Traffic, Taxis and Alex

Traffic in Cairo is horrible. Traffic lights are a rare sight. Lanes are non-existent. Getting cut off is routine. A trip can take 20 minutes or 2 hours depending on the day.  Horns fill your ears, exhaust in your lungs and the sun in your eyes. It’s paradise.

Since I’m rich, I take a taxi to and from work each day. If I’m lucky, I get to experience the apex of Russian engineering and ride in a Lada. Taxi drivers are cordial but I know they are trying to decide the maximum fare is they can extract from me. It’s understandable, I’d do the same in their position, but that doesn’t mean I like it. I was told from the beginning how much I should expect to pay for a taxi back and forth from work. That benchmark served as a barometer that I would (still do…) obsess over to determine if I’m getting ripped off or not. While taxi costs do add up, I have room in my budget and according to the Swiss bank UBS, Cairo has the cheapest taxis out of a wide sample of global cities (see the link below, it’s an interesting report on global prices and earnings). Watching the meter shouldn’t be a concern, but I can’t help it.

When I first got to Cairo, I didn’t know all the possible routes to take back and forth from work. When a driver would go in a direction different from the norm, I trustingly assumed they were taking a quicker path. In reality, they would either be taking the long way home or they didn’t know where they were going and would end up stopping another cab to ask for help. So far, I have been in cabs that stopped (with the meter running of course) to do one of the following; buy food (bbq corn or a cheese sandwich, I didn’t try the sandwich but the corn was good), buy gas, pickup other passengers, talk to friends, fix their radio/in car TV or check tire pressure. An old roommate made things worse by telling me taxi drivers have the ability to speed up the meter if they desire. Most meters feature an image of a horse that runs based on the speed of the meter. I started watching the horse, wondering if it was running faster than normal.

I initially had very few ways of dealing with cabs that didn’t take a direct route. My Arabic was non-existent and most taxi drivers only speak a smattering of English. At first when they took a turn that would add to my drive time, I would sigh audibly and give them a look that expressed my displeasure. While this was a low risk and low reward solution, I was afraid of getting the driver angry and being dropped off on the side of the road. As I got to know the city, my reaction escalated to me telling drivers to stop and I would get out and walk the rest of the way (I obviously paid what was on the meter, I’m still Canadian). The height of my frustration came when I directed a taxi to take the normal route but he went rogue and started heading in the opposite direction. I sat in the cab, frustrated that I couldn’t tell him off, so I told him to stop the cab so I could get out. Evening though his English was limited, I told him that ripping people off was bad karma as I exited the cab. He responded with a blank look, a mix of not knowing what I said and not understanding why I would get out and walk in the heat, but I was happy with my decision to draw an arbitrary line in the sand.

As time goes on, this happens less and less. When I tell people where I’m going, I usually know the Arabic word or can direct them myself. My Arabic remains mediocre at best but I know how to say left / right / straight and that goes a long way. Three words and three months, id say im a natural at languages….

Check out then link below for the price and earnings comparison from UBS

http://www.static-ubs.com/global/en/wealth_management/wealth_management_research/prices_earnings/_jcr_content/par/columncontrol/col1/linklist/link_0.1393999310.file/bGluay9wYXRoPS9jb250ZW50L2RhbS91YnMvZ2xvYmFsL3dlYWx0aF9tYW5hZ2VtZW50L3dlYWx0aF9tYW5hZ2VtZW50X3Jlc2VhcmNoL1BfTF8yMDEyX2VuLnBkZg==/P_L_2012_en.pdf

And pics from Alexandria….

Riding the rails to Alexandria

The Corniche by day

Alex in Alex

The Roman Amphitheater

They didnt quite get it all…

The Corniche at night

Fort Qaitbey #1

Fort Qaitbey #2

Fort Qaitbey #3

Fishing