Egypt is the 70th country I visited on this first trip to the great world city of Cairo. I didn’t realize how big the Cairo metropolitan area is. Current estimates are between 20 and 22 million people, which is comparable to the Kobe/Osaka/Kyoto metro area, where I used to live. It is the biggest city in the Middle East and larger than Tehran and Istanbul, making it the largest predominantly Islamic city in the world. The Cairo metropolitan area ranks similarly to São Paulo, Dhaka, and Mexico City.
My biggest impression from my short visit (3 days) was the vibrant energy of Egyptians and Egyptian culture. They are much like Latin Americans, loud, emotional, in your personal space, quick to laugh and smile. It is quite infectious, and I immediately felt affection towards them. I also noticed the Egyptian DNA codes for beautiful, loosely curly hair. I see the many influences from the southern Egyptian Nubians and the Mediterranean people through time that give Egyptians a different appearance from the Gulf Arabs. Anywhere I went, I was greeted with smiles. There was no inhibition at all by all ages of Egyptians to interact with me. I saw several wedding or family formal parties at the hotels I stayed. The women were dressed to the nines and wanted lots of selfies and photos of themselves. This is another similarity to Latino culture.
Egypt is an Arab country without large reserves of oil. You could see the economic differences in the apartment buildings and gated communities throughout the city. I spent the entire trip in New Cairo City, a part of the city about an hour’s drive east of the center of Cairo. This is an area of large residential and commercial developments built out of the desert. Every other billboard along the highway was advertising new real estate communities. People were saying that due to the instability of the currency and an unstable economy, the locals invested their savings in something tangible like real estate. This has elevated the prices of real estate similar to my home of Tashkent. I didn’t see the Nile River or any of the tourist attractions.
I was busy working most of the time there, but I did manage to do a few fun things. We ate a Carlos 5 – On the Water, a Lebanese restaurant. It is located in a really nice outdoor mall, better than anything so far in Tashkent. It was an upscale, smaller outdoor mall with shops and restaurants. The weather in Cairo at this time of year is perfect, another difference from the Gulf Region. It is 31 degrees north latitude and near the Mediterranean, giving it a climate similar to southern Spain and Perth, Western Australia, drier and a bit cooler in the evenings and winter. Ideal!
I arrived on the day of the opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum. This project was many years in the making and replaced the old museum. Humans organized themselves into settlements along the Nile approximately 3,500 BC, so lot of history here. Last January, I visited the British Museum, which housed a lot of ancient Egyptian artifacts, including the famous Rosetta Stone. It is nice that the Egyptians can display their heritage in such a beautiful building. Security was in full force in the airport and along the highway leading to the museum. Traffic was light, and there were police or security personnel stationed every 100 meters or so along both sides of the highway.
I stayed at the Renaissance Hotel located in New Cairo, inside the Mirage City Compound. I enjoyed downtime on my arrival day after the overnight flight. I went for a swim and for a couple of walks inside and outside the compound. Hotel personnel were friendly and helpful. I had access to the compound and ate dinner at the JW Marriott Hotel across from the golf course. Mirage City is an upscale development with multimillion-dollar homes with swimming pools, private security, and expensive cars parked outside. The neighborhoods adjacent to Mirage City were also nice, but definitely more middle-class level.
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