We landed in Egypt and couldn't find our driver. Mom and I walked around the entrance hall for a couple of minutes, when some random guy came over to us. "Need help?" he said, waving a cell phone in our face. We were both like "Yes!!"
Mom had just begun to dial the number when this huge burly man started hollering and waving at us. We figured he was our driver.
Oh for those of you wondering, wearing a rida is like a flashing neon sign screaming our identity.
We got in the car and began our travels from the airport (located outside Cairo) into the city. There was an interesting moment when our driver exclaimed "Traffic" and put his car in reverse on a major overpass. He then backed up on aforementioned overpass until he found an exit. Then he crossed four lanes of traffic to get to the exit. I was rather amused.
We got to Faiz (the Bohra version of a hotel), and hit up the bed- there had been a screaming baby on the flight, so I got no sleep. After we headed to do Ziarat.
Ziarat's basically a religious visit to various pilgrimage sites. We went to Rasu'l Hussain and Syeda Zeinab.
Rasu'l Hussain's the head of Prophet Muhammad's grandson. He was beheaded in Karbala, Iraq, and his head was stuck on a stick and finally came to Cairo where it is still (believed to be) today.
Most of these tombs are located in things called Zarihs. Zarihs are these huge silver cage-esque things:
You pretty much walk into the place where the Zarih is located, then kiss the silver cage. Well, that's a lie. First you take off your shoes; which involves giving them to an enterprising man at the entrance. At Rasu'l Hussain women are not allowed to touch the Zarih, so we make do by pressing out forehead down on the railing while praying.
It's pretty intense, there's a ton of people, all trying to push to the front to the railing. I've mastered the art of putting my camera in a bag, pressed into my stomach so that there's absolutely no chance of anyone stealing it, and shoving back when people decide to push us around.
When we walked out of Rasu'l Hussain the first time, and went to go grab our shoes from the man, he looked at us and said "Geneeh."
So first lesson; an Egyptian pound is called a Geneeh and the man at the entrance was trying to rip us off. I shook my head (we hadn't gotten money changed yet) to indicate that we had no money on us, and he looked at me (the rida probably gave us away) and started sniffing his hand. "Misk, misk" he said, nodding and smiling, "ITAR." I grabbed my shoes and left.
We got back in our car, our driver was this sweet man who spoke minimal English. Oh, and I forgot to mention that we met up with a youngish couple there, and we decided to share a car. The woman ended up being the daughter of a really sweet elderly couple I knew in Houston. Bizarre small world.
Anyway, between the four of us we managed to understand quite a bit of what he was saying.
From Rasu'l Hussain we went to the Zarih of Syeda Zeinab. Syeda Zeinab (if I'm remembering the history lessons in Madaressa correctly) was the sister of Hussain and she lived in Cairo for quite a while. So, we went to go visit her grave thing.
After which we went to Jame-ul-Anwar to pray. Then we came back and I hardcore crashed.
1 comment:
I thought women could touch the Zarih. I think we were allowed.
Sounds interesting and a good new experience. Personally I detest such crowds!
Good luck in Egypt and I hope you have a positive experience
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