Dateline: Aswan
Here are 3 video’s I made in Cairo before I left.
All traffic related.
Ready or not..here I come!
Headlights are not used because they blind the other driver. I can’t argue with
their logic.
It’s scarier for me IN the car…
For me it is scarier being in the car. I am always a passenger, and there are some
very bad drivers. it is impossible to comprehend their decisions ever when you are
with them. They will honk their horn when no one is around. if the come around a
corner and pedestrians are hurrying across the road, they will start blaring their
horns and speed up. I have yet to see a car defer to pedestrians in any
situation.
And yet I would rather be a pedestrian than a passenger. The non-stop,
hair-raising, careening through the streets is more than I can take.
Lok Ma! No Rules!
In this intersection, I saw a man carrying a child run up beside a transit bus
carrying a child. He slapped the side of the bus. The driver opened the back door
without slowing. The man barely hoisted himself and the child up, and the door
closed behind him. No rational human is in this intersection. Let alone boarding a
moving bus with a small child. Iiiieee.
Abu Simbel
Leaving Aswan today I go away, with a couple thoughts. First, coming upon Abu Simbel 3500 years ago, must have excited an awe that few humans today ever experience. Unique in the world. The temples inside are maybe even more impressive.
Secondly, after seeing the immense size of the unfinished obelisk, I
picture everyone back home riveted to a national geographic series about the sheer
ingenuity of the techniques of separating it from the rock, the incredible effort
expended, and last but maybe most fascinating , the obstacles that would have had
to be overcome to transport this leviathan out of the quarry, over the hills, down
to the river.
