CC Travel Blog

Nov, 2005

Bravely we took the metro to El Sayeda Zeinab and then we had to hire a taxi to take us to Mosque Ahmad Ibn Tulun. In the Muslim world, there is a clear seperation between gender and we learned this through a live experience.

As we got lost on the metro lines, we asked the policemen on the platform for direction and they pointed us to the incoming train. Without a thought I jumped on and my partner followed. However, the police quickly yanked him out because the cart I jumped in was for women only. For women travelling with men, we could join the men and took the men’s cart but no way the men could join the women and use our cart. So I got in the men’s cart and in the whole cart with about 20 passengers, only two women were present excluding me. Although I tried not to make eye contacts with anyone, I could still feel the firey look undressing me from head to toe.

Year 2005, I travelled to a Muslim world first time in life, with my partner. There is so much I want to say about Egypt and such tremendous experience I gained from this trip.

We spent eleven days in Egypt excluding flying time. Despite countless sites I saw in Egypt, it is the worst country I’ve travelled to (even 4 years later I still have not found another destination that is as bad as Egypt). Sure Egypt has a lot of valuable historical sites, but everywhere I go, it seems this is the only thing available from this country. Where is their future and developments in all these years, I wonder?