Goodbye Egypt

By the next morning, I was ready to leave Egypt. But I still had one very important task: the Pyramids. We arrived early, before it got too hot, but also before the pollution could burn off. I was surprised to see how close to the city the pyramids are. We rented horses, which took us around all of the pyramids and to the sphinx. This was the perfect way to see them.





The pyramids were truly spectacular and very worthy of their status as the only remaining Wonder of the World. The stones making up the pyramids are as big as 15 tons. Until the 15th Century, they were the tallest building in the world.

After catching up on air conditioning at the hotel and having our second-best meal in Egypt, we attempted to visit the Citadel. But it had closed early for Ramadan. We were able to visit the Al Kazahar mosque, though. It was beautiful from the ground floor, but the view from the minaret was breathtaking. I t was so peaceful, I didn't want to leave.


On our walk back to find a taxi, a nice guy who was studying English and wanted to practice came up to us. After being hustled so many times in the last week, our initial reaction was to ignore him. But he was insistent that we explore the handicraft market where we could see all of the crafts that we sold at the tourist market actually being made. He seemed genuinely interested in showing us around, and I'm glad that this impression was accurate. He took us all over a part of Egypt that I'm sure most never see. There were some scary looking alleys, covered in trash and muck. But it was all worth being able to see the locals at work.


We weren't hassled or hustled, only welcomed.

Now, looking back on it, there were so many wonderful people in Egypt that were genuinely concerned for us and that wanted us to have a good impression of Egypt and feel welcome. It's easy to focus on the negative, but the same night I was violated at the bazaar, two shopkeepers helped us. One warned me about a man that was following us and another let me stand in his shop while the mosh of people rushed past. They were both very protective. Although I felt violated, irritated, and overwhelmed at times, I never felt seriously in danger (well except maybe crossing the street or riding in a taxi cab). I don't think I would go back (at least not without my husband), but I'm glad I went and I feel that it is a place that one should see.

Back in Cairo

The next morning, we flew back to Cairo for our last two days in Egypt. We spent the afternoon exploring the Egyptian Museum. It was a "must-see". There were so many strange, beautiful, and interesting things to see. My favorite room was the Amarna Room dedicated to Amenhotep IV, the "heretic king" that wanted his people to worship only one god (the Sun "Aten") instead of all of the Gods. He even changed his name to Akenaten to show his devotion to Aten.

After his death, his son-in-law, Tutankhamen (better known as King Tut), reverted back to multi-god worship. There were also many artifacts from Tut's tomb, his funerary mask and the multiple tombs that fit together like Russian dolls were the most interesting.
I also really enjoyed the room full of mummified animals. The animals were mummified for three reasons: as pets of the deceased, as "food" for the deceased, or as idolized animals with special significance. There were also minature figurines depicting various events. I did not really understand their significance, but they were interesting. (Note: all of the museum pictures were taken from the internet because photography was not allowed at the museum).

Later that night, as Nici and I walked to Regina and Kaitlin's hotel, a group of young boys (8 as the oldest), started cat-calling us and a number of them ran up behind me and grabbed my butt. If it hadn't been so shocking, it might have been amusing. How pervasive is this behavior in the culture if 8-year-olds are doing it? This was the beginning of my worst night in Egypt. As we were walking to the bazaar, a man walked by and grabbed my chest. It happened so quickly, I didn't know how to react but to turn around and flip him off. I was so angry! At the market, the unwanted attention was non-stop. Some of the lines were funny--"I don't know what you want, but I have what you need"--but we all were feeling very guarded and did not give any sign of recognition or acknowledgment to anyone. I was mad that a few assholes had left me feeling so violated that I could not even interact those that were truly trying to be friendly. I wonder how many experiences I missed out on or what kind of impression I left--an angry, stuck up American--but at that point I did not care.

This reaction seemed even more justified after getting lost and ending up in the Egyptian market that connects to the tourist bazaar. We got caught in a bottleneck of people that closely resembled a mosh pit at a punk rock concert. Not being able to move, I felt someone's hand rub between my butt cheeks. I quickly turned around to confront my attacker, but there were so many people behind me that I didn't know who to slap. I glared at all of them and decided that next time I would grab the person's fingers before turning around so I knew exactly who to knee in the balls. I felt such relief to finally make it to the street. I have never been so excited to hail a taxi! This experience left me feeling so wounded and angry. It completely ruined my impression of Egypt.

Here are some random pictures taken on the streets of Cairo.





Mish-mish, the cat from one of restaurants we ate at.


