Bombay vs Cairo - The Showdown

For once, I'm doing a travel wrap-up post relatively on time! As always, for funsies, we're going to do it in a VH1 celebrity show down format. For consistency, rounds have been kept similar to Bangkok and Singapore rounds. Quiz : guess which one's Bombay?

Round 1: The streets
Despite the 3rd world and the lack of public garbage cans, Cairo's streets win, albeit just barely, on higher prevalence of proper sidewalks and surprisingly small amount of street waste.

Round 2: The food
Egyptian food is delicious, even if the pigeon didn't quite live-up to my expectation of a quail-esque foul. Having too hard a time deciding on this one--I think I'll have to give it a tie for now.

Round 3: The traffic
Cairo traffic is very similar to Bombay traffic; despite the many fly-overs, the streets are as crowded as ever and the traffic snail-paced as always. This one is not even worth splitting hairs. They both suck in this regard, so let's just call it a tie.

Round 4: The taxis (wouldn't be a Repat journey urban competition without this round)
While Cairo taxis do have a higher incidence of A/C and pleasant, intriguing fragrances, Cairo loses this round handily because of the constant need to barter each fare. Trust me, it gets super frustrating and horrendously time consuming as soon as the novelty wears off.

Round 5: Being able to travel in piece
Egypt is notoriously difficult to travel in. You're constantly being hawked items that you don't need but have to bargain aggressively for the bare necessities (e.g. bottled water, sunblock, exotic arab headdress). While the fantastic monuments more than make up for the hassle, Cairo still loses this round of urban showdown.

Bombay wins this time around (2-1-2), but just by a nose. This is the most serious threat to Mumbai yet--the city better watch-out: Hong Kong is coming up next. Meanwhile, my friend Amelia has diligently compiled lots of pictures from Cairo that can be seen on facebook.