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[ Reply | Next | Previous | Up ] Close Encouter - CairoFrom: By Greer Fay Cashman (Jerusalem Post) CommentsClose Encounter - Cairo By Greer Fay Cashman
(December 29) Some who looked to spend the entry into the new millennium at a destination which is short on distance from Israel, long in history, fascinating in its multiculturalism and with a climate similar to that of home - took off to Egypt. Or more precisely: to Cairo, which provides the easiest access to Giza, site of the famed pyramids. At midnight tonight, Giza promises to be the brightest place in the Middle East with a glittering concert with a thousand performers. There, in the desert adjacent to Sahara City, tens of thousands of Egyptians and tourists are expected to congregate for an entertainment spectacular which will defy anything previously seen in the Middle East. The event was to have included the placing of a nine-meter-high pyramidion or capstone on top of the Great Pyramid. But the issue surrounding the pyramid was so controversial that this aspect of the festivities was canceled last week. Even if you don't manage to get to the Egyptian capital in time for the millennium bash, do try to get to Egypt some time soon. Lots of Israelis wander across the border daily to gamble in Taba or to trek through the Sinai - but I prefer Cairo - probably because I am a creature of the concrete jungle. For those fixated on urban environments, Cairo is a fabulous wonderland both by day and by night - with the awe of history and the challenge of tomorrow in constant juxtaposition. This visit to Cairo was one I had been planning for three years, so when I got to the airport two hours prior to departure time, I was horrified to find thousands of people crowded with their luggage in front of the check-in counters. But instead of the queues getting shorter, they were getting longer. The cause: a wildcat strike by airport personnel in response to a newspaper report that there would be mass sackings at Ben-Gurion International Airport in 2000. I figured that I would wait an hour, and then if worst came to worst, I would take a bus to Cairo. If it was full, I would get one to Eilat, cross into Taba, and take whatever available transport there was to the Egyptian capital. Fortunately, I didn't have to resort to any of these options. The sanctions ended some 20 minutes later, and the airport was immediately galvanized into action. Security officers and El Al ground staff went into super efficiency mode and processed luggage inspections, check-ins, issues of boarding passes in record time. The problem was that all the flights were delayed because no one had attended to cleaning and fueling planes during the strike. Since El Al had the largest number of planes flying out of the country, El Al bore most of the flak as frustrated passengers complained about missing connections. They weren't interested in the fact that it was the airport and not the airline staff that was at fault. My own flight took off more than two hours after schedule, so it was close to midnight when we touched down in Cairo. As luck would have it, my suitcase was the last piece of luggage to come out onto the carousel - so even though there had been minimal waiting time at Egyptian passport control, waiting for the luggage in Cairo was nearly as bad as waiting for the plane in Lod. The one good thing about it was that when I emerged into the Cairo night air, it was so late that there were very few cars on the road, so the ride to the luxury suburb of Maadi where I would be staying was a smooth one. BECAUSE IT was Ramadan, the whole of Cairo was lit up. Many of the hotels had huge, illuminated Christmas trees standing alongside their entranceways. Many Cairenes will tell you that Cairo isn't Egypt and that Maadi isn't Cairo. Both Maadi and Zamalek, another posh Cairo suburb, are largely populated by expatriates who live a colonial-style existence, perpetuating their own cultures, speaking in their own languages and socializing mainly amongst themselves. Having been to Egypt several times, including long before the peace treaty with Israel, I had already done the touristy things like visiting the Pyramids, the Sphinx, the national museum, and the restored ancient ship. I'd also been to Alexandria, Aswan, and Luxor. In fact, I had done all these things and more, more than once, and had no desire to play tourist again. I just wanted to relax and fit in with the lifestyle of my friends who reside in Egypt. The one touristy thing I did want to do was to go to the famous Khan-al-Khalili market, a sprawling labyrinth of artisans' studios, stores, and eateries which dates back to the 14th century. If you want to get the best bargains in the market, you have to somehow latch onto Sandy Zupan, a native New Yorker, who relocated to Boston and who for the past six years has been living in Cairo where her husband Ben, a telecommunications expert, has been working on USAID projects. Aside from anything else, Zupan always has American kosher products in her pantry, and anyone pining for familiar Jewish brands will find this very kind lady to be more than generous. Zupan's generosity is most frequently expressed in her active involvement with numerous organizations which in turn support a variety of Egyptian social welfare causes. As a result Zupan, has become a bulk buyer, which is why the merchants at Khan-al-Khalili immediately quote her rock bottom prices even when she is buying only one or two items. Shopping with Zupan can be both time- and money-saving, but it