Third World Politics in a First World Country

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Cairo was an adventure to say the least...

After literally sprinting to the gate in Israel (it was of course, the farthest possible gate from security) we landed in Cairo at about 9pm. We were greeted by one of the Min-Travel owners who escorted us to get our 'visa' (a 15 dollar sticker we put in the passport ourselves) and rode with us to our '4-star' hotel. Get used to the quotes...Egypt was a country full of minor disappointments. Like Rudy, it tried real hard but never quite made it up to 1st world status in our book...

The '4-star' rating was given by the Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and really should only have extended to the lobby. Once you stepped in the tiny elevators (made tinier by the fact that there was always an elevator boy in them) you realized that something had gone horribly wrong. 1st of all, most 4-star hotels don't have shops in the lobby staffed by people who heckle you as you walk by...they also usually have hot water, a working air conditioner, paint-free windows, and plush terry-cloth bathrobes for you to wear in your room. Our hotel had none of these things. However, once I took the mattress off my bed, rearranged the wooden slats, and put it all back together I was able to settle in for a comfortable few nights of sleep.

While we were in the hotel we also got to witness a wedding celebration. Picture your wedding (past or future). Imagine how great it was/will be. Picture flowers, friends, music, laughter, and fun. Picture all of the things you did/want to do on that day. Do you picture it occurring in the lobby of a 2-star hotel with delusions of grandeur? Do you see yourself sword-fighting your new spouse with bamboo polls? Do you hear obnoxiously loud music (heard in my room on the 5th floor) coming from a metal clarinet thing? Are you frowning? Can you imagine a bearded Guatemalan kid wearing pajamas standing in the background of your wedding photos? If you answered 'no' to any of these questions than clearly you had a very different wedding than the one we saw. I must say that had to have been the saddest girl to ever wear a wedding dress....

The sights of Egypt were a lot of fun, even if Min Travel wasn't exactly the greatest tour company....the pyramids are even more impressive than I could have imagined, and it was amazing to see how well preserved some of the statues and artifacts were. Our dinner cruise down the Nile was really nice, the food was good, and despite the fact that I watched a Russian man cut in front of an Asian man who was singing Guantanamera along with the definitely NOT spanish singer it was really enjoyable to cruise along the longest river in the world in the middle of the night.

My favorite activity by far was the horseback ride through the desert. It was about 3 hours long and we stopped in the middle for tea atop a plateau overlooking the the Pyramids and the city of Cairo. After tea, our guide took 50 Pounds from us and led us to the fence that surrounds the the pyramids. He spoke to a friend of his who propped a ladder up against the gate, climbed up, and unscrewed a bolt from the fence so that he could push it open and we could ride our horses through the gate. Our guide informed us that the security cameras don't work so we galloped closer to the pyramids as our guide paid one of the tourist police (they ride camels) the 50 pounds. I was supposed to keep this a secret but oh well.....

That about wraps up Egypt for me, I'm in London now and will update all of that stuff soon!

-raf

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