Winter in al-Qahira
I came... I saw... I conquered... and then I got sickAs I walked down the terminal after arriving in Cairo I was bewildered at the duty free shops which sold not alcohol or cigarettes, but TVs and vacuum cleaners. Having not slept for 42 hours was also taking its toll. A short portly man shoves two fingers in my face, each one has a tiny stamp on it, one green and one orange. I have no idea what these are. He growls something which he is sure is English.
I have no idea what he's talking about. He repeats himself twice more. I'm too tired to react, I stare at him blankly. "Bassbort" he says finally, immediately I whip out my passport and hand it to him. After a bit more broken English and lots of blank staring he sticks the stamps to my passport convinced that I am either def or retarded. Next I get into line not realizing it would be the last line I ever stand in while in Egypt… As I stand waiting I stare at a sign from the Egyptian government threatening to hang anyone caught bringing illegal substances into the country. I turn around and see a familiar face heading towards me. Jennye! I wave, but she doesn’t see me, isn’t she here to pick me up? She almost walks straight past me but I wave violently to get her attention. She’s having visa trouble and needs to go buy another one. When we finally get outside it is very hot. Not because of the sun, but mostly because there are so many people everywhere. As we push through the crowd men walk up to my and try to take my bags. “Taxi?” they ask. Jennye makes noises at them, they make noises back. She laughs and we turn and walk away. She explains that most taxi drivers around here will overcharge new tourists who don’t know any better.
In the taxi back Jennye reminds me her family will be here for a week. I blink. “I don’t remember you telling me that”. Well it didn’t matter because this was the case. The next seven days it was a strict regiment of waking up at 9am (actually we usually got out the door by around 10 at the earliest) and doing the tourist thing. It had its charm. I got the see real con artists in their element. Most are terribly easy to spot, but the good ones will leave you wondering if you made the right decision days later. You think to your self “Forty pounds was a good price… Right?” and two weeks later you find out Egyptians pay five pounds for the exact same thing.
Coptic Cairo ended the family tour and we said goodbye to the Greene/Lynch family. On our way back to the apartment we stopped at the Nile to ride a Felucca. Something I recommend everyone do once while in Cairo. It’s like a 30 minute party boat. Forty cents gets you a seat crowed with about 30 other people mostly young boys in their teens. When the boat moves away from shore the party begins. They blast Arabic pop music on brassy speakers and the group of boys begin to dance. Anyone not dancing is encouraged to clap and if you are a foreign man you will have to dance with them.
The rest of the week I think we mostly slept. It was a holiday so most shops were closed and no one was outside. One thing to note about the holidays, you will see lots of dismembered animal parts everywhere. Most of the parts are from sheep but you can find cow parts and goat parts as well.
Horseback riding in the desert, at sunset near the pyramids. I don’t think I need to explain any more of that to you. Unfortunately, due to a huge oversight on both our parts we forgot to bring a camera so I can’t show you all what words can’t describe.
After a ten hour train ride we arrived in Luxor. The city where everyone is trying to rip you off. Not everyone in Luxor is a con man, just most of them. Walking from the train station to the ferry boat we came across this…
Just some ruins sitting right in the middle of the city. Notice the “modern” arches on the other side of the ruins. As we found out, there are ruins EVERYWHERE in Luxor. In fact, ruins get in the way. We had to walk around some ruins to get from our hotel to most places in the city.
First stop was Luxor temple, the only ruins with pornographic hieroglyphics.
And they really liked drawing this one. There were about six that we found. Try and catch ‘em all! Seriously though Luxor temple looks the coolest when the sun goes down and the lights come on. Quite the site to see.
Valley of the Kings is a must do. Not for the tombs, but for the hike up the mountain. We saw wild goats!
If you can speak Arabic well enough you can fool the guys at the ticket both into thinking your from an Arab Nation. This gives you the super mega discount which means instead of paying 50 pounds you pay 4 pounds. For Valley of the Kings Jennye was from Lebanon.
The last major monument worth mentioning was the Temple of Karnak. Karnak is really really really really big. It took us 3 hours to walk around the entire thing and see everything. Even the trees that grew around it were huge.
Before I finish I need to talk about my favorite Egyptian, Muhammud. Muhammud, lives in Gourna which is across the Nile from Luxor. He works at a restaurant near our hotel. Our first visit to the restaurant he insisted on not letting us pay for the best meal we had ever had in Upper Egypt. His only request was that we come back to talk to him again the next day. We came again and we talked with him about life the universe and everything for about 5 hours! In the end he invited us to come to his house so we could meet his family. We went and had a great time. He showed us his wedding video, let us put on galabias and take pictures and fed us oranges and pomegranate. Everything was cool until HE TRIED TO MARRY US!
It was cool though, we wouldn’t have had to go far for our honeymoon.
In conclusion, I love Egypt and I would really rather be there than back in frigid Providence. No more animals roaming the streets, no more con men trying to sell me things for 5 times what they are worth, no more riding in crowded minibuses and worst of all no more 15 cent falafel…
-z
I came... I saw... I conquered... and then I got sick
