Thanks to media’s brainwash, Egypt is nothing close to what I had always imagined. In my mind, Egypt was a hot Muslim country with desert, dust, camels, and pyramids. Nobody has ever told me about an Egypt of beautiful beaches, blue-tar highways, branded cars and fast food restaurants. I was shocked when I first arrived in Alexandria. Everything here reminds me of Kuala Lumpur. It’s just that Kuala Lumpur is bigger with more skyscrapers and no beaches.
Unable to sleep, I got up pretty early the next day at 8am, and wasn’t tired or hungry at all. My host and my fellow surfers were still sleeping, so I quietly went out for a walk without any sense of direction. My first mission, as in any other country, is to find an HSBC ATM and to buy a local SIM card. I walked to Green Plaza where the friendly guards were having breakfast. They pointed at eish (a kind of bread that looks like roti) and ful (mashed stewed beans), insisting me to join them. I seriously didn’t like the way ful looked, but didn’t have to heart to turn down such a warm offer, so I just dipped a small piece of eish in the brown sticky ful while wondering if my stomach would protest after. Seeing me struggling to understand the instruction in Arabic from the guards, a gentleman stopped by to help. He told me that HSBC is on the way to the beach, both are pretty far away. I hitched a ride with a group of young Egyptian boys who had no idea where I wanted to go as they don’t speak English, so they dropped me at a junction. I finally found the ATM and decided to withdraw more than limit. Then I headed straight to a Vodafone service shop. The men there offered me their breakfast with falafel and salad, and I offered them candies. SIM cards are cheap (20LE, around $3.5) and easy to get in Egypt, no documents or photos needed.
Feeling rich, I stopped and tried all the street food I saw on the way to the beach. A bakery with amazing cookies gave me one cookie for every kind of cookies they have mengher flus (free of charge). There are boiled beans that you peel and eat like a snack, solid sugar cane in shape of ice cream cones, tamar hind (Indian date) or tamarind juice and kebda (fried liver) – a specialty of Alexandria. There is even a weird thing called Hummus esham. It’s not a drink, it’s not a soup. It’s boiled hummus (bean) with water, salt, chilli and other unidentifiable spices, and it’s served with a straw and a spoon. What I love the most is kabab or kofta. It’s lamb meat minced and grilled on skewers on charcoal which has become famous all over the world. I can finish 1kg of kofta in no time.
I managed to get to the beach, but I couldn’t find any tourist check places (the places in travel guidebook that people visit to put a tick on their place-to-visit list). There is no way I can explain in Arabic to the locals. I was walking randomly when a guy in a car stopped and waved at me. My first thought was that he was one of the CouchSurfers in Alexandria I had contacted. I walked up to him: “Do I know you?” He replied: “Not yet. I don’t know why. You look really cute.” It sounds weird, and normally I would just walk away, but I think Nepal and India have made me immune from creep. He looks like a decent type and at least he can speak English. I asked him the way to downtown, and he offered me a ride. Hussein, the name of the guy, turned out to be a nice guy. He showed me Bibliotheca Alexandrina – the huge library built on the site of the former Library of Alexandria, the churches, the theater, a street that he claimed to be the world’s oldest street. According to him, Alexandria was modeled after a city in Greece which explains for its beautiful European architectures. It was Friday so he had to leave for a prayer at noon. I continued walking alone from there.
After a long time in a cold landlocked country, walking along a beautiful beach on a beautiful sunny day with wind blowing from the ocean is a real luxury. I kept walking and walking without getting tired. People are friendly. I said “As-Salaama ‘Alaykum” to everybody, everybody smiled back with long Arabic sentences which of course are beyond my comprehension. I joined some kids who were fishing, and then sat down with a family who were having a small picnic on the beach. It is a Christian family, and they were more than happy when I told them that I’m Christian too. Without even noticing it, I reached Citadel of Qaitbay – a prominent citadel located at one end of the city. I had to walk back.
My stamina ran low on the way back and I realized how long I had walked. I chose the road inside the city instead of the road along the beach. I passed by bustling street bazaars, few small demonstrations and a street fight between two drivers. I walked half way and then decided to stop being cheap and pay 1LE for a bus back to my host’s place instead.
This is when I met my fellow surfers for the first time. They were sleeping when I arrived the last night, and were still sleeping in the morning when I left. They are two crazy Frenchies – one guy and one girl – who walked all the way from South Africa to Egypt, a bloody 14000km on foot with a budget of 2 Euros a day during 2 years! They gave me a lot of useful advices and encouragement for my upcoming Africa traverse. The most awesome thing was that they got Sudanese visa for $20 each. Sudanese visa is notoriously expensive at a whooping $151, but their idea is that you can always bargain with the visa officers. Unfortunately, thanks to the Israeli visa, I won’t even have to chance to cross Sudan and have to fly to Ethiopia instead.
We all went to GAD – a local fast food chain for dinner and I had a huge shawerma – long sandwich of shredded beef. My host bought us fruit juice after that. At around 9.30pm I joined Tarek – a CouchSurfer and his friend for a drink at a fancy cafe that has a huge waterfall inside. His friend is a young active/fun boy who is currently in the army. All Egyptian boys have to apply for the army, and he was unlucky to be chosen, while Tarek was lucky to be rejected. Thanks to his higher education, he only has to serve for 1 year. People without university degree have to serve for 3 years. I liked them a lot but I was tired like hell. 40 hours non-sleep and 30km walking finally took a toll on me. Tarek dropped me home and despite the tempting invitation from the Frenchies (my host and the crazy walkers) to watch The Social Network, I collapsed on the bed. Goodnight Alexandria, I think I’m in love with you 
Tags: Alexandria, Beach, Egypt, Food, Travel and Write, Travel Diary
), I have dreamed about camping on a beautiful isolated island with blue water, white sand and people whom I enjoy being with. I wasn’t able to do it for many reasons: no money, no time, no companion, no island, or more precisely, no “beautiful & isolated” island. However, my dream finally came true when I visited Kota Kinabalu last weekend.
