Waiting for my first international flight at Delhi airport, I realise how bad an observer I am! I was too much engrossed in finishing step by step the official procedures that would take me out of the country that it slipped my mind that I am supposed to behave like a tourist. At the moment of realisation I get up, walk about, go to the café coffee day stall and ask for an Americano. The shop person says, “That is black tea, without sugar…etc. (Are you sure?)” Usually that is enough to embarrass me, but I assume a lot of air and declare, “Then, I would like something strong but with milk, please.” Aha! Perfect. It is fun to feign confidence and especially when you are completely the opposite inside. I find a chair sip my coffee write, read, work on my lap top, and window shops till my flight is announced. (Delhi duty paid sells Kajah beedies for $20 a dozen; If you ever want to gift some one “Indian- made hand- rolled cigarettes”!!)
Dubai…
The emirates flight is a world apart from the domestic flights. It is almost like a big hall with multiple rows and cabins. My window seat was in the fourth Cabin. There was no one to share the row. The next half an hour I try to figure out where to plug in my earphones. A curious passenger from the farthest aisle was eyeing me with amusement. The tele screen shows you at given time your position above the map. However I slept off a good part of the flight.
Dubai looks like a game form above; full of square block buildings and alleys. Brown and grey are the prominent colours. The view from above tells you the drudgery of finding a space in the monotony and nostalgia sets in. What would it be like for a person who comes to work here all the way from Kerala?
At the transit in Dubai there stood a number of officials with the gloomiest expressions possible. It seems given a chance they would kick you back all the way you came. One of them barked at me “Bangles nikalo!” as I proceeded to the screening. A man (European?) offered his hands to the officials post screening and the woman official declined from taking it.
To repeat the cliché, Dubai airport is a “big shop.” It sprawls out with over fifty gates queued on either side of the duty free market. I find my gate first and roam around. The liquor cum chocolate cum cigarette section is a delight! The collection of Cuban cigars in wooden boxes pulled even the non-smoker me towards it. People were lying down, covered with blankets all around waiting for their flights. It was much like Delhi railway station. It was my first exposure to multi ethnicity at this level. A number of lovely women and (unfortunately) not so handsome men from around the globe. Of course the whole multi ethnicity was sprinkled on a vast spread of Malayalis!
The Way
The flight to Alexandria was at 9:15 am (IST 10:45). Instantly, I slept off in my window seat. This time also the whole row was vacant. When I got up the landscape below had turned to a dull brown with ocean in the fringe. In a while I was crossing the Sinai. You could almost see Moses and the sons on Israel moving about…Then the Red Sea which was blue… the Suez Canal that I could not make out. The map said Cairo is to the West of the route and we were moving in a north westerly direction past the Nile to Alexandria. The landscape was now a bright yellow. It spread out vast below interspersed with dunes with not even a tinge of green anywhere. To my side far below I spotted two pyramids standing side by side!! And those could be the only pyramids that I would ever lay my eyes on.
Alexandria is a Ptolemaic – Greco Roman city… Our project is covering the late centuries BCE to early centuries CE. That is exactly the time frame of my interest. But try as might I cannot pretend that I will be deeply disappointed if I cannot encounter one of those mummies or the magii standing guard of the great pyramids in the valley of the dead!! Let no academician hear me.
The Welcome!
The HBE airport is tiny in comparison to the Delhi airport. In the place of the tubes that directly take you from the aircraft to the terminal, they have the airport buses. The passengers enter a modest room and I queue up for the passport checking. After an hour or so my turn comes and of course, they don’t let me pass!! I could not understand what the man was saying but knew that I had to wait because my passport was with them. Looking around at my co- ‘waiters’, I realise what we had in common. They were all Asians. Most of them had beard. Mind you, we may be in the Arab Republic of Egypt, but in a globalized world, prejudices also are globalized! Waiting there I could feel anguish and anger building up within. Then I thought “let it be, just pretend to be an observer”.
“What if Emad who is supposed to wait for me at airport leaves?” Then I see guy come up with a placard with my name on it and I realise that Emad is intervening. I might not end up in an Egyptian jail after all. The officials made stern, not so polite, enquiries in monosyllabic English and then let me go. (When I called up Chacha’s friend Rajesh in Alexandria later, he told me that this practice of detaining Asians is routine here.)
Alexandria
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Emad was waiting outside. He seemed to know the officials well. Emad is a big man. His manners are warm and informal. He apologized for the problems at the airport which were no fault of his. The cab driver’s name I think was Samir. He seems to be Emad’s friend. They were speaking in Arabic, and I could not make the head or tail out of it. Emad told me that Alexandria is not all a desert as it seems to be out through the car window. I had seen green patches near Alexandria from the aircraft. The vegetation was mainly palms. There was a patch of sunflower. I don’t think they are grown widely in the region, though.
