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Published: April 12th 2006
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Sarcophagus
Mummification Museum Today was a nice day, we slept in and took our time. 3 days in Luxor is more than enough. 1.5 days would have been sufficient, but we enjoyed being able to relax. We went to the Mummification Museum which is a one-room museum with explanations and artifacts that illustrate the Mummification process. The neatest thing was a cross section of a skull showing where they had removed the brain and stuffed it with linen. Also, you never think about the fact that they mummified animals other than cats and dogs, but they did alligators, monkeys, fish etc. Many of these animals were considered sacred.
We walked over to the Souq which is the market area that we went through on Wednesday with our horse and buggy driver. Like we mentioned before, this was a “real” market for the locals. Most of it was in the shade which isn’t good for pictures, so Matt was disappointed that he wasn’t able to get some more good people photos like in Cairo. We walked for 40 minutes or so and were near the end of the market when a little boy came up and asked for a “ben.” Remember that there
is no “P” sound in Arabic, so they use “B” instead. We had read prior to leaving that kids love the colored pens, so we went to the dollar store and filled a gallon size Ziploc with them. I had a few on the side of my backpack and handed the little boy two. So, just like yesterday the secret network leapt into action and all of a sudden there were now 50 kids screaming for pens. We thought this would be a good opportunity to get rid of the rest since I still had a majority of them in my pack. As I zipped it open, I was practically attacked - they were trying to grab inside and were pulling on me. It was all I could do to hand the bag to Matt over my head. They began to attack him too, but since he’s taller and can’t be pushed around as easily he had a little more control. He was trying to make sure every kid got one, but there are those bullies in every group and they were trying to grab handfuls out of his hand. Matt finally had enough and threw the rest of the
pens several yards away. The exact description of that moment was chickens going after chicken feed...they all ran and chaos broke out as they fought for the pens. It’s kind of a sad thing because you want to do something nice, but then it turns into this out-of-control situation and you realize you never have enough to give in those situations. It is impossible to make it “fair.” We started walking again and had like 30 seconds of peace before we realized we were in a neighborhood now. We didn’t want to go back towards the market to get pummeled by kids again, so we kept heading straight. Two super cute girls came out and Matt took their picture. He was planning on giving the little girl some Baksheesh when more kids came again and took the money right out of her hand. So once again, another following started with all of them following us and yelling for “money,” “baksheesh,” etc..We were pretty much fed up with the situation and we practically did a slow jog to get to the main street ahead. A tourist police truck turned down our road, and BAM, the kids scurried away. We got out
onto the main street and there were no taxi’s in sight, so we started heading towards the Nile. We quickly saw that they kids were cutting across a large dirt area to avoid the police and continue to follow us. As soon as they came up I turned around and meanly said “la” which means “no” and then said “police.” It worked, they ran…too bad we didn’t figure that out earlier.
As we walked back, the normal hypnotic sounds to pray took on a different tone. There was very angry speaking that went on for quite some time. It sounded exactly like a Hitler hate rally-the passion and voice. We walked by several areas where men in the street were kneeling and listening to the broadcasts. It made us question if they were talking about the US attacks in Iraq? Anti-American rally? At least they can’t tell if we are American, British, or French…may come in handy in Jordan! It probably was just a special prayer as we have noticed that Arabic can sound a bit angry at times.
We went back to the hotel and enjoyed a relaxing evening where we napped on the patio
next to the Nile, watched the sunset, and read. It really is beautiful and makes you forget that one street away is Egyptian life.
Tonight we take the overnight train back to Cairo. We should get in around 6:30am and then head to the airport to fly to Amman, Jordan. The flight is 2 hours, so we arrive at 12:30pm. Then it's a 2.5 hour drive to Petra...
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Sue Rigos
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Last day in Egypt
I really liked that photo of Erin at sunset with that big smile on her face. It was interesting to see the food shots since I like to cook. My hubby, Tom, also had the same problem in India with hands pawing at him as soon as he would get out of a taxi. I didn't have that problem when I was traveling around the world in l969. Good Luck on your next adventure. I'm enjoying your whole trip.