Chaos in Cairo
It’s funny how the universe works, and in a lot of ways, if what happened hadn’t have happened, I probably wouldn’t be living here in New Zealand today. I’m not even sure if I would be a mother, possibly not the mother of my three boys, who knows.
So, this is an extremely difficult story to write!!! It’s also been 21 years in the making, but I guess I have to start at the beginning. In February 2002, I left England to start on a new life journey, and work in America as an ICU Nurse (Boston), whilst waiting for the logistics to roll out, I had itchy feet, so decided to travel. I’d already sold my house and car, so had ahem a bit of spare change in my pocket. I’d originally planned to travel right the way across the world, however on September 11th, 2001, a major event meant I had to rethink my travel plans through the Middle East. The first leg of my travels was through southeast Asia, where I spent 5 sensational weeks, with now lifelong friends, and experiencing life like I could never have imagined.
For the next few months, I traveled extensively throughout Asia, Europe, Morocco, and then the Middle East. At the end of my tour, I had four solo days before I was due to fly to Nairobi for my African tour and then I had planned to head to India. Except, fate…...fate, of course had other plans.
Ok, so today has to be one of my wackiest days so far!
Dear Diary, Day 38 I did the usual, woke up late as it had been too hot to sleep early. Like, seriously what was I thinking being in the Middle East in Summer. I finally found some breakfast and then went down to Khan il Khalini markets, to mooch around and strangely ended up being shown around by a ‘would be’ taut, looking to make commission from something he was trying to get me to buy, I did catch him out though, after all this time, I’ve gotten pretty good at spotting a hustler. Weirdly though, I ended up in a shop getting a henna tattoo on my foot, truly I have no idea how that evolved, I mean one minute, I was browsing in a souvenir shop and next I’m getting a tattoo and listening to this Egyptians life story and the whole time realizing he had more on his mind than just the ink!!
I finally managed to excuse myself and leave and was about to head back to the hotel, when I literally bumped into another Egyptian man (yeah, I know I’m sensing a theme too). He asked me if I was lost, and I told him I’d already been in Egypt for two weeks (yeah, I’m not someone you can hustle ‘Matey’.) We walked and chatted together for a while, and he asked me where I was from, I told him ‘Brighton’, most likely it was more well known, than the wee seaside town I grew up in. He told me about his best friend who was married to an English woman there and he talked about lots of landmarks and funny quirky things this BFF had told him about the place. And so, a connection was made and (here’s where it started to get weird), before I know it, we’ve headed to a hotel terrace bar for a beer to break bread and share stories. I mean, to be honest, I wasn’t desperately attracted to him, but it felt like I’d known him my whole life.
And, then it got even weirder, and I’m now ‘still sober but smiley.’
I’m heading in a taxi to re-visit the Giza pyramids and arranging a very expensive camel ride around the pyramids in the dark. It was fascinating being off the beaten track chatting to the Bedouin keepers and seeing and chatting to foreign archeologists working during the evening on new digs.
Next thing I know, I’ve checked out of my hotel and I’m heading to ‘Alexandria’ in a bus with this guy I’ve known for only six hours but feels like forever. Has to be said, this was one of the bumpiest craziest bus trips I’ve ever been on, the music was blaring, there were heaps of travelling Egyptians, most of whom were staring at this very English woman and Egyptian guy travelling north together.
Now, don’t weird out on me, I am but a mere mortal, and the thought of having a bit of a summer fling when I had but a few days to kill in Egypt was, well you know was quite endearing. So that’s exactly what we did, we had a weird, but wonderful few days together in Alexandria by the sea. On the last day we took another bus back to Cairo and then he dropped me off at the airport to catch my flight to Nairobi. It was one of those long goodbyes, the one’s where you sort of know you will meet again someday. And no, it wasn’t love; we did however have a deep soul connection because it felt as if we’d met before in another lifetime.
No, that’s not weird at all, right?
Panic station, I’m standing like a complete Muppet at the airport, backpacks and all, trying to board my flight to find out my 12.30am flight was in fact the day before!!! OMG, what the heck, what do I do now? And so, suddenly we didn’t part company after all. And, when I walked out of that airport, I truly believed I would be re-arranging my flight to Nairobi. Except I didn’t, not even close. I spent the next year of my life, living in Cairo, eventually working, and almost marrying this fella I literally bumped into in the streets of Cairo.
What I do know, is this was one of the most profound experiences and learnings of my life. All of it, the good, the bad, the ugly and then sadly the very ugly. And another step in becoming the person I am today. It also possibly explains to a degree, why I understand the survival instinct that drives ‘hustlers’ and ‘scammers’, and ultimately why I can spot them a mile off! And of course, I did eventually find out his real name, which up until that point he hadn’t been honest about.