We took the Desert Road to Alexandria. On our way we passed the lake Maryut. The project covers the vicinities of the lake. The lat two seasons covered the Northern bank and an island that is in the middle of the lake. This year we will be working on the Southern coast. There is no actual digging involved but survey.
On the way Emad breaks the news that due to problems in paper work Lucy (Lucy Blue is faculty at Southampton and the project co- ordinator) will be coming only on Sunday. Some of the team members are to arrive on the 1 st of August. “So you have the flat for your own and you can look around the place.” Great!! Here I am; the most ill prepared tourist with all the time in the world. I don’t even have a proper map of the city, no idea of it history or geography.”
We stop at a huge shopping area which is in the suburbs of the city where I get my currency exchanged, take a phone connection and buy some provisions. The weather s quite hot, but there s a breeze blowing constantly that it is almost pleasant. We drive into the city and Emad drops me off at the flat. The flat is owned by a French archaeological group. They rent it out for archaeological projects. It must be atleast 50- 60 years old with four large bed rooms, tall ceilings and window panes, wooden floors and bath tub in the bath. Emad familiarises me with the immediate geography. The street where I live is called Abdel Megid Morsi. The flat is on the third floor. It faces East. To my immediate south is the National Museum of Alexandria. If I walk north I reach a garden called the green house and further north is the Mediterranean.
After a bath I get out of the house at around 6: 30 pm and take a west turn from the museum to the city centre. The street is lined with tall buildings (4-5 floors on an average). They have a distinctive European touch like the building I stay. Even the newer buildings are modelled on the older ones. The men are usually dressed in pants/jeans and shirts. One occasionally sees a person dressed in long single piece attire and turban; like the friendly care taker of our building with whom I communicate via smiles. Most of the women cover their head. Some wear hijabs. The younger women though mostly wear close fitting full sleeved long tops with jeans or skirts.
I walk over to a shop called Radioshack and ask for an adapter for my three pin plug. We chat pleasantly a bit. The adapter costs 45 Egyptian pounds. (Some quick calculations: 1pound is 100 piastros and 1 $ is approximately 5 pounds. I have converted around 200 dollars and I have a little over thousand pounds with me. I am not a rich tourist).
Two hours of walk leave me very tired. I get back to the flat. Drink milk with bread and cheese. This is exactly the kind of food I’m not fond of. But the store we went seems to sell only these. And, Emad says there is nothing which you could call a staple diet here!! Alexandria is too close to Europe, I guess… Well, I have nt had much of European cuisine either. Then I discover that some of the doors that open to the balconies does not close. Alone in a big open house I am scared. But too tired think of it I sleep of in the only room with proper bolts.
Dubai…
The emirates flight is a world apart from the domestic flights. It is almost like a big hall with multiple rows and cabins. My window seat was in the fourth Cabin. There was no one to share the row. The next half an hour I try to figure out where to plug in my earphones. A curious passenger from the farthest aisle was eyeing me with amusement. The tele screen shows you at given time your position above the map. However I slept off a good part of the flight.
Dubai looks like a game form above; full of square block buildings and alleys. Brown and grey are the prominent colours. The view from above tells you the drudgery of finding a space in the monotony and nostalgia sets in. What would it be like for a person who comes to work here all the way from Kerala?
At the transit in Dubai there stood a number of officials with the gloomiest expressions possible. It seems given a chance they would kick you back all the way you came. One of them barked at me “Bangles nikalo!” as I proceeded to the screening. A man (European?) offered his hands to the officials post screening and the woman official declined from taking it.
To repeat the cliché, Dubai airport is a “big shop.” It sprawls out with over fifty gates queued on either side of the duty free market. I find my gate first and roam around. The liquor cum chocolate cum cigarette section is a delight! The collection of Cuban cigars in wooden boxes pulled even the non-smoker me towards it. People were lying down, covered with blankets all around waiting for their flights. It was much like Delhi railway station. It was my first exposure to multi ethnicity at this level. A number of lovely women and (unfortunately) not so handsome men from around the globe. Of course the whole multi ethnicity was sprinkled on a vast spread of Malayalis!
The Way
The flight to Alexandria was at 9:15 am (IST 10:45). Instantly, I slept off in my window seat. This time also the whole row was vacant. When I got up the landscape below had turned to a dull brown with ocean in the fringe. In a while I was crossing the Sinai. You could almost see Moses and the sons on Israel moving about…Then the Red Sea which was blue… the Suez Canal that I could not make out. The map said Cairo is to the West of the route and we were moving in a north westerly direction past the Nile to Alexandria. The landscape was now a bright yellow. It spread out vast below interspersed with dunes with not even a tinge of green anywhere. To my side far below I spotted two pyramids standing side by side!! And those could be the only pyramids that I would ever lay my eyes on.
