005 and did the full tourist deal then, walking about the plateau and venturing into one pyramid, but we were there early in the morning and a dense fog made visibility difficult. So this time we went in the middle of a beautiful day and saw the ancient miracles in clear air.

Oddly, for mine, the pyramids are not much up close. The effect is achieved from the distance. Certainly it is one of life’s little pleasures to actually touch a pyramid, but having done that it remains only to marvel at their size and age. So we felt like rebellious tourists in being unique in not actually going through the turnstiles this time. And we did have the expertise to know that the very best view is obtained from the upper floors of the Giza Pizza Hut and KFC, so our pilgrimage included a Colonel Sanders approach.

Cathy celebrated her birthday early in the week, so we had a night out. Still smarting from our lack of results from top restaurants and nervous about another bout, we initially went for a tea at the Conrad on the Corniche, but realising that I had stayed there for a week last May and lived to tell the tale, we opted for dinner at a table for two overlooking the Nile. Afterwards, we strolled down the Nile to the Ramses Hilton and its associated shopping mall. We took tea at the Hilton at another table overlooking the Nile and then wandered on to the Nile Hilton before returning home.

We also did some other walking on the long weekend and visited the Grand Hyatt on Rhoda Island on one day and the Four Seasons on the Corniche on another (there are a number of Four Seasons Hotels in Cairo). So we had more or less done a five star “pub crawl”. This is, in itself, interesting to us because it highlights the contrasts and contradictions that are Cairo.

Our most recent day of walking saw us take a new tack and we caught the metro to Mohamed Naguib station, one stop beyond the busy “Sadat” on the main Tahrir Square, just near the Egyptian Museum. The plan was to “cruise” back down towards the Nile through the downtown shopping streets. But – we left our book of maps at home and headed off in the wrong direction (again!) eventually striking the Nile a mile or so downstream of where we intended and missing the shopping areas.

A note on navigation in Cairo. A number of phenomena work against us. There are few cross roads or parallel streets, rather the roads curve and veer off in odd directions – main roads "morph" into minor roads. Street signs are either in Arabic or say little unless you are in the heart of things where you already know the score. The streets are narrow and bordered by tall buildings so the landmarks that are visible are few. This day was cloudy so the sun was not so obvious, but worse, this is the northern hemisphere and the winter sun oscillates the southern sky, something that I am not used to. So north, south, east and west never seem to be where they are supposed to be. And when asked which way the Nile is flowing it always seems natural to assume the wrong way. Upper Egypt is actually south of Lower Egypt and the Nile flows “uphill” to the north and to the Mediterranean.

But the beauty of being lost is that you get to go to places that you would never dream of going otherwise. Such was our “flight” from Mohamed Naguib station. We walked for around an hour and a half down streets where tourists and expats no doubt never venture and in doing so we saw the real Cairo as it is for the locals. There is an absolute absence of any shops that sell anything to tourists and shops and stalls that provide the locals with their needs. So food stalls and bakeries abound and the shops are much more practical and stock the essentials of life.

This contrasts discordantly with the other Cairo in the lobbies of five star hotels – places where the bulk of Cairenes would (or could) never venture. There are also plenty of clubs where the well-off locals are members and where they can relax in their upper or middle class microenvironments. But in Cairo, reality is never far away, and bazaars and carpet factories coexist with the luxury of world class hotels. The shadows of these tall and elegant buildings, clad with marble and glass, pass strangely over the Cairo that more accurately represents the living arrangements for the main part of Cairo and for the vast bulk of Cairenes.

After living for a couple of months here, I think I am now more aware that when I leave in a few weeks time there will be a lot that I do not understand about Egypt, but I am also conscious that my understanding of this unique place has grown tremendously in that time. It has been a blessing to be able to spend a significant period here – a period that means I can be more than a tourist (but still be a tourist!!).

I am not sure ….. but I think I am starting to become a little more “Egyptian” ….. I think I may even be “looking” more Egyptian.

By popular request, I have included some photos in the blog now, including the back issues. I have learnt how to do that but not how to add captions – if I find I can do that I will add them later.

Happy New Year to you all. The Eid continues here, and Coptic Christmas is still a few days off, but the 25th December Christmas and New Year have been and gone. Our part-time travelling companion, Maryann, has also come and gone and returned and now left and is safely tucked away in Brisbane again. She came back to Cairo for one night on the 30th which gave us a chance to hear of her adventures “up the Nile”.

