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

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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 

I just came back from the ring road (da2ery) and there was more than 10 piles of garbage on the side of of the road getting burned.

Why on earth, someone would do that?it f**** smell sooooo bad, it’s preventing me from seeing anything on the road AND it’s bad for your health!

Pollution in cairo is unbearable, cars blowing shit in our faces, garbage everywhere in the capital.

Noises all the day and night!

Also, did anyone notice that the area before you go to da2ery from nasr city, just after the mokattam entrance, there is 1 or 2 KM of REALLY REALLY bad smell? it’s like 10,000 dead animal mixed with burned tires.

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التلوث و الريحة فى البلد بقت حاجة تقرف بجد…..مش ممكن

كل حتة ريحتها تقرف….و الأتوبيسات و العربيات خصوصا الحكومية عمالين يزفتوا عادم فى وشنا….و عربيات الزبالة بتاعت الشركة الفرنساوى إللى بتمشى تدلق الزبالة فى الشارع(شفتها بعينى) العربية ماشية توزع الزبالة على جميع أنحاء المعمورة

على الطريق الدائرى انهاردة كان فى أكثر من 10 أكوام زبالة بتتحرق على الطريق….طبعا مش حقول أن الريحة تقرف الكلب….و لا أن دة مضر بالصحة و الكلام الفارغ دة….بس على الأقل أعمل كدة بعيد….مش لازم تعمينى و أنا سايق

كمان فى حد عندة فكرة لية الحتة بتاعت طلعة الدائرى من مدينة نصر ريحتها وحشة أوى أوى أوى كدة؟

تفتكروا إية إحتمال أنى مموتش بسرطان الرئة؟أو يجيلى الربو؟

Readers Discretion is Strongly Advised

The following story, explains the Murphey’s Laws and show how they work in real life.

So, i went to After8 (it’s a pub in Tahreer التحرير in Kasr El Nil Street شارع قصر النيل), well, the place is very nice, it’s very small and crowded, but the atmosphere is very nice, playing Live Music from a nice band (i don’t know the name), and from time to time the DJ takes over, it is a bit expensive (17.5LE for a small mineral water bottle, thats a ripoff) but i don’t really mind, the place is really good.

Anyway, am not doing a review here.

At around midnight, my phone battery started to die and kept saying low battery.
My friends left at around 3:00am, and i had to stay waiting for a foreign friend of mine whom i will meet in a place nearby. He was so late and didn’t call, so i left, and on my way out i tried to call him, offcourse, the phone died on battery.

I couldn’t call him, and i can’t get the number, i went back again into the pub, to ask if anyone has a charger, but luckily, no one owns a stupid samsung phone like i do.

So i headed for my car, which was parked far away (near Omar Makram mosque), i remember that i had a car charger somewhere in the trunk.
After a long while  looking through the mess, i found the charger, plug it in the car, only to find it’s not working.

I started to get worried, that my friend will come and will try to call me, to find my phone switched off, and he will probably get lost and will not know what to do.

Now the problem is that even i can find another phone and put my SIM in it, it will not work, because i use the phone memory to store all the numbers.

Luckily, i remembered that i have my old SIM card in my wallet (i just changed my phone line a few weeks ago) and it have the number of a friend who knows the other friend number

The thing is that i don’t have a working phone aslan phone   i wandered around, trying to find an open koshk at 3:45am in down town!!!

Luckily, i found one that is still open, in a street nearby After8, but the guy is sleeping, i wake him up, ask him to do me the favor of putting my SIM in his phone and make the call.

The guy was nice, and he accepted, i plug in the old SIM, got the number, now i had to put back my original SIM to call the guys (because the old line is not working anymore), i preferred to do this, because my friend will probably not answer a weird number waking him up at 4:00am.

Just when it starts ringing, the old nokia phone died….i asked him what’s wrong, he told me the battery is shaky, try again and try not to move.

Finally i managed to get the number, and i called my friend, to find out that he is waiting for me right next to After 8.

I thanked the guy, i tried to give him money but he refused, thanked him again and left.

Off course, you all know that i get lost quite easily in down town.

And i had no clue how to get back to After 8, so, since it was 4:00am, and there is no cars in the streets, i decided to go back in the wrong way of the street so i know where am going.(yes, its wrong, my bad, i know )

For my luck, just when am about to get into the correct way of the street, a police officer saw me, he told me to stop, so i stopped at the right.

