Thoughts About Egypt
More people speak English than I had anticipated
Anytime we talked to Egyptians about politics, especially their current leader, Sisi, they would look around to make sure no one could hear them and then tell me not to tell anyone what they said. Things are a bit sensitive right now
Religion has a pretty prominent role in day to day life. Mosques kick off with prayers five times a day, lots of restaurants don’t serve alcohol (beer can be bought at some street shops or a designated alcohol store called Drinkies) and lots of women, especially in Cairo, wear burkas or hijabs
People smoke shisha at all hours of the day
Egyptians were super helpful, but always seemed to ask for “a tip, a tip” whenever they had done something, like point me in the direction of a gym
The Egyptian pound is the country’s official currency, but lots of places accepted dollars or euros
Taxis don’t use meters, so it can be a battle trying to negotiate the price once you’ve arrived
From talking to people, and seeing it in public, there are a lot more Egyptian men with foreign women compared to the opposite
Traffic lanes physically exist, but no one abides by them. Traffic in Cairo was insane
Compared with SE Asia, the tourism industry seems to have a good mix of Egyptians as well as foreigners. On several tours, there were Egyptians going around with us as tourists, which is something you don’t really see somewhere like Thailand
I couldn’t find pork anywhere and on top of that, lots of staple dishes were vegetarian. Falafel is amazing, so I didn’t mind, but some days I’d go 24 hours without eating meat, which is something that rarely happens in Beijing
