Ma'salama Cairo – On the road to Durban

On my way to the airport, I knew that I had short changed Cairo. The four nights I had spent in this congested metropolis were woefully inadequate. As soon as I got my bearings in Cairo, I had to get up and leave. The city is teeming with history, of which I only scratched the surface.

If you only visit the tourist sites in Egypt, you will get a distorted sense of the country. The touts, the scams, the haggling are mainly just part of the tourist experience. What you won't realize is that in Egypt there exists a vibrant intellectual community that spearheads the robust opposition to the regime. In the many bookstores you will find texts dealing with sociology, history, and politics of Egypt. Though Cairo and Karachi look very similar visually, the intellectual curiosity of many middle class Egyptian Arabs is a fundamental difference that sets the two cities apart. I would love to come back to Cairo one day to learn more about the lives of everyday Egyptians. (It goes without saying that without Betsy's help, I would have experienced Cairo only through tourists sites.)