Egypt by Mia

Me and the other pyramid that isn't the Great one.. forget what its called...

Our flight to Cairo was not as awesome as our flight to Istanbul, but still much better than JetStar. They didn’t have the unlimited movies and the screens on the backs of the seats or anything, only music and screens on the ceiling that were playing commercials the whole time.  We got lunch, though, and it was as good as airplane food goes. When we got to Cairo, the first thing I noticed was the nasty smog in all the air. It’s like extra fine dust (probably from the Sahara) that clings to absolutely everything including your lungs and boogers (I don’t care if that’s too much information…). Lots of the old people here can barely talk, their throat’s so messed up from the air. Other than that, it was definitely a step up from India because there were less taxi drivers bugging you. We took a van from the airport to our hotel which was really uneventful compare to what happened everywhere else (like Bali). Mommy had reserved the hotel beforehand so all we had to do was drive there, which is really unusual for us. Of course we got lost for a little while because the driver didn't know where we were going, but daddy steered him in the right direction because he had Google maps on his screen.

The view from the hotel room

Or hotel room had a nice Nile view and a little tiny kitchenette so we had instant noodles for breakfast the next morning. Daddy got a really good deal with a driver who spoke no English, in fact, he barely spoke Arabic as far as I could tell. I don't think he read either language which made things a little tough.  He was one of those really Muslim guys wearing the little hat and shapeless smock. I kinda think he lived in his car, too. It took a while to get through to him where we were going so the was a lot of shouting and waving of the arms. Also, I'm pretty sure daddy mentioned Lady Gaga. He always does, and it really DOES NOT HELP!!! Anyway, we were headed to the train station to get a ticket for the night train that we were going to take to Aswan after we saw the Pyramids. The guy got us there eventually-- we stopped at the bus station on the way by accident, though. After looking around for tickets for the tourist train (and deciding that we could just come back and buy them later) we went to the pyramids.

Me kissing the Sphinx

Our driver dropped us off at a parking lot that was full of camels and horses and touts offering rides on them. One said that you had to walk 7 miles to get there and it was much easier with a camel. That may have worked if we had not been a able to clearly (or as clearly as was possible, through that smog) see the pyramids from there. We walked through an alley to get to the gates which, of course, had a parking lot too. When we got through the gates there was more guys with camels and horses trying to sell us rides. They were really desperate because they outnumbered the tourists by more than 2 to 1. Most are scared that if they go to Egypt right now they will get abducted or blown up some how, but everything is fine. The closest we have seen to protesters has been a cluster of tents on the park in the center of Cairo with Egyptian flags everywhere. No one stopped bugging us for money until we managed to hide behind a wall. You have to pay a ton extra to actually go inside the pyramids so we just looked at the outside and kissed the Sphinx and stuff. It was really cool to be seen them  and even when you are there, It doesn't feel real. Like the Taj Mahal. Actually, because of the smog and dust, I think you could probably see them better in the pictures anyway. The experience was definitely at least partially destroyed by the camel and horse guys bugging us all the time. When we got worn out from walking around in the desert and stuff we went back to our old man driver guy and went to the center of Cairo, intending to visit the museum, but we were too late. We had some really late lunch and yummy chocolate cake from a cafe and headed to the train station. There was some confusion as to which one-- the driver was convinced that we wanted to go the Ramses Station, not the Giza one. We got there eventually daddy paid the driver who started babbling angrily because he didn't get enough and chased after daddy for a while. When we lost him, we got tickets to the tourist train. They segregate the locals and the tourists for our safety and have totally different trains for them. The tourist train is nice, clean, and fancy while the locals have the nasty dirty ones that are packed so tightly that you can't open the doors. There is a substantial price difference between the two, too. I'm definitely not complaining! It's nice to have a place to relax with your own kind without worrying about being robbed. We got 3 cabins that had a set of bunks each. They were really nice and clean and new! It was way different from the ones in India, in a very good way. The steward guy served us a slightly dry dinner similar too airplane food and folded down the bunks for us. The ride was 14 hours long so we had time to sleep and breakfast in the morning before we got to Aswan.

Us with the crazy old man driver and his car. Notice how we got his plates?

In the morning we ate the (again-- slightly dry) break fast and the steward folded up the beds. By then it was time to get off.   Our hotel is really close to the Aswan train station so we didn't need so start yet another taxi adventure. After dumping our luggage, we walked to the banks of the Nile that are lined with all sorts of bites from feluccas to luxury cruise boats. Like the camel guys at the Pyramids, they were really desperate for business so we got bothered by a few guys with feluccas. We walked up the river looking for a cruise ship that leaves tomorrow. We didn't find one until we decided to follow one of the more respectable looking guys back to his boat, the Nile Ruby. It was surprisingly okay and we were all trying to keep our faces blank as daddy negotiated some ridiculously awesome deal as always. Actually, he negotiated a bit too hard and we have ended up with a free tour on a bus that starts at 3:30 am. and ends around 5 pm. Not great, but we spend lots of time in the bus sleeping. After the cruise ship thing, we had lunch at a nice looking hotel that didn't even have a menu for the restaurant and there was dust on the salad (which we didn't eat, of course, what do you think we are, suicidal?!). It was pretty good food anyways and no one has dropped dead yet so I'm guessing that and the rest of our sketchy meals have been okay. Then we went back to the hotel for a little while before taking a nice felucca ride at sunset. The captain of the boat kept talking about tips (that didn't get him a very big one) and about everything from smoking to family. He asked daddy if he smokes anything ('marijuana? hashish? cigarette? nothing?!')  and all sorts of other stuff. It was really annoying but funny at times. I'm quite sure he was stoned. After we got back it was after dark and we went to eat at another sketchy restaurant before shopping around at the market on the way back. There were some really cool necklaces and we bought some instant noodles for later! Aswan was much better than Cairo in terms of air quality and the Nile is actually surprisingly clean. Egypt is pretty good so far and I am definitely looking forward to the cruise, even if we have to wake up at some ungodly hour.