From: Scott Eaton <[email protected]>

Subject: Scott Eaton: Egypt summary

Date: February 5, 2011 at 11:52:41 AM EST

To: Friends

Hello,

Last night I returned from my 47 day Egypt vacation. It started Jan 24 and ended 11 days later. Moments ago Tucson’s  Cafe Express internet cafe man commented, '"it's been a long week."  I chuckled inside and responded, "I couldn't agree with you more." ---if he only knew.

My 11 day 'week'  had begun with my Jan 24 Tucson departure/Jan 25 Cairo arrival. On Jan 26th my hotel advised that there would be a political demonstration(Arab Spring revolution) beginning that afternoon. Apparently no one knew before hand. It had been building for years. 

I left my hotel early and began my usual orientation day walkabout or self-guided walking tour. A walkabout is my first activity after I settle in to my hotel. My primary purpose is to become familiar & comfortable with the surrounding streets and landmarks, to get past the embarrassment of proactively using some basic language phrases like Hello and Thank You.

Also, I want to dissipate any fears I might have come with.

Anecdote: My Mexico City’s Zocalo Square panic attack: I was very frightened for the 1st hour walking around the Zocalo in Mexico City; Thereafter I was never anxious again.  Go figure!)

    I suspect that being dropped into ANY new culture (Rome, Cairo,
     Saigon) is inherently a culture shock that generates fear that I must
     push through immediately so it is no longer a barrier.  

In Cairo I began walking to the downtown area via the 2 main streets - Sharia el Talat Harb & Qsar el Nile  thru their long past historically quaint small, circular midans (square) to the main Tahrir Midan   along the Nile River and back to my hotel. 

The young, swat team (kinda) police dominated the squares in silent determined anticipation -- precautionary , with no sense of  electricity; most democratic-like in my mind. My walk-about was in no way encumbered by police. I was totally absorbed in my tourist's acclimation to this Islamic culture.

Unrelated to any demonstration concern, I have never suffered the culture shock anxiety i had these 1st days in Cairo.  Perhaps it was my inherent pre-conditioned anxiety of Islam, the strange palpable jet-lag symptoms I had not experienced on prior travels, the Islamic sounds sometimes beautiful, always mysteriously haunting, but never the strident sounds of Asia, and finally, the grinding grime and trash of Cairo proper - its buildings, streets et al.  Initially the Arab Spring demonstration was almost totally a tangential vibration to the side of my focus on the travel experience I looked forward to. 

For example, after visiting the train station in anticipation of my migration S to Luxor & Aswan , I purposely began a walk down Cole Bey St. which I knew would take me back near my hotel, but I quickly discovered a smaller street that struck off at an angle -- a dark , narrow grimy looking street of small shops and presumably darkly hiding residences in the upper stories. 

A street that if I saw it in the US I would never go down it -- period. But in my travels it is such streets that are almost always the most intimate and interesting. This street proved exactly the same. The buildings on both sides were continuous & contiguous except for occasional side streets or even darker side alleyways. The street's ominous darkness came from the narrowness of the street, the height of the buildings, Cairo's prevalent light obscuring pollution and perhaps most of all from the profound depth of grime on the buildings and street itself. 

But OTOH beneath the grime is the occasionally still visible architecture from the Belle Epoque period of 1915 when Egypt was in an economic boom. The shops held interesting products and purposes that I videoed although frequently short sections would be devoted to a specific item like electrical components. Occasionally a butcher shop or bakery would punctuate the commercial retail. 

As I passed the stoney looks of the people sipping their tea outside their shops they seemed to be wondering "Who or what is this strange thing walking down our street?" , but my smile, wave and "Salam alaykum!" (Hello!)  would cause their faces to burst into smiles followed by their response. It seemed important in my mind to smile at everyone in the group so as to respect their individual offer of friendliness.

Constantly Egyptians would spontaneously ask where I was from or welcome me to Egypt. Ironically, even in the the thick of nearby turmoil they would say in English, "Welcome to Egypt."  I never once felt danger from an individual Egyptian; only the ‘capriciousness of the mob’ unnerved me me. 

Please note as I relate these thoughts that YOU saw endless 24/7 coverage of - often extremely redundant - dramatic focal points of the uprising because that is what the media has to sell. I OTOH was attempting to avoid obvious danger while achieving my itinerary I had planned for over a year. 

In Istanbul, Turkey after Egypt evacuation I met a young evacuee, Aaron, who was on a 2 year bike odyssey around the world. This young adventurer  purposely walked into the heat of the earlier demonstrations to get video that the police & military tried to stop him from getting. A few days later his behavior might have got him killed rather than merely providing great bragging rights.  

