February 9, 2000 Cairo, Egypt - Pension Roma Sharon's flight to Cairo arrived an hour before mine at a different terminal. She said that terminal two, which is where most of the foreigners land, was much harder to get around without being hounded by way over priced taxi drivers. We negotiated a fee of 25 pounds down from 40 which took us across cairo to our hotel. Exchange rate is 3.5 Egyptian pounds = US$1 We checked into our hotel which Sharon had picked out of a guide book. We had made reservation by FAX two weeks earlier. It was a nice place, with good value and a lot of character for a traveller. Looks like the building was designed to English styles around the turn of the century. Our room had hard wood floors, that looked like pine. I don't remember having ever seen hardwood floors in Africa before. Our hotel was not located in a touristy area at all. Actually it's in a very busy clothes shopping area. The walls of the store next to our hotel are made of polished granite. I had been expecting a similar economic standard as Morocco. Egypt is doing a bit better. I don't see the same economic disparity as Nairobi has which makes it seem a bit safer, Being an muslim arab culture probably adds to the security on the street feel. For dinner, we stopped in an the equivalent of an Egyptian fast food restaurant. While nothing like a McDonald's or KFC of which there were both a couple blocks away, this place was fast, cheap and full of locals. They served two dishes in two different sizes, already dished out ready to be eaten before one entered the restaurant. The dish I had, called kushari, was a variety of cooked pasta noodles, and rice with lentils on top, and dried fried onions. On top of this I poured a spicy cooked tomato sauce. It was delicious. Sharon had what looked like a baked masticholi noodle dish with a meat tomato sauce on top. With a Sprite, each of our meals were still under a dollar, and good enough to go back for. There was a wonderful looking arabic pastry shop nearby, however they were so packed with customers, I decided not to bother now. It was one of those places where you tell the clerk what you want, go over to another counter to pay, and then walk back over to the first counter and collect your merchandise. First impressions of Egypt. While I still think the most obese people in the world are found in the US, This is a well fed country with a lot of scale tipping citizens. I have this theory that if woman didn't hide their figures in traditional draped cloth, then they might be more weight conscience, which then might influence men to do the same. The muslim drapes have eliminated the vanity incentive to stay fit... end of theory. It's cold here. Who would have thought? Sharon checked the temperatures on the web for Cairo before we left. Good thing. High of low 60's for the week, the low in the low 40's. Cairo is a big city. At 14 million people, it's bigger than Chicago. However, despite being well in the city, the next morning I did hear chickens crowing at 4:55am. Chicagoan long ago sacrificed chickens for a good morning sleep. Although with the mosques blaring chants at 5:00am, I suppose the chicken issue is moot. The 10 pound note looks a lot like the 1 pound note. The first day, twice I screwed up with this bill. Looking for a place to eat. On the English menu, Sharon spotted an exotic sounding dish which I wouldn't want to eat live. "cross ants"... February 10, 2000 Cairo, Egypt Under the effects of jet-lag, I was up at 3:00am ready to check out the pyramids and national museum. I stayed up and studied our guide books and worked on my journal. We bought our Egypt Air airline tickets to Luxor at one of the many Egypt Air offices in Cairo. While standing at a corner attempting to cross one of the many busy crossings necessary to get to the national museum, we were approached twice by friendly welcoming men. Both of them had said the museum is closed for lunch. Skeptical that a national museum would close for lunch, we didn't stick around to find out what they were after. Of course the museum doesn't close for lunch. Aside from poor labelling, and mediocre lighting, the national museum in Cairo was excellent primarily due to sheer quantity of interesting artifacts. The Tutankahmen (sp?) exhibit was extensive. There were many more Tut artifacts than I had remembered being shown at the Field Museum in Chicago back in the 70's. We only had time for a small portion of the museum. There are so many artifacts that I think this would require several days. Our guide book said that if we were to spend a minute at each artifact, it would take 9 months to view them all. Later that night, we went out to dinner at a place that Sharon found in the guide book that specialize in pigeons and kebabs. Unlike in New York or London where pigeons are the equivalent of a flying rat, in Morocco and Egypt they are condsidered a delicacy. I don't recall seeing any on the street which would lead be to guess that they come from a pigeon farm. Still I decided to hold on pigeon until we were at a more upscale restaurant. We both ordered kebabs. As Sharon and I were waiting for my food, I turned my head and