Charafantah's Cave

Finally!!! my plan for world domination is falling into place!

No, seriously… my plans for visiting the world is coming true.

A month ago, it popped into my mind to make a road trip around the middle east, i was discouraged by some and many were excited to come with me and changed their minds in the last minutes (that’s how we -the Egyptians- are, we prefer to have our vacations sitting in a 5 stars resort, doing nothing on our lazy asses. Or go to marina and sa7el)

So I decided to go alone, then some other people decided they would come, anyway, we’re 4 so far here’s our CRAZY plan:

Cario ———> Taba

Taba ———> Aqaba (Jordan - By ferry boat)

Aqaba ———> Petra

Petra ———> Amman

Amman ——–> Jerash

Jerash ——-> Damascus

Damascus ———> Beirut

Beirut ——–> Tripoli

Tripoli ——-> Lattakia

Lattakia ——-> Aleppo

Aleppo ———> Homs —-> Hama —–> Palmyra (same day)

Palmyra ——-> Damascus —–> Wadi Mujib (Jordan)

Wadi Mujib ——-> Karak & Dana

Dana —–> Aqaba —-> Taba —–> Cairo

Well, i have been planning this trip for quite some time now am very excited to go, although me and my friends are on VERY tight budget, we are planning to enjoy our trip to the max

We’re leaving next week isA, wish us luck

Yesterday, was Mouled el Hossein Ibn Ali the grandson of Prophet Mohammed PBUH – lمولد الحسين بن على

Please note: that my participation in the event does not *I REPEAT* does not, mean in that i approve\agree on it. The only reason i went for is to see what happens there, it’s a shame to be at my age, living in Egypt all this time, and not attending an event like this. This is just a documentation of what i saw yesterday.

A few quick facts about the mouled, then we go into details:

• It is said that the Mouled lasts for 7 days
• There are hundreds of thousands who attend this mouled
• People come from everywhere from egypt to attend this event
• They even sleep in the streets during the mouled duration
• The event start at around 4:00pm and lasts till midnight, and maybe after midnight too

I arrived there at around 9:30, i parked a bit far, because everywhere else was VERY crowded, a HUGE amount of police forces surround the place.

There are two parts, the area near Al Azhar mosque, where the games (shooting, street magic etc – التلات ورقات, مراجيح المولد,البنادق الرش) just like you see in the movies

And actually, yes, a kid could get EASILY lost in the mouled like it happened in Adel Imam’s movie “El Mouled”

The other side, near Al hossein’s mosque, there is A LOT of tents (صوان) each of them holding the celebration on their own Sufi Tariqa (way)الطرق الصوفية

طريقة مش عارف مين ابن مين الشاذلية و الرفاعية

The majority of them, keep chanting and blessing God, prophet Mohammed PBUH and Al Hussein. After a while they start dancing too. And every sufi tariqa has their own way of doing that.

There are hundreds of thousands of people coming from every place in Egypt, they sleep in the streets, they come with their food, pots and everything. sleep on the streets or in the mosques.

This picture is the people living in the streets, using these boxes as their beds
the picture is not really clear, and with no flash, i didn’t want to offend anyone by taking pictures. I took this one secretly

Inside Al hussein’s mosque, there are HUNDREDS, probably thousands of people, many of them sleeping (i don’t know why is that?!)

When you come near the room, where Al hussein is supposed to be buried at, you don’t walk anymore, you just leave yourself to the flow. The crowd will push you in the correct direction, you’ll take the loop inside and get out, without moving a muscle. and trust me, am not exaggerating, or kidding.
لو حد فاكر مشهد عادل إمام فى فيلم الإرهاب و الكباب….لما كان ماشى فى المجمع

Inside the room, HUGE amount of people, the room smells very nice, because of the musk (المسك) being sprayed in the air by many people in the room.
Because of the crowd, and the impossibility to move a muscle in this crowded area, those people spraying the musk, don’t have any control on where they spray it, so i got musk all over my face, my glasses and my phone

Also in other rooms of the mosque, they distributed rice pudding (رز باللبن) and money.

There were also Stick Fencing (تحطيب), people singing, and young boys celebrating their own ways.

