Shifting sands

The chef of Fish Market restaurant. [Photo by Yu Yao/China Daily]

Traffic jams

A drive to the Egyptian Museum in central Cairo allowed me to experience one of the city's famous traffic jams. Even though I come from Beijing, a city known for its road congestion, nothing is as bad as it was in Cairo. There are few traffic lights in the big city, and the lights they do have seem to be invisible to drivers.

"People never care about traffic lights. If a driver knocks someone down, as long as that person is not badly hurt, he will stand up and walk away as if nothing has happened," said my guide. Hearing that, my mouth dropped open in surprise.

As for public transportation, there were buses, but no bus stops.

Buses drive through the streets with their doors open. Passengers jump on and off when the vehicle slows its pace. My guide suggested I don't take a bus to go sightseeing.

The Egyptian Museum was amazing. It houses countless artifacts dating back to the pharaonic era, more than 2,000 years ago. The first floor displayed lots of stone sculptures and stone coffins. Golden jewelry, mummies and the treasures of Tutankhamun, such as his golden mask and golden coffin were all displayed on the second floor.

A few of the descriptions on the exhibits included the sentence: "Looted in 2011 and later returned".

Next to the museum is the former government building. It was destroyed, looted and set on fire when the revolution swept Cairo four years ago.

"The ruined building will always be here to remind people of the revolution and the suffering we've experienced," said Meng.

Meng is from Aswan in Southern Egypt, a city famous for its beautiful landscapes and ancient history. He is the fourth of five children. Currently in his final year of studies at a college in Cairo, Meng said the development of his nation had stalled and had even gone backward in the past four years.

"I don't know whether the revolution is good or not. But I hope my country will soon return to what it was like before the revolution," Meng told our tour group over dinner on a ship on the River Nile.

Cai, a middle-aged Chinese man who hired Meng as a guide for his tourism company, had dinner with us on the ship. Having worked in Cairo for more than 10 years, he has two tourism companies, several houses and a family of four. Cai told us he was planning to leave Egypt for Canada for a better life. "I can't see a future here," he said.

Colorful lights along the Nile transformed Cairo into a modern city. Looking at it from the water it could have been New York or London. The noise and dust of the day was smothered by the tender night.