Our Christmas was not your usual Brisbane affair. We enjoyed Christmas Eve here in our hotel, choosing that over offers to go to various Cairo venues. The Christmas celebrations here tend to be on the eve rather than on the night. The hotel put on a delightful four course dinner with special decorations and superlative service. There was also a special organist cum singer who could play almost anything in the vibrant “belly dancing” style so typical of the Middle East. We are somewhat “institutions” here as I don’t think that anyone else has ever stayed here for so long. I am reminded of the “Colonel” from Falty Towers. But we receive wonderful service now, well above the norm.

On Christmas day we went to Saqqara to the tomb and pyramid area. This was the original site of the pyramids – where the first prototypes were built. There are also loads of tombs and the area is far more interesting than Giza. Saqqara is some distance south from Cairo but from it you can see the Giza pyramids and the Dahshur pyramids. Dahshur is the site of the “bent” pyramid where the original slope of the walls proved to produce too high a structure, so the upper part was built with a lesser slope.

A new museum was opened at Saqqara last April and we had a guided tour from an archaeologist of that and of the site, going into one pyramid and some tombs. All a wonderful experience.

That night we attended a Christmas service at a small church in Zamalek. The church is beautifully decorated with a series of mosaics and is a fine merger of the Middle Eastern and Italian styles. I was struck by the fact that, for the first time in my experience, I did not sweat at a Christmas service – the beauty of the northern hemisphere.

We went from there to “a leading hotel” nearby and had a delightful dinner at an Italian restaurant within the hotel. The food tasted great and the atmosphere was delightful, but I say “leading hotel” because I do not wish to defame their reputation when I discuss the food poisoning I “scored”. A mild illness, but one that lasted until New Year.

My debility did not prevent us from visiting the Manyal Palace later in the week. This was the home of King Farouk and involves a house that is being restored, gardens, a hunting lodge (complete with scores of stuffed heads – from animals who were rendered “stuffed” by the King), and a private mosque. We received some extra treatment there also, enabling us to see some special areas – we now understand how a King’s bathroom works.

From there we went to the Citadel, perched high above Cairo with the best views in town. An old fortress, and including a couple of mosques, this is one of the gems of Cairo. I had not seen it before but Cathy had been a couple of weeks ago. None the less, as we have so often found, on a second visit we find more to the places than our first visit suggested.

Before Maryann’s departure we celebrated at one of our favoured restaurants where we had some good and bad fortune. The good news was that only two of the three of us suffered from food poisoning and Maryann was the one who missed out (Cathy and I made the same menu selection). That was especially important because Maryann had to leave on the long flight home the next day and I would hate to think what that might be like as sick as we were.

I went down first, possibly because I was still recovering from Christmas night but I quickly dehydrated and was fortunate that Cathy was able to nurse me with electrolytes etc., but by morning she was herself sick and we spent New Year’s eve taking it very quietly. By the 1st January we were pretty much back to normal although still a little weak due to effectively 36 hours without food. Hopefully, we are over it now and will not suffer a recurrence. I must admit that this was the most severe food-borne illness that I can remember suffering and for a while there I could see myself spending the New Year in a hospital.

I have been in the Middle East for a total of 16 weeks since November 2005, and have had three trips to Indonesia, the most recent lasting 6 weeks, and this is the first case of the Pharaoh’s Revenge in all that time. We have really been pretty fortunate with illness while travelling and it was far better to be sick in the convenient environment of our hotel than while on a tour. Both episodes were associated with “better class” establishments and whilst we were adhering to our “anti-food poisoning” protocols. I guess it goes to prove that dining at a 5 star hotel or restaurant is no guarantee of safety.

At any rate, we are back firing on all cylinders now and the events have become but travellers’ tales. I have been away from Brisbane for all of November and all of December now, and will not return until early February. With just 22 standard working days left, it has come down to programming each and every day for maximum impact, so I expect that the remainder of my stay will fly past.

We have, by and large, enjoyed our holiday season so far, complete with the remains of slaughtered animals on the footpaths, and have a good idea of what the “silly season” means in Egypt.

Out and about in Egypt ….. planes, trains and automobiles! Planes brought us here but we have been enjoying a range of transport whilst in Egypt. Road travel seems straightforward enough but in addition to private cars and drivers, the domain of the agencies and rich individuals, most travel around Cairo for us is by foot or by taxi. These are largely small and black and white – well used Fiats and Peugeots mainly but a wide range of types. The drivers are all skilled but impatient and often need some slowing down – we’ve learnt the word for “slower”. I’ve also a command of “go left”, “go right”, “go straight ahead” and “here” – all of which are handy if you have some idea where you are going. The drivers generally have little or no English so you need to be able to converse on their terms a little.

