Egypt - Culture and Lifestyle

In between all the visits to temples, tombs and other ancient sites, we were taken to various businesses that are synonymous with Egyptian culture and were able to experience some basic Egyptian traditions and basic lifestyles.

Alabaster – a calcium carbonate stone that has been valued for centuries for its beauty and versatility, particularly in sculpture, architecture and funerary objects.  Too heavy to carry around with us over the next 2 months but definitely makes a lovely piece of homeware.

Jewellery – huge amount of gold and silver jewelry on sale everywhere and everyone wants you to buy it!  Rosie managed to get a couple of pairs of sterling silver earrings after a bit of bargaining.

Papyrus – versatile material made from the pith of the Cyperus papyrus plant, used for writing, and everyday objects.  It was crucial for recording history, literature and religious texts.

Perfume and oils – in other words aromatherapy which has been used for thousands of years during ancient Egyptian civilization.  We were treated to many examples of different oils, their smells and healing powers.  It was hard to know which ones to get with all our aches and pains!

Herbs and Spices – every known herb, spice, seed and variations of tea grown in Egypt was introduced to us and their benefits explained.  Apparently if they have an ailment, they don’t go to the doctor, they use some concoction of locally grown herb, spice or tea.

Other things that we have noticed in our couple of weeks in Egypt…

Roads and Driving – I have already mentioned the craziness of the drivers and the little regard for any road rules.  There are no stop or give way signs.  There is the occasional traffic light but no pedestrian crossings.  If you want to cross the road, you just walk out and casually walk across to the other side of the road with an arrogance of  ‘I dare you to run me over!’  In saying that, we didn’t see any crashes or people getting run over.

Transportation – if you don’t want to navigate the crazy driving either in a car or on a motorbike, there is a metro system in Cairo that a huge amount of people use (we didn’t), taxis, Uber, Didi etc, some rickety public bus and/or tram plus a cheap shuttle van service.  If you want to use this, just stand on the side of the road and hail it down as there are no bus or taxi stands/signs.  There will only be about 20 people in the 12 seater van! 

Housing – when we first arrived in Cairo, we thought that there were a lot of unfinished houses.  We were right, they are unfinished, but it is on purpose.  A family would buy a house and as the family grew, they would build on top to accommodate extended families so it would be like a floor each for individual families. Eg: mum and dad on the bottom, next floor their son and his family, next floor the next son and his family etc etc.

Food – we have tried all sorts of local cuisine.  There is a huge variety of types of bread, and they have that with all their meals along with Baba ghanoush (like hummus but made out of eggplant) and tahini. A lot of seafood with the most delicious piece of sea bass from the Red Sea, eaten in Cairo.  There is a lot of grilled meat served in a variety of ways eg: sizzling koftas.

The most delicious meat dish was kebab halal, slow cooked lamb in an onion gravy served in a clay pot. Pastries for dessert along with plenty of fresh fruit, especially mango, guava, strawberry and watermelon.  These fruits can also be freshly squeezed into a delicious drink.

Religion – predominantly Muslim, with Islam as the state religion.  There are mosques everywhere and at prayer time, you will hear the wail over very loudspeakers giving them time to get to the mosque to pray.

Hasslers – are everywhere, all ages.  Every tourist spot will have local people trying to sell you their merchandise, but we had word that it isn’t very good quality ie:  Temu most likely!  As much as we wanted to support their local economy, no room in the suitcase for unnecessary knickknacks!  They even tried to capture our attention whilst the cruise ship was passing through the lock on the River Nile.  It was a part of our trip that we didn’t enjoy, constantly being hassled to buy their cheap products. Rosie did manage to negotiate a good price for some bracelets.

Tipping – a huge part of Egyptian culture.  Part of our tour package included a tipping kitty that the tour guide would give to them, so we didn’t have to worry about finding smaller notes to dish out.  We were pleased it was done this way as we were not used to the tipping way, nor how much to give them.  We had it explained to us that it is the money from tipping that supplements their low wage and makes the cost of living more comfortable.  Just like in New Zealand, the cost of living has affected Egypt as well.

Weather - I don’t think we saw a cloud in the sky.  Just blue sky the whole time and hot temperatures that ranged from 28 to 48 degrees the more we travelled into the desert.  I think the best way to describe the heat is me being roasted in the oven on fanbake.  The wind really picked up in Aswan so imagine being in an oven, the heat been blown around, that’s what it was like.  You definitely needed sunglasses on as you could feel your eyeballs shriveling up!

Hospitality – the Egyptians couldn’t do enough for us.  No matter where we went the service was 10/10 but was at a cost with the tipping which was worth not having to carry our heavy bags!

Security – we are quite early in the trip, but I have now lost count of how many metal detectors I have been in.  Every temple and every hotel has one along with the bomb detection dog that checks out all the vehicles that enter onto hotel properties.  There is police, with guns, everywhere as the Egyptians are very conscious of keeping tourists safe in today’s climate.

Egypt, we can now tick you off.  Definitely a country worth visiting due to its ancient history and unique culture which we learnt a lot thanks to our awesome tour guide, Ahmed, who had an extensive knowledge of Egyptology.