Takeaways From Egypt

Great Way to Get to Know People

Here are my takeaways from Egypt. First it’s best to go with others. If you can avoid it, don’t go alone. Life is super busy in Hong Kong. It’s hard to get to know people. I would not have gotten the chance to have gotten to know Mario, Zen, Mandy and Tammy if it had not been for this trip. As you can see from the above video clip, trips like this provide a unique context for getting to know people in. The next takeaway is on why you might consider not bringing your camera. If you follow my blog at all that might sound a bit shocking, but I have to admit my group mates got good pictures with their smartphones. The next one is on getting around. Prepare to be a little uncomfortable. Along with being a little uncomfortable at least for me was taking the initiate to lead my group mates. Lastly is keeping an open heart to the Egyptian people and the role of women.

Bringing a Camera Can Be Troublesome

We went as a group of six and I was the designated photographer. Egypt is one of those once in a life time ancient civilization places to go. If you are going to go, you want to do it right. It’s best to do a bit of research before going. Egypt is a war torn, Islamic country. Simple things like taking a picture might get you in trouble there. I went on Quora and found a variety of opinions about whether or not it was safe to bring a nice camera. Some people said yes others said no problem and still others had reservations. Then I went to an official Egyptian immigration website and found that cameras with detachable lens could be considered professional and therefore could be confiscated. After that I watched this YouTubers video, titled Do Not Go to Egypt. This guy applied for a film permit, brought a film crew, and equipment. Immigration confiscated his camera gear and his trip was plagued by many difficulties. I didn’t sleep well that night. Naturally, I wanted to bring my best camera to capture great images, but I reluctantly gave up the idea of bringing my Panasonic S1 and brought my Panasonic gx85 instead. I wasn’t sure what to expect.

The Gear I Brought

Overall, I am happy with my choice to only bring my Panasonic gx85. The Amazon link shows it going for about double what I paid for it used several years back. It’s a small camera. So I was able to do some street photography without drawing a lot of attention to myself. I was also able to shoot with a Nikon film camera 50mm 1.4 f-stop lens to get a variety of shots. The EVF on the gx85 is not great, but with focus peaking it’s enough to get some really good pictures. Most of the shots I took with the 12-35 2.8 lens. Unfortunately, the gx85 doesn’t have a microphone jack, so the videos I took of our guides showing us around will be a harder to hear. But then there were 3 places we went where the officials didn’t allow cameras in at all. They were the market, inside the step pyramid, and at the Grand Museum. In those instances I had to use my Xperia III smartphone. I wish I could tell you my smartphone’s video was on par with my gx85, but it isn’t. However, I have to admit I was pretty impressed with the results my group mates got with their iPhone’s. If you have the money to spend on a newer iPhone, it might save you a lot of hassle. However if you are interested in M43 cameras, I would recommend the Panasonic gh5ii. True it is bigger than the gx85 but it’s nowhere’s near as big as the Panasonic S1. Let me know if you are interested in more information on camera gear. Another suggestion I have to offer is definitely bring mics like the Rode Go video mic2. Our guides weren’t loud enough and the wind was intense at times.

Getting Around

Prepare to be uncomfortable. The lines on the road are just suggestions. Lots of times they mean nothing. All those dings and scratches and dents you see on the cars are there for a reason. They drive really close to each other. Technically Egypt does have car registration and inspection, but is it in name only. I mean I know the people of Egypt pay money to have their car registered and inspected but what does that money go towards? Are inspection standards actually enforced? Sorry I didn’t have a chance ask many people on this. The person I did ask had their doubts. Here’s an article about one ladies experience getting her car registered in Egypt. I asked one driver why he was driving without his head lights on and he turned them on. The seat belt in our previous car didn’t work so I was afraid they might be broken also. Honestly, it was a bit scary at times. Their margin of safety is pretty narrow.

Leading My Teammates

Our friend in Egypt told us women have no status. Women are not allowed to sit in the front seat of a taxi or Uber car or it communicates to the driver that the lady is sexually interested in him. Tracy, my wife and I went with 4 gals. I was told that people would look at me strange. In Egyptian culture guys are allowed to have 4 wives. They would likely think I broke the law because I had 5 ladies with me (five wives). In Hong Kong women are generally pretty strong. I think I have done reasonably well over the years in adapting to the strong women in my life. Now the tables were flipped a bit, I was being asked to lead the ladies in my group, and the ladies were being asked to follow me. I got in the car first, greeted the driver and communicated with him if there was anything that needed to be said. At restaurants, I ordered for us. The girls were impressed when I pulled out a note pad to write down their orders. Then later one of them took notes on her phone and offered them to me to order from. My takeaway from this is it wasn’t easy for either the girls or myself. They were used to speaking up for themselves and I was used to being a little bit more in the background. Still it was a good learning experience.

Interacting With the People

Honestly, I usually tried to avoid interacting with the people. I know that sounds bad. For many of them, what’s your name and where are you from was the extent of their English. In addition, those who had the boldness to approach us generally wanted to sell us something. We saw kids that were extremely curious about foreigners. They watched our every move.

