A Peculiar Foundation

Here's an article from the Cairo bureau of The New York Times that brings up an archaic, yet oddly contemporaneous subject: the foundations of modern Egypt on a long gone civilization. 

Definitely read the previous post first to get a sense of tourism in Egypt before reading this.

Egypt has a long history, so they make do with what they got; they export it. Tourism makes up 6-7% of Egyptian GDP (according to a World Bank report and an Egyptian government website). A high percent of tourism is totally understandable when the place is a luxurious, beautiful island like Hawaii or a romantic city like Paris, but when all you got to offer is something that has nothing to do with your culture, then something, somewhere went wrong. 

Egyptian towns are even sacrificed for this economic focus on ancient Egypt. Here's a story from the Egyptologist tour guide in Luxor (this guy was actually very intelligent, spoke english perfectly, but I could never tell if he was genuinely in love with Egyptology or his exuberance was more a product of his paycheck). He told us that there was another town very close to Luxor that was filled with ruins and likely had monuments underneath the town. And with the biggest smile on his face, he told us that the government is paying for the cost of relocating every citizen of that town to make it available for tourists to see the ancient stuff. Even if the government successfully "relocated" these people (which I doubt would happen), the idea that they are kicking people out of the land that most likely their great great grandfathers lived in is slightly repulsive in exchange for a little bit for tourism cash.

Here's one opinion from Slackman's article that I hyperlinked, "We feel the might of this history when we get paid ... but if we don't get paid, we feel nothing." 

So, a question that arises seems to be: Do the Egyptians derive identity from ancient times or is just for the money?

The answer: From what I've seen, the answer, for the most part, is it's about the money. Ancient Egypt is used as a tool to develop modern Egypt. And, truthfully it works. The most western places are the hotels situated in Luxor and Aswan or right across from the Egyptian National Museum in Cairo. 

And clearly, there are no more animal sacrifices or polytheistic practices or women walking around topless (let alone showing their elbows or knees). So, of course, it's not like any hieroglyphic from the ancient Egyptian culture.

But from what I have seen, there's still ancient Egyptian culture floating around. Something like the Library of Alexandria might've only been built for money (a topic that I will revisit in a future post), but there is a sense of pride that the Egyptians have in ancient Egypt. They were one of the first great civilizations. Egypt is something to be proud of. The pyramids and all the ancient things are truly amazing (just check out the picture of Abu Simbel below). 

When Egypt is compared to countries I have heard the long history of Egyptian culture invoked more than once to argue for Egypt's superiority. For example, in a conversation about Saudi Arabia and Egypt, a point was made that Saudi Arabia is simply a product of oil because it was just a big place with a lot of tribes in earlier history; on the other hand, Egypt is a product of history and culture and it produces something more than just raw materials.

Just some thoughts on a country trying to stay balanced on top of a pyramid.

No Mastercard Here

After the weekly soccer match, I went to one of the many hole-in-the-wall restaurants in Alexandria with a couple friends. The restaurant didn't have any bottled water, so I went out to the street to buy bottled water for all of us. None of us can stomach the water here...

Everything seemed pretty normal; the tram rattled by along the track situated on the median of the street, people prayed in the two nearby Mosques on the opposite side of the street, and taxi drivers honked at me. But, I couldn't find any bottled water. There just wasn't any store open. Alexandria is filled with little stores that sell water, snacks, and random goods, but all the stores seemed to have disappeared. This isn't a case of spontaneous combustion, it was just Friday. The store fronts were all closed and locked because just like Sunday in America (especially in Vermont) stores take a break. 

But, I was thirsty.  I figured I'd just ask somebody (what a novel idea!). It turned out that I asked the right guy. After I spoke with him for 5 minutes, he revealed that he actually owns a store one block down the street. He called somebody and told them to open the store. Five minutes later, after listening to a story of the five years he spent in New York City, one of his employees opened the store. I wanted to buy four 1.5 liter bottles (8 pounds total), but he wouldn't let me pay. He refused any money and insisted that the water was a gift. He told me verbatim, "I am a Muslim and this is how we do business. Today, the water is free. You can pay tomorrow."