Alexandria is a Ptolemaic – Greco Roman city… Our project is covering the late centuries BCE to early centuries CE. That is exactly the time frame of my interest. But try as might I cannot pretend that I will be deeply disappointed if I cannot encounter one of those mummies or the magii standing guard of the great pyramids in the valley of the dead!! Let no academician hear me.
The Welcome!
The HBE airport is tiny in comparison to the Delhi airport. In the place of the tubes that directly take you from the aircraft to the terminal, they have the airport buses. The passengers enter a modest room and I queue up for the passport checking. After an hour or so my turn comes and of course, they don’t let me pass!! I could not understand what the man was saying but knew that I had to wait because my passport was with them. Looking around at my co- ‘waiters’, I realise what we had in common. They were all Asians. Most of them had beard. Mind you, we may be in the Arab Republic of Egypt, but in a globalized world, prejudices also are globalized! Waiting there I could feel anguish and anger building up within. Then I thought “let it be, just pretend to be an observer”.
“What if Emad who is supposed to wait for me at airport leaves?” Then I see guy come up with a placard with my name on it and I realise that Emad is intervening. I might not end up in an Egyptian jail after all. The officials made stern, not so polite, enquiries in monosyllabic English and then let me go. (When I called up Chacha’s friend Rajesh in Alexandria later, he told me that this practice of detaining Asians is routine here.)
Alexandria
Emad was waiting outside. He seemed to know the officials well. Emad is a big man. His manners are warm and informal. He apologized for the problems at the airport which were no fault of his. The cab driver’s name I think was Samir. He seems to be Emad’s friend. They were speaking in Arabic, and I could not make the head or tail out of it. Emad told me that Alexandria is not all a desert as it seems to be out through the car window. I had seen green patches near Alexandria from the aircraft. The vegetation was mainly palms. There was a patch of sunflower. I don’t think they are grown widely in the region, though.
We took the Desert Road to Alexandria. On our way we passed the lake Maryut. The project covers the vicinities of the lake. The lat two seasons covered the Northern bank and an island that is in the middle of the lake. This year we will be working on the Southern coast. There is no actual digging involved but survey.
On the way Emad breaks the news that due to problems in paper work Lucy (Lucy Blue is faculty at Southampton and the project co- ordinator) will be coming only on Sunday. Some of the team members are to arrive on the 1 st of August. “So you have the flat for your own and you can look around the place.” Great!! Here I am; the most ill prepared tourist with all the time in the world. I don’t even have a proper map of the city, no idea of it history or geography.”
We stop at a huge shopping area which is in the suburbs of the city where I get my currency exchanged, take a phone connection and buy some provisions. The weather s quite hot, but there s a breeze blowing constantly that it is almost pleasant. We drive into the city and Emad drops me off at the flat. The flat is owned by a French archaeological group. They rent it out for archaeological projects. It must be atleast 50- 60 years old with four large bed rooms, tall ceilings and window panes, wooden floors and bath tub in the bath. Emad familiarises me with the immediate geography. The street where I live is called Abdel Megid Morsi. The flat is on the third floor. It faces East. To my immediate south is the National Museum of Alexandria. If I walk north I reach a garden called the green house and further north is the Mediterranean.
After a bath I get out of the house at around 6: 30 pm and take a west turn from the museum to the city centre. The street is lined with tall buildings (4-5 floors on an average). They have a distinctive European touch like the building I stay. Even the newer buildings are modelled on the older ones. The men are usually dressed in pants/jeans and shirts. One occasionally sees a person dressed in long single piece attire and turban; like the friendly care taker of our building with whom I communicate via smiles. Most of the women cover their head. Some wear hijabs. The younger women though mostly wear close fitting full sleeved long tops with jeans or skirts.
I walk over to a shop called Radioshack and ask for an adapter for my three pin plug. We chat pleasantly a bit. The adapter costs 45 Egyptian pounds. (Some quick calculations: 1pound is 100 piastros and 1 $ is approximately 5 pounds. I have converted around 200 dollars and I have a little over thousand pounds with me. I am not a rich tourist).
Two hours of walk leave me very tired. I get back to the flat. Drink milk with bread and cheese. This is exactly the kind of food I’m not fond of. But the store we went seems to sell only these. And, Emad says there is nothing which you could call a staple diet here!! Alexandria is too close to Europe, I guess… Well, I have nt had much of European cuisine either. Then I discover that some of the doors that open to the balconies does not close. Alone in a big open house I am scared. But too tired think of it I sleep of in the only room with proper bolts.