He came to me with another guy in normal cloths, and he asked for my license and registration. (el ro7′as)

I told him am sorry, am a bit lost, it’s 4:00am  BLAH BLAH BLAH

He asked me where am going, what am doing now etc….

Then he said, you seem to be a nice guy, (ebn nas w keda), and he held the license right next to my face.

So i say: “Thanks, can i leave now?”, he says: “Yes, sure…..it’s just that am out of credit, and you know scratch cards to recharge  the phone are expensive and such” “انت عارف بقى الدنيا ليل وأنا معيش رصيد, عيزين نجيب كارت شحن كدة ولا حاجة”

So i understood he will not let me go unless i pay him, i took out 20LE and gave it to him, he handed me back the license.

I go and meet my friend, just to find out that he lost his wallet, which had all his credit cards, important docs and 1300LE…

We head to each and every place we went to, and as expected, we didn’t find anything.

We went home….

Summary:

• If you think things cannot go worse….THEY CAN AND THEY WILL!!!!
• If there is a chance of several things going wrong at the same time, the one that will cost most damage will occur first.
• But still that doesn’t mean i didn’t have fun before that in After 8
• All police officers must be shot in the head, or somewhere else

The sad thing, that it’s my own car.

Am a good driver (that’s what my friends say), am not a crazy maniac who thinks he’s in a video game, am not a slow driver either, i take really good care when crossing lanes, i always put my seat belt one (many people find this a VERY weird behavior in Cairo), and i always use my mirrors.

Also, i don’t mind AT ALL!!!! that my car gets damaged if am in ANY WAY responsible for it.

Its the third time now, my car got hit again…and i swear to God i was just driving STRAIGHT ahead on a speed like 40KMPH (i was driving on Nasr Road heading to Maadi at 9:00am you must know it’s very crowded that time, i can’t speed more than that)

Suddenly, to find some “shab saye3″ in a Mitsubishi Lancer, taking a “3′orza – غرزة” beside me, and somehow, he didn’t see me…so he ended up hitting my car from the side.

The hit was not really strong, specially that we’re moving slowly and THERE IS traffic (why the HELL would someone take a 3′orza in a place like this!) We stopped a few meters later, the guy came down, everyone is ok, we checked our cars, mine is scratched from the side and has blue painting from his car all over my right side of the car.

My front right passenger door is not opening smoothly.

I was starting to shout (like usual, when my car gets hit), then am surprised the guy is actually saying: “SORRY, My mistake”, at first i couldn’t believe my ears when i heard it and i go like: “are you still sleeping?what the hell is sorry going to do?” then he said sorry again, and i really calmed down, i told him it’s ok, nothing serious happened, he apologized again and we left.

So, what’s the morale of the story, you ask me? Well, he’s a bad driver or he was sleeping or whatever reason he done that stupid 3′orza, it’s ok, it happens (at least to me all the time), but he apologized, which was all i wanted, he admitted of being wrong, so i respect the guy, and that’s the only reason why i didn’t $*it on his face.

Although, am still FLAMING WITH ANGER for my car, and that i need to pay more to fix it, specially that IT IS NOT MY MISTAKE!!! AND THAT ITS NOT THE FIRST TIME IT HAPPENS TO ME!!!WHY MEEEEE PLEASE LET IT NOT BE ME AGAIN!!!!

I hate those scratches in my car, i suffered a lot to get it, so it really hurts me bad when something happens to it, it’s like me being hit, not the car.

If you don’t know, i had 2 hits before:

• 1st day of Ramadan,  going to Maadi in the morning, (nazlet el ma3adi men 3al autostrad),  an woman in her early 50′s in a Lada, decided to stop down the hill (3al manzal) to ask for directions, if you know that area, you will know it barely fit 2 cars, specially that there are 2 separate ways just before it, so it’s a mess already, so the car behind her (a Jeep Cherokee)  hits her from the back, then me, behin the Jeep, ended up hitting the Jeep from the back.
  Offcourse, nothing happens to the Lada, or to the Jeep, but off course, my car is wrecked, my front light is broken and “الكبوت” is wrecked. As usual, no apology, nothing is said, the woman just left me in my misery.
• A few months earlier, i have the car parked in Salah Salem, asking for directions ,the Flasher is on, my parents are in the car, to find a Ramsees Microbus, hitting the car from behind on full speed (my parents are inside!), and taking the car all the way up on the pavement,
  