The trick is to wave down a cab, if needed, (mostly you are waving offers away). The procedure is then to announce through the window where you want to go – preferably the suburb and some landmark. If the traffic is very bad in that direction the driver may just drive on or, thinking you a tourist, is likely to take the fare expecting much more than the locals pay. You pay by how far and how long the trip (the meters don’t work). I know the Egyptian rates but am happy to pay around twice that for the privilege of being a foreigner. Ten Egyptian pounds is certainly enough for anywhere around inner Cairo and longer trips might warrant 15 or 20 – the range is therefore $2.50 to $5 Australian – still pretty cheap.

The other curious thing is that you might have hired the cab and be travelling along when at some hold-up someone else will jump in with you and all of a sudden you are share riding.

The taxis at Alexandria, black and yellow, were generally newer and neater than the Cairo taxis, but the process was much the same.

Incidentally, taxis caught from outside hotels are generally dearer so I find it best to check them out before departure to avoid an argument. Drivers will often try to extract a very high fare from the unwitting tourist so it is not unusual to have to be firm with them.

A cheaper form of transport for the locals – not yet tried by me – are the buses and minibuses. Each is incredibly crowded and the larger buses may not fully stop but the locals just jump on anyway. The springs are generally truly “shot” and the buses lean at awkward angles. No real stops, you may imagine that you are standing waiting to cross the road with a bunch of people only to find that a bus pulls up and some hop on while others wait for some other, unidentifiable vehicle

The other means of transport we have used is the Cairo metro, or underground. Not all that extensive in coverage, it is very efficient and mostly modern. Electric trains run every 8 or 10 minutes max. and although sometimes crowded, they are easy to use. The first two carriages are for women only so that makes it less crowded for the girls. The fare, anywhere in the net work, is one pound per trip – less than 25c.

The Alex tram system, which we caught but once, is less efficient, fast and comfortable, but can carry you a long way for 25 piastres. A 25 piastre note is one quarter of a pound and an Australian dollar buys around 4.5 pounds, so a tram trip costs around 8 cents – not bad for public transport.

But just when you think you are mastering public transport, a sobering event. Last Wednesday night we planned to take in the 6.00pm “light and sound show” at the pyramids and to dodge the traffic, we caught the metro to Giza station and caught a cab for “Giza pyramid and sphinx” to make a shorter taxi ride. Seemed straight forward enough although the route was unfamiliar. Unfamiliar until I noticed the Giza zoo, just around the corner from home. We were being taken it seems to the Pyramisa Hotel, not far from the Sheraton near us – we had boomeranged. The driver would not stop or be redirected and even my attempts to draw the pyramids and sphinx (not a bad effort on the run if I do say so myself) led to no more than a knowing and inscrutable smile. We missed the light show and the driver missed a large fare getting only the local rate for such a journey (home).

Last week should be marked down as the “week of the resort”. I had three nights away from Cairo, in two different “resort” areas. One of those twisted ironies, given that Cathy had travelled half way around the world to be here …… still!!

First, I went without her to Ain El Soukhna for a two day workshop. This is a newly developed area with large numbers of villas in gated communities and, at least one, luxury hotel and conference centre. It also has developed a petro-chemical industry in concert – so one drives to the conference centre past refineries. Our hotel included a huge pool, maybe 70 metres long, adjacent to the Red Sea (an even bigger pool). I took a walk to dip my hand in the Red Sea during lunch. Not the peak season for beaches of course, but the water was clear, if cool and the seas calm. With typical Egyptian style, the lawns were immaculate and the sand on the beach scrapped perfectly flat, giving the beach a somewhat manicured appearance.

We travelled from Cairo in a mini bus and returned in a coach – the latter broke down twice on the way home – some form of fan belt broke – so we were delayed for an hour or so and then were caught in the end of week (Thursday night) traffic. Ain El Soukhna is about 90 minutes drive east of Cairo along an excellent toll road through the desert.

