My Break in Egypt

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This was one hell of a break.

As some of you know, I left for Germany before I made it to Egypt to visit my aunties. It’s been around 13 years since I’ve last visited them in Germany (they would come to America instead during those 13 years), and all the memories I had as a kid came flooding in the moment I entered their apartment complex. The same sights and smell were still there…way back when I was still 7 or 8 years old!!

I spent around six days in Germany until I finally left for Cairo. On the way to the airport from my Aunt’s town, I met some random German girl in the train who also happened to have studied in San Diego State last semester!! Weird. I asked her for directions and noticed that she spoke English pretty well. Then I caught her say “my bad”…and I was caught in surprised for her saying it…which she then mentioned that she had lived in San Diego for a semester. Hahaha…small world.

Anyway, I flew KLM and thus had to fly from Frankfurt-Amsterdam-Cairo. The moment I arrived in Amsterdam to catch my connecting flight to Cairo, it finally sunk in that I’m about to do some crazy shit: go travel to Egypt by myself. As I was giving my boarding pass and walking in the bridge to the plane, I was thinking to myself “what the f am I putting myself into?” haha. But needless to say, it was no turning back!!!

I arrived in Cairo at 1 am in the morning!!! Because of this, I had arranged for my hostel (yes, I still chose to stay in a hostel…even in Egypt!!) to pick me up from the airport. But the moment I stepped out of customs, I couldn’t find my name written on a sign anywhere. I figured the guy who was gonna pick me up might be outside of baggage claim (by the way, I come to realize that I may never be the same at baggage claims due to my history of lost luggage. I start to panic now if my bag is not in the first 5 bags that comes out of the conveyor belt).

But as soon as I stepped out of the baggage claim, I couldn’t find my name anywhere. If you were there, you would’ve seen me murmuring “fuck” all over the place. Considering that it was already around 140 in the morning at this point, the last thing I wanted to do was to take a cab to who knows where. Finally, another 30 minutes or so, I decided to grow some balls and just take a cab and pray that the cab driver will not slash my throat (neurotic thoughts kicking in). It was kinda funny actually…I tried to play and spoke like I’m all tough and that I could kick his ass if he tried to f with me…. I think I may have looked awkward. Haha

But in the end, I got where I needed to be at that time. The only thing that I didn’t like about that cab ride was that he stopped in a middle of a dark road and told me “one moment” and got out of this car for a good 5 minutes. And all I could think of that point was WTF?! I mean the timing couldn’t have been any better when I saw these 3 other guys behind me approaching the cab. This wasn’t cool even if you are as half neurotic as I am. But fortunately for me, they were just innocently passing by. Though I’m not sure how that would have turned out if it was a girl inside that cab, and not me. I guess NOT being a white girl with blonde hair and big tits finally paid off. Hahaha. JK. Actually, that was a pretty jerk thing to say. I’m sure even if I was one of that, I “think” I still would’ve been fine. But anyway, the cab driver came back and apparently just asked for directions on where my hostel was at!!

Day 1- Cairo

My first agenda for the day was, of course, to see the pyramids!! For some reason I woke up relatively earlier than normal considering I had just landed in Cairo about 7 hours prior. In the hostel, I met this two American kids who informed me that I could actually save money by getting to the Giza pyramids by taking the metro and catching a short bus/cab ride from the metro station to Giza, as opposed to paying a 50 pound cab ride from downtown Cairo to the pyramids (1 usd= 5.5 egyptian pounds).

It didn’t even cross my mind that I would ever attempt using the metro in Cairo. I mean, considering the location, I already had a pre-image of what the metro would look like even if I have never ever been there…and that alone was enough for me to think that I would be suicidal to take their metro. Considering how pickpockets are so common in the metros in Paris, at that time, I couldn’t even imagine how worst it would be in Cairo. But since I felt suicidal (not really…I thought about how much money I would save since the metro was only 1 pound to get to Giza station), I decided to just go for it.