I found myself once, stuck in a VERY small alley, with like 200 teenager, playing music and dancing with their pocket knifes (مطاوى), some of them, actually climbed on pipes like 10-15 meters high. It was very interesting to see, but i couldn’t take any pictures, i was actually scared, if any of them came to me and asked for my phone and money(يثبتنى), i would have given him everything without saying a word

You can watch all the videos i took here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/charafantah30

Some more pictures:

The guy in the picture above is the water boy (السقا- أو السقاء) he distributes water on people, it was written a verse from Quran on his water pack, (و جعلنا من الماء كل شئ حى)

All in all, it was a great experience, you have to attend one to understand what i mean, there is a spirit and strong belief in everyone’s eye.
Though it was really weird for me, seen some disgusting stuff, dirty places, unbearable smells, but it was great, i really enjoyed it. Big thanks to Alia for telling me about the event

See you there next year

Just 2 days after i wrote my post about the good sunny and warm weather in Cairo and how i liked it, and despite all the weather reports saying it will be cold, it still was warm and sunny….look what’s happening now

How didn’t i expect that? Specially being an expert with the Murphey’s laws, and knowing my own damn luck
I should have expected that when i say i like the weather, the next thing that would happen is the weather turning around 180 degrees

So yes, am quite sure that all this rains, crappy cold and foggy weather is all because of me

مش بقولكوا منور

We were celebrating a friend’s birthday, actually, none of us knew that it was his birthday, so we didn’t have anything planned, specially that it’s not a weekend or anything, so we thought of trying a few places, our friend is British, and he has spent quite some time in Cairo but didn’t party or have any fun.

So we went to El Mojito at the top (roof) of Nile Hilton, I can’t tell you how amazing the view is, you won’t believe it, but we didn’t stay long, as at the top of the hotel, the place is SO chili, there was a Latin band (I hate Latin music) and the place was almost empty, just 2 small groups of people and us.

We then went to After 8, which is a few meters away from El Mojito, we hang out there for less than hour too, there was some live music playing some oldies, but we were not really in the mood for that, also the place was so empty. What would we expect on a Monday evening?(ماهو الإتنين أجازة الحلاقين)

I heard about Buddha Bar (a.k.a Little Buddha) opening in Cairo recently (I think Nov 2007) at Sofitel El Gezira (ex. Sheraton El Gezira)

So we headed there, I must say valet parking is really nice, i must get one of these at home you just come and drop the car, and someone would park it for you, yes it’s expensive (40LE parking + 10LE tips, thats too much, but it’s worth doing every once in a while )

The place is on the 2nd and 3rd floors, the 2nd floor is the restaurant, the upper floor is the bar and lounge, there is no dance floor, people are just dancing everywhere

The atmosphere is really nice, actually, the place was CROWDED and full, but mostly with foreigners.

The had some Ray music running in the beginning, i didn’t like it at all, but many people did, then they tuned into some nice dance music.

The place is very comfortable and the lighting is very nice and the couches are EXTREMELY comfortable.
The lounge consists of a bar, small tables for two and many couches.

All the place have an AMAZING Nile view.

We didn’t eat anything, but I heard the food is really good.

So all in all, the place is excellent, expect for the fact that the prices are VERY high (minimum charge 250LE per person) and everything there is quite expensive.
Also forgot to mention the place is couples only.
The first bouncer we met while getting in there was really annoying, but one of the waitresses came and sorted it out, she was sweet, she also got us a nice couch in the lounge with a great view.
We then had a small chat with the bouncers while leaving, they were funny and nice. So i can say the staff is good in overall.

You should pamper yourself by going there from time to time, but it’s definitely not “the usual hangout spot” because of the prices, but it was nice to experience

Found this review on amcham website, could be helpful.

Anyone remember 2 years ago, when i had a *VERY* shitty day and i started the 100 things i hate about Cairo on my MSN nick?

A few days ago i read on the SM about the: “14 reasons to love Egypt” and his own “10 things i love about Egypt“
Which reminded me, where the hell did my list of 100 hate reason disappeared!

So, i thought of a remake, this time with a special twist….because I don’t really hate Egypt all that much   i actually can’t imagine living anywhere but in Cairo.

So am going to write the 50 Things i Hate & Love about Egypt (it’s 50 things i hate + 50 things i love)
i will not write them at once…

But instead, i will add 1 thing i hate and another 1 i love everyday for 40 more days (as i will start with 10 already published)

check it HERE

I was just googling for my previous post, and found this:

Cairo, Egypt is the most polluted city in the world!

So, we finally managed to be the “most” anything, we now have a place among other nations :p

check here on WikiPedia

==================================================

و أنا بتفرج فى جووجل….إكتشفت أن أخيرا!!!أخيرا… مصر قدرت توصل للقمة

وصلنا لقمة التلوث….مبروك القاهرة تم تصنيفها على أنها أشد مدن العالم تلوث!!!!!

مش لسة كنت بقول فى البوست إللى فات أنا شكلى حموت بسرطان الرئة…..

إقرأ هنا على ويكيبيديا