Early morning along the seaside - and it should be mentioned of how many hotels and middle class restaurants dot the seaside of Gaza City. So much, in fact, that unless you're staying at them then there is little hope of even seeing the sea.
Gaza Airport was closed, yet several airlines have some sort of offices in Gaza City. It would appear, then, that these Palestinians head to Cairo if they wish to fly somewhere. Forget about Tel Aviv - it's difficult enough leaving there as a westerner let alone these folks who have been branded sub-human by that government.

Once again, certainly not a deal to reach Rafah. The taxi driver did take us on a small tour of Gaza City that morning, showing us one of two universities in the city, the UN building, and a few more urban parks. Certainly, the city is not nearly as dishevelled as I had anticipated. Construction continues, and the sidewalks are packed with people. New storefronts were being polished and cleaned.







We headed south to the second town of the Gaza Strip, Khan Younis. Site of the strip's largest refugee camp, it boasted several strips of farmland, a few police checkpoints, as well as a strange break in its paved road which was dirt - and an obviously Israeli guard tower sat solemn, staring down on the passing vehicles. An overpass was nearby, an outlet to the sea, that I believe was Israeli. In lieu of annexing this territory the Israelis have built large roadways to reach the Palestinian shoreline; and also to further partition their land, and compromise its territorial integity. Indeed, how can they hope to establish a state when they are crisscrossed so heavily by infrastructure intended solely for the use of the Israelis?







Perhaps three hours later, we arrived in Rafah. Split in two by the border between Sinai and Gaza; or perhaps three, if you understand the fact that the Gaza Strip is separated from Egypt by a strip of land that belongs to Israel. On this strip of land the Israelis are attempting to build a wall, and of course, will bulldoze whatever may have been in the way. At the chainlink fence leading from Gaza Territory into the Israeli buffer zone there were bullet scars along the residences. Rafah was certainly unexciting, save for the border crossing. Under the sweltering heat we munched on all manner of odd Arab chocolates and snacks as the Palestinians pored over our passports and waited for authorization from the Israelis to allow us through. Would they turn us back? Did we need some sort of odd permission slip to get through this border crossing?

Indeed it was not so; however it certainly was not cheap to cross here. A taxi driver ushered us into his car, drove us 50 metres from the chain link fence where Gaza ended and into the clean street where the Israeli buffer zone began. He demanded 8 dollars. We were properly pissed off. We started complaining to the Israeli soldiers. One of them grinned. "They are thieves," he said, and looked at our passports. There was little they could do about it.

That was not the end of it, though: there was the Israeli land border tax to pay, which was 40 dollars for the both of us. Then, there was a second minibus driver who asked for 4 dollars for his own services. And then, of course, we needed to get into Egypt, and buy a visa at the border, which was another 20 US dollars. Then, of course, there was the land border tax on the Egyptian side, which was mercifully cheap at about 1 US dollar. Ah, back in a backwards third world country, I said to myself - at least it's cheap.

Of course, with our taxes done, we were nicely ushered into a welcoming onslaught of highly skilled taxi drivers. Us, green and still pissed off at the solid fucking-over from the Palestinians, Israelis, and now Egyptians, were rightfully stingy. We got away with paying USD30 for the 500 kilometre ride from the border to Cairo, in a private taxi.

Immediately the geography had changed. Rolling sand dunes surrounded us, the population density drifted to zero. The road was fine asphalt all of the way; large signs could be seen every half hour which, in large english letters, stated "NO FOREIGNERS ALLOWED OUTSIDE OF ROADWAY". Aside from getting lost in the desert, there was little reason to do so anyways.

The sun turned the desert landscape a deep red and we slowed into a restaurant for some dinner. In the darkness, we passed through several military checkpoints, culminating with a massive near-border crossing that marked the bridge over the Suez Canal. I was drifting in and out of sleep at this point, with little to see anyways. Although the massive bridge over the canal was interesting in its modernity, its continuous lighting, and being a feat of engineering in a place with so few of such things.







Soon enough, the city of Cairo emerged around us. Deep inside its heart, we were let off and wandered to our requested hotel. A bulky man greeted us in perfect english. "Could you do a favour for me?" he asked. "If you do, I'll get you a free room for the night."

Ah yes - Egypt. The world's oldest tourist culture. With 5000 years under their belt of perfecting the art of ripping off tourists, this stay would be a true test of nerves. Their skills versus mine. My lack of interest in buying crap versus their artful craft of convincing me to buy said crap. Who would win?


The "favour" seemed simple enough: all it entailed was taking a taxi on his coin to the Sheraton Hotel and using my passport for him to buy several litres of whiskey, duty free. Apparently foreigners who have been in Egypt less than 24 hours are able to buy 2 litres of hard liquor duty free, which is a large savings in Cairo. So for the price of a room, I obliged. And on top of getting a curious stamp in my passport which dictated I had used my duty-free exemption, the transaction also seemed smooth enough. However, this was the first and last time a transaction would be smooth in this city, this monstrous metropolis that has learned over its millenia how exactly to chew up and spit out unsuspecting visitors. If there is a society more adept at the art of the soft sell, I have not yet come across it.

Cairo, and Pyramid pictures!



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