Early on Friday morning the three of us left for our private trip to Alexandria by express train. Cathy & Co. had done a great job in my absence and purchased the tickets for the 9:00am express train so we travelled by the underground to Mubarak Station. All went smoothly until we arrived in Alex and disembarked. We battled through a bevy of taxi drivers with their yellow and black charges (Cairo cabs are black and white), fending them off because we had “the map” (Cathy had bought the tourist guide) and the sea was not far off. We reached the sea and turned left heading for the hotels. Eventually it became apparent that we were on the wrong part of the sea front and our short walk took over hour and a half and covered nearly ten kilometres. It seems that the express train stops once in Cairo but twice in Alex and the popular stop is the first one – everyone else alighted so we assumed we were there.

By then, in the actual harbour area, we were ready to take any hotel that we saw but chose the Cecil, a Sofitel hotel. I am sure we paid way too much but we did get the best room in the house and were pleased with a weekend of luxury.

Our room had both a number and a name (the only one with a name on the third floor) – so that must have made some sort of statement. We had a corner room with one set of French doors overlooking a gardened square and the other with an uninterrupted view of the harbour. With such views of the Mediterranean, we thought we had gone to heaven. Particularly lovely was the sandcastle magic of the ancient fort that sits where the even more ancient lighthouse used to stand on Pharos Island, still containing some of the lighthouse stones, and topped (in good sandcastle style), with the delightfully flowing Egyptian flag.

So we had a touristy time at the fort, the foreshore, and the town. We went to the Roman ruins – the Odeum – an ancient amphitheatre, Pompey’s Pillar – a huge and major attraction of Alexandria for centuries that I had forgotten about, the Montaza Palace – now a retreat for the President but surrounded by extensive public gardens, hotels and harbours, and the Bibliotheque. This is the new library. The ancient library of Alexandria was famous for its world-record-breaking store of ancient knowledge. The Egyptians have done a wonderful job of creating a more modern marvel, architecturally imaginative, massive, impressive and beautifully finished. The new Bibliotheque Alexandria is an entirely modern structure, ideally situated next to the university.

The library includes antiquities museums, art galleries, a science museum and a planetarium. We timed the planetarium badly but certainly indulged in all the other delights.

A very full day, a late train (left from the station we were meant to go to originally) and a cold trip back to the hotel saw all three of us elated but exhausted.

My two ladies have had a very busy time of it so far – venturing to new places every day and mastering Cairo’s peculiarities very well. They are having a ball together, and promise me that they have only just begun.

We have also been galloping gourmets, testing every restaurant that I have heard about since I arrived and enjoying them all. The food here is delicious and generally very healthy, leaving us feeling good about eating and probably losing weight at the same time.

Egypt is famous for many things but perhaps not for its wines. Some of the red wine is drinkable enough, but the whites are best left to age, for many, many years – perhaps another 50 or more. On the other hand the beers are really very good to drink and there is no need to seek out foreign beers when Saqqara Gold and Stellar beers are available.

The girls have discovered a shortage of shops that sell makeup suitable for their pale complexions. We did discover that there is one called La Beauté in the neighbouring suburb of Mohandeesen but our first expedition led to an hour walk and no Beauté. Just goes to show that beauty can be just as elusive here as in Australia but we will not retreat from our quest and will try again

So, my sojourn here is now half through – so suddenly in many ways. The silly season approaches as in Brisbane, although it is mostly the Muslim Eid commencing on 30 December and the Coptic Christian Christmas on 7 January. This might yet have its complications for us, certainly for me in terms of work as my contacts are likely to be holidaying for a while.
I trust that your Christmas will be cool – the weather here is quite cold at times now, but we cannot hope for a white Christmas.

It’s just not fair to have a place’s reputation affected by how the observer feels at the time of the “observing”. And so, I should not let my personal (positive) feelings reflect positively on Cairo – but last Saturday was the finest day that I have had here in five weeks. Beautiful blue skies, pretty much clear of haze, perfect temperature, neither hot nor cold, and Cairo just seemed (for Cairo) “peaceful”. Was this only because my world was looking bright in many other ways?

Cathy joined me in Cairo on Saturday and that is just fan-@@@@-tastic! She safely made the long and exhausting journey and is now installed here for a while. Our good friend came with her and she will be with us for a while also – so a double treat. Also, a number of work colleagues have arrived or are about to arrive from Rome, so things are really “bopping” now.

As is the wont of our unpredictable lives, all my plans to meet the two girls from Brisbane at the airport came unravelled at the last moment when I received an invitation to a weekend work meeting that I couldn’t refuse and that coincided with the time Cathy was touching down in Cairo. So I sent a car out from the hotel. They were great and have given us very good treatment.

