Sunday, January 30, 2011

Day 3: Walking Like An Egyptian (12/25)

Today is Christmas morning! Its a bittersweet day, because its the first time I won't be celebrating Christmas at home but at least I'm spending it touring Egypt.

We sat around the breakfast table watching the city wake up.  Breakfast was served; our host informed us that it was not one but two breakfasts: Egyptian and American.  The Egyptian portion consisted of pita bread, falafel, a bean dish similar to refried beans, and cheese. The American portion was fried eggs and rolls. Lots of rolls.  It wasn't quite the typical Christmas morning breakfast, but it was still delicious.

A personal driver awaited us outside in a black entry-level Hyundai to chauffeur us to our days adventures. I say chauffeur, because compared to all of the other cars in Egypt, our car seemed like a limo, in both size and quality. Our first stop was the pyramids of Giza. It was the place I had been looking forward to the most since we first started planning our trip. As far as I know, there are only three ways to travel to the pyramids: tour bus, horse, or camel. Since all of us had ridden tour buses before, we decided to take camels.  We arrived at the "government" camel stables, where we had been told give a fair price. An older man walked out to greet us to explain the different tour packages. He then asked us our names, but before I told him mine he looked at me and asked if I was Obama. I'm pretty sure he was joking, but I do have remarkable similarities with Obama, such as that he is black and I'm....not.  When I told him my name, he said "Ahhh, Michael Jackson!!" This was the common response from most people when I told them my name. Egyptians definitely have a sense of humor!

A quick aside to anyone who ever plans on visiting Egypt on your own:
Do your research on average prices of common items/attractions. We ended up paying 400 pounds ($70) each for 2.5 hours of riding. That's a lot more than we should have paid. We would have saved a couple hundred dollars during our trip had we known the normal price to pay for things, and the acceptable tipping rate. Knowing how to barter is essential, because as Americans, we are used to paying the price told. In Egypt, there are no set prices.

Our tour guide, Hanny, came out to meet us, and showed us to the camels. He was a funny guy, and made jokes the entire time. Hanny explained that we would rotate between riding two camels and two horses. I got to ride one of the camels; suitably his name was Obama (or so I was told). It was awesome to see a camel up close. I felt like we were NYC kids who were going to the countryside to see their first cow. Camels are really tall, so I stupidly thought that we would use a platform or something to get on. Instead you get on the camel when its lying down, but its still about 4 or 5 feet off the ground. Being taller, I was able to swing myself on the saddle. The saddle is covered in blankets, and has small wooden knobs in the front and back. Almost immediately after I sat down and took hold of the knob, the guide made a noise to the camel and it stood up. I was still getting my seating when I was pitched forward at least 45 degrees, then backward, then forward again.To avoid falling off, you have to lean in the opposite direction of the camel. It was an awesome experience! 
Obama the camel

We started off to the pyramids, with two younger boys pulling our camels and horses. Obama was linked to the back of Kristin's camel and would routinely wipe his droll on the back of her jacket. Another fun fact about camels; they don't walk like dogs or horses do. Instead of moving alternate feet (i.e. front left and back right) like horses, camels move alternate sides (front left and back left). This made for a bumpy ride. Arriving at the pyramid entrance, there was a camel traffic jam blocking the gates.
Camel traffic jam
 After some waiting, we made our way into the desert surrounding the pyramids. Funny enough, they looked exactly as I had expected them to. It was still really incredible being able to see them up close. At one point, we got scammed again, this time into buying sodas that were handed to us already opened, which we mistakingly though was part of our tour. The entire trip, Hanny would periodically say "Miikal, where you are?" I guess because I wasn't screaming like the girls were, he wanted to check in on me.
Awesome picture in front of pyramid
When we got close, Hanny told us to touch the pyramids and to ignore the police who might stop us; promising to leave us stranded if we didn't touch them. Fifty feet before the pyramid were ropes and signs saying "Do not enter." We walked past the ropes and sure enough, two police officers started yelling at us. Ignoring their warnings, we walked up to the edge of the pyramid. Oddly, one of the police officers stopped yelling and offered to take our picture.
Picture in front of pyramid taken by police officer
On the way back, we stopped by the Great Sphinx. At first I didn't believe that it was the real one. In the pictures it always appeared much bigger. Compared to the pyramids it looks tiny, but still enormous for a statue: 65 feet tall and 200 feet long. Arriving back at the stables, Hanny hinted several times that we should tip him. However, he was suggesting ridiculously high numbers like 150 from each person. Going to an ATM for more money, a slight argument broke out, with everyone suggesting different numbers to tip. During the commotion, Allie forgot to take her credit card from the ATM. When we returned, it was gone. The next half hour was pretty stressful for everyone, but in the end Allie canceled her card and didn't lose any money. (Most likely, the machine took the card back in)  We probably ended up tipping them over half their monthly salaries, but I considered it a Christmas gift.

Our next stop was Memphis. None of us had any idea what the historical significance was, but it was full of interesting artifacts and statues. The most interesting piece of history was a 33ft tall statue of Ramses II carved out of a single block of limestone. During our visit, Allie received a call from an unknown number. It was Fly Dubai calling to say that our flight had been canceled.  Unfortunately, her phone ran out of minutes so we had no idea what our options were to rebook our flight.
Ramses II statue

The last stop of the day was Sakkara burial grounds. There is a ton of history there, because it is in the ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. We could have spent an entire day there. Highlights are the step pyramid of King Djoser, which was the first pyramid built. Although a little crumbly and weathered, it was still standing some 5000 years later.
First pyramid built
There were also underground tombs, one of which we were able to enter. The entrance was a narrow shaft, maybe 4 feet high that angled downward for a long ways. This was the first place that I saw authentic hieroglyphics. Even after thousands of years, most were still intact and painted, although faded. Once again, people tried to take our money; in one of the tombs a man walked up to me, pointed at a hole and said "Hole 50 meters deep", then held out his hand for money.
Allie descending into the underground tomb
Arriving back at the hostel around 5pm, one of the employees told me that Saint Joseph's Roman Catholic church, the only one in Cairo, had a mass at 6pm. I changed into my one pair of dress clothes, which was followed with retorts from the girls saying that I made them look bad because I was dressed up. The church was small but had "classic" church architecture, which was a big (but welcoming) contrast to the rest of Egypt. Most people seemed to be tourists or nuns. During communion, one of the nuns saw that Allie and Kristin weren't singing, so she put a book in their hands and made them sing. It was pretty funny. I was glad we had to opportunity to go to mass, because it gave me a chance to reflect upon Christmas and get away from our hectic schedules.

The Church appeared to be in the nice part of the city, and there were lots of restaurants and bakeries around. As we walked along, some people shouted Merry Christmas. An American school was even strung with Christmas lights. My viewpoint on Egypt began to change. I realized that my first impression in Alexandria didn't represent all of Egypt. People were actually a lot friendly than I had originally thought.

We found an delicious Italian restaurant (in Egypt since 1895!) and ate pizza. For dessert, we had Egyptian ice cream (tackier than normal ice cream) and a selection pastries topped with pistachios at a place suitably called La Delicious. One of the pastry chefs did some cool trick with his hands and wrapped our dessert in about 2 seconds. Then I ate it, and it was good. That concludes day 3.

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