In Transit
Frankly, I've been to lots of 'poor countries' and while each situation demands a level of complexity that I can't give, how Egypt is doesn't excuse it's crappiness from my book because of it's poverty (see Asia).
Cairo begone. I just left Cairo but I feel the need to have parting shots:
Gone are:
- Rude people who bump into me but expect me to apologize.
- The ass-backward method of doing things. For example, there are metal detectors everywhere, and at the airport, they guard the lounges next to the departure gates. The stupid security people will wait until all the passengers have sat down, and then show up and herd them back out the main cramped hall so that they can pass through the metal detectors again.
- Trash trash trash everywhere!
- Taxi drivers who don't know where they're going, or worse, they maliciously dropped me off ten minutes from where I needed to be. Apparently giving the cross streets don't mean much.
Now you may say (as my wonderfully crafty brother had said) that here I am, the rich traveller, going to a poor country to take in the sights.. and here I am complaining about the level of service and sophistication?
Damn right!
Unlike tourists who pay top money to be pampered, I'm not just interested in being loaded from hotel room to tour bus to temples and high-end restaurants... I'm interested in the journey, the meat of the matter. And sometimes, the journey into realness involves ugly attitudes, unfriendly people, and embittered populaces.
Frankly, I've been to lots of 'poor countries' and while each situation demands a level of complexity that I can't give, how Egypt is doesn't excuse it's crappiness from my book because of it's poverty (see Asia). Maybe they've grown to dislike travelers after millenniums of tourism, but heck... I would think that after all this time, their infrastructure would be a little bit better – and it's only common sense to be nice to an industry that accounts for more than 60% of your GDP.
Anyways, no more! I'm back in awesome Istanbul and freakin eh! It's snowing!
Big fat flakes dropping on cobblestone streets (and on our street, this wicked WWII motorcycle with an attached pod and everything!), blowing horizontal and vertical and all over the place.. all over the shops windows and the glow of cafes and the shivering wool caps of red-faced girls and their rainbowed scarves, all over the European cubed-cars and the guy standing on the corner with his hands stuffed in his pockets selling roasted chestnuts -- all over YuppieNomad's button-nose and my Commie-hat, over our sneakers going slosh shlapt slosht into a bakery, a diner, an internet cafe.
Mmm... nothing better than a latte and seeing snow falling all down down down through a big ol' window.
You need to publish this stuff into a travel memoir.
Btw, I finally put up my own site, so no more LiveJournal. Can you switch my blog link on your list to my site and remove LJ? Thanks dood.
Added you to my blogroll too. :D
Posted by: C.H.Ha | November 08, 2006 at 08:52 AM
Will do. Thanks for sharing your writing.
Fish
Posted by: j.fisher | November 11, 2006 at 01:25 AM