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the death mask
most popular item in museum, the mask was made with the exact features of the kijg so that his soul would be able to recognise him ok, quick update, 2day been a lazy day for me, havent done anything yet its like 1'o clock.
for the non readers the short version. Arrived in
downtown cairo and found a pretty cool hostel, i think its the best 1 downtown its called dehab hostel, its on the roof which is nice, it has chillin areas all over, staff are nice, 1 guy likes me cuz he thinks i look like ashley cole, lol. its like 2.50 quid a nite, nice!! initially only booked 2nites, but i just booked another 2 here, maby stay longer, i like it, everything is close by, its in the busiest part of downtown.Yesterday i went to the egpytian museum which is pretty cool, loads of ancient stuff, mummy's and all that, managed to sneak my camera in, and took afew cheeky shots with iso(no flash), check pics, managed to stumble across the musuem and the
river nile on my 5hr plus walk of the city. The nile is nice, loads of fullucias little sail boats and a few of the big cruise ships, the water is preety clean aswell. I think its like 30 celcius, warm but not too hot, its ok
to walk around in, met sum peeps from hostel last nite and went to an art exhibition/party, it was national refugee day, after that we went to this party across the road, managed to sneak in without paying, nice. it were only like 50p, but whatever, it were ok, well funny watching people buss out the 1980's dance moves. 2moro maby go and c the step pryamid.
DETAILS my journey was pretty uneventful, at the airport i wanted to take the buss downtown rather than a taxi, after talkin to a guy for like five mins, cuz he were following me trying to get me in his taxi, 'where u go' 'good price' 'there is no bus', well its not easy to find the right bus, all numbers r in arabic, and theres loads of busses, so i admitted defeat and found a cool taxi driver, ali who gave me a ride and a little guided tour aswell, ie 'there the princes house' this guy has been a taxi driver for like 36 years and works 16 hr days, damn. it cost like 5 5pound 5GBP got dropped of in the heart of the madness, it was dark
thumbs up
this guy ruled egypt for like 55 years, a good warrior, died giving it the thumbs up, nice!! aswell, loads of people, and i mean loads, and theres even more cars, after 4 trys cuz all the places were full, and some shaking off da hustlaz i found dehab, and crashed out thinkin damn whats the best way to get to the sinai, the beach region, but that soon changed.
Cairo is completly different, as the biggest city in the middle east and Africa i think, theres
20million peeps, u can imagine how hectic it is, its 1 of the most populated city's in the world.apparently 1 day here is iquivilent to smoking 20 cigarettes. its dusty, after all it is the desert.its cheap, really, really cheap, 1.5 litre of water is like 1.50 pound 15p UK, food is the same and its good aswell, yesterday i had a chicken pita, falafel and fresh mangoe juice for 10pounds 1pound UK, ahhh, the bakeries r delicious aswell, check pics, the choice of beer is stella egyptian style.
egyptian museum managed to get through all the security checks, it wasnt as busy as i thought i went late afternoon, which must be a good time it costed lik 50LE i think, so thats like 5UK, which is
alot for cairo standards in fact the most u will spend will be at the attractions, anyway i were just about to go through the metal detectors when i c a sign for no cameras, u r supposed to leave them at this office or whatever and then pay to get it back, no chance, not this new sony i thought, so i hid it in my bag and went through, i think these guys think im egyptian, i have been told alot that i could pass for one, and many people assume i am, and start talkin in arabic, im not a blatant tourist anyways, and my natural toothbrush in back pocket probably helped this, during the pat down. anyway they didnt search my bag so that was cool, so trying to dodge all the security and officals and all that i took a few sneaky shots,when it came to the death mask i heard these americans say 'o my god he's got a camera' which gave me joke, the accent and all, i smiled at them with the 'dont hate the player, hate the game'
another highlight is the
mummy's allthough these are in a different
area and it costs 100LE (10UK) to get in 50 if ur a student,now im living by egyptian standards here so thats expensive to me, so i blagged my leeds student card and guess what it worked, o yea 50% off, i showed the guy the card and he were like 'what the hell is this', and showed me the proper student card that some guy must have lost, so i gave him a look as if 'i cant believe u dont know what this is, r u stupid, international,international, 50LE student' a quick smile and wink later and i were in, nice, 10% off at hmv, no thanks, 1 nil to the blaggers, the mummys were unbelievable, there were quite afew asell, mainly kings and old rulers of egypt, some have blatant battle wounds, ie, a big hole in head, eye socket all messed up, 1 guy must have had good manicurist, (yea i know im making up words) because his nails were in better condition than mine, wow, but seriously these guys could do with puttin on a few pounds i mean skin and bone is just not a good look, and the whole wrapp me up in
a bandage is soo last season,lol. i loved the guy givin it the thumbs up, and i had to wait like 20mins so i could get the shot, he was a true warrior aswell, so the info piece said. in pharonic times the egyptians were all about the afterlife, and living eternal thats y they went about with the mummification and that, apparantly they believed that when death came the heart was measured against the feather (truth) pretty cool stuff.obviously the details and stories that go with all the pieces are immense, but nether the less its still cool looking even if u dont know the history. i read there that some hair and other stuff from a king thousands of years ago was found in 1977 on the internet for sale, so the police did their thing and got it for the museum, this made me laugh, ahh technology eh. 'would u like a guided tour' no thanks i will just hover around other people's for free, nice, and i can choose what language i want it in, some really interesting history in here, but after walking all day i were tired and couldnt really take it all in.
