Just outside the Museum, I saw an elderly person selling some souvenirs. He was really old, and he was speaking in broken English. He pleaded us to buy some fake papyrus souvenirs. Omar strongly advised us not to buy anything from street vendors, as they sell counterfeit and non-durable goods. I felt bad for the elderly person. He was wearing spectacles and was literally begging us to buy something from him stating "I will give you the best deal". As far as I remember, he offered three different prices within the brief span of time, but still we didn't buy anything from him.
On our way back, we stopped in a Cartouche shop. A Cartouche is basically a gold or silver made ornament that one can tuck around his neck using a chain. The specialty of this ornament is that the sellers will engrave your name in Hieroglyphics on them. I was tempted to get one, but due to time constraint and somewhat high price, I opted against it.
We soon came back to the hotel. It was almost time for dinner. We went upstairs, freshened up and came down to “Cucina”, the hotel’s Italian restaurant for having our dinner.
I assumed “Cucina” means cuisine in Italian. But assumptions regarding a foreign language should not come true in a non-fantasy world; and hence I found out that it means kitchen.
At the entrance of the restaurant, we found a smiling Italian lady. She ushered us inside the restaurant and we settled down in a large table, at the north-eastern side of the restaurant. I’ve dined in Italian themed restaurants before, but none of them succeeded much in creating the true ambience. I haven’t been to Italy, but Cucina surely was all “Italian”. You can see the chefs tossing pizza dough in the air and applying tomato paste and other ingredients on the circularly succulent unbaked pizzas. Yeah, even the unbaked ones looked juicy and palatable.
If the partial view of the kitchen was a treat, the presence of a minstrel was the suddenly-surprisingly-declared-unexpected-mid-year-bonus. The minstrel was playing different Spanish, Italian and English songs using an acoustic guitar. He was a jolly good fellow. He was going from table to table and asking the occupants which song they wanted to hear. He had black hair and black eyes, and a matching black moustache. He was wearing a vest, an unimpressive shirt and jeans. He reminded me a bit of Carlos Santana. He had a powerful voice, and he had that Italian accent. The usher and the waiters also had that accent. Italian and Spanish culture always fascinates me. Though I haven’t yet tried Spanish food, I am sure I will like it; and by now you must have figured it out that I am a big fan of Italian food.
A tall, dull looking waiter came to take our order. We had to repeat the order multiple times until he finally managed to write them down. He was so busy being happy and smiling that he was seemingly neglecting his core job of taking the orders. But I guess it wasn’t that bad. A smiling and casual waiter is better than a serious and gloomy waiter. The whole restaurant actually had a casual theme. People came there for spending long hours eating, listening and smoking. Cucina was anything but a place to get a quick bite and leave. You go there only if you wanted to unwind and spend quality time with acquaintances. One of my colleagues got a bit impatient, but I was having fun watching the waiter trying to spread the happiness.
We ordered tomato soup, beef pizza, salad and pasta. When we were almost dying out of starvation, the soup arrived. By then our host was getting really impatient, and he even suggested that we move to another restaurant. However, all ill feelings vanished as soon as the hot soup reached the neck for the first time. The tomato soup was so good that thinking about it still makes me salivate. It was boiling red, and small bread crumbs were floating in within. It also had cream, which effectively makes it a “Cream of Tomato” soup. Soon the pizza, salad and pasta were served, and we indulged in to the purest form of gluttony.
I don’t think I talked much till the food was almost finished. The host offered us wine and hard drinks, but we declined. At that time, the singer came to our table, and asked us where we are from. To my personal delight, he pronounced Bangladesh as Bangladesh, not beng-lah-dehsh or any other weird pronunciation. He recognized our country as the one beside India, and asked us which song we wanted to listen to. Someone suggested La-Bamba, to which he gladly nodded. He asked us again to reconfirm our choice. But before he started, another of us suggested Hotel California, and the minstrel delightedly started playing the song without much ado. It was obvious that he liked the song.
He sang his own personalized version of the song, which kept true to the original song, but also displayed the powerful voice of the Italian minstrel. For almost 7-8 minutes, we remained awe struck. We were mesmerized bye the tune, and soon we were singing along. Suddenly he stopped singing, but I kept on singing. I am no public singer, and I got a bit embarrassed when I realized that my voice was no longer being hidden behind the powerful voice of the expert singer. With a flick of his eyes, he encouraged me to “go on” and I finished the stanza without difficulty. The whole restaurant got caught by the lively performance, and I noticed others gazing at us. His name was Paulo, and he was a regular singer for Cucina. I wish I chatted with him for some more time. Maybe I could become his friend, or maybe he could have taught me how to sing and play. But ah well, that wasn’t meant to be.
After the dinner, we decided to take a hike around the hotel premises. The hotel was truly majestic. There is another Marriot hotel in Cairo, which is in the heart of the city. It is very close to the river Nile. However, we were staying in JW Marriot, which is more of a resort than a hotel. There is a huge swimming pool, and an artificial beach in side the hotel. Beside the beach, there’s a community center, where marriages, birthdays and other cultural programs are held. There are also many shops, restaurants and other important establishments inside the hotel. If you have a lot of money, you can live your life in the hotel and not miss much of the outside world. There are at least five different thematic restaurants in the hotel; Cucina being one of the prominent ones.
We were lucky that night. A traditional Egyptian wedding was being hosted in the poolside.
We were standing on the bridge and from above, we caught a glimpse of the musicians down below. They were playing some traditional tunes, and it only felt right for us to pause and enjoy the ambient music. It was almost 10 PM Egyptian time. By then, our body clocks got kind of adjusted to the time lag, and thus although it was 1 AM at Dhaka, I didn’t feel sleepy at all. Suddenly, a woman who I thought needed to lose a few pounds to be qualified as a dancer came up and started belly dancing. I’ve heard a lot about Cairo’s famous belly dancers and I was sure she was not one of the best looking ones. However, she was good at what she was doing, and she performed for almost 15 minutes or so without missing a single beat. It was a treat for the eyes, but in a nice way. There was nothing vulgar or obnoxious about the dance. Men, women and children alike were enjoying the show. The lady asked a guy from within the guests to join her. I passionately gazed to find any sign of reluctance or disturbance in the guy’s wife, but she seemed very comfortable with the idea of her husband dancing with a belly dancer. The guy finished the dance with numerous claps and accolades.
Finally they paused dancing, and the guests went up to grab their plates. By then, one colleague of mine was pulling us relentlessly to call it a day and to hit the sack. I knew that the next day would be tough one. We had a whole day conference in our hand, and there will be little rest in between. We also had plans for the evening. So I came back to my room, took a shower, drained down the day’s tiredness and went off to bed.
I never dreamed that the first day would be so eventful! It took me a while to fall asleep, but the day’s sweet memories kept me happy until I fell asleep.