Subway Interactions

Many our interactions took place on the subway. I couldn’t believe how many people entered our train car to try to sell us: pens, razors, vegetables. and more. This one guy had suction cup things that he stuck to the roof of the train car and then demonstrated how powerful a grip they had to us by pulling on them. One time on the subway it was very crowded. Seeing that there wasn’t any space for me to board from the door I was standing at, I made a quick dash to the next door to enter the train. Thankfully, I got in just before the door closed. My wife Tracy was afraid she lost me. I yelled her name from the other side of the car. The young boys standing around her picked up on my wife’s name and started pestering her. A gentleman in a suit, led her into the car where there was more space away from the rowdy boys. She was very grateful. A short while later, another man yelled at the boys.

I got the impression that many of the people were very guarded in their behavior. I could see it in their faces. At the airport, while I was going through security. I offered a man an extra bin because his possessions exceeded the amount that would fit in the bin. He was shocked that someone would offer to help him. Strangers don’t usually help strangers.

Inside the Step Pyramid

It was super crowded inside the Step Pyramid. It was also very stuffy. Again they didn’t allow cameras.

Uber is Cheap in Egypt

We arrived and settled into our accommodations. Then we went out to eat and bought some food for the next day’s breakfast. Going out to eat or getting food delivered to you is much cheaper in Egypt than it is here in Hong Kong. The cost of transportation is also much cheaper. They have a subway and that is one option for getting around, but it isn’t always convenient. We mostly took Uber. I was surprised at how much cheaper Uber is in Egypt than it is in Hong Kong. About a month before our trip, Tracy and I hosted 2 guys with Watoto, because we both had to work while they were staying with us. We arrange for Uber to pick them up and take them to their concert venues every day for a week (roughly one trip a day for a week) We also did roughly one trip a day for a week with Uber in Egypt. The Hong Kong trips totaled 1000 HKD, while the Egypt trips totaled 100 HKD. That’s crazy.

The Uber app is easy enough to use. We were advised to pay on the app with a credit card, by doing this we avoided the need to bargain or the very real possibility of being taken advantage of by taxi drivers. However, you should beware, Egyptian license plate numbers are written with Arabic numbers. You have to learn to recognize the Arabic numbers to know whether or not your car has actually arrived or not. Once you send out the order on the app, it’s a waiting game. Sometimes you will get a quick response and your car will be 5 minutes away. Other times you might need to wait 10 or 20 minutes before someone accepts your order.

“Speak Like An Egyptian” Teachers

Our 3 Hour Arabic Class

On our second day we visited Talk Like an Egyptian for 3 hours of Egyptian language training. Egyptian is a hard language. Our tutor was a cool lady named Rose. She was super encouraging. All we had to do was get it a little bit right and she would give us a “bravo.” We had a great time. If you are considering going to Egypt for more than a couple of weeks, it really makes sense to spend time learning the language. Yes there are people who know English and you can usually get by without, but still Arabic is useful, and your attempts to speak it will likely bring a smile to a local person’s face.

Islam

One local person told us that more Egyptians are turning to atheism. Islam controls much of the people’s life. Our local tour guides were both Muslims. The first guide, regularly brought us back to the basics of if you please the gods, you will have a good life. His name was Mohammad. I appreciated both his knowledge base and passion for Egyptian history.

Mohammad Takes Us to Saqqara

Unwanted Attention

One of the girls in my group received some unwanted attention from Egyptian men. I will just mention one of the guys here. Egypt is very different from Hong Kong. Her guide for the camel ride took her far away from the tourists and her friends and told her that it was customary for guest to tip their guides. She felt like she had to give a tip or risk not being brought back to her friends. Once the guide brought her back, he told others that she would be his future wife. I can’t imagine a guy in Hong Kong doing that. Here they would likely be sued for such a statement, but over there women don’t have status.

Our second guide told me that he was struggling a bit because he felt that to be a good guide he himself should believe the stuff about Christianity that he was about to share with us, but that he didn’t. I told him that he didn’t have to believe it to be a good guide. Now looking back on the experience, I wish I had questioned him on some of the stuff he was telling us. I would have a hard time with Christianity also if I believed some of the stuff he was saying. Josh McDowell used to think that Christian were a joke. He thought they had two brains one was lost and the other was out looking for it.

Carson Takes Us to Trash City and to the Hanging Church

The pyramids

There’s lots of good books and YouTubes out there on Egypt’s history and the pyramids. Do yourself a favor and learn as much as you can about them before going. If you do that you will be in a better position to understand what your guide is saying. Egyptian guides learn Mandarin and English for guiding foreigners. Sometimes their pronunciations are off and it is hard to understand them. If you have some background knowledge in what they are talking about it will help out a lot.

The Role of Men and Women

Woman are often powerful in Hong Kong, but they have little status in Egypt. If a woman disobeys her husbands directions in Islam, he is permitted to beat her. Men seem to carry an air of superiority in Egypt. Yes, you will see Egyptian women smiling and having fun, but it is not generally in the public square. It’s at certain activities or at work. Men on the other hand, can be found talking to other men in public places throughout the day. They have status. One day we went shopping in, I was shocked to witness an entire 6 floor shopping mall dedicated entirely to clothing, shoes and accessories for men. I’m guessing that if you want something done, you probably go to a man to get it done. You might be saying, Egypt sounds like a good place for men. No, whether it’s in marriage or in a society suppression of one gender is never a good thing. A takeaway here is we need each other. There should always be give and take in our relationships. We must remember to fight fare.