My point is that what was dramatic, violent and explosive for you on TV, was only disruptive, increasingly & varyingly disconcerting to me. Only the last day did it finally become obvious to me that Egypt was sinking into anarchy everywhere and that the only option was to get out. I never felt great immediate danger although often & always I was alert to conditions around me and their possibility of capricious explosion. 

Personal Changes:

It is interesting as I begin to unwind and meld back into MY culture, that I notice some very subtle personal changes. For example, I  noticed a moment ago that I was not just looking at each person's face briefly, but drilling into their eyes; often people seemed to look more closely into my eyes sensing, perhaps that I was doing so.

I realized that in Egypt, particularly in places like described above, my senses were extremely alert -- exactly the same way I hike alone in Jackson's nearby bear country particularly when I have forgotten my bear spray. 

I was hyper sensitive to a single loud voice or the babble of loud voices; to running and to too quick a movement while always consciously forcing myself to move calmly, serenely, but without any British-like arrogance. 

In Cairo I intuitively focused precisely into each persons eyes who was approaching me. Doing so I believe subconsciously allowed me to assess their intentions, but it also prompted/required me to smile and say  "Salam alaykum!" (Hello). 

My continuing hope in Cairo was that the demonstration activity would quickly peak and then drop off and I could continue south to Luxor and Aswan. Sometimes it seemed to. At night I tried to gauge the trend of violence etc. by the frequency and intensity of rapid gun fire -- 'pop-pops' and the louder thuds of the tank's tear gas canisters, the intensity and loudness of the yelling, the rushing of many feet, the frequency of airline arrivals over Cairo and as well as the incidence of automotive horn beeps. 

Within a few days a 4pm -8am curfew was imposed during which the airport closed and car horn beeps ceased. Two days into the demonstrations the early evenings and nights filled with constant and heavy gun and tear gas noise, people yelling & running, sounds of glass breaking and crashing, occasionally a scream. 

Then in the early morning I would awake to an eerie silence - no cars engine or horns, no running or breaking sounds; maybe sporadic calls between the locally civilians turned cops protecting the businesses against looters. I would get up and plan out a quick mornings outing.

After 6 days of morning-only travel goals & attempts to go S I committed myself to leaving Cairo for Luxor one way or another. Checked out of my hotel at 6:45 am for the 3/4 mi hump thru Midan Ramses'  tanks and last night's debris to the RR station. But , alas, no trains - nada, zilch. 

Side Note: It seems to me that such 3rd world countries at their best are separated from complete break down by a single thread. Break that thread for any reason and the entire system collapses. Revolution is such a reason. 

I then dragged my suitcase another mile or so to the bus station - Plan B. There a young woman advised that on her train for Cairo the day before, 20 mi S of Cairo gun fire erupted outside their train, the conductor and staff "jumped ship" leaving the passengers on their own;  another train had broken windows from the escalating, anarchy in the South. 

AT THIS POINT I decided that anarchy was spreading and intensifying throughout the country. I took a cab to the military protected embassy enclave and the US Embassy. There they advised that US State Department had planes at airport to evacuate Americans. I  immediately left the Embassy  by taxi for the special airport US evacuation center at Term 1, Hall 4; last person on the Istanbul bound US evacuation plane. 

Thereafter:  3 days of hanging around airports for hours, $6 Fanta/ $11.50 Burger King hamburgers in Istanbul airport (I'd rather starve!!!!!!) , 11 hr to JFK (emotional relief of touching down on US soil is always significant) and sleeping on airport benches and floors until zombie-like arrival in Tucson. Last night while eating in my RV van, for the 1st time in my life I woke myself up several times just before my head hit the table. I was that tired. 

SUM: I am mildly sorry that I saw almost nothing of Egypt yet the experience was profound. I saw neither the pyramids, nor most of the Egyptian Museum , nor Luxor & Aswan. Yet what fundamentally prompts my travels is the moment-to-moment "rush" of the unexpected. 

Granted that unexpected usually means a startling view (New Zealand's Milford Sound), a unique or subtle architectural feature (the sculptured, metal cast shutter window clasps figurines of Bayeux, Normandy, France homes), a cultural vignette, a charismatic historical sight (Oscar Shindler's Krakow, Poland factory), the sensory onslaught of a huge market place (Tha Nonthaburi produce Market - N Bangkok) or a novel geographical feature (Ayer's Rock- Central Australia), cultural experience (my spontaneous several day visit in a southern Mexico family's home.) Certainly this 11 day trip will prove to be one of the most intense travel experiences I have had. 

When or if Egypt stabilizes again, the sites are open and I am still physically able to go again, I will. My itinerary is well defined, the preparation knowledge I acquired was exciting and will be expanded further in anticipation of 'the next time.' Even if I can't go again for some reason , the knowledge gained before and during the trip has been a worthwhile pursuit. 

Feel free to ask any questions unanswered elsewhere.

Scott

PS: (3/25/2025) I was never able to.😢