Oh Cairo!

Ok, first of all there is way to much i could tell you about Cairo to even type in this blog, so when I get back I can give you the whole story.

So we got into Cairo at about three in the morning. Customes took forever, which you wouldnt thing at three in the morning. After about an hour trying to actually get into this city, we finally made it out of the airport. Our hotel had arranged for us to be picked up by a cab. We headed toward the hotel about about 4 am as we were flying through the streets at some crazy speed, only I did not really know how fast we were going because the guys speedometer was broken. We got to the hotel and got ourselves settled in by about 5 am. It was interesting at first because the two people at the front desk do not speak english, and the owner was trying to get some sleep for his trip to france (everything worked out).

I will start with traffic here in Cairo. First of all, there really are no rules of the road here. Drivers are really allowed to do whatever they want, and believe me they do. Lanes in the road are really just suggestive things, but dont really mean much. Most of the taxis dont have a working speedometer, and if they want to back up on a four lane road, they do (it happened to us). Walking accross the steet is like taking your life in your hands, however, supprisingly one gets use to the entire situation. People at will will lust cross the street accross 2, 3, or 4 lans of moving traffic to get to their destination. I got stuck in the middle today (that is, the road). I think we must come close to hitting at least 10 people and maybe 3 times more cars every time we take a cab, only, I have seen no accidents at all. Oh, and the buses...Most of them either have not doors or have them open all the time. People will at will just jump on and off as the bus is moving through the streets. I saw one the other day that was so full of people that about four or five of them were actually hanging out of the door. I can describe this in more detail later, and maybe add in some much needed animation to the stories.

Bazar (not strikingly odd or queer) In Cairo they have the largest bazar in the Arab world. It is like Tijuana only ten times better and cheaper. It is fun bartering down for goods and whatnot. Kyle and I are going back there tomorrow for some more goodies.

Pyramids of Giza, Sakkara, and Dahshur
We woke up early in the morning because we arranged to have a driver take us to the three pyramid sites (this is was very cheap by the way). We started out at Giza where we bartered with the man running a stable for two camels and a guide to take us around the 12km area. We entered the park on camel back and wondered through the desert (or dessert, can never remember that one). The park police are patrolling the area on camel and horse back and check to make sure that people actually paid to get in. Evidently one man did not because we saw them fighting (literally) as the man pulled the police officer off of his camel and put him in a head lock. Another police man showed up to help out his buddy. I think the guy ended up getting beat down. We got some great shots in of the pyramids before we headed over to the 2nd one (the middle one) to go insided. This was also a crazy experience because if you are afraid of tight spaces, you would never be able to make it. The hole is at the base of the pyramid and is only tall enough for you to crouch down, almost in a crawling position. The total size of the hole is really only just big enough for one person to go up and the other to go down. it is 150m to the tomb, and the thing is practically straight down, but even more of an incline at Dahshur. We entered the tomb to find that it was practically a sweat box in there, but still extremely awesome to see. We left the pyramid to see the Sphnx and the tomb of the slaves, also very cool.

After Giza we headed over to Dahshur where there are three pyramids: the main one, bent pyramid, and black pyramid. I will limit this to the main pyramid for time's sake. Kyle and I were practically the only ones around and decided to go inside this one as well. This one you have to walk up about a quarter of the way and then head down the tunnel, which is pretty steap, to the center of the pyramid. We snuck some "no, no" pictures from inside because we were the only ones around.

Then we headed to Sakkara, but only took some pictures from the surrounding area...

Today...
Today, we headed over to the Cairo Museum which is the most awesome museum I have seen. Cairo is pretty poor so the museum is not state of the art or anything, but the things inside speak for themselves. Here is just a couple of the things we saw: the oldest sculture found in Egypt, The Book of the Dead (scrolls), King Tut's "stuff," and many old kings, queens, and priest's mummies.

Food in Cairo. Out of all the cities we have been to thus far, I think the food in Cairo is the most "sketch." We have mainly been sticking to the American food places, but tonight we decided to try a local place. We walked by one that looked pretty "lagit" and so entered and sat down. They guy came up to us and said in broken English "small, medium, or large." Not knowing exactly what we were getting we both requested the small. He brought us over a bowl of macaroni and pasta with some things that looked like capers and stuff that looked like small corn flakes; it came with a side of this tomato sauce (very watery). We both dug in...there were other sauces on the table that were decent aswell. We left there still not knowing exactly what we ate. What we did know is that it was extremely cheap (I had a coke with mine and it came to 5 L.E. for me. Less than a Dollar). It is now just about midnight and I have still not gotten sick, so I guess the food could not have been that bad. We got back to the hotel where I asked the manager what we had. She said that it was a very popular traditional Egyptian dish that consisted of macaroni, pasta, fried onions, and she said "little bean type things." There was some other stuff in there that I would be happy now knowing about...

Well, in short, however short that really was, that has been our experience in Cairo thus far. The stories will def. be better coming straight from out mouths however. You all will just have to wait for those.

Until Rome everyone...