found myself head to head with a toe headed French kid with two fingers up his nose silently eyeing my bread. His mother broke the silence and directed the ~9 year old to his seat at their table next to ours. Later Sharon could see him and his brother contorting their mouths around a glass attempting to drink the contents. Their mother turned to them and said "it's just water!" I hypothesized they must have been drinking from straws all of their young lives. The stereotyped cultured French myth long dispelled, this family didn't phase me. The restaurant had a television prominantly dispalyed for the dinner clientele to watch while they ate. Most of the clientele that night were foreignors who likely couldn't make sense of the blaring Arabic. The restaurant was well over staffed. Six waiters when they weren't servicing, would stand around staring at the television regardless of whether there was a soap opera or soccer coverage. A man who looked like he might be the restaurant manager walked up. Thinking that he might put an end to the loud distracting television, he stopped and stood along side the waiters staring into the boob tube watching the arabic soap opera. Depsite the hypnotic TV,the service was good. Sharon studying her arabic phrase book taught me the arabic word for breakfast cereal is "korn flakes" The arabic word for ground coffee is "Bunn" Feb 11, (West Bank of Luxor), Egypt - Marsam Hotel We woke up at 4;45am in preparation to catch our 6:30am flight to Luxor. The taxi driver who we had spoke to yesterday about the night time light show at the great pyramids was downstairs waiting for us. His being there now to drive us to the airport had been arranged by our hotel. Our friendly and courteous taxi driver told us to check out his pyramid light show. He flipped a switch, and behind our heads in the taxi car, three alabaster pyramids lit up modelling the great pyramids of Giza. We flew on Egypt Air Boeing 747-300 for the 52 minute flight. The huge plane was hardly full. We intended to take stay on the West bank of the Nile, and so negitiated a taxi to take us from the airport to the ferry launch. Sign posts along the road in English, likely put up by a local Luxor tourist board read saying like: "You are lucky to be in Luxor" "Smile you are in Luxor" "You are in the motherland of civilization" We took the public ferry across the Nile which seems to go every 10-15 minutes, and costs EL1 each ($.29). On the West bank, we negotiated a fare with another taxi driver to take us to our hotel. There was a running marathon in progress with participants from many countries throughout the world. We drove along the route for 5km. Our taxi driver saw a foreigner power walking. He couldn't contain himself. He thought this power walker's waddling walk was hilarious. We stayed at the Marsam hotel, formerly the Chicago house hotel built by Americans in the 1920s to house Egyptologists. Now it's operated by an Austrian woman, Natasha, and the guests are still primarily Egyptologists. While we were there, there was a large group of Swiss Germans working on a dig next door (called ?). There was a group of Italian Egyptologists and a group of Belgians all working at seperate sights, but residing at the Marsam hotel. While the rooms were nothing special, they were very clean, quiet, and there was a wonderful courtyard shaded by trees. Breakfast was provided, and lunch and dinner was also served in the courtyard. The staff was very courteous, and the atmosphere was more of a family feel than anything else. I suppose the low turnover helps this. Egyptologists will stay here sometimes up to three months at a time. After checking in, we visited the tombs of the nobles In all cases, the tombs of the nobles were empty. They were human made caves into the rock hilside. Depending on the tomb, they typically had walls decorated with paintings of the proprietors life story, hieroglyphics carved or painted of excerpts from one of several Egyptian holy books. Almost always there were carvings or paintings of Egyptian gods. Many of the tombs are restored, and all of guard ticket taker standing outside. In the Valley of the nobles, a village is built around it. I think I saw a documentary where they called this the village of the robbers. It's name so becuase many of the homes in this village have secret tunnels where they work to find new tombs to loot. Some unrestored tombs in this valley lie abandoned with garbage filling them. tombs in the valley of the nobles we visited: Menna - The walls contained picture stories of the former inhabitants life. No hieroglyphics. The guard told us that only the kings had hieroglyphics in their tombs. However I quickly found this not to be true. Nakht- nothing but a hole in the ground except in the back... i.e. statue went down on a boat during WWI. Userhet drawings... hunting gazelles on his charriot and birds with his boomerang Khaemhet cool noble tomb.... no paintings, all carved... lots of hieroglyphics. wealthy noble... Ramosa cool tomb.... govenor of Thebes, carvings were raised...background carved away (bas-relief). tomb wasn't completed, because he converted faith in mid life. This