Day 11: Cairo

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October 6, 2009

We arrived in the early morning in Port Said at the entrance to the Suez Canal. Judy and I fought our way through the street vendors in the port to find our tour guide, Dalia, holding our name on a sign. She was a young women in her early 30s who spoke very good English and was quite knowledgeable about her country and its history. She lead us over to our van where we met our driver Kamel. He spoke no English and took directions from Dalia, which it didn't appeared to us he enjoyed. Women in Egypt are very oppressed by the men. The van sat 11 but it turns out we were the only tourists in it, our own private ride.

One has to travel in an armed police escort from Port Said down to Cairo some three hours away. Our van joined the convey and Kamel had soon passed enough folks to get right up in the front just behind the lead police escort vehicle. We also had a tourism police officer in our van for this part of the trip but he said nothing to us. The drive into Cairo was uneventful. He saw a great deal of the countryside and some locals along the way. The country and its people are poor and they don't take too much pride in keeping their country clean. While we saw trash most everywhere, we did see some beautiful date tree plantations, some lovely homes and happy people.

Our first stop in Cairo was up on the highest hill at the Citadel Mosque. It is still in use today but is more of a tourist attraction. We donned plastic coverings on our shoes to enter the mosque. Dalia gave us the story of the place and how Muslims pray five times a day. She then gave us time to take photos and look around. Having our own guide was also handy for picture taking as she didn't mind snapping photos of us. She would also not just take one shot but rattle off four or five to make sure she got a good one. Dalia also knew all the great spots to take pictures from as well.

Our next stop in Cairo was lunch on a docked river boat. We had to pass through a security checkpoint with bomb sniffing dogs to reach it.There is an armed presence in most tourist spots in Egypt and at times we felt more like a prisoner than being protected. Lunch was our first test though to avoid drinking the local water or eating anything cleaned by it. There is some parasite in the local water that the locals are immune to but tears up foreigners, kinda like Montezuma's revenge. Lunch was a buffet from which we carefully selected cooked items and ordered can drinks. They have all the usual sodas you find in the US. We even saw some American fast food joints as well like KFC nearby. The lunch was fine and filling.

Back in the van for a short drive over to the Egyptian Museum. This place was built in 1905 and doesn't look like it has changed at all since then. There is no AC inside but fortunately it was not a hot summer day but a rather nice 80 degrees. We saw the treasures from King Tut and lots of old mummies and sarcophagus. Kinda reminded me of the British museum at times. Judy got hassled for a tip or baksheesh in the ladies room but that turns out to be quite common. Our guide showed us the highlights for the first hour and then we had a second hour all to ourselves to walk around.

Since today was an Egyptian holiday and traffic was light, we had finished earlier than expected. We had an opportunity to visit a papyrus store to learn how it is made and to possibly buy something. Judy took over an hour to make a decision but finally pulled the trigger on a purchase for our home. In Egypt they use the Egyptian Pound which is valued at like $0.20. Things look like they cost a lot but after you divide by five to convert to dollars it is much more reasonable. We all go a laugh out of Judy in the store before leaving.

At this point, we opted not to do the light show at the pyramids and instead checked into our hotel for the night. We were setup at the Le Meridien right near the pyramids. In fact our room had a nice view of them as well. The hotel was a five star facility with a very international crowd. Judy and I decided to eat at the restaurant by the pool in the courtyard as it was a very pleasant evening. The food was very good and we met a nice young couple from Vancouver and chatted most of the evening away. Egypt was playing Costa Rica in soccer as well on TV and there was a big crowd gathered around the TV next to the restaurant adding to the festive atmosphere.

We were beat from our long ride into town and the previous two days in Israel. We turned in early for a good night's sleep.

Tomorrow we visit the pyramids.

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