Coffins and Cough'ins. Hello Cairo

Chaotic Cairo
Originally uploaded by hazy jenius.

FROGGER.

The pyramids might be one of the last remaining wonders of the ancient world, but Cairo's traffic left me bewildered and in awe. Roads packed with careening trucks, tourist-packed busses steered by wild-eyed drivers weaving in and out of "lanes," and thousands of taxis honking madly, just because that seems to be what Cairo taxi drivers do best. By far, Cairo's biggest transportation challenge was crossing this mad mix of vehicles to get to the other side.

Four years in Japan trained me not to even think about crossing the street unless the green light says go, even with no cars in sight. I quickly had to ditch the habits of conformity and throw myself wildly into a potentially deadly game of FROGGER. SPLAT! I found the safest approach was to find a local Egyptian and use him as a human shield. Walk, scurry, duck and skitter in step with him, shoulder to shoulder, until reaching safety (a small side street where perhaps the main vehicular threat would be a renegade donkey cart.) 9 times out of 10, after completing the crossing safely, my human splat-guard would turn to me and say, "See? Now you can walk like an Egyptian. Now how about walking to my papyrus shop?"