Cairo

---

Cairo is an interesting place. I had been to Cairo about eight years ago and it was a very different experience for me. We have mentioned earlier, that in this ‘competition’ we are staying in very nice hotels. In some instances that is really great - we are relaxed and fitted with luxury. On the other hand, we are seen as super rich people. Taxi drivers wait outside the gates to pounce on you. When I was here before, I stayed in a dingy hostel and I didn’t feel that people tried to ‘take me for a ride’ as much as this time. For example, we asked our taxi driver to take us to the place to ride the felucca boat. We knew there was a place by the Hyatt that had a set up, but instead he took us to his buddy. His friends boat was not a felucca boat and looked like I would have been surprised if it didn’t sink if we went in it. Not only that, he tried to charge us an arm and a leg. We refused to go and asked him to take us to the place that we asked to go in the first place.
After the felucca, we wanted to go to the Citadel View Restaurant. I was told prior that it was at Al-Azhar Park. We told the driver that was where we wanted to go, and he took us to another restaurant that we not what we asked. Mom finally told him, if he didn’t take us to where we asked to go, we were going to start taking money off the fare. After that, he seemed to stop trying to scam us.
After lunch we decided to go to the Souk Bazaar. This is the big bazaar where many tourists go. When I came here a few years ago I spent more time at the non-tourist bazaar, so this was a different experience. My one word of advise for anyone who goes to the Souk is have a sense of humor. Be prepared to be harassed and have fun with it. I will give you an example of what I mean. As we are walking down the street this is a typical conversation that I had:

‘Lady, do you want to buy some of my spices, I have just what you are looking for.’
‘No thank you, we are fine, thank you.’
‘Lady, would you like to come into my store and spend all of you money?’
‘Really, I can! Oh thank you. That is exactly what I have been wanting to do!’
‘Oh beautiful, I have pashminas that are just for you.’
‘You have pashminas? I have pashmina too!’
‘What you want, I have just the thing for you.
…..

This would be walking past about four or five stores. The real entertainment came when we sat in the coffee shop. Once we sat it felt like we were the pollen and all of the bees came a buzzin’. We ordered our coffee and were accosted by a number of people trying to sell us rugs, wallets, tissue, silver necklaces, henna on our hands, cigarettes, and the world’s ugliest visor, to name a few. We would say no, but once usually was not enough until we had to get a bit forceful. Once we had a moment of freedom we had to laugh at how funny it was. There was a table across from us of two women who were from the US and they were experiencing the same harassment. I had to laugh when a man showed one of the girls a wallet and she looked at him in disgust and he walked away. After that, we went with seeing how many different types of reactions we could use to try and get people to leave us alone. Mom started yelling in hysterics that the person was crazy for trying to sell their crap at outrageous prices. I started laughing wildly at this man who had this god awful visor. It was made of plastic and had a lever to flip sunglasses down. I laughed because it was so ugly but he took it as interest in the product. He quoted me 35 Egyptian pounds, went down to 5 while I laughed at him and then I asked if he was going to pay be 5 to wear it because that we the only way I would take it. Needless to say he left.

In the evening, we were planning on going to the laser show at the pyramids. We started talking with the guy and he said that he could take us for a camel ride and that we could see the show from the desert and not have to pay for it. Plus we were going to have a panorama view of the pyramids and what now. We thought it sounded like a plan and agreed. A couple other teams were interested and joined us.

As it turns out, people are not allowed at the pyramids after dark. That didn’t seem to stop our group. The six of us, our guide, another guy and a couple of kids leading the two camel trains are the only ones in the desert. It was very surreal…and a little shady, but we lived to tell the tale. There we were, the only ones in the desert and we had to take the backside view so no one saw us. We couldn’t see any buildings, only lights illuminating up from the pyramids from the lazer show. We walked up to a ridge, got off our camels and just took in the view. Then our guide, Aladdin, sent one of the boys on his horse for beers for us. After that, we asked if we could take the camels back to our hotel, which was close to the pyramids. He said yes. When he said this, I envisioned walking in the pyramid grounds, but that was not the case. As it turned out, we created a camel parade through the back streets of Giza. One of the girls from our group commented that she felt like she was in a tourism commercial. Everyone stepped out of their home and waved to us and welcomed us to Egypt.

The next day we just wandered around the pyramids and hung out at the hotel. Our hotel was across the street from the pyramids. It was a really nice afternoon and rather relaxing.

Now we are in Athens and heading to Romania tomorrow night after checking out the Acropolis. More stories and pics to come.

Xoxox
Leslie and Sandy

---

Comments

[Dennis]

Chaotic Cairo
I visited Cairo in October 2007 and also found it to be a little overwhelming. I personally did not enjoy the city other than the pyramids. Nevertheless I am happy that I visited the busy, crowded city as it was an experience to say the least. The Grand Pyramid Hotel was where I stayed and it was great but what I found very difficult in Cairo was to discover the city on your own. Public transportation is very difficult/dangerous as many of the moving vehicles keep their doors open. The traffic is insane and cars drive aggressively. As my tour guide jokingly remarked, the traffic lights in Cairo are used only for decoration. Needless to say, I was happy to leave the city and head down the Nile on a river cruise. The rest of the country is much more relaxed and enjoyable. The archaelogical sites along the Nile are fascinating, awe-inspiring and beautiful. My favourite was Abu Simbel near the Sudanese border....absolutely incredible!!!! I made several friends while in Egypt (in my opinion the nicest people in the world) and hope to be back soon as I have been invited to a wedding in 2 years time. Dennis Czigler http://travelegypt.biz/index.htm

[Karly]

Wow!
Hey Leslie! I love your story about the shopping conversation. That was hilarious! Your night at the pyramids with the camels sounded amazing! Karly ; )