After I got off the metro, I couldn’t believe how wrong I was. The metro itself was one of the cleaner metros I’ve been to (definitely more so than Paris!). And while inside the train, not once did I feel that somebody was going to try to pickpocket me.

After taking that metro, I felt like such a bad ass that I decided to just go for it and take a regular bus (with all the Egyptian locals) to Giza. Now, this is not the typical Western bus that stops at a bus stop while everybody forms a line to enter the bus in an orderly fashion. Well, the Egyptians don’t have time for that shit. Why do that when you can just wave to the bus on middle of traffic??... And if it doesn’t stop, just try and catch it by jumping the door. Luckily for me, the bus stopped when it was waived and I didn’t had to further risk my life.

Once I got to Giza, I was just in complete awe. I felt that the Sphinx and the Giza pyramids only existed in history books and post cards, and not in real life. So it was kinda hard to fathom that I was standing in front of the Sphinx, taking its’ pictures from every angle possible (ps..I’ve read before I left on how some people were disappointed to see the size of the Sphinx, as they were expecting it to be this one massive monument…so there was no element of surprise for me after seeing its’ size).

I probably stayed around for a good 2+ hours. I couldn’t stay longer than that considering I was still getting acclimated to the weather (I had just arrived from Germany where it was snowing!!). But in those two hours, I managed to go on my FIRST attempt to go inside the Khafre pyramid…which I had to get out of immediately since there was virtually no air inside and it was really difficult to breathe (to enter inside the pyramid, you have to bend your body because the steps are on a 45 degree angle on a REALLY narrow passage…if you have the slightest form of claustrophobia, you wouldn’t be able to go in). Afterwards, I walked around some more and started being greeted by little Egyptian kids. At first, I was a real bitch since they would say “hello” and I wouldn’t respond. I had fine experiences with the kids in Morocco where they would go up to me and do kung-fu moves and then ask for money. But in Egypt, all they seriously wanted to do was just say “hello!” I had to let my guard down because they were just genuinely friendly and they would ask me where I was from and what my name was without hassling me for money. Unlike Morocco, it felt great to be able to walk around and chat without having the need to drop-kick a kid.

Later that night, my hostel arranged a dinner and cruise on the Nile for two hours…which was pretty sweet. I watched my very first belly dance and some other traditional Egyptian dance where he spins around for a good 45 minutes straight. I’ve only been in Cairo for a night, but at that point I already started feeling better and better about the city where I felt comfortable enough to be wandering around the streets at night by myself.

Bad ass.


Day 2- Cairo

I met this Canadian guy who just arrived and we hired a private tour guide who works for our hostel to take us around. I pretty much made this guy my bitch on taking my pictures (the pics of me jumping around like a fool…that was him taking the pics!) Anyway, we went back to Giza pyramids, then to a papyrus museum, then to the bent pyramid of Darfur, and Saqqara!! The only thing that sucked about this day was my legs were shot from going down the pyramid the day before. I was pretty much limping all over the place. Regardless, I was still able to go inside on one of the pyramids, and with better success this time around!! It was still scorching hot inside but I was able to sustain it much longer. You know, some of the old Japanese tourists can really put me to shame. I definitely felt like a wimp considering there are these 50/60 year old Japanese people going up and down the pyramid like it’s no problem for them. But then there was me walking around like a handicap. :P

Later that night, my hostel booked me a 6 day/5night tour to Luxor and Aswan, both of which are way south of Cairo. John, the Canadian guy, decided to go for it and joined me very last minute. So that night, we left Cairo and hopped on an overnight train and headed to Aswan. The very first thing I saw the moment we arrived at the station was cabins of the train. I saw people stuffed inside a dark cabin train, and again thought to myself what the fuck am I getting myself into?? Luckily, there’s a passenger train specifically JUST FOR TOURISTS….which made a whole lot of difference. Apparently, tourists wouldn’t be allowed to ride on regular Egyptian trains…which could be a little bit more comforting considering the train that I saw with all the passengers were stuffed inside like animals.




