Cairo, where Stephen's a lucky man!

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Greetings from our third continent.

We arrived in Cairo on Tuesday night and again began our experience in Cairo with an interesting taxi ride, in a "limo" which was a Toyota Corolla!! What luxury!!

The weather hasn't been too hot, just nice. We headed to the Egyptian Musuem on our first day and it was amazing; we spent four and half hours there. Their collection was fantastic, we saw the mummy of Ramses II, the death mask of King Tut, as well as everything else (except his mummy) which was pulled out of his tomb.

The next day we spent at Khan El Khalili, the Cairo Bazaar. Where I think we managed to annoy a great deal of shop owners; they wouldn't go down to the price we wanted and we walked away. Bad I know, but thats how it's done. One shop we walked away from and he gave in so we got the price we wanted. We brought some great canopic jars and scarab beetles to go with the one Catherine brought me. It's been really hard to buy things, not because we have the backpacks, but because things are just poorly made. It's funny when we walk down the street in the bazaar, we get offered all sorts of spices or perfumes, we say no, and Stephen is told he's a very lucky man. Everyone says that. Not really sure why.

The next day we headed to the Egyptian Museum of Modern Art, the Islamic Ceramic Musuem, the Grand Hyatt Cairo and the Rare Book Libary, which was part of the American University here. We walked around the whole of Cairo. The map we were given was pretty bad, but my husband the navigator was able to get us around and not lost.

We also found a great little fast food place which was packed with locals. The food is so cheap and only getting cheaper as we got to know the ordering process and the cashier so he wouldn't try to add a little extra like they do for all tourist over here (there really is alocal price and a tourist price). Stephen's favourite meal was the local "Koshary".

Today we moved to our new hotel to start the tour of Egpyt. Cairo is a great city but it is completely crazy. There are people everywhere, the cars always toot their horn, mainly for no reason at all and everyone wants to get money off you for even the smallest thing. They practically say hello and then expect a tip!! My advice when you visit - get in and get out. You don't need to spend alot of time here.

Love to all.

Michelle and Stephen.

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Photos

Khan el-Khalili
The Cairo Bazaar.