Reply #119: Non-smokers should avoid Egypt

[onager]

I've lived here for nearly 3 years (in Alexandria). Generally, the only place you'll find a non-smoking area is in the restaurant of an American chain hotel--maybe. And that's just a separate area of the dining room, not a different room altogether. In most public places smoking is still allowed anywhere.

Transportation will also be a problem.

Alex has about 5 million totally unregulated shitbox taxicabs running around, many of them antique Russian Ladas. The windows are often stuck in the up position and most of the drivers chain-smoke. You'll still get plenty of ventilation, thanks to the rusted-out floorboards.

To whine about it you will usually need to speak Arabic, and even then the drivers would just ignore you. (Unless you are an American or European female. Then they will ask if you are married, if you have kids, if not why not??? And end the conversation by proposing marriage to you.)

And the "protect the children" crowd will just HATE it here.

Summers in Alexandria, the population increases by a million people on weekends, as Egyptian families pour in to visit the beaches. This leads to massive traffic jams on the Corniche, the beautiful drive along the Mediterranean. (Which is conveniently located right behind my apartment, if any of you plan to drop in anytime soon.)

Families cruising the Corniche often raise the trunk of the car and stuff all the rug-rats into it. The kids make all the noise they want while holding up the trunk. Usually. Potholes, of which there are many, can be tricky.

Then there's the whole animal-sacrifice thing. You mostly see this during Eid al-Adha (Feast of the Sacrifice). As an atheist and infidel, I was once honored with an invite to watch a village butcher ritually slaughter a goat. (I live in Alexandria but my job site is out near the Nile Delta, past a bunch of little farm villages. Many of the people in those villages know me by now. In a running joke, some of them call me "omda"--the mayor.)

The butcher cut the goat's throat, and a whole gaggle of laughing little kids suddenly showed up. The little angels dipped their hands in the blood, then went around smearing bloody handprints on walls, poles, and each other.

It's a fun and interesting place.

This is Thursday night here, the start of my weekend. Despite various warnings, I'm going out to have a huge green salad. (No, they won't kill you. I've never gotten sick from the greens here.) Followed by a big ol' steak, some red wine after my pre-pranidal double Jack Daniels, and I'll probably finish up with a cognac or 5 and coffee. And yes, I will be smoking.