Land of the Pharaohs, here we come!: August 2012

The bus pulled up at 9am and we were off to see the Pyramids. Everyone was excited. Half way there the bus pulled over - our tour guides were not on the bus. It was unclear if they were meeting us there or if they were supposed to be on the bus. After a long wait, it was decided to continue on with out tour guides. Melanie, the high school principal, attempted to give us as much background as she could before we got off the bus.
A ticket to see the pyramids is 60LE ($10). Once through the gate we were warned that there would be people there asking us to buy stuff, to take their picture, to ride on a camel, etc. If we didn't want to, all we had to do was politely but firmly tell them no and walk away. We were supposed to walk through the gate, have a quick look around and get back on the bus which was going to take us to the far side of the pyramids to get an overall view.

This guy looks friendly enough. All I wanted to do was get his photo with the pyramids in the back ground. When he got off his camel, I went over to him to give him a tip as a thank-you for posing for me.

Next thing I know, I'm wearing a scarf on my head and sitting on the camel! He took my very expensive SLR camera out of my hand so he could take my picture. ("look like Arab" and "hold tight and lean back" is what he said)
This is the photo he took! Not bad for someone so frightened.

After he took the photo, I expected to get down. Instead, he grabbed the lead rope and started to pull the camel to take me for a ride. Yikes! "Michael... help me!"

Man pulling me hears me yell for Mike. Next thing I know, Mike is on the back of the camel with me - wearing the head scarf! We still don't know how this happened. Once again, he took the camera and took this picture.

And this one .... Finally Becca came to our rescue. She took the camera from him. Mike was forceful enough get us off the camel - And THEN - he had the nerve to tell us the amount of money we were offering him as a tip was "not enough". In the end, I have no idea how much money Mike gave him. I'm was just glad to be on the ground again.

The desert amazes me. Look at it! It's exactly what it looks like in all the photos I've seen. It goes on for miles and there is NOTHING in view but sand and blue sky. Pretty cool . . . and really HOT. We've all come to accept that sweat running down your back is normal.

This is the spot that the bus took us to for photos. There were lots of booths set up with trinkets for sale - all requiring bartering. I purchased a few items at what I hope was a good price.

This is the spot where you can take photos and look like you're holding a pyramid in your hands - so we tried it. Turned out not too bad.

The man selling Mike's new head scarf was so annoying. Mike was offered a head scarf at the last stop for 20LE. He didn't buy it. When some of the other guys had them, and paid 20LE for them, he decided that if he saw them again, he would buy one and put a 20LE note in his shirt pocket.
The next stop was the big pyramid and sure enough, there was another man selling head scarfs. We walked over to him and he told us he was selling them for 200LE. We walked away. He followed. We told him that others had purchased theirs for only 20. He didn't believe us. We walked away again. This went on for what seemed like a very long time. Finally, I took the 20LE out of Mike's pocket. He saw the money, grabbed it out of my hand and gave me the scarf. The only problem is, he didn't give us the rope piece to hold it in place. We'll go back someday and be more prepared to barter.

Becca and Mike are standing on the
bottom blocks of the biggest pyramid.

There are rows of tombs like this
along the pathway down to the sphinx.

The Sphinx was our last stop. Amazing!

I could have taken photos here all day long....but we only had a few minutes.

Guardian of the Giza Plateau. The leonine Sphinx is known to the Arabs as Abu al-Hol, the "father of terror".

Three successive generations built these monumental structures during the 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdon (2686-2181 BC)

This child was pushing book marks and post cards. We didn't buy any because he wanted bills, not coins.
He did accept the coins in exchange for a photo. He was pretty cute.

This one is for you Don Wilson. "the fourth pyramid"
I'm happy to report that you can't see Pizza Hut from the Pyramids. But you can see the Pyramids from Pizza Hut.

When we returned home everyone had a long nap. Becca even slept through the landlord fixing her bed. (it was broken and she had to sleep on the couch for 2 nights)
All three of us were dehydrated. Next time I'm taking a back pack and filling it with water bottles. Problem is, you don't feel thirsty while you're there. It's not until the excitement is over that you notice it. We drank lots when we got home and into the next day. I've never seen Mike drink so much water. He used to think I was crazy to drink a big glass of water in the morning .... guess who pulled the water bottle out of the fridge as soon as he got up today?

The GOOD: Seeing the amazing nearly 5000 year old pyramids and sphinx.

The BAD: The tour guides showed up at the Maadi Hotel at 10am, one hour late.

The UGLY: Being hassled to purchase. Next time we'll be more prepared. And there will be a next time - it's only 20 minutes away.

View of the sunset and moon
from airplane window.

So much has happened in such a small amount of time. It's hard to know where to start!

The first thing we noticed about Egypt is that it gets dark here much earlier than in Ontario. We watched the sun set out the airplane window. By 7pm it was dark.

We were met at the airport by the friendly CISE staff (Jan, Melanie and Wendy). It was suggested that we take advantage of our 4 bottles allowance at the duty free. When we got in there, the baileys and the beer were all gone. We did get 3 bottles of wine and a bottle of vodka. We were told that if we get to the Duty Free shop in Maadi within 48 hours we could get more, but only 3, not 4. Mike decided to take his chances that the store in Maadi would have beer. We were hoping that when Brianna comes to visit at Christmas time that she’d be able to pick up another 4 bottles but, unfortunately, you have to be 21 to purchase.

CISE had school busses waiting to take us to the Maadi hotel. The busses are very nice and have air conditioning. Mike has to sit sideways – not enough leg room.