A buck fifty isn't a big deal, but the gesture was worth more than anything money can buy to both him and me.

 

A Day Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away

These houses are all from the time of "Alexander," the fourth century BCE. The town is definitely a sight to see. It's out of this world, and I have no idea how to explain something like the whole planet of Tatooween in one blog post, but here are some snippets.

It's not a big town by any means, but it has its own language. The language has Arabic roots, yet no one in the world except a Siwan can understand it. Almost everybody in Siwa speaks Arabic fluently except for some of the older men (I don't know about the women because they are kept inside all day, but that is for another blog post). English is pretty pervasive too. The kids seemed to only know the "Welcome in Egypt" or "Hello" phrases, but many of the shop keepers and waiters spoke English very well. Needless to say, I was pretty impressed that many of them had three languages down cold.

This is definitely a tourist town. We didn't go at a crowded time, but everything seemed to revolve around a couple tourist activities. The Siwan tribal dance during the sunset, biking around town, taxi rides by mules, climbing the mountains overlooking the town, swimming in hot springs, and a safari in the desert that consists of driving up and down vast mountains of sand, swimming in a movie-like oasis, and sandboarding. 

In addition to their tourism industry, they export great bottled water and possibly the best dates in the world (the price: 4 Egyptian pounds for 1 kilogram). With such great economic resources, I was awestruck to find that Siwa was so different than anything I've ever seen. 

Siwa has definitely started to modernize (and it's only at the beginning), but that doesn't mean it has westernized. There's a difference that I'll explain further in the future, but here are some examples for now. They have the first world necessities such as a hospital, police station, gas station, hotels, pharmacies, restaurants, and even a sports club, but they don't have a supermarket and internet access is limited mostly to tourism. There was one shop where you could play playstation, but I didn't see any kids playing Alexandria's favorite game: FIFA '08. The kids were all outside swimming in pools or dancing at night. Some ten-year-olds even drove around tourists on their mule wagons. All the Siwans whom I met had cell phones (nice ones with video cameras and mp3 players), yet they all wear very traditional robes. Most people had motorcycles, yet most of the college aged Siwans whom I talked with had only left Siwa two or three times in their entire lives. Before I visited Siwa, the Siwans had never seen a Westerner beat a Siwan in ping pong... well, let's say I was more than happy to show them something new.

More to come on Siwa in upcoming posts.  Five days without the internet means a lot of catching up to do with the world.

Beware of the Camel's Nose

It's a slippery slope when it comes to street vendors. Once you open the door, they are going to everything humanly possible to make you purchase their product.

At night (edit -- day or night), street vendors walk up and down the street trying to sell whatever they can. One guy sells cashews, another sells watches, and another sunglasses, while children try to sell squeaky toys and old women hold out their trembling hands with tissues for sale. To get a mental image, picture the guys selling Hagen Das at Major League baseball games, but instead of ice cream these guys have reading lights, keychains, or blow-up animals.  

When I walk around a big city, I enjoy checking out the street vendors' selections of products. However, when I go to a cafe to relax and enjoy a view of the Mediterranean, the last thing that I'm thinking about is purchasing a fake gold watch. I can't imagine purchasing a watch on a whim. If I wanted a cheap watch, I would go to a souk (market).

Why do street vendors stroll about (or better yet, troll) the cafes? How can it be in their economic best interest?

I figured the best way to find out was to pretend like I was interested in purchasing a watch. So, I made eye contact with one of the guys selling gold watches and knock off sunglasses. He came over immediately and asked me what I wanted. I pointed to a watch and asked how much. He told me 80 pounds (15 dollars), and I figured, I got my information and I was done. So, I told the street vendor "Thank you for your time, but that's too expensive. Good night." And here's where the story begins...

First, he offered a lower price. Then, he showed me his entire box full of watches and offered me a special deal for his "Rolex." The words, no thank you, seemed to mean nothing to him. Next, he placed the watch on the table and even dropped it in my lap. His theory was, once the watch was out of his hands, I owed him payment. After playing hot potato for ten minutes, the street vendor finally walked away.

But, that wasn't the last of him! Five minutes later, he came back and offered the watch for 20 pounds. And best of all, he tried to guilt trip me claiming that I wasted his time. 

