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Table of Contents: On the road to Kabul and other short stories of treks

Winter in Egypt, il villa H., December 2005

Villa, back-side. With H., or “malem”, “the boss”.

Villa garden, back-side, view at the main plantage road with date palms and grapes.

On Friday morning the local village imam of Aloui wakes me up at 9 AM. The Friday service is by load speaker and can be heard for km's and lasts for an hour. I stay in bed, it feels cold in the room and cover myself with a second blanket as it is only 15 Celsius outside and inside. Winter in Egypt.

Egypt

Last night we arrived in Cairo and were picked up in the old large jeep Wagoneer by Said, the house carpenter and driver. It is 2 hours to Tanta, half way between Cairo and Alexandria.

At 2 AM there is little traffic but the 3 lane highway is still crazy. Trucks often drive on the left and we swirl from left to right. It is cool, only 12 C, and the car heater doesn't work. I was not prepared for this. The last half hour we drive on a bumpy country road but I fall asleep and wake up at the estate.

il Villa

H. acquired a 20 hectares fruit estate of palm dates, mandarins, oranges, guavas and limes 2 years ago together with his friend Hammoud whose family lives in a nearby village.

Date and mandarin trees.

H. also acquired the villa, a 7 bedroom three story Italian style country house surrounded by a huge flower garden. The setting could have been a country side villa in Spain or Italy, including the Doberman watch dogs [1], but as soon as you leave the estate you are definitely in the rural countryside of the Nile Delta.

Villa and pool. Old derelict house in the back-ground.

Pool with the village in the back ground.

H. and Hammoud bought the estate from the high ranking Coptic Christian family of Shenouda whose great grand parents started the estate some 150 years ago by planting imported orange, mandarin, guavas an lime trees in between date palms.

The first house, some 150 years old, is still there but now a derelict. Some 30 years ago a new three story 350 m² concrete house was build. With its fresh light-yellow whitewash, it stands out from a large distance. It was build by the last son who is a gynecologist educated in England and married to an English wife. They preferred a European style house, living separate from the rest of the family.

The family were very influential and rich, visible from the old derelict majestic house with some ten rooms with high ceilings and fresco's.

Fresco’s in the old derelict house

King Farouk, the last king of Egypt disposed by Nasser in the 1952, is said to have visited once.

The bed

Yesterday we visited Hammoud in his nearby village and he showed us his new house he has been building for the past ten years. He praised the craftsmanship of his furniture maker from Talla so I decided have a plateau bed made of solid oak, modeled after an Italian design of Verardo. It will be finished in 10 day, in time to take it home as check in luggage. The furniture maker was very happy with the large order.

The new oak bed, with Hammoud and the furniture maker. Still unpainted.

The new bed at home, with brown paint.

The run

The estate has a km central road covered with grapes [1] and is ideal to do a 2.5 km run to the nearby village of Esba el Koom al Agmar where Hammoud lives. Waleed shows up promptly at 9 AM for the run. I met him yesterday in Hammoud's village and he was the only one taking up the challenge. It is a nice sunny day, around 18 C. Doing a leisurely 12-13 km per hour we leave the estate using the back entrance and run between the fields. We are greeted by several farmers at work, 'sabah al khayr' or ‘good morning’.

Route of the morning run, some 8 km.

After reaching the village, we still keep on running, greeted by surprised villagers. We avoid the children, chickens, geese and dogs, as well as the cow shit and in only 11 minutes we reach Hammoud's house. After having tea at Hammoud's in-laws we run back but it turns out Waleed is not a fast runner and points to his heart.

Local culture

In the country side, customs are still similar to those in Holland 100 years ago, like in the days of my great grandfather around 1900 when most of the 5.1 million people were still living in the country side.

The oldest man is the absolute boss of the extended family, the 'pater familias', and his wife is second, this by showing respect through polite social engagements. Men greet each other by shaking hands or 4 kisses for close relatives and good friends. In the men's visiting room, separate from the rest of the house, the talking never stops and there is now a recent additional voice, the satellite TV.

Marriages are arranged so girls are suppose to be of absolute good character

Young farmer's girl working on the plantage.

but this does not exempt the young men and the same applies to them. Age differences of 10 to 15 years are common and as women live longer, they take control when their husband dies.

Marriages are big parties with some 800 people and it is common to invite a belly dancer. She encourages the married couple to do what they are suppose to do on their first night. Make a son.

Belly dancer at the wedding

Poor people, both men and women are taking care of by the land owning farmers by giving them jobs that include housing and food. When they get old or sick, they still keep their privileges and simply stay, relying on donations. Their is a 2.5% rule that you must give this percentage of annual savings to the poor.

Cairo

Today is the only day for a visit as it not a popular city. The road to Cairo along the Alexandria 'agricultural' road is busy. The 3 lanes are reduced to 2 by cars using two lanes each, trying to keep a larger side distance which is wise given their erratic behaviour. Top speed is around 70-80 km, rarely higher as the slower trucks driving on left and middle lanes choke the road. This has the side benefit when pedestrians cross the road, often barely escaping a hit.

After 1.5 hours we reach the main Cairo ring road and head for the Cairo Museum along the East side of the Nile, another 30 minutes on a very busy road, all pushing and shoving, now 4 cars on 3 lanes instead of 2 cars on 3 lanes earlier.

In the mild winter with a temperature of 18 C, the dust and exhaust are much better than I expected but during the hot summers of 40-45 Celsius the added heat will make it unbearable.

Egyptian Museum

The Egyptian museum is in a large, two story building from around 1900 and is still too small to display all the artifacts. You get the feeling, they never changed the display since its foundation, also because the brief descriptions in Arab, English and French are on old yellow turned paper. The Tutankhamun treasure is huge and occupies much of the 2nd floor but the main treasures with the golden sarcophagus carry a second entrance fee.

Pyramids

The two largest pyramids stand out on sky line from a large distance.

Pyramids, view from the Giza highway.

They are impressive buildings, 142 m (Cheops) and 132 m (Cephren) high standing on an elevated limestone plateau. The sphinx is much smaller but still some 20-25 m tall. The lion's body uses to be plastered by stones but most are gone.

Pyramid of Cheops and the sphinx.

Hammoud has an uncle who lives in Cairo and accompanies us. He is a orchestra director, a maestro, for Arab and Western classical music.

A highlight is going into the tomb of the central of three pyramids of Cheops (or Khufu). The staircase first down and then up, is narrow and low. It is 23 Celcius inside and the air is stuffy (or stale) and we have difficulty breathing. Outside it is only 15 Celsius.