was certainly the most impressive of tombs in the valley of the nobles. As we walked amongst the tombs of the nobles, a man came up to me selling a small blue ceramic god statue, the same kind that are commonly wrapped in mummies.... When I gave him an unexpected Indiana Jones response, "That should go in a museum...", he looked slightly embarrassed and walked away. If it was a fake antique, I'm sure he wouldn't have given up so easy. matutu cars with flashing color tracer lights... exclamation point. Note: These flies in Egypt behave differently than any I can remember. I think I could have honey, jam, sugar water or camel dung on a plate in front of me and I would bet these flies would still prefer to crawl on my skin and hair. It just occurred to me, that maybe they are seeking salt/sweat. However its so cold that I would imagine few recipients of their pestering are providing them with any. I find the best relief from them is when other people are in the area so that they evenly distribute their pestering. I found it uncomfortable to be the only fly magnet in the room when I was alone. Showers didn't help... :-) February 12, 2000 (West bank Luxor), Egypt We rented bicycles at the house next door to our hotel. I had thought we might just pay and go, or leave a deposit just like any normal rental transaction. Wrong. The bicycles were prepared, meanwhile we were invited to tea and bread. It became clear that having tea and bread was a necessary rental procedure. This socialization was meant as trust building thing needed for the owner. We had gotten a late start and were eager to get going. We readily accepted the offer as if we had a choice. Intending to gulp my cup when it came, I was thwarted. I suppose they're use to resistant foreigners gulping their tea and so prepared a special one for me, Our tea came delivered at 211 degrees. Not only that, it was served in a typical handleless Arab tea cup, which most westerners would call a juice glass, making it impossible for the impatient to pick up. Asking for a hot pad crossed my mind. We looked at their family album, talked about the Chicago house of which the proprietor here was once a contractor for and had many positive things to say of. Later two Dutch girls arrived wanting to rent bicycles. By then I had drank sufficiently enough, that Sharon and I decided to seize the opportunity to take off. The Dutch girls were making polite gestures to turn down the kind offers of tea and bread, but I knew that wouldn't go anywhere if they wanted those bikes for the day. Sharon and I rode off. My vehicle fit the description of a bicycle in that it had two wheels and something that looked like a handle bar for steering. They had fixed the rear flat tire that popped during my first test ride. If I turned the handle bar too quickly while riding, I found the handle bars would turn while the front wheel continued to point forward. While riding, I held the brake grips in place such that they wouldn't drift to some inconvenient place on the handle bars. They provided about as much braking power as the soles of my shoes might if I were to drag them on the pavement. Sharon's bike fared a bit better, however she felt uncomfortable standing on her peddles as if she might fall over the front. This made going up hill into the valley of the kings difficult, especially since the bikes were single gear. The ride up into the valley of the kings was a slow uphill ascent that on a good bike would not have been a problem. As it was, we found ourselves walking up the long slow ascent. When a tractor pulling a flat bed offered to take us the rest of the way for EL2, we threw our bikes on. Coming back was downhill, which would have been fun if I had brakes. On a positive note, Sharon never had to turn her head to know how far behind I was. The pedals on my bicycle squeaked at every revolution, so she could judge my distance by sound. Information for next time... the guide book says the quality of bicycles in the East bank of Luxor is much better. temples of valley of the kings... 7 temples 1) Ramses IX 2) Merneptah 3) Ramses III 4) Amenhotep II 5) Tuthmosis III 6) Seti II - high up, very hot... entrance was narrow, and walls were blank. Only the inner two chambers had markings on the wall . Quite different from the others in style. The glyphs looked like they could have been put up there last year. They looks liked they might have been drawn freehand, and with a large black magic marker. unknown mummy stored here. 7) Twasret/Sethnakt (#14) - best preserved pictures took photos of all the tombs in this valley. 