The Canadian International School of Egypt Bus

On our way to the hotel we were reminded that August 21^st is the Eid of Ramadan and the Egyptians were celebrating – just like Christmas. The banks of the Nile and the streets were filled with people. The traffic was crazy – but that’s normal. We saw a family on a motorcycle. Husband driving, wife riding side saddle with a baby on her lap. No helmets of course. I hope to get a photo of this for you soon.

The Maadi Hotel has a view of the Pyramids and the Nile River!

Our room had 3 single beds and no hot water. There is a lovely pool area on the roof. We arrived at the hotel at 11pm and went right to sleep.

We were told not to drink the tap water but that it’s ok for showering and brushing your teeth. We have boiled some to water and put it in the fridge. Fingers crossed that it doesn’t make us sick. Becca has tried it already so time will tell...

Becca in the Maadi Hotel lobby.

The first time we heard the Egyptian call to prayer, it was at 4am from our hotel room. We were expecting bells – but it was a man’s voice chanting in Arabic over a very loud speaker. It goes on for about 2 minutes and then there is silence for 15 minutes and then more chanting for about 30 seconds. This happens 5 times a day. Our first night, Becca was so tired that she didn’t wake up but it woke her up for sure on the second night. The Friday 12pm call to prayer is more like a church service with a sermon after the call. Most stores close on Fridays from 12 – 1pm.

Mike with his first can of Egyptian beer - Stella.

Apartment Hunting started on Wednesday morning. A group of us (2 busses full) all went together. I wasn’t able to get photos of the apartments because of all the people. We decided to pick an apartment quickly and took the 6^th one we saw. We were about to take the 4^th one but another couple (Amanda and Jason) beat us to it – which is fine because we now have great neighbours! (And can see their balcony from ours) We choose Flat 42 on the 4^th floor of building 5/4 on road 221. (No elevator. Suitcases were damaged in the move. Sorry Mom, your blue suitcase didn’t make it. The wheels are going to fall off any second now. We’ll find you a new one before we come home. The wheel on my black suitcase did fall off.)

The door of building 5/4 on road 221.

Our balcony, top right.

Cleaning!

We like our flat and once it’s cleaned properly I’m sure we’ll be very comfortable here – and fit too (75 stairs to climb to get to the flat door). Negotiating the contract for our flat was very interesting. The man from the school prefers a 10 month contract for the 1^st year and then a 12 month contract for the second year. Our landlord (John) was insisting on an 11 month contract. We accepted his terms and the CISE guy thought we were crazy. But for 3500LE ($583 Canadian) a month, we didn’t want to pass on it over one month’s rent that the school might end up paying anyway if we decide to stay in this flat next year. What we didn’t ask is how much utilities are! We discovered if you put your garbage outside your door, it magically disappears in a few hours; which we think means there is a bowab looking after the building but we haven’t met him. We have a few things to figure out still. One beautiful thing about this apartment location – Sarah and Becca didn’t hear the call to prayer at 4am and Mike barely heard it. This apartment is going to work out just fine.

This is the view from our balcony.

On first sight of Maadi, it appeared bigger than we imagined. There are actually 5 entries. But we discovered that it feels longer on a bus because of all the one way streets. You can walk faster than driving. We have seen lots of guards, a few rifles, and can’t believe how safe we feel here.

The streets of Maadi are lined with trees, littered with garbage, stray cats and dogs. It’s very hard for Mike to walk by a stray animal. The backdrop is a desert with mounds of sand everywhere.

We have seen where the Mubarek family is now incarcerated. It’s not far from where some of the teachers are living.

For those of you with allergies, here’s a reason to come visit – our friend Amanda has allergies in Canada from Spring to Fall and here in Egypt, she has not taken one allergy pill. Cool eh? We also haven’t put on sunscreen. No one’s skin has burnt – yet.

We made it to the duty free shop before our time was up to get Mike’s allotted 3 bottles – we found the wine that we loved from Boston, and Mike found MGD! Can you believe it? He can’t find MGD at half the bars in Belleville and nowhere but the beer store in Picton but he found it here in Egypt. Total cost, $35 US for 2 bottles and a case of beer.

We brought our cell phones in hopes that we could just get a new sim card to make them work. After some thought and a bit of a hard time about getting our phones unlocked, we decided to just get new phones. We were there with another couple and for the 5 of us to get a cell phone set up it took 2 hours. We went back the next night to buy an internet stick because it might just be easier than figuring out how to set up our internet with a wireless router – but that only took 20 minutes.

What have we eaten so far? We’ve eaten at an Italian restaurant (where a meal was $6 Canadian and Beer was $2.50 for a tall boy can), Subway and went to a party at the principal’s house (she served hamburgers and pasta salad). We had two different kinds of Pitas on the Felucca ride. Turns out, you can get any food you want delivered right to your door by a man on a motorcycle.

KFC Delivery! We've been told that KFC is the biggest franchise here.

Snapped from the bus window.
Apartment buildings on the right, desert on the left.

On the banks of the Nile.

Apparently this was a sign of a wedding - a bunch of people in about 5 different pick-up trucks drove by.
They had furniture, appliances and musical instruments. Later in the evening we saw a bride and groom.

Egyptian women carrying something on their heads.

What is a Felucca? It’s like a sail boat and house boat all in one. We had a beautiful relaxing 90 minute ride in a Felucca on the Nile River on August 24th. We will definitely be doing that again. No misquotes or no funky smells, it was beautiful.