Day 3- Aswan

15 hours after we left Cairo, we finally arrived in Aswan! This city was a definite change from Cairo because it was a lot less busy and seemed more relax. Our guide picked us up at the station, which was a nice change from my experience when I arrived in Cairo not knowing where the hell to go.

All I could think at that point was getting a shower. I could not get myself to go to the WC in the train in Aswan considering it was probably one of the nastiest toilet I’ve ever seen (John, on the other hand, had no problem going #2…which was so wrong. Apparently he had to do some acrobatic moves to do be able to do what he did). So needless to say, I raped that shower as soon as I got in my room.

Then later on the day, we had an organized tour and visited Philae temple, which was in the middle of the Nile. We actually met a few girls from Taiwan who stayed with us at the same hostel in Cairo (which we eventually found out later on that it is pretty easy to run in to the same people you’ve met earlier around Egypt!).

And also, for those who thinks it’s crazy to go to Egypt by yourself, you would be put to shame by this ancient old guy from Mexico who went to Egypt all by himself. He could barely walk 5 feet without somebody needing to assist him in fear that he may just topple over. But there he was not giving a damn, running around Egypt all by himself.

Then later that night, we had another tour and visited a Nubian village in Aswan, where the people looked a lot more different than typical Egyptians. It actually felt a lot more like I was in Africa because our guide brought us in a village with black people… which felt a lot more authentic… (I guess….?)


Day 4 - Aswan

This day was a trip.

We woke up at 3 am in the morning to get to Abu Simble, another famous temple that I’m sure you’ve seen in history books. The drive was 3 hours south, virtually next to the border of Sudan. I mean just the thought of being close to Sudan made me feel more of a badass than I already felt….not gonna lie.

And all I remember when I got there was the fact that I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. This gazillion years old temple built by ancient people standing right in front of me. That doesn’t happen very often…

Then after a couple hours being under the scorching sun at Abu Simble we headed back for another 3 hour drive up north to Aswan to catch our Felucca ride in the Nile. The Felucca ride was supposed to take us up to Luxor, but I’ll get back on that later as to why we did not make it to Luxor by our Felucca.

Anyway, once we got to the hotel to pick up our stuff we headed straight to the Felucca and met the “captain” (forgot his name, but I’ll nickname him Momo….short for Mohammed). The Felucca ride was part of the excursion that our hotel in Cairo booked, and it was supposed to be a 2 night/ 3 day affair, which I later found out that it was way too long to be just chilling in the Nile doin nothing.

So the rest of the day consisted of just chillin on the boat on the Nile river, sailin up north. It did felt good to be able to that though, considering I’ve only been in Egypt for a few days, but felt much longer considering the number of things that I’ve done already.

Later that night, we stopped sailing because of the dark. But where we stopped was close to Momo’s village, so he invited us to visit his family and his little village.

And for the people who grew up in white suburban neighborhood with playgrounds and rainbows and unicorns in their backyard, you probably would have shit your pants had you gone to where we went.

His little village had no lights, dirty passageway, smell of urine/soiled stuff, and prayer resonating the village (you could see part of this from the video I have up on facebook). And then the moment we entered the house, there were four of his family members…one sitting on a chair, two on the floor, and then the other standing somewhere all barefoot and dressed in their traditional garb. What’s more is that his house had no roof, and no light, and had a rubble mess inside the house.

He introduced us to his family and they were very pleasant people. They made us tea and attempted to speak to us in English by a few words that they knew, but for the most part they were speaking to us in Arabic as if we understood them.

But it just gave me that shock reminder of the culture that I was currently at. I wanted to take a picture of his house, but I already felt uncomfortable as it already was that I just kept it quiet.

But props to John for asking to use their bathroom. This guy had no problem going #2 anywhere. And according from what he told me, the toilet was on the ground (meaning he had to squat, for those who have no imagination…). So wrong.