8) hatpshepsut The plain clothed guards walked around hatshepsut guards with shotguns bas-relief carvings similar to Ramosa's, the governor of Thebes in the valley of the nobles, however Hatshepsut wasn't as deeply carved. The carvings of the fish and birds were more life like than any I had seen in any other tomb or temple. They were so well done that it was easy to pick the species of the fish or birds by the carving. Her face and kartoshe had been chiseled out. I think I read that this was done by her brother who suceeded her... The story goes that she ruled as a pharaoh, when that's normally a guys job. Her embittered brother attempted to erase her. Seeing the results of Ancient Egyptian thought and planning makes me wonder at seemingly obvious shortcomings. Current day Egyptologists theory on Egyptian belief of immortality requires people to remember ones name and that the mummy survive. Survival of the mummy over centuries is somewhat dependent on the seal of the tomb. Placing precious treasures in the tomb seems to be the best way of insuring that the seal will be broken over time by treasure seekers. Treassures like that of such a minor pharaoh as Tut make one wonder at the likes of Ramses II must have been like. Current thinking is that the tomb entrances were not hidden, but rather in plain view, which just seems even crazier to me. I must be missing something, or not understand the value of gold amongst the dead. Theory is that Tut's tomb was saved because the entrance had been filled in by debris from Ramses (6th?) which was built just above it. security through obscurity... Baksheesh - This culture lives on baksheesh (tips). While I like the fact that no one asks for something for nothing i.e. no beggars, the number of baksheesh seekers is astounding. Forget about altruistic deeds, My experience was that everyone expects a little something. The system is nice if embraced and one has lots of small currency. It can lead to a real souring experience if resisted. Armed with a wad of quarter pound, half pound and one pound notes (3.5=US$1), I was prepared to go into the tombs. In the Valley of the Nobles, an old man would stand outside and reflect the sun off a large mirror that would light up the tomb for us to clearly see. Of course he's not doing this for nothing. Usually a guard at each tomb would tell Sharon and I something semi-useful, hopefully true and want a tip. Sometimes, a guard would encourage us to take a non-flash photo in the tomb. Officially this privilege costs 5 pounds per tomb. The privilege of using a tripod costs 50 pounds, officially, but by tipping the guard, you can do it for a fractional dingdong. The official prices are so outrages, that I have no guilt about redirecting the money flow. The guards apparently get paid so low, that it seems baksheesh is factored into their salary. One time a guard didn't tear my ticket properly allowing me to visit an additional tomb. He didn't ask for anything, but just left it to me to realize what he did and the value of it, and tip accordingly. It would have cost me an hour round trip and a lot more money to get another ticket if I really wanted to see another tomb, and so I tipped a pound (.30). Fortunately, None of the things guards accepted baksheesh for are destructive. We skipped going into the tomb of Nefratari (Queen of Ramses II) located in the valley of the Queens. It's been hyped up as one of the most painted tombs. The charge is an outrageous 100 pounds per person, and they only allow 150 people per day because of humidity from breath and vibrations. The Egyptologists at our hotel say it is definitely not worth the price. My Valley of the kings guide book has an extensive description of this tomb along with color photos of every wall. We decided to skip it. February 13, 2000 (Luxor), Egypt - Hotel Marsam Caught up on laundry Bought our train ticket to Aswan for tomorrow. Checked e-mail at an internet cafe, and saw the stock market has been doing wonderfully. Picked up the Penguin guide to Ancient Egypt which I had been searching for.... excellent guide book for touring temples. Having a guide to show us around all the ruins would have been wonderful since I think we missed a lot by not having one. Most people come to Egypt on a package tour which comes with a guide. This doesn't leave much room for stand by guides. The above book turned out to be a good fill in, but still second choice. Visited the temple ruin of Karnak which is the largest temple complex in Egypt. A place where every Pharoah has left his mark. We spent the late afternoon here which wasn't nearly enough time. It's really an enormous complex. It's a real shame that it's in such ruins. Despite the photos I had seen, stories and historical references, I never developed as much appreciation for this civilization as I did by seeing what was built in person. Seeing what they were able to construct 3,000 to 5,000 years ago is unbelievable. I haven't seen any thing that can compare anywhere near this scale in the same time frame. Despite the ruined state of Karnak temple, it's easy to imagine how incredible it once was. I found myself disturbed at the destruction done by religious intolerance to these temples. In the temple of Luxor, a Muslims population has built a pathetic little mosque. Vastly dwarfed in grandeur, it sits near the front by the huge blocks of the ancient Egyptian temple. It's about as attractive as a pimple on a beauty queen. The entrance to it appears to be hidden as if no one who visits Luxor wants to see the mosque anyway. I find it hard to put a perspective on the how old things are. King Tut was around 50-100 years before Moses. Ancient Egyptian lasted for over 2,000 years, the same fourth dimensional distance