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Published: March 22nd 2007
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Helen on, and from a camel's back
Our beasts or burden on the way to the last remaining Ancient Wonder of the World. Well no offense to Cairene's or the city, but I am over Cairo now and am ready for the tour to start. Overall I have enjoyed the city and the people and food are fanastic. The touts are easy enough to ignore, I should know, I grew up with 2 younger sisters, so I am good at it. But the one thing I can't stand is the air. It is dusty and smoggy and when you are outside it is almost difficult breathing. I am told that it isn't alot different to London, but I shall see what that is like when I get there. I suppose I am spoilt coming from Clean Green New Zealand, but this is one thing I won't compromise on! Luckily tomorrow morning we are out of the city onto the tour, so sleeping in the clean and quiet desert will be heaven.
But first a recap of my last couple of days in Cairo. As you last heard, Helen was coming to join me in Cairo and she arrived without too many delays on Wednesday. I got the joy of putting her in the taxi and watching her eyes as they widened in
Pyramids
The three Pyramids themselves. From left to right, Menkaure, Khafre and Khufu. shock at the driving here. I have got used to it now and am glad I am not driving again for a while just in case I subconciously copy them. For the record, I have been here 4 days and seen 3 crashes. None serious, and really with the crappy cars, a few extra dents don't mean a thing. I got Helen settled in at the hostel and we went for a quick exporation and initiated her into the joys of buying food.
Thursday was our first full day to get some serious sightseeing done so we got up early and headed out to the Egyptian Museum (one of the top 2 in the world. The other being the British museum, and that one mainly cos they stole everybody else's stuff). Taking on Connor's tip, we went straight to the back for 20 minutes of peace with Tutenkamen's legacy. Unfortunately no camera's are allowed in the museum so I don't have any shots of these, but everything we saw was stunning in either it's size, intricacy or just plain goldness. For example, Tutenkamen's headdress which he was buried in, was 11kg's worth of gold!
We spent about 4
hours in there and didn't see everything, but will be going back with the tour. Also, funniest moment of the museum, we were just about to leave when we passed this group which had a girl facing away from us and she was literally wearing 'shorts' that covered less than half her arse. After no females showing as much as a bare arm in the city, both Helen and I were quite shocked, and she said as a first reaction "Where have her pants gone?" I had to drag muself out of there laughing, and that photo would have been just as good on my blog as Tutenkamen's head dress.
We headed back to the hostel before heading out to the desert where we had a camel ride around the Pyramids at sunset planned. Despite the obvious soreness the next day, this was alot of fun as you can see from the photos. About the cheesy photos, they weren't my idea!!! It was all the guide. Honest. We got some excellent shots and headed back to get ready for the Nile cruise. I know I have done this one before, but this was for Helen's benefit. Also I wanted
another buffet meal. Nothing at all to do with seeing the belly dancer again.
The food was again excellent and the entertainment was really good, but my highlight would have been enjoying Helen's discomfort as she was wearing something slightly risque for the region. It is nothing that would have been looked twice at anywhere else, but I got alot of "You are a lucky man" comments, which leads me to believe I should be able to get a good price for her if she doesn't behave. Little do they know what they would be getting into.
The following day, we went and checked out Khan-Khalili and I got a couple of souvenirs. But it seemed Helen hadn't learnt, or just likes the attention, and again the highlight was the offers I did actually receive for her. The best I have got was 100 cows. I am thinking I will be able to get a better price the closer I get to Dahab. I am holding out for a resort or a boat, because what would I do with 100 cows?!? I can only eat steak so quickly. I will keep you updated with the tender process though.
Me and my faithful steed
Camels aren't small. This is high up. But at least he was good to me and didn't start running. Then that would have been interesting. At night, we went and met our Kumuka tourgroup and they seem like a really cool bunch of people. Ben - I think there will be a few opportunities for some cricket to be played on this tour.
And finally full credit to the Black Caps, 3 wins out of 3 in the World Cup. Our tour group is half Aussies and half Kiwi's so I will thoroughly enjoy thrashing them in the final. C'mon Flem and the boys!
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