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My final days in Cairo have been hectic, relaxing, exciting, and tempestuous. Never, ever, ever have they been boring or subdued. In Cairo, I doubt that is even possible. Boredom in any form simply does not exist here! A good friend of mine (my Arabic tutor Mr. Ahmed) took us out one Friday morning to Faiyum -- a city located a good 100 km southwest of Cairo. We traveled through desert areas. We arrived at the Auberge du Lac, a former hunting lodge (now a 3-star hotel) used by King Farouk and his family, just in time for lunch. As one might guess from its title, the Auberge is located next to a salt lake, whose feeder is a branch of the Nile. Both of us found the dining room pleasantly decorated and quiet. Lovely conversation about life, solitude and friendship ensued. We ordered our meal, (sea food) and had hoped to continue with our pleasant, quiet conversation. Our food did arrive in good time, and was delicious. Their oriental rice -- a unique mixture of rice, vermicelli, raisins and chicken liver bits, was also delicious. Having been encouraged by Mr. Ahmed to see the city of Faiyum itself, we chose to leave the very comfortable surroundings at the hotel. On our way out, we were serenaded in loud, brash, typical Egyptian style by a trio of musicians. The shawm player was accompanied by a drum and tambourine. For those unfamiliar with the shawm, it looks like an oboe, and sounds like a very harsh clarinet-oboe-party-noisemaker combination. It does have its merits, however, when it comes to melody then, it was off to the town of Faiyum proper. Mr. Ahmed got a driver to drive us to the center of town to the most famous and largest water wheels in Egypt. We stopped by the touristy four water wheels, though a group of seven is located north of town. After looking at the wheels, and admiring the town -- quite clean by Cairo standards -- we drove around the block to a small street-side vendor of baskets. We bought a water-bottle basket (getting change from the 50 LE). Then off to another street side vendor less than half-a-block away. We decided to get out and look, as they seemed to have more interesting wares here. In the meantime, a police officer approached our car asking us why we didn't have an escort, and encouraged us to leave for safety reasons. We, by this time, had hopped back in the car. The vendors, even then, were trying to sell us things at ridiculously low rates. We chuckled to ourselves, again declining their offers. The driver then safely took us out of town, and back to Maadi.
Posts: 45 | From: Miami, FL / Cairo, EG | Registered: Mar 2005
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