between now and Christ. Chinese civilization existed then, however, I know of no equivalent monuments that have lasted.... We had dinner at the Peace Abouzeid restaurant. I had some Egyptian red wine "Amak Cree Ahm". It was very earthy, and not one I would want to drink without having something to eat along with it. Afterward, we made reservations for our hotel in Aswan at the Old Cataract hotel. It was a good thing we did since the next day when we arrived they were fully booked. When they are fully booked, they don't allow visitors onto the grounds. It's popular visiting place for tourists since it was the hotel use in the Agatha Christie's film Death on the Nile which we saw just before leaving. After dinner, we went back to Karnak for the sound and light show walking tour of Karnak. It was a walking tour of probably 300 people. While some parts were a bit hokey, overall I enjoyed it, and learned a few things. February 14, 2000 Aswan, Egypt - The Old Cataract Hotel We were up at 5:45am, and had breakfast by 6:25. We were at the train station by 7am ready for our 7:30am departure which actually departed at 7:50am. Slept on the comfortable train over the four hour ride. The tracks went along the Nile, such that we could see the surrounding sand, water and villages. Upon arriving in Aswan, I thought it would be fitting to pull up to the Old Cataract Hotel in one of the horse drawn taxi buggies that were common in Luxor. Unfortunately none were at the Aswan train station at that time. Instead we ended up in a taxi with glittering gold stripes, dingo balls, fringe, tassels and other odd decorations. The security guard at the closed front gate stopped us until the driver explained we were checking in. After checking into our hotel, the head of guest services showed us around and then escorted us up to our room. After she left us, Sharon pointed out that my fly was 2/3 of the way down, and it dawned on her that that was probably why this British woman had been looking at me funny. The hotel retains all the feel of old British elegance. I can't imagine a more scenic view of the Nile than the one from the hotels terrace. Through the palm trees and red and white borganvalia flowering bushes one can see the Nile splitting around Elephantine island. Faluccas,the modern Egyptian sail boats, occasionally sail by. The hotel is named 'cataract' because it is situated at one of the five cataracts of the Nile. Not familiar with that term being anything other than a clouding disease of the cornea, I discovered it also means a hard bend in a river. We ate out on the terrace overlooking the beautiful view of the cataract splitting the Nile into two rivers which surround the Nubian populated Elephantine island. I had some caca juice made from a caca (sp?) fruit. It's a very strange light orange colored fruit. The puree'd pulp clung to the inside of my mouth as if it were ionized. lightly sweet.. very bizarre. Sharon had one of the best Turkish coffee's of her life... espresso of medium roast laden with cardomin. We spent the day relaxing recovering from Pharaoh fatigue. We walked down town along the local market streets. We bought our ticket to Abu Simbel at the Air Egypt office, which was almost half the price they charged at our hotel. We bought our overnight sleeper car ticket for travel back to Cairo. We ate dinner at the 1902 restaurant located at our hotel, which had several nice write ups. Unfortunately, this hotel and restaurant caters to quite a few package tours coming through. While I'm sure it's more profitable for the hotel, I think it has made an impact on the specialness of the services. I ordered a soup of minted cream of carrot with coriander. It was very light on the carrot almost to the point of being difficult to distinguish from a lentil puree. Mint was light, and the coriander was very much noticeable. Excellent. Sharon ordered a lobster bisque which she thought was just all right. As a second course, I ordered pigeons and gambas salad with mushroom and oriental fine herb dressing. The pigeon was terrined, and I had a difficult time distinguishing by flavor from chicken. The salad was made up of various greens, endives, green beans and shrimp. Sharon ordered an eggplant mouse which came with a cucumber garlic sauce. She didn't care much for it, and so I ate some of it for her. I thought it was nice in small portions, however they served a huge helping that was large enough for a party. For the main course, I ordered a lamb rosettes wrapped in philo. Sharon and I had a running bet whether rosettes was a euphemism for testicles. When they arrived, it was clear that they were not. It was excellent. Sharon ordered a grilled veal with lime and basil that was excellent. Despite warnings from our so-far overly cautious Lonely Planet guide book, we ordered some Egyptian wine. There are very few to chose from. In fact, here, there were only two Egyptian vintners listed. The one that seemed to have the most billing was Obolisque, They served us a 1998 "Rouge des Pahroans" My feeling was that it was priced about 20 times over it's value. Note: I would bet that a very high percentage of the travellers to Egypt travel