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Published: April 23rd 2009
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Sunset in Cairo
The Nile River is TRULY the lifeline of Egypt. Everything else is brown, deserted desert. 7 April. On our way to Egypt after spending a last night in luxury at the Radisson Hotel near the Gandhi International Airport. Tom took three showers yesterday, and I soaked in a bath and had a “spa pedicure”. My feet are FINALLY clean again. Not to say the people at the airport are security conscious, but we went through 10 checks before we got onto the but that took us to the plane. We flew Gulf Air to change planes in Bahrain, one of the Gulf countries that hires young Indian men to do what they won’t condescend to do themselves. Through the flight, it became clean that none of these young men had ever flown before. We had many wide eyes on the take off, they all shoved the airline magazines into the airsick bags to take with them - unfortunate, since we heard some of them barfing later in the flight. (iPODs are a wonderful invention …) Most amazing was the fact that it became dreadfully clear that none of them had ever used a western bathroom, much less on an airplane. Vivian, imagine your worst flight and multiply by ten. When we reached the gate and the
Waiting for Riders
Years ago when Tom visited, the camel owner charged him more to get down than he did to get up. chimes rang, Tom and I were the only ones to get up and move off the plane. Literally NONE of the rest knew what to do.
The Cairo Airport was amazingly efficient: we went through immigration, customs, luggage pickup and met our driver within 15 minutes. It takes two-and-a-half hours to get out of Atlanta’s Hartsfield from an international flight!
I’m in Egypt at an ideal time during the Jewish year - it’s Passover! As long as I watch what I’m eating, I have no problems with grains and I’m in the place of the exodus, looking at pyramids, temples and cities that may well have been built by the Israelites. There’s an ongoing discussion about whether the “Exodus Pharoah” was Ramses II or Thutmose III, and I saw exhibits on the history of both men. Later this trip we’ll go to the Red Sea.
When you’re in Egypt it becomes very clear how important the Nile is. The country is dead brown sand and rocks for hundreds of miles from west to east, north to south, and then there’s the long thin thread of green clinging to the banks of the great river. Then the desert
Sakkara
These pyramids are older than those at Giza. We went inside this one, crouching down to enter a deep burial chamber. continues to the east. In the “Upper Nile” (southern part of the country) the springtime temperatures were well over 100 degrees F (48 degrees C) , and our trip leader told us it gets to 60 degrees C in the summer. (I can’t even translate that into Fahrenheit - it’s something like 130 degrees.)
Our first full day, we sent to some older pyramids near Cairo: Imhotep, Sakkara and Dahshur. They have no beautiful carvings and paintings now and the mummies are long gone, but we learned how and why the pyramids were built and were able to climb down into two of them to the chamber of the royal tomb. The engineering involved in making this happen is amazing! We also encountered the Egyptian cultural habit of asking for tips. Here’s the scenario: you walk into an interesting area and start to look around. A man walks up beside you and starts to point out items of interest. He might show you a forbidden chained-off area or tell you that it’s OK to photos in the tombs if the guards aren’t looking. Though in the beginning you told him you didn’t want a guide and he insisted that he wasn’t one, when you leave, he demands a tip, and then isn’t satisfied with what you give him. Very annoying. This was our first introduction to the tourist industry in Egypt. It’s critically important to the Egyptian economy, and every merchant helps by trying to get as much money from you as possible.
On the other hand, we met a Nubian man (a black man from the far south of Egypt) who drove us to the tourist spots and helped us with buying train tickets and other errands. He was absolutely honest, told us about his two wives and six children, and spoke Arabic, Nubian, German and some Turkish languages. He was a real pleasure to meet. If you need a driver, call SHRIEF ABU HASSAN at 0129845844.
Some cultural notes: people here eat grilled meats, veggies, flat bread, and fruit. We saw more western foods: McDonald’s, Hardees, Pizza Hut, and - for some reason - every small store sells Twinkies. The Hotel Longchamps is very nice, on the fifth and sixth floors of an apartment building, and is reached by a classic old elevator.
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