Taxis

I could not fully explain my experience in Egypt without sharing some of the many taxi stories I have acquired. While there were microbuses to use as public transportation, none ran from my place all the way into the city. So I often ended up using taxicabs to get into Alexandria, and then I walked around once I had arrived in the city. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the taxis in Egypt are not metered, so after hailing a cab, I had to tell the driver where I wanted to go and negotiate a price. The negotiation itself was always interesting, and there were so many cabs that if a driver wouldn’t lower his price, I let him go and hailed another. Sometimes, a local person would offer to help me hail a cab. I never said no to that, since they seemed to magically get a lower price every time for me. Almost every time that a taxi driver smoked, he asked beforehand if I were okay with that (which I was) and offered me a cigarette (which I declined). They also often asked me if the music were okay and checked whether I wanted the windows up or down. I always appreciated their consideration. One driver even stopped for a snack and then offered half of it to me (which I also declined).

I had many little adventures with taxis. A relatively common situation would be that I would say a place, we’d find a price, I’d get in, and five minutes into the ride the driver would try to ask me where I wanted to go again. And of course, he’d ask in Arabic and I couldn’t respond. This first happened during my first weekend in Cairo before going to Alexandria. I wanted to go from my hotel to the train station to buy a ticket to Alexandria for the next day. I walked to the main road, hailed a cab, and told him the name of the train station. He didn’t get the word ‘train,’ but he repeated the station’s name and nodded, so off we went. Then, he started trying to speak to me, clearly trying to figure out where I meant. I realized that the name of the station was a neighborhood, and he didn’t know I wanted to go to the train station. Finally, he pulled over and started talking to a guy on the street. Said guy asked me where I wanted to go in English, I told him, and he explained to the driver. Then, the guy got in the front seat and off we went. We had a nice little conversation, and the guy got out at a bus stop nearby. It turns out that drivers are likely to get two different fares at once if one is on the way to the other. Some also won’t tell me if they don’t fully understand where I want to go. Because of this, many taxi rides were quite adventures. I started figuring out tricks, like asking someone on the street to interpret. In Alexandria, I almost always got dropped off at the Saad Zaghloul Square downtown, and I just walked to wherever I wanted to go from there.

Statue of Saad Zaghloul

Saad Zaghloul Square

I always had to confirm that they had change for my bills before I got in, although some could get change from a store nearby or another driver if necessary. One time, I only had a 200 Egyptian Pound bill with me in Alexandria, and I knew no driver would break a 200. But I had to get home, so I decided to buy a cheap pair of sunglasses, since the man selling them would be willing to break the bill in order to make the sale. My sunglasses were wearing out quickly, so I needed a new pair anyway!

My favorite taxi adventure happened when I had to go to the diving place the first time in Alexandria. I had been given the name, but I couldn’t find it on Google Maps and I had a feeling no taxi driver would know what I meant. I decided to get to the main square and walk into the nearby hotel, so that I could ask the concierge to call a cab, and the English-and-Arabic-speaking concierge could explain where I wanted to go.

Hotel Sofitel Cecil in Alexandria,
a beautiful downtown hotel
with helpful concierges! 

The concierge called a taxi driver who, throughout my whole time in Egypt, was the best English speaking taxi driver I had. The driver and I had a great conversation as we went to the dive center (well, we went to the wrong one, but I called the center and it was right next-door, so no worries). A week later, when at the Library of Alexandria, I tried to go into the building but was told I had to buy a ticket. I turned around and there was the same driver! He was dropping off a British couple staying at that hotel. Apparently, he stays near the main square and often is called by the hotel to transport its guests. So the driver then walked me over to the ticket place, explained about having to check my purse (but to put my money/camera/passport in my pockets to take in), and then said goodbye. He was very helpful, because I had no idea the ticket booth was in a separate building not visible from the main entrance. Flash forward three days, and I was standing on the sidewalk on a road near the main square, and my taxi driver friend walked by! He just said hi and kept going. Finally, on the day I left Alexandria, I walked into the airport and was a bit confused, because you have to go through security in order to get to the ticket counter. Since I hadn’t printed out my ticket, I was worried they wouldn’t let me through. I wandered around a bit trying to find an information desk or something, and there, once again, was the taxi driver, who was dropping someone off at the airport and had walked them in. He pointed out the line and said it was fine to go through with no ticket, and that I could just show my passport and say where I was going. It was so random that in the second-biggest city in Egypt I ran into this driver four separate times. He was always so friendly and helpful—definitely my favorite taxi driver.

Another thing that worried me about the taxis is that they often don’t use their trunks, so I had all my belongings siting on the roof of a few different taxis, held down by some frayed twine (or, in one case, bungee-cord). Because of this, I had visions of my bags falling off and being run over. By the end of my time in Egypt, though, I had adopted a what-will-be-will-be mentality, and stopped stressing about my stuff on the roof.

Finally, what I found most exciting about my taxi adventures was the fact that street laws were very, very lax. I mean, I’ve been in countries with intense traffic and driving before, but never have I been in a car that backed up a one-way ramp with cars coming down it at the same time. This happened twice in Egypt. Also, on the main highway in Alexandria that runs along the water, my driver has had to pass on the right a horse-drawn cart filled with fruit, the hose cantering down the highway in the fast lane. We’ve dodged quite a few people, too. (Conversely, as a pedestrian I’ve dodged quite a few taxis in Egypt).  While at first the fact that there would be five cars across on a three lane road or the intense speed-and-then-stop situations stressed me out, I later learned to just sit back and enjoy the view. The driving might be a little scary, but I never saw car crashes, so it always worked out.

These are just a few of my stories from taxi rides in Egypt. Needless to say, getting to places was never boring for me!

~Kristine