on package tours. All the nicer hotels and restaurants are surrounded by tour busses, as well as the temple and tombs sights. While I'm sure business appreciates the large tour groups, I think the impact negatively affects the overall quality. Did I say that before??? I sure did think it a lot. February 15, 2000 Aswan, Egypt - Old Cataract Thinking that our day flight to Abu Simbel was at 10:50am, we finished up our breakfast, and were heading out of the hotel by 9:40. We hurried off to the airport, arriving around 10:05, with what we thought was plenty of time. Our flight took off at 9:50am. We had just missed it. This was our mistake. I overheard a clerk making a crack about being on "American time". I thought this was funny since for the past several months I heard Africans making cracks about being on African time when referring to lack of African punctuality. We were told to come back at 11:30, so we waited at the airport. Unlike Western airlines, where the many desk windows service everyone regardless of destinations, Egypt air, has one desk per destination. One Egypt Air employee will service everyone on a particular destination. A gruff looking older woman was managing all flights to Abu Simbel. At 11:30, she said come back at 12:00, which apparently meant we could not board the 11:30 flight. At 12:00, she said come back at 1:00, meaning we would miss the 12:10 flight. I was a bit suspicious, and asked another clerk at 12:05. He heard me say Abu Simbel, and jumped up to rush me through telling the old woman clerk to hand over a boarding pass. She was so flustered and rushed, she didn't even look up to see it was me again. He didn't have to check the roster. We were the last ones on the 12:10 flight which only had about a quarter of the seats full... no seat assignments. Abu Simbel is a manufactured Egypt Air run tourist stop. They fly people in for a couple of hours, and bus them to the temple. The temple was moved here in 1966 from an area that would now be under water after the construction of the Aswan dam. The temple which was once carved into the cliff face of a small rocky hill, was cut away and moved to this area. An airport was built to handle the tourism that would come to see this temple. There are two small hotels, and a hospital, and not much else. The temple of Abu Simbel is quite different from that of others we had seen. It's purpose could be read. Located near the Sudanese border, it's purpose was that of a deterrent for invaders. The Egyptian statues tower over people at 10 meters in height. Inside, there are more towering statues, and on the walls are battle scenes of the Pharaoh defeating Asiatics to the North and East, and Black Africans to the South. There are scenes of war prisoners being executed, and others being taken as slaves. Further inside it takes on aspects of being a temple with statues of gods, and a deified Pharaoh statue and wall carvings of the Pharaoh (Ramses II) next to the gods. During our return back to Aswan, from the air, I could see the flooded streets and houses below the water. We took a taxi back to our hotel.... This hotel has an excluding aspect to it, which I think is odd to an American whose culture comes from a mostly middle class. Initially, our taxi was not allowed to enter the gates. When I flashed the two security guards the large copper key fob, they gave a short apology and allowed the taxi to pass. I saw foreigners standing outside the gate as if they were just turned away. At the entrance to our hotel, just before the metal detector, Another hotel clerk greeted us and asked if we were guest at the hotel as he did with everyone who passed. He was the second defense should some tourist eluded the first entrance, or possibly come from the New Cataract Hotel, whose guests are also excluded from the Old Cataract. I showed him my key, and he allowed me to pass ignoring the fact that I was setting off the metal detector. I suppose they get a lot of people interested in just looking at the grounds. We had received a written invitation to view Egyptian art collection at 7:00pm in the hotel salon where hors d'oeuvres and cocktail drinks were served. As with most modern Egyptian paintings I've seen, the painting displayed here were done in dark earth tones with a somber mood to them. In addition to the paintings, they displayed glass and pottery art objects, and batik. The delicious smoked salmon and dried beef hors d'oeuvres, satiated our apetite so well that we ended up not having any dinner that night. February 16, 2000 Sleeper train from Aswan to Cairo We didn't feel like doing much other than just hanging around. In the late morning we did some shopping. Sharon wanted to get a cartoosh (sp?).... In the afternoon, we rented a fallucah to take us around elephantine island. The sail boat came with captain Mohamed, and his assitant Ali. Sharon really enjoyed the trip. I thought it was pleasant and scenic. Yesterday we had purchased tickets for a sleeper car train to Cairo. The train departed at 5:00pm sharp, and arrived around 6:30am. The two person sleeper cabin was wonderful. We had a fold out bunk bed, sink, fold out table, luggage storage