Page 25 - WDT Magazine Egypt
P. 25
Egyptian woman smoking shisha on bling apartments and buildings, littered with mostly
the rooftop cafe of the Kempinski plastic trash, while another traveled wide boulevards
Hotel. Left: A hazy Cairo seen from flanked by well-maintained government bases and of-
the Citadel. Below: Sunset on the Nile fices as it carried us into the modern part of downtown,
and a landmark minaret at the Khan glittering with modern skyscrapers and five-star hotels.
Al-Khalili market.
It didn’t take us long to feel the city’s intense and at
times edgy energy -- it can wear you out just observing
it. When stuck in Cairo’s world-class traffic jams, we
wondered how the city functioned with 12 million folks
in gridlock every day. It was hard to discern whether
the drivers here were the best or worst in the world.
Good or bad, they honked their horns with gusto which
took the city’s sensory overload to a whole new level.
Pedestrians take care; just crossing a busy street can
be a death-defying feat. The main boulevard in front of
our hotel flanked the Nile, but we never found a way to
cross its three lanes streaming with fast-moving cars. No
crosswalks, no traffic lights, no way -- we never did get
across for a riverside stroll. It’s another good reason to
have guides; they make sure your travel on foot is safe.
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