Egypt

Well to start off the big post vacation post here is the short list of photos with captions.

Let's cover the obvious highlights of the trip. The Pyramids were very cool to actually see. As I've mentioned before they are a bit old. It was cool to have been inside the great pyramid, but I'll admit there wasn't much inside there to see. It was a bit surprising how the city has grown right up to the Pyramids - a bit less of a middle of the desert experience than you might expect. The Valley of Kings in Luxor is an area with a bunch of tombs where later Pharaohs were buried, they figured out that if you don't want your grave which is filled with jewels and gold to be looted, putting the world's tallest building over it isn't the best approach. The cool part of the tombs is the original paintings are well preserved. In Luxor I talked everyone into seeing the Temple of Hatshepsut because I think the building as part of a mountain thing is so cool looking. In Luxor we also saw Karnak which was impressively large. I found the other sites really cool because I had never seen anything like them, but Karnak was similar enough to Greek ruins that it didn't grab me as much. The Egyptian Museum in Cairo was a bit funny - they had items that I think an American museum would build an entire room to display just sitting somewhere at random with no label. There was a giant wall with stacks of unlabeled sarcophaguses. This is also where they have most of the items from King Tut's tomb. In Luxor we also tried to go on a sail boat, but there wasn't enough wind so instead we talked to a guy who told us about how Jews control the world (that was one of a small number of comments about Jews and Israel).

In Aswan we went to a Nubian village where we danced with a preschool class (we were standing outside and a teacher waved us in and then got all the kids and put on some music - and of course at the end pointed at their donation box) and had tea at a house we were passing by when they invited us in. We also found a place with a nice view of the river and city (we were going to eat there, but apparently the cook stayed up too late and wouldn't be in till dinner). And we went to the souq (bazaar) for a bit.

One odd note for the Vegas fans - Luxor and the Pyramids are both in Egypt, but there are no Pyramids in (or near) Luxor.

In addition to seeing ancient stuff we also visited some Mosques in Cairo. I already described the most interesting Mosque visit. We also saw the Mosque on the 1 LE bill. We saw a bunch of other Mosques, but given how little I know about them I had trouble really distinguishing many differences between them (anyone interested in architecture is probably wondering if I'm blind). In Cairo there was a loud speaker system so everyone could hear the call to prayer three times a day. Cairo is secular enough that most people we saw did not react to the call to prayer and I imagine anyone serious about it had made their way to a Mosque, but I did see a few people put down mats at the appropriate time. There was a decent portion of men who had marks on their forehead from touching the ground while praying. The oddest part was some old stone Mosques had neon green signs saying Allah (in arabic), as shown here. We also saw a few Coptic Churches and two Synagogues (neither are in use - one had cops outside who wouldn't let us go near or take pictures).

One of the most interesting experiences was purely thanks to Angie's adventurous spirit. In Luxor Angie was having a conversation with one of the cab drivers and after a while he invited us to his home to have tea. I was going to say no way, but as a group of 4 it didn't seem too crazy. We went to his house where his mother, most of the 11 siblings and most of the siblings' kids live. Everyone (men and women) greeted us and shook our hands. We had tea outside while they prepared for their nightly gathering around the fire and TV. He also showed us around outside his house where they raise pigeons, chickens and cows, where he is slowly building a restaurant, and the neighbor's wheat (or corn?) field (their field is a bit further away). At the end he took us to our destination. Angie wrote a bit in his taxi journal - many of the cab drivers in Luxor had these - they would ask what language you speak and then show you a comment from someone who had written in that language and they could cover just about any language, which I guess shouldn't be too surprising since Luxor was like a tour boat parking lot.

If you are in Luxor and want someone to drive you around give Hussein Ali Keliey a call 0020124133207.

The one thing I'll say about the train rides is - if you are ever going to a developing country - bring Cipro!

Some various other observations. Crossing the street in Cairo was the most intense street crossing I've ever done. It beat China largely because in China there was at least some respect for street lights - in Cairo it was like they didn't exist (and many places they didn't). Lots of places the ground was the trash can which led to trash fires and goats roaming around. In some of the less busy parts of Cairo (a city of 20 million) there were goats wandering around on the street. This trip was the first time I've ever tipped a cop (they were not shy about asking). Cheapest meal was $0.30 falafel near the Pyramids which was reasonably good - most meals were $5 to $10. In touristy areas the hassling was rather intense - there was even a place I went to that advertised no hassling and someone immediately walked up to explain over and over how he wasn't hassling me. Outside the tourist areas people were generally very helpful - got very confusing when tipping was expected. Since hospitality seems to be valued highly in the culture (such as inviting people over for tea) it made it extra hard to tell if someone was being nice or looking for a tip or setting up a scam. Basically all prices were negotiable. Cabs don't even have meters - you negotiate a fixed price based on the destination before you get in. Almost all women wore headscarves, but often with typical western clothing. Some women wore full burkhas. Most men wore typical western dress, but plenty wore robes. Some people performed some amazing acts of balancing stuff on their head. Anything from people with too many grocery bags for their hands to a guy on a bike with a wooden board the length of the bike with bread on it. The bread was very good - especially the whole wheat pita - which was far better than the US attempt at it. And of course shawarma is always good. In parks there were teenage boys and girls hanging out as couples and holding hands, but we were told that's as far as they go. Many times when we told people we're from American the immediate response would be - Bush is bad, Obama is good. And a few people wanted to know what we thought of the sandal throwing incident.

Thanks to Max, Alice and Angie for going with me. I had a great time on the trip!