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Hazian revisits Egypt
Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly announced a holiday from 30th April until 3rd May 2022, to celebrate both Labour Day and Eid Al Fitr. While most of us were busy in Malaysia, celebrating the end of Ramadhan and the beginning of Syawal, our friend, colleague and dear sister Hazian Hamzah was in Egypt from Day 1 to Day 14 of Eid Al Fitr.
Hazian Hamzah is an alumnus of Azhar University, batch 1977. She is currently a faculty member of the MSU Medical Faculty and speciaises in primary care medicine. Many of us were curious as to why she was in Egypt at that particular time. Was she attending a conference? Was she visiting a son or daughter studying in Egypt? According to Hazian, “I travel alone as I don’t want other travellers “fears and high expectations” to distract. I usually travel like a local for “cultural immersion”. Some of us wondered if it was safe to travel alone. Hazian says, “ Yes, it is safe to travel in Egypt even alone
There are several Airbnbs for ladies only and we can always hire local guides”. She shares some of her experiences here as she revisits Egypt.
In the seventies, Cairo International Airport consisted of arrival and departure halls, a transit hall and two runways with a capacity of five million passengers a year. It was a chaotic and highly disorganised place. Currently, the new airport serves more than 20 million passengers per year. According to Hazian, “ we do not need a visa for a stay of 15 days or less in Egypt. The airport is modern and run professionally. No hassling. Passport clearance on entry and exit was very smooth and quick. From the airport, I hired a car to take me to Mansourah. It cost LE600 or RM150. At that time, it was Eid Al Fitr and all the shops were closed for 1 week.
The roads were wide, some with tolls (esp the highways with 4 lanes) and the weather during my visit was great…cool, dry, very sunny. In fact, the whole place looked much cleaner than I remembered when I left Egypt in 1985…but zibalah is still all over the place and some villages still remain the same
Hello Mansourah
There are lots of new buildings. Mansourah is modern…everything in 1 Utama is there except Korean food.The university is big and the Corniche by the Nile is very nice. There are many shawarma shops run mostly by Syrians although I mainly ate the various cheeses and ta’miyah.”
Yet the more things change, the more they seem the same. The villages still look familiar but as Hazian says: ” I like Egypt now compared to my time. People are nicer…. no more haggling with taxi drivers, or bakshish
Cairo revisited
In 1984, Aga Khan IV visited Cairo for a conference. From his hotel balcony; Al-Darassa hill was visible: mounts of wreckage and ruins amassed during 500 years. He decided to intervene and offer that medieval area via the Historic Cities Support Programme the much-needed gift of an oasis in this urban desert. The sum of 30 million US dollars was allocated to the project and put in the qualified hand of a local architecture and urbanism office. This urban oasis was definitely not there in the seventies. Hazian says “ I visited Al Azhar Garden in Cairo ( converted from 100 yr old rubbish dump). The garden is a green respite for Cairenes as everything else is brown.
Masr Gadid has all the fancy malls now. During my time, all we had was the supermarket chain, Awlad Raghab. There is also a Metro but I did not have the opportunity to try it.”
Nostalgia in Alexandria
According to Hazian, “Alexandria was also a nice place to visit but it was sad to see lots of abandoned buildings by the sea ( some say it’s due to shady politics and bad business at work). She added, “I visited the Alexandria library and the Citadel of Qaitbay too.” Sultan Qaitbey built this picturesque fortress during the 14th century to defend Alexandria from the advances of the Ottoman Empire. His efforts were in vain since the Ottomans took control of Egypt in 1512, but the fortress has remained, strategically located on a thin arm of land that extends out into Alexandria’s harbor from the corniche.
I had no opportunity to explore the Citadel during my time as a student, but this time, I spent four hours walking around and hired a boat to go around it. I also noticed that taxis from my time are still in use. In fact my driver used a 1979 Mercs for travelling….no aircon ..but it was a comfortable ride nevertheless.
There are so many specialised hospitals in Alexandria. No wonder Alex grads are accepted to work in Ireland. There are hospitals dedicated to Emergency Medicine, Maternal, Urology, etc all under the auspices of Alexandria University. “
As fellow Alexandria student Fuziah says, “she doesn’t remember if there was an Alex hospital during their student days. All she remembers is Hospital Shatby. Meanwhile, Hayati also a fellow Alexandria student says,”there is no general hospital. All are specialist hospitals. I’ve been back to Alex 4 times already and still feel like going again.”
So what's next?
It looks like many people are homesick for Alexandria and want to visit it again. So what’s next? Well the ever adventurous Hazian has an idea….” InsyaAllah …when I can get 2 weeks off…(most likely bila pencen in 2025)… we can travel…in the meantime prepare for self directed travelling.
The outcome will be a book about seniors travelling independently, written by each traveller….to showcase active aging… a chapter written by each of us to balance the many travel books by young Malaysians nowadays..
Insya Allah, may your dream become a reality, my dear sister Hazian.