takes some of the stimulation out of shopping for those people who enjoy the game of bargaining. Khan-al-Khalili was much cleaner than I remembered it - and even though it was Ramadan, when Moslems were fasting during the daylight hours, merchants in almost every shop we entered offered us coffee. My host bought a beautiful silver choker for 120 Egyptian pounds, which is roughly equivalent to US$34. Although the choker looked fine as it was, the storekeeper said he wanted to polish it, so we went to have coffee at Fishawi's, one of the more elegant coffee shops in the market, whose cafe latte is nothing to write home about but whose toilets are clean and modern. Khan-al-Khalili is a marvelous place in which to buy not only silver but also copper and brassware. If you have the time, take a look at the artisans who, working with tweezers, painstakingly make the inlaid mother-of-pearl boxes. After watching them for 10 minutes you'll never again quibble about the price of inlaid mother-of-pearl. The other touristy thing I did was to sail on one of the floating restaurants which takes its guests on a two-hour cruise along the Nile. It's difficult to decide whether to focus on the skyline outside or the floorshow inside. The magnificent French baroque and Italian Renaissance edifices overlooking the Nile are breathtaking at any time, but more so when they are bathed in light against the backdrop of a night sky. For most of the trip, I found them more captivating than the floor show. But when the whirling dervish came on, he had my rapt attention. I was like a child in a toy shop. SEVERAL of the original Maadi householders towards the end of the 19th century were affluent Jews. Some were native Egyptians, others had come from various parts of Europe. According to Samir Raafat, a Maadi-born historian and journalist, by the end of World War II, a third of Maadi's population was Jewish. Raafat, whom I had the pleasure of meeting, has written a book about the society and history of Maadi and it is chock-a-block with Jewish names such as Lichtenstein, Biton, Altmann, Hazan, Misrahi, Sofeir, Harari, Gubbay, Lifschitz, Morgenstern, Lebovich, Dayan, Levi, and many more. Most of them settled in Maadi in the 1930s. Although they led fairly secular lifestyles, they did observe Jewish holidays and they did attend synagogue services. In fact one of them, Meir Yehuda Biton, built a synagogue still used on the High Holy Days and within three minutes' walk of the residence of the Israel ambassador. I didn't get to see the inside of this synagogue, but I did go inside the regal, centuries-old and recently restored Ben Ezra Synagogue which is believed to be one of the oldest Jewish houses of worship in the world still in use. A few meters behind the synagogue are the remains of two buildings donated by past pillars of the community to house Jewish refugees who came in from Europe. Remains of the Hebrew inscriptions are still in place. Today, these buildings are occupied by Copts. In fact, the whole winding area around the synagogue is Coptic. There are ancient churches and houses which in some cases are still without running water. One can almost smell the antiquity of the place. We saw an elderly woman sitting on her haunches and washing her dishes alongside what used to be a well. The site now has a crooked pipe with a faucet suspended over the the hole in the ground - so that water is now poured into it, instead of being drawn out from it. Although Cairo at first glance is a city of splendor, it is no less a city of squalor. Within minutes of the impressive, colonnaded multi-story Foreign Ministry building, one can see people living in conditions of the most abject poverty. Yet rich or poor, Egyptians are polite and considerate. Their consideration often requires extensive tipping, but even if one doesn't tip when they're expecting it, they remain polite. What is not so nice for Israelis or Jews in general visiting Cairo is that as pleasant as Egyptians in supermarkets, hotels, and other public buildings may be to them, the Egyptian media still carry a strong anti-Israel bias. The amount of material related to Israel is mind-boggling - and I saw only that which appears in the established English-language daily The Egyptian Gazette, the English-language edition of Al-Ahram, the new Cairo Post weekly broadsheet, and glossy periodicals such as Egypt Today, Pharaohs and Egyptian Reporter. While there was the occasional even-handed report, Israel for the most part was presented in a negative light. While this did cause a slight rise in my blood pressure, it did not succeed in spoiling what was otherwise a delightful visit. By the way, if you're flying in and out of Cairo, don't leave your gift buying to the last minute, because the duty-free shops at Cairo Airport are both expensive and inadequate. Even if you don't buy your gifts at Khan-al-Khalili, better-quality stores in Cairo offer good merchandise at prices appreciably lower than those in Israel. I bought three nappa bags for an outlay of around US$70. That's good value anywhere. And one last thing, when you check in at Cairo Airport, don't just walk away clutching your travel documents and the form which the person at the check-in counter hands you together with your boarding pass. Just move a little to your left, rather than your right, and fill in the form. Otherwise someone official-looking will take it from you together with your passport and fill it out for you. He will then ask to be paid for his trouble. Forewarned is forearmed.
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