  I ran like crazy to check on my parents, they are ok, just some injuries, my car is totally damaged, hundreds of people grouped around us, each one trying to say his 2 cents, the driver come out of his microbus, we started to shout at each other, am in a very bad mood, i insult him, some people grabbing me from the back and want to beat me(????!!!!! DOHHHH ) it appears that they are his friends from the neighborhood (i was near the place they stop), they try to engage with me in a fight, next thing i know the guy drove like hell with his metal giant monster, everyone left saying to me “عوضك على الله” – god will replace it for you-  and i ended up paying 13,500LE to fix my car.

Oh, i forgot to mention, that someone followed him and got me the number (thank you dude i don’t know who got me the number), and i made a report in the police station, but nothing (off course, as expected) happened, even though i bribed them all!!!! i paid like 150LE for the officers and they promised they would help getting my revenge, but looks like it wasn’t enough.

Another thing we face daily, in our “evil streets of Cairo” is parking… there is no place to park your car ANYWHERE in Cairo, you have to suffer everyday for 15-30 mins everytime you try to park at work\home\friends\shopping or whatever you’re going to do.

You will also notice, the “menady” (this guy who is basically a begger,  but tries to give you help parking your car), are spread  in the whole capital. Ripping you off with 1LE each time you park and they happen to pop next to you from the sky.
If you try and give one of them 0.5LE you will win a “look of disgust” for yourself, like: “keep the change for yourself, if you cant afford 1LE then don’t use a car, cheap bastard”

You could be lucky(like me) and have a personal garage for your building at home, well, am not so lucky because i still have to pay 50LE\month + tips for cleaning the car, but at least i can guarantee a place for my car when i go home.

Going to my new work in Maadi, there is a car parking too, which costs 50LE\month (is that standard or what?) i said to myself, nope, am not paying it enough parking money, its going to end up paying half my salary on gas and parking!!! (not mentioning repairing the car from the random hits i receive on my car)

So, i ended up looping around the office building EVERYDAY for 15 mins to find a parking spot, i guess it would have been easier to park at home and come walking, since i end up walking LOOOOONG distances anyway.

A good thing is, there is ALOT of empty spaces, but they are blocked with جرادل or cones

If you try to move them, you will get attacked by the security guard or the door man and they won’t allow you to park, off course, not wanting to have a fight first thing in the morning (you will have plenty at work) you have to find another spot.

So, the public streets are now a private property? anyone who wants can reserve a certain space for himself? just block with a chain or put a cone around it and not let anyone park? is that’s how it works now?بالدراع – bel dera3?

So, today i was coming to work, later than usual, and i couldn’t find a single place in all the spots i used to park in, so i suddenly spot an empty space, it’s relatively big, it could fit my car and an smaller one too, and luckily it’s not blocked by anything, so i head and park there.

Just while am switching off the engine, an old “bawab – door man” came out, and started yelling and shouting in the rudest way possible, saying that am blocking the “entrance to the building, i explained to him that am parking “IN THE FU**** STREET!!!! AND there is space for other car to park and people pass and everything!!!” so when he found out that’s not really working, he started the other tactic, he said that this place is reserved for a high ranking officer who lives in that building. (DOHHH!!!!! wasn’t it blocking the entrance a few seconds ago?)

Anyway, if i wasn’t late for work, and if i was in a good mood (i had an accident this morning, i’ll blog about it later) and if he wasn’t a very old dude i would have had a different reaction, but sadly, i just left and tried to find another place to park.

It also happens that my previous work, was located in Abbas El Akkad one of the most crowded streets in the capital.
And i faced this problem daily, and i had to make friends with those parking assistance (menady) to help me park everyday.

I HAD ENOUGH!!!! NO ONE OWNS THE F**** STREETS!!! I HAVE THE RIGHT TO PARK ANYWHERE!!! YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO CHARGE ME FOR PARKING!!!! AND THE NEXT TIME YOU SPEAK TO ME RUDELY, AM GOING TO BEAT THE CRAP OUT OF YOU!!!!