A picture from a sweet shop in Cairo. It was filled with special goodies for Ramadan. Sorry it is so dark. I'll fix it in photoshop when I get back. :)

Luxor: West Bank

The next morning Ali Baba, our driver, picked us up and headed to the West Bank, where all the tombs are located. We had met Ali Baba at the airport and, during our drive to the hotel, he convinced us to hire him for our two days at Luxor. It was very convenient except that he had a huge crush on Nicole, who he kept calling Nicola. Every day he asked her to join him for coffee after Ramadan and for a stroll on the Nil. Nici was quite the hit in Luxor. I was even offered 10,000 camels for her. I was glad that I had on my grandma's wedding ring to quickly ward off any unwanted advances. Nici, unfortunately, got the brunt of it.
We started our tour of the West Bank at the Collossi of Memnon (I think Amenhotep)

followed by the Valley of the Kings, which has the tombs of the pharaohs. We visited the tombs of Ramses I, Queen Tausert/Serthnakht, and Tuthmosis. Our favorite was the second tomb, which had a huge arched chamber halfway through it and the most impressive hieroglyphics and artwork. Even early in the day, the tombs were like saunas. They would not let us take pictures so here is a picture of part of Queen Tausert's tomb that I downloaded from the internet.
Our next stop was the temple of Queen Hatsheput.

There were several very cool reliefs carved into the walls and statues of the Queen. Like most places, there were tons of touts who wanted to point out pictures that you would have eventually found yourself for a small baksheesh (tip). It was really offputing. It happened so much that we started all of our conversations with any of the locals at the temples with "No money, we have no money". Only a few still chose to "guide" us.


Next up, we visited the tombs of Sennefer and Rekhmire at the Tombs of the Nobles. Sennefer was really cool, with vines painted across the entire ceiling. Again, I couldn't take pictures so here are a few from the internet.

I did sneak a picture of Rekhmire, which was essentially just one giant hallway.



We crossed the street to snap a few shots of Ramesseum before heading back to the hotel to relax by the pool.

Later that night, I treated Nici to a massage to thank her for all that she had done for me on the trip. It was a strange experience. The massage itself was strange, mostly just rubbing without any pressure and a few strange stretches. But after the massage the women who performed them joined us in the dressing room, insisted on helping Nici put her shirt on, and told us that if we wanted to tip them, we needed to tip them directly because the men would take the tips away from them. We didn't mind, but it was another indicator of how women are treated in this Islamic society.

Luxor: East Bank

I'm glad we got a chance to relax in Sharm, as the next few days were at a breakneck pace. We took the early morning flight to Luxor. Almost immediately after checking into Steinerberger, our hotel on the Nile--which the locals pronounce as the Nil (kneel)--we headed to the Temple at Karnak. I think this is supposed to be the Temple of Amun, the King of the Gods. The grounds were expansive and it was our hottest day yet. Although we were pleased by all the giant ruins--the row of sphines, the Hypostyle Hall, the Ninth Pylon--we found ourselves running from shady area to shady area to excape the heat. Nici and I got seperated from Regina and Kaitlan when we were trying to find the sacred lake. Although the lake itself was not very aesthetically pleasing, our venture to it led us to the 9th Pylon, which was probably my favorite view of the temple. Of course, the viewpoint was pointed out to us by a guard toting a machine gun. It is hard to disagree with someone with an automatice weapon.








After Karnak, we grabbed a quick meal at Al-Hussein. This was our best meal during all of Egypt. It started with lentil soup and several sides of tahinin, hummus, tzatiki, eggplant, and other toppings to go on top of our naan. The main course was a mixed grill of meets with a side of potatoes in a yummy red sauce and rice.


After lunch we hit Luxor Palace. It was not as impressive (or a large) as Karnak, but we were grateful that it did not take long to explore it in the heat.





We went back to the hotel to swim in the pool next to the Nile. After sunset, when the pool closed, NIci and I ventured out (Regina and Kaitlin were not feeling well). After doing some shopping and witnessing a prayer session,
we hired Adam to drive us in a corniche (horse drawn carriage) to Sharia Souk, an all night market.
While we were quite happy with our ride with Rambo-gini (our horse), Adam only did a quick trip through Sharia Souk, telling us it was the fruit and vegetable market, and dropped us off at "the tourist market", which was really an overpriced store that we are sure gave Adam a kickback for bringing us there. We really liked the papyrus floor and demonstration. We ended up buying several pieces on this floor and some other items on other floors despite the high prices because we liked the selection, felt that most of the prices were relatively reasonable, and we could use our credit cards.


Fully knowing that we had been hustled, but content nonetheless, we enjoyed our ride back to the hotel. That is except for a few near death experiences. In Egypt, the roads rarely, if ever, have any lines seperating the lanes and even if they do exist, that are merely suggestions that are rarely ever heeded. It is not uncommon to have six cars driving on a 3 lane street. We learned during our ride that direction of traffic is also only a suggestion, especially if you are a horse, and that short, repeated honks mean ready-or-not, here I come. Our evening was also marred by Adam's insistence that we pay him $250 Egyptian pounds instead of the $10 pounds we had agreed upon. We didn't pay him that, of course, but this was one of the many disheartening experiences where we were asked to pay substantially more than we had agreed upon.