We Don't Drive

We don't have a car in Cairo, and while I am frequently tempted to look into buying one, my good sense reminds me that I don't really have the skills necessary to drive here.  The informal rules of the road are quite complex.  When you meet oncoming traffic coming the wrong way toward you, do you move right or left?  What if two vehicles are coming toward you in the wrong direction?  Watch this short YouTube video I made a few years ago to see how it works.

Even experienced drivers have problems on occasion.  I took this picture from our apartment window last week after hearing the screech of tires and crunch of metal. You can type the word accident into the search bar at the top of the blog to see results from previous years.


Egyptian drivers are very efficient at pulling the passengers out of overturned cars and getting the vehicles back upright and off the road.

We rely on taxis to get around.  They are abundant and economical.  For most trips nearby, we pay 20 pounds (Just over a dollar) and the drivers are always very happy with that.  The "flag drop" rate on the meter is just 3 pounds - about 17 cents - and is good for the first mile and a half.


But taxi meter fares have almost always been regarded as a "suggested starting point" here - especially when the passenger is obviously not a "local."  There was a brief period of time a few years ago when the government tried to get the old taxis off the streets and enforce new meter rates.  In theory, there are no more of the old Russian Ladas cruising the streets.  But, we did find one last week.



Even the newer taxis are small.  my head usually reaches the roof and there is no way I can straighten out my thighs, much less my legs.


We took a taxi downtown a couple of days ago for the 15 mile ride to the Kahn el-Khalili to do some shopping with the tourists.  It was a thirty-five minute ride going for which we paid 4 dollars and it was an hour coming back in the evening rush hour and I paid $6.  A taxi to or from the airport will cost about $10.


Another option for getting around (and a big hazard on the streets) are the Tuk-tuks operated only on low-traffic neighborhood streets.  With these, you can get your groceries home from the store in comfort for about a quarter.  The drivers can by quite young.  Which one of these three do you think was driving?

Another Accident on/off the Ring Road

I thought I heard the elevator door creaking and the neighbor's door shutting yesterday evening.  Linda said, "That's a crash - sounds like a pile up!"  We moved to the windows but it was hard to see much in the dark.  At first, we thought it might involve the car facing in the wrong direction (the right arrow in this photo).


But that appears to just be someone who stopped, turned around and came back a bit so see what was going on up by the left arrow.  Driving customs are a lot more casual here than in Bloomington.

If we zoom in a bit, there are those telltale signs of a problem.  A missing section of guard rail and onlookers peering over the edge of the road.  In just a few minutes several emergency vehicles appeared on the frontage road below and tended to the problem.  During all the years we've lived here we've never seen any accidents on the Ring Road and now we've witnessed two in a matter of days. It's winter but it's not as if they're driving on ice or snow. Can you imagine that? It would give me nightmares!


In the morning light, the broken-out railing supports are visible.

An Accident on the Ring Road

After raising the stove with those blocks described in the previous post, we were discussing another carpentry project.  We plan to have the carpenter build us a microwave table to raise it above the counter.  As Roshdy and I wrote up measurements for the carpenter, Linda said, "There is something interesting going on out on the Ring Road."  She went over to the window to check it out.


Yes, traffic had stopped in both directions and a crowd was gathered out on the road.


More ominously, a crowd was also gathering below the ring along the canal.


When Roshdy left an hour later, he suggested that I come down to take a look.  A community effort was underway to pull a small bus out of the canal.  It had gone through the railing and plunged into the canal.


The red truck loaded with dirt on the left side of the photo had a cable on the bus and was pulling it up the bank, as several of the men helped clear a path for the wheels.

The next day, only some orange cones and the bus skeleton below remained to show that there had been a problem.


UPDATE:
It was reported by eyewitness accounts that the bus was empty except for the driver who died in the crash.

UPDATE 2:
It was later reported that while the local forces never found the driver, the police came the next day and were also unable to find him.  The army came a day later with divers who located the body underneath the steel grate that is an ineffective guard rail.

Traveling in Egypt Can Be Dangerous

That reality was brought home to us today when we saw the link on The Drudge Report that read, "18 tourists killed when hot-air balloon plummets 1,000 feet into Valley of the Kings ..."


The link took us to the UK Daily Mail on-line with lots of details, pictures and of course, in this era, even video.

The hot-air balloons are beautiful to watch in the early morning light in Luxor as they drift above the temples.


And if you are on an early morning tour, you might be lucky enough to see one drift almost directly overhead as you walk through the Temple of Hatchepsut.


But we have seen the work of too many Egyptian craftsmen as I've documented on this blog.  The high-wire acts performed by construction workers and daring-do exhibited by drivers throughout the country suggest to us that these balloons are best enjoyed from the ground.

In the UK Mail article, one victim of a previous crash says:

'I cannot believe this has happened again. They promised to tighten safety procedures after my crash. Flights were stopped for a time.

'These balloons are just too unstable. There is not enough training of staff. There were about 22 or 23 in my balloon when it crashed and maybe there was too many then and too many in today's accident.'

Mrs Lea's injuries included a fractured spine, a broken collarbone, broken ribs and a broken shin.

Her balloon hit a mobile phone transmission tower after a strong gust of wind, sending the balloon crashing to the ground.

Mrs Lea was dragged along the ground and then left in a field for an hour.

That's a good thing to keep in mind and balance with their photo caption," For many tourists, an early morning flight over The Valley Of The Kings is the highlight of their holiday."