area. The clean comfortable bedding was so nice I wished the train would have taken longer, so I could sleep in a bit more in the morning. An attendant brought us food that was included on our ticket and sold alcoholic drinks. The food was pretty mediocre, but I had spent a half hour gathering up food for our trip before hand. February 17, 2000 Checked into a hotel in the morning despite the fact that we'll be heading to the airport around 9:00pm. Went to Giza to see the pyramids and sphinxs. Caught a taxi for EL 5, despite the guide book saying it should cost 25. Coming back, couldn't do it for less than 15. On the way in, a guy hopped into our cab, and began to tell us about the pyramids, and where to buy a ticket. He wanted me to get out a pen and paper and start writing these things down. We politely ignored him, but when he started to direct our taxi away from the pyramids and towards some stables, we threw him out. Camel and horse rentals is big business around here. Other for haggling taxi fares, our taxi driver didn't speak a word of English, and made it known that he had no idea what had been going on. As our taxi turned a corner and drove on, the great Cheeops pyramid was revealed behind a satellite dish on top of a building towering over the city of Giza below. The city has encroached up to the point where a fence now separates the city from the open sand surrounding the sphinx and pyramids. We entered by the sphinx. I was surprised that the sphinx was mostly below ground. Only the head was above ground level. The rest appears to have been excavated revealing a now empty temple made of granite. The temple is quite different from others in that it lacked any carvings or hieroglyphics that I could see. Walking right up to the pyramid gave me a much better appreciation for what these pyramids are. Huge stone blocks. Each one in itself an achievement to move, let alone, carve it and then elevate up to it's fitting place. Sharon was focused on the fact that it's 4600 years old. When I think about that, my perception of what the world must have been like 4600 years ago changes dramatically. They dwarf the Mayan pyramids which were built only 800-1200 years ago. Standing at the base of the great pyramid built by Cheeops, I herd a cell phone ringing disrupting my moments imagination. It keeps ringing, and then I hear the tones change. Someone nearby was demonstrating the multi-tone ring feature of his new Nokia cell phone. The number of Egyptian tourists outnumbered the foreign tourists. Standing at the base of great pyramid, hearing cell phones ringing. Egyptian tourists want to take my photo with them. School girls want a photo. School boys want a photo of the token tourist next to them. got kissed on the cheek. camel and horse rides, drink vendors Egyptian tourists wanting to photos with their arms over the shoulder of the foreigners. What country are you from? Want to buy a camel? Maybe later? Do you know how much it costs? Free gift for you... Bought a David Roberts book. He was an English artist who in the 1840's travelled through Egypt and painted landscape portraits and kept a journal. His paintings can be seen throughout Egypt today and give a before restoration perspective on the ruins. At the airport, sold my remaining Egyptian pounds. Couldn't buy dollars, but they would sell me British pounds. ------ -------- Things I like about Arab culture (sample size Morocco and Egypt) Friendliness that is not attached to money. In Morocco and Egypt, it's quite common that a stranger will want to walk up, and just say "Hello, welcome to my country", and then walk on. On money matters, they are as savvy as the Chinese. Like the chinese, they have a capitalist gene. Money is in their blood. Crime in Arab countries is low. Relative to the other African countries visited so far. the disparity between rich and poor seems relatively low. In Egypt, I have encountered no beggars. No one in Egypt asks for something for nothing. However, the baksheesh requests are outstanding. In Morocco, they've adopted "Done moi une cadaux (sp?)" (Give me a gift), as equivalent French for "Hello". I think the people benefit from the imposed Muslim ethics relative to non-Muslim countries further South in Africa. I think their dedication to prayer five times a day is admirable. I like their closeness to family and children, however there seems to be quite a few fat little spoiled boys in Egypt. Relative to the rest of Africa, Egyptian and Moroccan food is much better. They use a larger variety of spices in cooking. I enjoy the Egyptian main staple of kushari much more than the African main staple of 'rice and sauce' or toe & sauce, Even compared to staple foods of other continents like Central& South American 'fried chicken and french fries', or North American McDonald's, or SE Asia fried rice, kushari does well. Personal dislikes of Arab culture: Lack of wine, beer is expensive if you can get it. Mosques blaring at 5:00am. Arab men often have a problem acting normal around woman who aren't conservatively clothed. ---- Dave Thompson http://www.roadkill.com/~davet/worldtrip ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com