The Art of Non-Conformity: Unconventional Strategies for Life, Work, and Travel

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Live from Seattle

I went to Egypt and Sri Lanka this month, but I’m now resettled back in my home city – and I expect to be here until mid-December. It’s nice to stay in one place every so often.

Each month I look back at what’s happened with ChrisGuillebeau.com in the previous month. If you’ve missed some articles, you can catch up here.

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Colombo by Night — Image by Dimitri

I’m sitting in a hotel lobby in Colombo, Sri Lanka, listening to the cover band play Lionel Ritchie from the back of a wedding reception where I’m obviously an outside observer. Sipping a 12-ounce Heineken I bought at the gas station across the street, I reflect on the last two weeks.

The final trip of the year.

And also, my 100th country. How did I come this far?

Before I can fully consider the question, we have a brief diversion as the band segues into a toast for the bride and groom — or so I presume, since the bandleader is speaking Sinhala, the local language. I hear the word champagne and everyone stands with a glass in hand. I raise my Heineken can and smile. No one notices me, which I take to be a good sign.

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Image by Planetina

I came back into Seattle last night after two weeks traveling around the world. In the morning I went up to my local Starbucks, on 45th Street in Wallingford. These two corporate guys were sitting there, wearing suits and carrying briefcases.

In Seattle, you don’t see people dressed like that as much as you do in other cities. Over here, a shirt with a collar is considered “dressing up.”

As they were talking, one of them said, “Well, we should go. Time is money.”

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Image by CG

What can I tell you about Cairo, Egypt? To start with, there’s nothing average about it. Cairo is a city of highs and lows – high hassle, high history. High temperatures (98° every day I was there), high culture.

The hassle factor, unfortunately, can’t be easily diminished. Visiting there on a typical itinerary, you can expect to get annoyed (or even angry) several times a day with all of the people looking for business. The percentage of professional hustlers is especially high in Cairo, and they are amazingly multilingual – willing to extract your money in Arabic, English, French, German, and Spanish. There’s no way around this, and it can easily get on the nerves of any traveler.

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