What did I learn here?

1. Avoid trolling street vendors at all costs.

2. These guys are persistent. Once they sense a potential buyer, they attack with full force. 

3. Flexible pricing allows them to maximize profit. If I was actually interested in a watch, I would have probably made his quota for the night by paying 80 pounds. If I was only interested in a very low price, he would have still made a profit by selling the watch for 20 pounds.

4. It's not like the street vendors are very successful in the first place. Most of these people are in pretty poor health and their work opportunities are limited. Their job requires minimal capital investment and if successful in bargaining, the returns can be (relatively) enormous.

Exception: The guy who sells cashews. He is a genuinely nice guy who counts out the cashews to make sure that you get exactly what you paid for.

Externalities in Cairo

I took a train from Alexandria to Cairo last weekend with 3 friends (1 guy, two girls). For only 40 pounds (less than 8 dollars!), I chilled -- literally with the air conditioning -- in the second class cabin for 3 hours.  Immediately after exiting the train station, a 50 year old man who was walking towards us unzipped his pants and exposed himself. He did it so quickly that it seemed like he had a lot of experience. Anyways, that was my first impression.

Cairo has a problem with pollution (see skyline in picture below). It dried up my eyes so much that I couldn't wear my contacts for more than a couple hours. The air was so polluted that I felt like I couldn't breath and I was coughing until a day after I returned to Alexandria. 

Taxi drivers go crazy because they can usually rip off tourists. I tried to get two taxi drivers to bid down the price from the Pyramids to a place for lunch and one ended up taking a swing at another. A couple hours later, a taxi driver got out of his car and tried to push me after he thought I didn't pay enough (his tire popped before we got to our destination, so I assumed I'd get a discounted price). After the whole street descended on us (10 people circling us), we all discussed the price. The people on the street were more interested in conflict prevention than a fair deal, so I decided to just pay a dollar more and walk. 

Kids can go from playing soccer with their friends to crying on command and trying to get money from foreigners.

Whenever I asked for directions to the American University Bookstore, everyone told me "ala toole" (straight ahead). It turned out that I circled the bookstore for 15 minutes before someone gave me good directions.

Museums and many shops close at 4:30 in preparation for Ramadan dinner. So, we weren't able to check out any of the museums. However, I convinced a guy to open up his bookstore at 5:45, so I could get an English to Arabic dictionary.  

The pyramids were super sweet. They are huge. The Sphinx is awesome and camels make pretty funny noises. 

Back to Saint Mark's

Before I tell the story I must explain how the taxi system works in Alexandria. You tell the taxi driver where you want to go and if he says yes, you hop in the front seat (unless you’re a girl then you’d sit in the backseat… taxi drivers sometimes put their hand on your thigh). Now, all taxis are required to have a meter, but no taxis’ meter works. This can be problematic for visitors who don’t know exactly how much to pay (especially since the taxi drivers always want more). When you arrive at your destination, you get out of the taxi as if you're not even going to pay, close the door, get out your wallet, give the taxi driver your money and walk away. Often times they yell and you just keep on walking. If they are really unhappy, they might even get out of the car; that hasn't happened, but I'm sure it will soon.

Today, immediately after I got in the taxi, the driver told me the ride would cost eight pounds. I usually pay five pounds, but one of the Egyptian guys on my hall told me he never pays more than three, so I told the taxi driver, I wasn’t going to pay more than three. After a little back and forth, he offered six pounds, so I told him that I have never paid more than three. Then, he asked me where I am from. He told me that three pounds in the Egyptian price and not the American price.  So, I told him he could just let me out in the middle of the road. He didn't let me out, but he was pretty ticked the entire ride. Here's a little economics lesson: a little knowledge can spoil price discrimination.

The taxi dropped me off a couple blocks away from where I wanted, but that's where serendipity comes in. I had planned to go to the gym, but I saw a guy with a basketball walking down the street, so I asked him if I could join him. This guy was 5’ 9” and looked like he was in his late teens, but it turned out he was 13. So, I played 5v5 basketball with a bunch of thirteen-year-olds: eighth graders from Saint Mark’s.