[TaureanBull]

Earlier thought to post it in parenthood thread but after deliberation decided to post here so that anyone following this thread knows the problems faced here.

Joy : Blessed with a daughter on 14 Oct.

Anxiety : I need passport for her. The suggested sequence of action - obtain birth certificate from hospital, birth certificate from Health Office (registration), birth certificate from Consular Section, Indian Embassy, apply for passport.

Frustration :

Birth certificate from hospital obtained at the time of discharge. Today, started my journey for obtaining passport for my second princess.

@Health Office 1: A shabby safaiwala leads me to the office with extra enthusiasm. I know what he wants. Two pounds gone.

"Yes, sir all documents fine. But where is your marriage agreement?"

"Marriage agreement? We dont have such thing in India."

" Well, sir, its required for foreigners to prove the marriage."

"The passport corroborates us as husband-wife."

"Sorry sir its rule."

"Whats the other way round?"

"You can get a certificate from embassy on their letterhead stating both of you as couple."

"Fine enough. I will get back soon."

"I am sure sir" His looks tell me I am not likely to succeed soon.

The grinning safaiwala grins at the staircase and gets one pound.

After another two hours effort I have with me the necessary certificate.

@Health Office 2 :

The grinning safaiwala tries to lead me to office but meets stern and frustrated looks. Couple of pounds saved.

"Aahlan" (Welcome)

"Here is the certificate."

"Lekin sir, its in English I need in Arabic."

"What?" I should have known this one better.

"I will try to be back soon."

"Sure sir." Lets see looks.

The grinning safaiwala is grinning lesser but nevertheless is at the staircase. The looks does the job.

I get back after an hour with the Arabic copy.

The safaiwala ignores me and I like it.

@Health Office 3

"Yes, sir now its all fine."

"Whats this sir..name of child..Ji.???"

"You dont have a 'G' sound, its JEE..GEE..SHA"

"Well sir, will GEEGEESHA do?"

"ok" Can not help but its fine as in Embassy the name would be in English in the end.

"Whats your deen (religion)?"

"hindu"

"No sir, whats your deen (religion)?"

"Thats what I am telling you that I am Hindu. Same like Amitabh Bachchan. "

" Amitabh Bachchan is not muslim?"

"No he is Hindu."

He dials some phone.

"Is there some problem?"

"na'am (yes) sir"

"What?"

"We recognize only three religions in Egypt-Muslim, Masihi (Christian) and Yahudi (Jews)."

"What about others?"

"Who others?"

"Like me I am Hindu."

"You choose one of the three."

"What? You mean to say I change the religion of my child?"

"La (No) sir, when you go to Hind (India) change that."

"Helloo, I am not going to change the religion of my child for the silly reason that you dont recognize other religions."

"What can i do sir?"

"Well, just write others or leave it blank."

"Not possible sir. You have to choose one."

Argument follows. The head of the section is also of no help. They direct me to the Central Office.

@Central Office :

"Sir, we register the births which have taken place outside the country. you have to go back to the Health Office."

"But...."

"Sir, thats the procedure."

To Consular Section

"Yes they create such kind of problems."

"Have we taken any steps diplomatically."

"No"

"Well, what do I do now?"

"Take a certificate from embassy that the child is Hindu."

"Will the start recognizing Hinduism as religion?"

"Well, No."

"Then..? May be there are cases of people. Can you tell me what they did? Did they accept one of these religions for their child?"

"Yes, I will let you know. There were few cases of child birth here."

"What in case they dont give me the birth certificate?"

"Well..we will give you Indian Birth Certificate and passport in that case without their birth certificate"

You must be joking man.

"Then why are you making do all this?"

"Its better to have the Egyptian birth certificate too."

Wow! So I am in the same situation as I started. Lets see what happens after we dig up old cases of child births.

Any suggestions guys?

[MohsinRoadster]

I can imagine your frustration .. Good luck dude..

[aargee]

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

"Marriage agreement? We dont have such thing in India."

Well, there's one called as marriage certificate

Originally Posted by TaureanBull

Any suggestions guys?

Well, this man made religion is become a big nuisance!!!

How about your passports? That should have endorsement on the spouse column right? Is it not possible to argue something based on that? IMO, you can avoid the bakseesh over there & get something done, come back to India & you can get things changed here easily. But practically speaking, one has to accept the reality as Egypt is not our country & we cannot expect that Islamic country (not secular) to accept Hinduism.

PS - You've used 3 smileys against the forum rule of 2 per post.

[TaureanBull]

Originally Posted by aargee

Well, there's one called as marriage certificate

I know that. But they recognise only the marriage agreements. People here just can not imagine how a marriage can place without an agreement. The agreement is registered. The most important inclusion is the brides right over material goods and property etc in case of a divorce.

Originally Posted by aargee

How about your passports? That should have endorsement on the spouse column right? Is it not possible to argue something based on that? IMO, you can avoid the bakseesh over there & get something done, come back to India & you can get things changed here easily. But practically speaking, one has to accept the reality as Egypt is not our country & we cannot expect that Islamic country (not secular) to accept Hinduism.

PS - You've used 3 smileys against the forum rule of 2 per post.

The entire thing is about passport. They will issue new/endorse after they receive the birth certificate. I dont intend to seek Egyptian nationality for my child. Well, baksheesh wont work here. Baksheesh is different from bribe. Whatever bribe is there which I hear is pretty much existent does not work in some situations/conditions.

