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Published: February 17th 2008
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Salaam alaykum!
This weekend yielded more extremely comical Egypt experiences. A group of my friends and I decided to ditch the AUC sponsored trip to the Pyramids on Friday morning (which left the school at 9am) in favor of a couple more hours of sleep and making our own attempt at the visit. We woke up and left at about 11:30, got quick fateer breakfast on the way (some got rolled up flakey pizza's and others opted for the flakey fateer pastry with honey or powdered sugar-I chose the pizza one). We decided to take the metro to Giza which is about a 30 or 40 minute bus or taxi ride with traffic, but only about 10 minute metro ride (not to mention the metro was only 1 pound, the equivalent of less than a quarter). It was most of our first time trying out the metro and we were all really thoroughly impressed with the system! It was quite crowded, but extremely clean and smokeless; not typical Cairo. All 8 of us managed to get off at the right stop and soon were flagging down a white micro-bus which took us about 15 more minutes (maybe 20) up to the
Happy as a camel!
This picture was taken B-D...before dismount. area of Giza where we could access the pyramids. We wandered around the streets for a while getting accosted by group after group of people trying to rent us camels or horses. We finally just picked one "outfitter" and all hopped up onto camels. For those who have never been on a camel before, it is important to mention how they stand up. Their back legs go up onto their "knees", then the front, then the back and finally they rock forward once again and if you've held on tight enough you're way up in the sky riding a camel! Watching the faces of my friends as their camels stood up was absolutely priceless, good 'ol Maddie even shed a couple tears! Eventually we were off, but hadn't get gotten into the sandy pyramid territory before our "guide" and a guard started yelling in arabic and then at us (in English) that we had to pay the 50 pounds we agreed on right then and there. Now, we had agreed as a group not to do this since all the guide books clearly stated not to pay in advance, but to wait until the ride is over. These men are
Fall #2
Adam awaiting his bare camel, calm and composed :) frightening though! Eventually we all just caved and gave him the money hoping they weren't mad enough at us to make the camels do funky things. Riding a camel is definitely an amazing experience, especially approaching one of the most amazing wonders of the world! Everything seemed to be going really well, besides quite a few whimpers and yelps every once in a while from each of us, for the first about 20 minutes. However, of course this trip was not to be had without ridiculous things happening and sure enough as I watched my friends on camels ahead of mine all of a sudden there was a blur of movement and flying sand coming from my friend Adam and his camel. I saw him backward somersault out of the dust on the ground and pop up realizing he had just completely slid off his camel! Yup, saddle and all, just slid off backward. We were all shocked, and absolutely cracking up once we made sure he was okay. Soon enough he was saddled back up and attached to the back of our caravan and off we went again! We hadn't made it another 20 minutes when sure enough, there
All the girls!
Glad to be on solid ground! goes Adam again, right off the back of the camel. He was expecting it this time though and managed to land on his feet whilst still talking to his Dad on the phone...miraculous! I guess the guide figured our time was dwindling though so he decided just to ditch Adam and his camel, we waved to him as he eventually left our sight. Oh, I also must add in that the girl on the very front camel had the man who was supposed to be walking in front of us jump right up onto her camel with her. Very awkward. They also managed to slide off the camel, racking up our camel falls to 3. We made a stop at the Great Pyramid, snapped some shots, then trotted off to reach the Sphinx in time to make our hour mark. Keep in mind that a camel trot bounces similar to a horse, only about a million times more...they're big fellas! I had been asking the man if my saddle looked okay, terrified of experiencing an Adam and all we got was "hehehehe...I don't knooowwwww...Inshalla!(god willing) hehehehe". Well, turns out it wasn't okay, no not at all-mid-trot I found myself clinging
Sphinx!
Actually much smaller than anticipated! to the complete side of the camel and slowly sliding under. "Im falling Im falling!! For goodness sake can you get these things to stop for a minute!! What should I do!? Can I just jump! Im gonna jump!" We decided I "dismounted" the camel although I still landed on my butt in the sand. Rackin' up another camel fall...thats 4 if you weren't keeping track. Needless to say we were all extremely relieved and in stitches from laughing/cringing/hanging on for dear life, when the hour was over and we left our camel buddies and guides (who demanded WAY too much baksheesh-tip-for people who's legs wouldn't quite make a quick escape yet) behind to run around the pyramids and sphinx on our own TWO feet much closer to the ground.
Aside from the comedy of the afternoon, being so close and able to actually touch such incredible and old structures was mind-blowing and oh-so exciting! Needless to say, the pyramids are absolutely massive, made of huge blocks of stone stacked. I cannot even imagine the work that went into their construction without CATs and all those heavy duty machines I know nothing about. It was however, a bit sad to
think about the impact that such lax regulations and poor protection of the sites and such huge numbers of tourists climbing on them has. There was garbage in cracks and crevasses of a lot of the lower blocks, which slightly deterred from the majestical feeling. Seeing this though did make me proud of the National Park system back in the states and our "do not tread on me" signs.
We eventually made it back via microbus and metro again (1pound each again) to Tahrir Square, about 3 or 4 blocks from our apartment, ate a great dinner and stumbled back to rejuvenate, all too tired to function, by about 7:30. Naps ensued and eventually some of us reconvened at the boy's apartment (where we are allowed to be after midnight, as opposed to here), to recount our adventurous day. I'm sure I will ride a camel on at least one more occasion in the next few months, but I have to admit it has now been 3 days and I'm still sore! Anywho, I have finally uploaded some pictures to my computer so I will post them, make sure to check 'em out!
Massalama! Back to the reality of
school-work!
-Kell
ps. Thanks so much for the comments! It is SO fun to get them, I love it!
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Mel
non-member comment
camels
when you fell off the camel and were clinging on underneath it was still trotting along?!?! Could you have been trampled?! I feel like a worried mother here....make sure you let me know before you ride one again so I can say a rosary for you or something..... besides that it sounds very comical and I bet it was very awkward when that tour guide just hopped up on with the girl. Did I ever tell you about when I was in Puerto Vallarta and we rode horses to the top of this waterfall and everyone got to ride freely and for some unknown reason this Mexican man walked next to my horse the WHOLE way and held the reins through huge puddles and woods and rocky terrain! I was like you can let me go! and he was like....no no senorita.