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Wednesday, February 20, 2019

Update 49

Gotta write about the roads here in Cairo. Roger thinks anyone who is ticketed for road rage ought to be sentenced to "driving in Cairo for a week." First imagine multiple dented cars in no particular lane, buses & taxis pulling over whenever someone waves (no bus stops), motorcycles with several passengers often sitting side saddle with a baby in arms or with huge warming food boxes or loaded with a variety of cargo (ladders, bread racks, chairs and my favorite, broken glass), bicycles also with passengers & cargo, constant pedestrians crossing (no crosswalks), peddlers hawking their wares weaving between moving cars, occasionally horse & buggies and cars parked most anywhere including sidewalks. Add to that scene horns blasting continuously ...especially taxis when they see us because they think we might want them to pick us up. Only one or two traffic lights.
Though the vehicles come with in inches of each other...we have not witnessed an accident...but we hardly ever see a vehicle without a scratch, missing mirror, broken taillight or dent so the evidence of accidents is prevalent!
This scene takes us back to our days in Calcutta. There and here each time you cross the road, you're playing the game of Frogger! It's best to cross with the locals.
Once you get out of Cairo & you go onto an entrance ramp (where a herd of goats are munching garbage), there's a newly constructed toll road!! It's got signs, dotted lines, guard rails and a shoulder. It has it all!! We heard they plan to extend it to Alexander in the north and Luxor in the south.
Just gotta find a better place to feed the goats!!


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