i liked one concept this king used where he had his name on his walking cane, so he could stamp his name where ever he went, damn,i need a cane.
taxis/cars/roads Ahh i miss the little green man, there r NO trafficlights here, and the amount of cars is just crazy, its like 2am and right now i can hear a constant stream of horns, the car horns here are not used sparingly. beep
im gona over take u, beep
im about to run u over!, beep
im coming behind u at 55mph there are no marked lanes, there can be 4/5 lanes on 1 road, crossing the street is sum next shit,basically u have to ignore all that common sense tells u and just walk, if u hesitate then u more likely 2 b hit. i found the LP's advice of using locals as human shields pretty useful, these guys just walk, and once they start walkin they dont stop or look left or right just ahead, it crazy, i kinda got used to it and dont need the human shields that much, walkin on the edge of the road next to cars is the norm and
mosque in nice settings
dont know what its called found it when i were walking around, it were absolutely huge, this pic is only like 1 side i kinda like it, it makes sense aslong as u dont mind breathing in the sweet smells of cheap diesel or whatever they use. all the cars r 20year old ladas or fiats, peugoets(i know im dyslexic) taxis are truelly old school, no meter in any of them.taxis are cheap and can be cheerful, the drivers i had so far have tried to make conversation even tho they dont speak english well, and surprisingly its normal for taxi drivers to stop and ask for directions. another difference is that u get out and pass the money through the window, and never ask how much, u shud know how much it shud be, and if u dont then u gona get ripped off, nothing major tho, 10 mins maby 1poundUK. u can hear fat joe or whatever hip hop anthems playin from the occasional car and yesterday i had a convo with this guy about what 2pac album is the best, it was left undecided, but we did agree that hip hop is dead at the comercial level. really is a universal ting ..near the airport i saw some modern cars but downtown there are few, u will see guys riding
another view
there was a nice park foe kids next to it and a ittle chillout green park in the centre of the roundabout a bike and carrying a LOAD of bread on his head with the other hand, these guys got skills, and there i was thinkin i were bad chattin on phone while riding, i got put 2 shame with the quickness. donkeys are around carrying loads of watermelons or whatever, the streets are always packed not like at home where u can walk down a road and not see any1 here every single street is is busy.its safe, u can walk around day and nite, no prob, its all good in the hood, been a long 1 i know, if u still reading then give urself a pat on the back, till next time
salaam
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Tasha
non-member comment
yes yes
hello there sounds so good so far and waaahh smoking 20 cigarettes? thats alot.. lets hope you dont come back with lung cancer. im not missing you as muchh yet cos ive been kind of buisy.. went training on tuesday and now my legs are dyyyyyying propa! i think im going to get serious into athletics.. i need propa equipment tho.. all the gear and thatt my coachh said. i bought some lycra from decathlon lol and i need to get some spikes. but theyre dead expensive lol if i want some good ones. gerald(my coach) had got a big event on this weekend.. you should see him.. wen hes trainign next to me its like woahh cos hes soo propfessional lol its like being next to an olimpic star! lol right im leave you with that now yehh.. going to do revision for my exam 2moro speak toon take care bless tashh xxxxxxx