To answer Lauralea
Lauralea left a comment for me asking what it like to triathlon train in Middle East, and specifically Egypt. I can only speak from my point of view, but I think it will give you a pretty good idea about what it is like here.
The first thing you need to understand is the Egypt you see as a tourist is not the same Egypt you see when you live here. The tourist areas can be a lot of fun, but you are looked at differently than the areas where you may reside and unfortunately there are women who come here as tourists who give locals the wrong idea about what Western women are generally like.
If you lived here, you would most likely live in an area calle Maadi. In Maadi there are roughly 30 ooo expats so although you are still the minority, you are not the novelty you might think. In this area there is a running club that meets every Friday morning and sometimes Saturday morning. This group is made up mostly of ex-pats and has a lot of fun with a couple events at the end of their calendars to work towards. Also on Friday morning there is a great cycling club that meets year round. Now the traffic is horrendous in Egypt, but luckily it is not too bad on Friday mornings and we have several routes that are very safe with good roads. Swimming depends on what 'club' you belong to or if you can get access to one of the school pools (CAC is in the heart of Maadi and has a nice pool). The triathlon/cycling/running community here is very tight and very supportive of each other. There are a number of events held each year some organized by the ex-pats and some organized by Event Sports, an Egyptian Organization. In addition to the above mentioned areas, there is an area outside of Maadi called Wadi (valley) Degla which is a great out of the way place to run and hike and has some AMAZING mountainbiking.
For the most part you can train in peace provided you avoid downtown and a few of the areas less frequented by foriegners. You will always attract some attention but it is usually harmless and not too intrusive. There are many women here involved in the running/cycling/triathlon and they seem to cope fine although some choose to always train with a partner. More for their own peace of mind than safety.
Hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can help in any way.
Lauralea left a comment for me asking what it like to triathlon train in Middle East, and specifically Egypt. I can only speak from my point of view, but I think it will give you a pretty good idea about what it is like here.
The first thing you need to understand is the Egypt you see as a tourist is not the same Egypt you see when you live here. The tourist areas can be a lot of fun, but you are looked at differently than the areas where you may reside and unfortunately there are women who come here as tourists who give locals the wrong idea about what Western women are generally like.
If you lived here, you would most likely live in an area calle Maadi. In Maadi there are roughly 30 ooo expats so although you are still the minority, you are not the novelty you might think. In this area there is a running club that meets every Friday morning and sometimes Saturday morning. This group is made up mostly of ex-pats and has a lot of fun with a couple events at the end of their calendars to work towards. Also on Friday morning there is a great cycling club that meets year round. Now the traffic is horrendous in Egypt, but luckily it is not too bad on Friday mornings and we have several routes that are very safe with good roads. Swimming depends on what 'club' you belong to or if you can get access to one of the school pools (CAC is in the heart of Maadi and has a nice pool). The triathlon/cycling/running community here is very tight and very supportive of each other. There are a number of events held each year some organized by the ex-pats and some organized by Event Sports, an Egyptian Organization. In addition to the above mentioned areas, there is an area outside of Maadi called Wadi (valley) Degla which is a great out of the way place to run and hike and has some AMAZING mountainbiking.
For the most part you can train in peace provided you avoid downtown and a few of the areas less frequented by foriegners. You will always attract some attention but it is usually harmless and not too intrusive. There are many women here involved in the running/cycling/triathlon and they seem to cope fine although some choose to always train with a partner. More for their own peace of mind than safety.
Hope this answers your questions. Let me know if I can help in any way.
posted by Brawn of the Oasis at 1:05 PM
1 Comments:
Well, that definitely clarifies a lot of things for me. When I lived in Jordan I wasn't living in the ex-patriot community (I was actually in the heart of Amman near the university) so it would have been pretty taboo for me to go outside to exercise.
It's nice to get a different perspective because of that. As an anthropologist I'm always concerned with offending the surrounding community but it's great that there's such a large ex-patriot community in Egypt and that the Egyptians respect the differences.
Thanks for the insights!
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