The other reason that I am “cock-a-hoop” is that the meeting was crucial to my time here and went far better than anticipated. In fact it was all but perfect. This means that the remaining time I have here will be much more productive and I can really see us getting somewhere.

But I still think that the air was clear and the sky was blue by anyone’s measure.

I dined out a bit last week and enjoyed some new experiences. We also visited Khan el-Kahlili bazaar, a popular haunt for the tourists. The bazaar is tourist-centric but still fascinating with a huge network of shops spread out over a large area but with extremely narrow alleyways. There are loads of shishas, scarves, jewellery (variable in quality and cost but including solid gold), brassware, perfumes and ornate perfume bottles, galabyas, and antiques. The most delightful of these are the spice shops with their fragrant aromas and bright colours. The bazaar also includes what I am told is the oldest, continuously operating coffee shop in the world – El Fishawy – variously reputed to be between 300 and 600 years old with continuous service as a coffee shop. How about that! It is a Mecca for tourists who want to boast of a Turkish coffee at El Fishawy’s.

The bazaars or souks are institutions of “haggling”. The process usually goes something like this – “I give you a good price – come in and have a look” or “Where you from?” for every possible answer the inquirer has a cousin who lives there - most commonly for us, Melbourne or Sydney. John Howard might be keen to see Australians taught history, but the geography of the touts in the souks is pretty good. They do get a bit stumped with answers like “Bulgaria” or the “Falkland Islands”. The slightest hesitation to look at something for sale marks you as a “mark”. A machine gun of sales pitches follows until you ask “How much for this?”. Expect to hear an amount that is about three times what you would need to pay. Idle inquiries when you have no intention of buying usually expose something like the true price as you walk away. A series of discount price offers will follow you. But it is a bit hard to pursue the haggling too much because, at any of the prices, most items are cheap.

On the night we went to the souk the shopkeepers seemed in holiday mode with very little banter coming from them and what there was often was just playfulness. Did I previously mention in my blogs that the Egyptians generally have good senses of humour and enjoy a laugh with you? So some of the statements were “Come in here and give me all your money” or “Come, take a look everything is free today”.

Nearby are the more orthodox markets where the day to day necessities are actually bought. The butcher shops with the carcases halved or quartered and hanging on hooks outside. The poulterer who will sell you a chook that you can have a conversation with before you depart and it departs – killed and prepared to your instructions. Tailors, tinkers, interspersed with mobile phone shops to bring one back into the 21st century with a thud.

And always there are young men rushing earnestly with a tray carrying two or three glasses of tea or pots of Turkish coffee. I never see where they come from or end up. They are surely not doing it for exercise but clearly there is some form of cafeteria delivery service near every street corner. Incidentally, the offices here (my office certainly) have cafeterias on site where a range of food s and beverages are provided. A quick phone call with have it delivered to your desk and a bill appears once a week. Better service than most Brisbane office blocks, what!

A long walk along the Corniche on Saturday night to show the newcomers Cairo by night (before they collapsed with jetlag), a day’s outing for them to the oldest of the pyramids, and dinner with a group of 8 on the “Blue Nile” a floating restaurant (or series of restaurants) completed the week.

So, will my bride’s presence distract me from blogging to you? Hopefully not. Maybe I can convince her to contribute her experiences to the Douglas Report.

The streets of Cairo are a very different world to the world that most of us antipodeans are used to. There can be no doubt that here I am somewhere that is delightfully exotic.

So far, in this blog, I guess I have been somewhat “retentive” about the traffic here. But putting the motor vehicles aside for a moment, what is unique to Cairo?

It depends on where you are. I took a long walk on last Friday night (remember that is equivalent to our Saturday night). I walked to the bridge near the Sheraton, across to the island, Zamalek (Zam-mar-leck), past the Opera House and across the second bridge over the Nile to what is referred to as “downtown”. Probably the most notable feature here, apart from some very flash hotels (Nile and Ramses Hiltons, and the Intercontinental), is the imposing presence of the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. A massive pinkish domed structure, it houses the mummies and treasures of the Pharaohs (including Tut Ankh Aman’s trove) that have not been previously plundered from Egypt. It is a work of art in itself that oozes some sort of “Indiana Jones”-like charm. It has a delightful garden at its entrance but a much wider space in front of it is now a vacant construction site. I am told the non-air-conditioned space is hot and not the best for tourists or treasures and a new museum is under way – but it would be sad to see this old institution not being “the” museum.

