Why Egypt is Cool – Part 1:

Everyone delivers
I just had McDonald’s delivered to my house for dinner. I can phone up a local grocer, give them a list of items that I want, and they’ll deliver them! No shopping necessary! Not feeling well? No problem, I can call up the local pharmacy and have them deliver some medication for me.

It is socially acceptable to pick your nose/butt in public
Okay, I don’t know exactly how ‘acceptable’ it is to do these things, but I see quite a few people doing them in public each and every day!

No taxes, no set prices
Technically, there isn’t a sales tax for anything in Egypt (at least not that I know of). When you buy groceries, you pay the exact price of the items listed, no extra percentage for taxes. However, many restaurants add their own ‘service tax’ to the bill which generally ranges from 5% to 15% (in those cases, you tip the server a minimal amount). Aside from restaurants and grocery stores and such, most shops or services do not have set prices. This means that you can barter and haggle with the shopkeeper until you find a price that you are both pleased with. This can be quite fun to do, and is also rewarding when you succeed. Sometimes I haggle over things just for the fun of it, even when I’m not interested in buying anything. On the downside, sometimes you can get ripped off if you are unaware of the value of something, or if you are not aggressive enough with your bartering.

No rules in traffic
Sometimes there are lines on the road suggesting the possibility of there being lanes. But nobody cares! A general rule of thumb is: where two lanes are marked out, three lanes are permitted. Sometimes even four (depending on the size of the vehicles and whether or not they have side-mirrors). Sometimes there are roads that are only for one way traffic, but it is not uncommon, nor even bad etiquette (so it seems), to drive the wrong way down these roads if it is convenient for the driver. A single lane road with traffic going both directions does not mean that passing is not permitted. Oncoming traffic on a single lane road also does not entail that passing is not permitted. Cars don’t have to pass a safety test (from the looks of it, at least), civilian cars are allowed to have lights and sirens to their heart’s content, and headlights are only for amateurs. I could talk all day about the hilarity of traffic in Egypt, but let’s move on.

Public drunkenness is not acceptable, but public urination is
A few students at a local high school were arrested last month for public drunkenness, yet daily I see people casually peeing wherever it is convenient for them. For being such a ‘conservative’ culture I would think men would shield themselves a little better while peeing. I won’t go into any more details about that.

Things are cheap
This is true. In Canada it costs around $1.50 to mail a letter to Egypt. It costs me 1.50LE (Egyptian Pounds) to mail a letter to Canada. An Egyptian Pound is worth roughly 1/5 of a Canadian dollar. A taxi ride here costs between two pounds for a couple minutes, or fifty pounds for anywhere in Cairo ($0.40-$10). The most expensive pair of jeans I’ve seen are $20. The average restaurant meal I eat costs roughly $5 or $6. Gas costs about $0.20 a litre.