Metropolis

The world is big... and has a lot of people. You know that of course - but it's hard to understand just what that means. Now, looking out the window from the plane as it descends you start to understand.

Cairo stretches as far as the eye can see... a dry patchwork of apartment buildings jostled together crawling slowly out into the desert. Eighteen million people in one city.. twice the population of Sweden compressed into just one town. We will stay in the part that looks like any other city... an international hotel, with marble foyer, fountains and pool in a well-to-do district. But this is not Cairo.

Cairo starts beyond the barrriers, the bollards and the security guard, out on the street. Follow the raod and soon it's busy, dusty and full of people.. cars heading all ways, a jostling mass packing the roads, filling the air with the sounds of motor horns. Old Ladas and nearly new Mitsubishis... Vans loaded high with hay, or cauliflowers, a pickup with two camels.. a lorry load of cows, standing tethered, looking balefuly over the side. A mini-bus, with people hanging out the door, pushing for space in the the throng. Inquisitive faces staring up at the tourists looking back.

Cairo is the forest of satellite dishes atop the crush of crude apartment blocks.. where the dark unpaved alleys lead off between. Emaciated donkeys pulling a tired old cart.. Stately mosques overshadowed by the modern sprawl.. and the megaphonic call to prayer.

But maybe this is also Cairo.. where the night skyline is broken by the neon graffitti - Hyatt, Marriott and the rest declaring - this is my turf now..