I would be careful about the smileys.

[TaureanBull]

How do you celebrate Diwali in Egypt? Well you can not do much except that you entertain yourself. So did we. Thankfully Diwali fell on Friday so it was a holiday else it could well have been a working day!

Well, MIL was here to help us out for the new baby. Its about time for her to leave. So all occasions pointed to some outing.

We homed on to a dinner cruise in Nile. Its a small ship with normally two decks of restaurants and a a deck. Normally each restaurant carries about 80-90 persons. In the centre of the seating arrangement is a small stage for the various performances viz Tanura Show and Belly Dancing Show. The buffet is served after shows. The ship sails all this time. Duration : 2hours. Two sets each night. Number of options available. Spread all over Nile.

I booked through Abbas (he has become a close tour operator; story about this will unfold sometime later this week ). Home pick up and drop.

Not too many pics and not of desired quality as you all would appreciate I have to look after two kids, see the programme, converse with people and manage the cam. My family travels with me wherever I go .

[TaureanBull]

Ok guys to begin with, there would be lot of action this month. I leave you with two pics and I retire after a hectic day. I have office tomorrow.

[Dragonov]

@ TaureanBull - Happy Diwali and what way to spend Diwali celebrations on the river nile!! Glad that our fellow brethren had a good time

[TaureanBull]

The show started at dot 730PM. We had entered about 15 mins before and occupied our seats after spending 5 mins on the deck.





A Souvenir shop on the deck.



The ship set to sail after 20 mins of the show. The windows were large and view was good.

The show began with a dwarf performing. Point to note is that Dwarfs had a special place in the Pharaonic times and often held high posts.





It was followed by a Tanurra show. All of us were of the opinion that this was the steal of all the shows. An excellent performance by the artist. He knew the numbers in about 25 languages including Hindi and Tamil. BTW there were about 3-4 Indian families in our deck. This guys performed for about 20-25 mins. The music was traditional and very soothing. Video of Tanura show coming up..

[TaureanBull]

Finally, I succeeded in loading the Tanurra Dance movie. Its a HD movie and just a portion of the performance. The music was great and so was the performance. As I told before he was the guy who knew numbers in about 25 languages. He turns around continuously for about 10 mins at fast speed at the beginning of the performance. Normal guy would fall flat.

YouTube - Tanurra Dance

[TaureanBull]

Some pics with flash on of the Tanurra show.





The Tanurra Show was followed by the most talked about belly dancing show. The belly dancing show has become more of skin show. People may have reservations about watching such shows with grown up kids and parents. The classic belly dancing is gone. No wonder that it was less appreciated and people were really quite. My wife was very keen on reading my interest in the show. I passed the test with flying colours. I was least interested in the show frankly but you know its really difficult to maintain that disinterested look. I am sure some guys will understand this situation.







The lady was back after a break of 15 mins with dress changed. This one was an absurd show with some Egyptian song playing and she trying to balance the stick on her breasts. She even drags few of the ladies on floor to try out their skills.

[TaureanBull]

After the night's effort I have been able to load the Belly Dancing video. Its not the entire show but a part of it.

YouTube - Belly Dance

[blackasta]

Nice travelogue - reminds me of my Egypt tour in 2006 (we visited Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Abu simbel, Alexandria - all in 5 days!).
Regarding the birth certificate fiasco - Wonder who developed such brainiac rules.

[TaureanBull]

Originally Posted by blackasta

Nice travelogue - reminds me of my Egypt tour in 2006 (we visited Cairo, Luxor, Aswan, Abu simbel, Alexandria - all in 5 days!).
Regarding the birth certificate fiasco - Wonder who developed such brainiac rules.

Thanks a lot. I am sure it must have been a hush hush affair in 5 days. The place demands more time. But its so difficult to find out time from our busy schedules.

Well, its the Egyptian government. I am close to getting the Birth Certificate. Lets hope so.

Yesterday, again in the Health Office one Lady asked me "Whats your religion? (reading my papers)"

"Hindu"

"No, I mean to ask if you are Christian or Muslim?"

Conveniently they even leave out Jews too. Third recognized religion as there are n't many here.

[TaureanBull]

The show was for about 1 hour and 15 mins. The tourists were guided to the buffet table by table. The food had reasonable variety. Continental, Chinese, Egyptian etc. Food was just about average. Too much oil and blend. After dinner people moved to deck to take fresh air.

Exactly after two hours the Ship docked back at the original place. In the restaurant decks people were busy in preparing to receive the next set of tourists.

Tips

1. If you are on a budget, (IMO even if you are not), the drinks on board are a total rip off. You have to pay for a 1ltr water bottle 20 LE (approx Rs 175/-) which is outside available for 2LE. And similar for other drinks as well. So, be careful as drinks are not included in the Dinner. They are a big money spinner for cruise operators.

2. The performers move around the tables during show. There is a cameraman clicking shots. I thought he is a crazy tourist or a press reporter. But to my surprise well before dinner finished he was there with your pics with the performers in a nice envelope. Price per pic : $5/- Quality just average. Its not a compulsion to buy.

3. Get on board well in time and select a table near to centre and window side so that you get best of both the views.

[TaureanBull]

While coming back from the Dinner cruise tried to catch the Qala'a and Cairo Tower in evening beauty. Qala'a has been my favourite. It looks awesome in the lighting.