Fun thing to do in Cairo

What is the most interesting thing one can do, when in Cairo? See the pyramids, visit the Khan e Khalili and sit at Fishawi Ahwa, stroll around in the City of the dead especially on a Friday when people come to their familial graveyards and hang around in the Souq Al Goma'a, visit the Islamic Cairo, hang around in the Coptic Cairo….or just visit the Grand Egyptian Museum…

Everybody will give a different answer- Cairo has everything to cater individual's interest…

Pyramids-for instance- are the only surviving wonder of the world, seeing it makes you wonder as to how on earth human could make it 5000 years ago. It is absolutely delightful to watch the evening sound and light show- even though a bit infantile and kitschy.

Khan e Khalili still preserves the wonder of a medieval era market…a weary travel will often be dazzled by the sheer variety of knick-knacks being sold in the market, the personal touch of the sellers, the bargaining, the dust and the heat… and get a taste of the markets as they used to be, till big corporations took over-firstly the production, then the supply chain and then the retail. Sit at the Fishawi Ahwa… that never closes… and smoke a Sheesha and feel like Naguib Mahfouz… life can not get more idyllic than this.

City of the dead is a wonder in itself… a graveyard that has got converted into a residential neighbourhood… For us Hindus, it is difficult to understand the concept of afterlife… (Same goes for the Occidental religions to understand the Hindu concept of Life Cycle)… The Occidental religions believe in the concept of Day of Resurrection and thus believe that the man who is born preserves his identity till the eternity (or at least till the Day of Resurrection) - therefore among a lot of Occidental cultures, it was perfectly normal to live in the grave quarters of one's own family members… the necropolises near Pyramids, the Catacombs of Alexandria bear a testimony of this age-old practice. We Hindus, on the other hand believe in the ephemerality of humans and permanence of souls…. However today the practice of living in the Grave Quarters is governed more by the poverty than the age old practice. On Fridays, a lot of Cairenes visit their family graves and picnic around it. There is an absolutely wonderful Friday Market in the vicinity that sells cheap wares and about everything for household needs…. Do visit it.

Islamic Cairo is very close to the Khan e Khalili market and yet for me transcends its usually defined boundaries… in fact entire Cairo is an specimen of Islamic Cairo…beautiful mosques, prayer calls, devout Muslims… there are ahwas, the hammams in the narrow alleys of this part of Cairo… which impart all the fantasies, one might have conjured up while reading the tales of Thousand and one Night or the Journeys of Sindabad or Alibaba and Alladin, a life.

Coptic Cairo is again a fascinating place… it is the only place in the world, beyond Jerusalem- where a Mosque, a Church and a Synagogue are found…. Visit it on a Sunday, when hordes of Coptic families come to pray in these churches… these churches have been around for years…the architecture is fascinating and beautiful.

The Great Cairo Museum is a small, red unassuming building… in midst of a concrete jungle… flanked on one side by the infamous Mogamma (the Egyptian interior ministry) and on the other by Nile Corniche. But it houses one of the most enduring and enchanting treasures, to be found in entire world… a treasure so valuable that museums around the world proudly display few pieces of it and feel smug about it… whereas on the contrary…this aging building displays an entire deluge of these wares (and hides even bigger deluge in its go-down, waiting for the completion of an even grander museum to shift) and still remains humble. Do visit the mummy room and the Tutenkhamen's treasure to gawk at the treasures of this place….

One will say, there is hardly anything to do after having done all this. But I beg to differ… one of the most liveliest and delightful thing to be done in Cairo…looks so commonplace that most of us just overlook it, as pedestrian and vulgar.

For months together….while sitting at the banks of Nile, I used to see dozens of boat plying cross and forth with blaring music, tacky lights and people dancing, picnicking and enjoying… I used to wonder if that is the idea of enjoying themselves… and if it were, do the aesthetics of it go for a toss. And yet one day, upon being insisted by my wife…I did go for a boat ride….And thereafter just got addicted to it.

Although you can find the moorings for boats all over the Nile… yet Maspero in Downtown Cairo is the most famous and oft visited mooring…. There are two different jetties for the private boat owners (smaller boat with a seating capacity of 20-30, powered by a diesel engine- it charges 2 Egyptian pound for a half an hour boat ride) and other for government owned boats (these are bigger boats, with more facilities aboard, have two storey… lower one is a hall with seats and big windows to see around and the upper one is an open deck- it charges 6 Egyptian pounds for an hour ride)

Both the rides have their advantages… the government boats are bigger and faster and therefore cover a larger distance…. Yet they are somewhat indifferent and impersonal… people keep to themselves… the smaller boat do not have the advantage of traveling large distance and yet because of the proximities involved, the experiences are more intense and personal.

Cairenes love picnicking, especially in the evenings….So one will find a lot of families coming over for a boat ride…. Not to forget the lovers who enliven their romance on a boat, coyly whispering in each others ear and giggling… for them it is a refuge from the harsh reality of Cairo life.

And when the moods are upbeat, the blaring music of the boat … that otherwise may seem like noise… gives way to a wonderful session of dance. And then you can see the art of belly dancing, as practiced by the commoners…that doesn’t have a vulgarity attached to it…. But a pure intent of enjoying oneself….

So if in Cairo, do ride a boat…it doesn’t even cost a fortune