Egypt Strut part 2

It was nice speaking urdu you know, surprisingly refreshing. funnily enough, we met those turkish guys again and i got to learn a new game! backgammon is awesome man, the name always made it feel like some hardcore gamblers game but it's this mixture of logic and luck - its different to chess where it's pure logic. The idea of the game is to get your pieces to your side and then remove them from the board. Its sort of two games in one because the first half involves a frantic rush to get your pieces onto your side and the second half involves the quick removal of your pieces. The luck involved comes from the roll of the dices. If you roll a hard number (e.g. a hard 2 - so two 1s for each dice) you get to move four moves, but if you roll two different numbers than you only move twice. Its fun trying to trap your opponent in your half so they have a large task to move away from your side and onto their side. I loved it so much i went and bought a real wood board as memorabilia and perhaps for a game. It doubles up as a chess board too which is quite nice.

So what do i think of egypt? Man im already missing it - ramadan there is wicked - everything is accomodated for you as a muslim and not visa versa in London. As for the country - its desert country but theres so much to do and see that it's amazing. Im gonna go again definitely, i really want to see Sinai and the red sea that i've heard so much about. I got to coast the northern coast so it'd be nice to do a southern coast tour. Luxor and Aswan would be awesome too, so next year maybe it'll be in the works.

I remember when arriving, the humidity of the air hit me like a wet fish! at around two in the morning i was knackered but surprised at how humid it was. Aasim was waving to me as soon as i got past customs and he, his cousin and the taxi driver escorted me back to the taxi. Man i still remember what Aasim told me about Cairo - "remember this journey - cairo will never be this empty again" and sure as hell he was right. That drive was brilliant - the air breezing through the windows as within the span of 20 minutes i got to see a number of mosques, the nile and a small slice of the feel for the city. I was most surprised by the sheer number of mosques on the same roads; its definitely alot more than the number of churches on the same road. Like you'd see around 5 mosques within a 5 minute walking distance - and half of those mosques were well designed and large. Driving through, you get this feel of islam throughout the city, but oddly enough it doesn't feel as intense as saudi arabia, it just feels like religion is part of the city and country; ingrained in it's rich heritage which is a mixture of the ancient, old islamic and modern. I had the feeling that this was going to be good.

When we arrived back at the apartment and going up the clunky elevator to get there i was just excited enough to not really be talking - i was just taking and soaking in the atmosphere. Upon walking in the apartment i felt it was pretty nice and cosy - we had a tv, air conditioning and 2 bedrooms with a relatively clean bathroom. I remember sitting down in the living room listening to amir (egyptian dialect of arabic) being bandied around. Although i did feel a little lost in translation, it was interesting enough to hear the rather rough yet boisterous sound of arabic being spoken again. After a while i was told to sign a contract for the apartment which cost us 1600 egyptian pounds (160 quid - 80 split between two people). Aasim was not amused LOL with the pricing and the insistence to pay as soon as came into the apartment. Soon after, the crazy landlord looking woman and the friendly taxi driver with aasim's cousin left me and aasim just looked at each other taking in the apartment and assessing it. Since it was pretty late, i remember just crashing out since it'd been a long journey. (Aitalia = no go)