How cool it is
A trip to Egypt is not just about ancient sites. Yasmine El-Rashidi takes a journey of another kind
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In Egypt, both the cities and the seasides are 24-hr affairs. Egypt's beach-spots are known for their action-packed activity programmes offering beach sports, barbeques, parties and nightlife galore
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If I were a fifteen-year-old football fanatic coming to Egypt for the first time, I may be skeptical at first.
"It will be boring," I would probably moan before departure. "Who cares about museums. I want to stay home!"
Like any other fifteen-year-old, there would be no options, and I will be shipped off anyway to this land I envision to be sandy and comprised of nothing but ancient blocks.
The in-flight "Welcome to Egypt" video does not do much good, the only modern perspective of a visit to the historic land being under the water -- diving in the Red Sea.
Arrival offers a mini surprise.
The airport appears to be like that of any cosmopolitan city -- the glimmering shops, food court and lounge areas bustling with "regular"-looking people. The drive downtown is equally enlightening. The city is far from what was chatted about with friends before leaving.
"It's all desert with big temples and pyramids," one classmate had almost squealed. "And the people there dress funny and ride around on camels," another offered. "There'll be nothing for you to do while we're here playing soccer and getting to other levels on our Supernintendo FIFA games," a third had playfully mocked.
The highway from the airport quickly dispels some of the stereotypical nomadic-depictions talked about in school -- wide, clean, lined with trees, the highways merging at one point to form a spaghetti structure like that of any big city.
I would, I imagine, remain slouched in the taxi, but slowly straighten up as we surf the top of the entire city from the 6th of October flyover.
"Free Internet," one billboard reads. "Try Pizza Hut's new beef and cheddar stuffed crust, dial 1919 for free delivery," another chants. "SMS 1234 for daily 2010 updates," "Visit Egypt's Cyber City and experience the future of technology," a fourth boasts.
The hotel offers another level of uplifting and enlightenment. We have electronic cards as keys, an internet café in the lobby, a very cool mini bar filled with every type of candy I could dream of, lots of "pop" -- as is cool to call it, and a large flat screen for a TV.
The bed is my first destination; belly down, face one metre from the screen, I flip it on still unsure quite what to expect.
The choice is mind-boggling; bigger, better, more varied than anything I have seen before. 144 channels from all around the world! My father explains that one of Cairo's suburbs is home to one of the largest collection of satellite dishes, bringing in channels from every corner of the globe.
"Even their cruises receive satellite television," he explains. "So when we're on our three day Nile cruise between Luxor and Aswan you can still watch TV."
"Cool", I think.
Egypt's coolness is unlike any other city. I get a SIM card from the hotel bazaar and tap into the SMS world that I keep reading about everywhere. I download music, I download ring tones and graphics, and I read all about the latest soccer results in a free newsletter that gets sent to me every 12 hours. And I found out about the most "in" places to go.
"Totally awesome!" in teenage lingo.
The first couple of days I do the whole tourist thing and go with my parents to the Pyramids, the museum and the Sound and Light show. It's not as bad as I think -- especially the Pyramids, which are much bigger than I imagined from what I had seen in my books at school. But the rest of the week I take the mornings off alone.
They are the best mornings I have ever spent -- walking the streets alone, chatting with the shop sellers and cute guys that keep welcoming me to Egypt. Everyone is so nice and I feel totally at home.
I go in and out of coffee shops -- hip places with interiors that look like the ones I had seen in Paris -- when my parents dragged me there too but would not let me do anything alone. There I pick up magazines made especially for teenagers in Egypt, so I make a list of places I want to go.
Every few hours I pop into an internet café, get on MSN and chat with my friends in the US, telling them all the exciting things I am doing. I even get to call my best-friend from one of the many payphones on the street -- they sell calling cards everywhere and there is a payphone every few metres.
I then go down onto the streets again and into one of the alleyways near the hotel and play football with a bunch of guys. At first they laugh when I say I want to play, but then they become super cool, and later take me to the biggest sports store in Egypt.
It isn't as big as Niketown, but it's full of great stuff. Nike, Adidas, Puma, Lotto -- all the best brands and all the latest models. And it's so cheap. Suddenly, in Egypt, I feel like a fifteen-year-old millionaire.
I trek back to the hotel with my shopping bags at 4pm to meet my parents for lunch -- we are going to the rotating restaurant atop a tower of one of the many five-star hotels overlooking the entire city. My spirits are high -- a morning of football, shopping for sports wear, and masses of MSN.
The next day I hang out in the hotel, get online from a laptop I rent, and sit in bed surfing the net. I check out all Egypt's football-online sites, entering competitions and chatting with football fans around the country. I then get on the very popular delivery online site and order McDonald's to my room! Egypt, my dad tells me, is the only country in the world where McDonald's delivers -- even to a hotel. My streetball friends tell me that even the video and DVD rental stores deliver -- and they send popcorn too!
My friends, I think, have started to get jealous now. In Cairo you can surf the net for hours, watch TV all day, play football even by the Pyramids, take boats on the Nile and hang-out at football cafés watching football matches with huge fans. Even in the villages along the Nile we see satellite dishes on top of little farm huts! And the greatest thing is that my parents don't mind if I SMS all day because it costs so little, and they don't mind if I play football on the streets because it's safe, and everyone does it.
If you're fifteen and football- and MSN-obsessed, Egypt is totally the coolest place to be.