After we left Momo’s house, I felt a sigh of relief partly because I’d rather be in the Felucca at that point rather than being in their house. I just wasn’t used to that and I needed to be back on my comfort level…. Even though they were very nice people. Actually I think it’s more of I felt guilty seeing the way they live, compared to how I (and my friends) live.




Day 5- Aswan

We woke up with some serious mosquito bites.

I had it much easier because I covered myself from head to toe after being raped by the mosquitoes for two hours. John, on the other hand, decided to tough it out and slept with just shorts and a shirt on. He woke up the next day looking like had chicken pox.

Me on the other hand had bites all over my hand (since that’s only part I couldn’t cover). I had better luck on my face since I had it protected by covering it with a towel. Smart.

But the whole day was all confusion. John and I thought that we were sailing towards Luxor. But Momo turned around and headed back to Aswan. Since his English was not exactly good, it was really hard to communicate on what were doing. This bit us on the ass the following day because we had to buy another train ticket just to get Luxor…when the felucca was supposed to bring us straight to Luxor.

That actually pissed us off big time. We tried to not make a scene considering he had been really nice the entire time. But this would not have happened had he understood better English. I guess Momo thought we wanted to go back to Aswan??

Oh, and later that night…since we were passing the port in Aswan, I just told him to drop me off because I’d rather sleep in the hotel as opposed to stay on the felucca. I’d rather prefer comfort than being bit by mosquitoes all over the place again. I had enough of staring at cruise ships pass us by watching them have barbecue on the deck and seeing how comfortable their rooms look like, and the fact that they have toilets and showers… while there we were staring from our little felucca wishing we have at least one of those.

But John didn’t feel like paying for the hotel (around $12) so he just stayed in the felucca.

Oh, and I had camel for dinner.

(sorry…)


Day 6- Luxor

From Aswan, we took another train (3 hour train ride up north Egypt) to Luxor. When we got to Luxor, our tour guide was waiting for us from the station where he dropped us off in our hotel first before making our way into the Karnak and Luxor temple.

I would say that Luxor was probably the hottest city between Cairo and Aswan. It was too hot to the point where a cold bottle of water turned lukewarm within a matter of 20 minutes. Also, I realized more and more of my comfort level being in Egypt by just walking around alone and getting myself familiar with the city.

At around 1 pm we went to Karnak temple and soon after Luxor temple. After so many temples, quite frankly, I got templed-out. I know it’s bad if I can barely keep my attention to the tour guide when he’s trying to explain one of the most important stories of our history. After being in so many temples, I just needed to take a break (Btw, I think I would’ve kept my attention longer to the Egyptian tour guides giving their presentation on either Chinese or Japanese, even though I don’t speak either language. Just the thought of an Egyptian speaking an extreme Asian language, and seeing them actually speak like that, is intriguing on itself and would’ve probably had my attention longer than my tour guide attempting English).

Later that night, John and I went out to dinner with this other kid that we met during the tour that day (He’s an American studying in Israel, but in Egypt for their vacation). The longer the day progressed in Luxor the more I forget that I’m actually in Egypt seeing the number of tourists walking around. I don’t think there was any Egyptian eating at the restaurant…we were all virtually tourists!


Day 7- Luxor

This day we went to the Valley of the Kings and Queens, where King Tutankhamen and Queen Nefertari’s sarcophagus (among other King and Queens, hence the name) were discovered! Again, it was hard to comprehend the moment we got there on some of the things that I saw. I had to remind myself that I was staring at King Tutankhamen (his mummy was right there laying in front of me, plus his infamous sarcophagus). Though he was rather tiny, he fucking ruled Egypt at one point in history. And he was right there…mummified out in front of me. Crazy.

Then later that night, we went out to dinner with these two young couple from California who was in their honeymoon doing their round the world trip. Very nice people- they let us take a shower in their room since we already checked out of our room earlier that day (headed back to Cairo the same night). This helped a whole lot since we just came back drenched in sweat from the Valley of the King and Queens. So had we taken the overnight train to Cairo without shower would have been quite an uncomfortable feeling.


