Ahlan Wa Sahlan

Ahlan Wa Sahlan

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Riding ze microbusses

Amnesiac just posted a blog in which she described a ride in a microbus.

As well as being an absolutely hilarious read it is the closest example I have found written down of what it is like to ride in one:

. . .we rejoined a motorway which cuts its way through the moon-like topography of the Beni Suef desert and raced along to a stirring soundtrack of Sha3by and chillout music recorded off Nogoum FM. The driver was as usual a 22 year-old who looked like he had just imbibed Colombia’s entire annual Cocaine production and who drove accordingly. We came so close to the bumper of vehicles that I could probably have counted the driver’s nasal hair in his rear view mirror if it wasn’t for the sudden velocity with which our microbus driver veered out from behind the car in front and overtook it.

I am not of a nervous disposition when it comes to driving at breakneck speed with boy racers but did experience a slight heart flutter when the microbus threatened to veer off the road at 100 km an hour when the driver fumbled with the cassette player, or when he spurned the steering wheel and expressed his disgust at something by clapping his hands together for what seemed like 89 hours.


Check out her blog, she works as a journalist in Cairo and talks about some of the more serious political rumblings of today's Egypt.

2 comments:

Ibn ad Dunya said...

Thanks for the tip, Molly! Really liked the story about Umm wa Abu Tamer, and macaroni bechamel is indeed the heaviest cassarole known to mankind. Made me smile!

Molly said...

I'm glad it did. I had to write it, ya'ani is the funniest word ever for the amount its used.

ya'ani, you hear it everywhere.