The downtown area has the feel of being designed to be a London or Paris. It contains a number of road junctions that see six or seven roads coming together, with “pie-slice” buildings fronting these roundabouts, some centred with fez-ed, bronzed “pigeon stands” of clearly famous Egyptians of yesteryear that mean nothing to me. I certainly had the feeling that I was in the central part of a European city.

Downtown is a major shopping centre – some mall-like spaces within buildings but mostly, for Cairo, wide footpaths and shops with windows and entrances that are more familiar to us. These tend to be specialist shops that congregate in areas. So there will be store after store of ladies shoes, then children’s clothing, then menswear. I am assured that the choice of menswear is better than ladies clothes here – and there will be a number of reasons for that. I (again) became a little disoriented in the walk in and took a wrong turn that saw me in the “automotive repairs and parts” area. This had plenty of small shops with various parts, some aligned to just one or two brand names – Fiat, Peugeot etc.

Add to the normal shops, a bevy of temporary stands and of goods laid out on the footpaths and side streets and you have something, a little like our weekend markets, but more essentially Cairo. These small vendors will generally be “themed” also. So you will see laid out an amazing array of headscarves, for instance. Further on, a similarly wide display of bed linen. This is more like the souks or bazaars we have come to expect. I am not sure if these vendors are licensed or if they just set up but they seem a very acceptable part of the fabric of life here.

What do the people look like? Well, they certainly look Egyptian but most of the men are in western-style dress. A smaller proportion will wear the traditional long, loose garment (galabiya – no doubt the wrong spelling), usually along with a scarf tied around the head and/or draped over the shoulders. The fez is no longer in fashion – it is more something that will be worn by a hotel waiter or by a doorman outside a large hotel.

The situation with the women is probably reversed with western dress as we know it relatively rare. In keeping with the notion of modesty, teenage girls and older will wear long dresses and long-sleeved tops covering all but their hands. The vast majority will also wear scarves that cover all of their hair – the hijab. A few, wear the black garments more common in the Arabian Peninsula countries with a veil covering the face except for the eyes, and some also wear black gloves.

So, I presume the ladies clothing shops are obviously restricted in demand for a range of clothing types. The younger women will wear jeans and more trendy clothes so I guess there must be outlets for them.

Again, given the local standards for modest behaviour, there is little affection shown in public between men and women. Young couples walk hand in hand along the Corniche on a Friday night and some will slip an arm on a shoulder or waist but this is regarded as “poor form”. My English-language paper has run a series of articles and letters to the editor about the decline of moral standards. Yet there has been a lengthy and heated debate here about veils on women.

In contrast, for both women and men, rather more affection is shown between same sex friends who will commonly walk along arm in arm or hand in hand. I have not noticed particular greetings between women but men have a range of greetings dependent upon the closeness of the association. Formal meetings between strangers (such as I have) involve a standard “how do you do” and a handshake, much like that in Australia – except the style here is much gentler than in Australia and I have to remind myself not to squeeze “as is my wont”.

You can tell when friends meet because that handshake starts some distance away with the hands coming together from the side with a slap and then a shake. And really good friends, old friends, will greet with kisses. Something like the continental kiss but these tend to be much more audible. Such behaviour is not seen in Australia expect within certain sub-cultures, so it is clearly a difference.

I have mentioned the sweet potato roasters previously but there are also other vendors operating from barrows and stalls. There are sweet corn cookers. There are bread sellers with their puffy loaves on wooden frames, and sellers of what looks rather like a bagel – a ring with a bar across it, all hung out on a frame with wooden “dowels”.

And, of course there is the Nile and the work and entertainment that go on there. The fishers trolling lines behind their small boats as their wives row earnestly; the net fishermen; and the rod fisherman from the banks. And there are all sorts of cruise boats from the very large and permanently parked on the banks to smaller cruise boats with their bright coloured lights and music blaring out. Old-style horse-drawn taxis taut for work beside the Corniche and it is not just tourists who make use of them.

The scene is delightful as the sun sinks over Giza and the lights begin to stand out in the twilight, reflecting from the blackness of the Nile. Add to that the evening call to prayer and you have the quintessential Cairo.

In a week I will be joined by my darling wife and I will be showing her, in person, some of what I have seen on the streets of Cairo.