Day 8- Back to Cairo

The train ride couldn’t have been more uncomfortable. Anyway…


This was SUPPOSED to be my last day in Cairo (I will tell you why it was SUPPOSED to be).

As soon I got back in Cairo, I went straight to KFC. Couldn’t resist…

I also went to the Cairo museum and went straight to the good stuff…to see the royal mummies!! Granted the museum holds plenty of interesting artifacts and other “stuff”, but what I wanted to see are real Mummies. And not just any other mummies, these are the ROYAL mummies…the Kings and Queen who ruled Egypt!! I had a big grin out of my face the moment I stepped out of that museum. In fact, nobody could take pictures of the mummies, but I JUST HAD to think of a way to be sly and take a picture because there is no way I’m leaving Egypt without having proof I saw mummies. So I took some…hehehehehe….tsk tsk.


Later that night, I went back to the hotel where I first stayed in Cairo. They were nice enough to let me take a shower and get my shit ready before I leave back to Paris.

Little did I know I wasn’t really leaving Cairo that night.

When I went to check in, the guy took a whole lot of time looking at my Visa and my plane ticket back. Finally I asked him, “uh…what’s wrong?” and then he told me that there’s a problem with my visa.

Heart beat stopped for half a second.

In denial, I asked “uh…and why?” and then he told me that I must buy a different ticket back to Paris because according to my visa, I can only have one stop on my way to Paris. On my French student visa, it says “France (+1 Schengen)”…which means that I can only stop at one European union state to get back to Paris. But my ticket has me going from Cairo-Amsterdam-Frankfurt-Paris….which is two-city stop on my way back to Paris.

Fuck.

So he told me to go to the Air France/KLM ticketing office for me to change my ticket. At that point I only had about an hour until they close the check in counter for my flight. I went in the ticketing office with my heart beating around 100 beats a second, trying to convince myself that it will be ok. I told the guy my problem but all he could tell me was “Sorry…I can’t do it..” Apparently, my ticket was restricted. I booked my ticket through STAtravel.com so I wasn’t even thinking of the route that I HAVE TO TAKE IN ORDER TO GET BACK TO FRANCE.

FUCK.

Then the lady at the KLM counter saw me and offered more help. She started looking for a different route just to get me back to Paris. She told me that the least she could do was try to fly me from Amsterdam to Paris, but that would cost me an additional 700euro (equivalent around $1200).

My jaw was wide open for a good 10 minutes after she told me that.

But then she kept searching and searching and searching, when by that point, they have already closed the check-in counter. So what did that mean?

I lost my flight back to Paris.


I looked at her in fear and I think she saw that. She went on her phone and called her supervisor for a way to get me back to Paris. After ten minutes being on the phone, she told me that she is going to change my flight and that I will be taking Air France instead of KLM so I have a direct flight to Paris…. Without charge.

I took the biggest breath I probably ever took.

I mean, seriously?!?!

Who the fuck saw that coming?!

The next available flight wasn’t until the 20th of April at 1 am in the morning (they have strange arriving and departing hours in Cairo). So that meant that I had an extra two days to kick around Cairo. But in those two days all I can think about was trying to get back to Paris. Granted, I still took advantage of those two extra days by going to the Citadel and the Cairo market, but it was really hard to enjoy it when in the back of my head I should’ve been in Paris by then.

When I tried to check in again for the second time, all I can think of is what can they catch me for now???? I think I arrived at the airport again 3 hours ahead, even before they open the counter for check in. While waiting, I just had butterflies in my stomach hoping they let me check in.


Needless to say, they did let me back in Paris without problem, and without a lost luggage to boot.



Overall, this was the craziest trip I’ve ever had, and the best one hands down regardless of everything that happened. Still looking back, it’s hard to fathom still of the things that I saw and experienced….and how nervous I was even before I left for Cairo. But in the end, they were one of the most amazing days, if not the most amazing days yet.


Basically…this trip kicked ass.

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