Cathy says that she thinks this place is "tame" compared to last time she visited. If this is tame, I'd hate to see what it was like when she was here last!

The first couple days I was just sort of in shock -- from the noise, the traffic, the honking, the muezzins amplified through bad sound systems, the pollution . . . We stayed in the Marriott the first night, which was a good call, as I was cushioned a little bit by the shock, before jumping into the "real" Egypt. We've been spending the last few nights at a shabby, if reasonably clean, budget hotel in Zamalek. Zamalek is a mostly residential neighborhood of Cairo, on an island in the middle of the Nile. The location is a little bit inconvenient because there's no metro station nearby, and everything is too far to walk, so we have to take a cab. But compared to most of Cairo, it's reasonably quiet. After a day's sightseeing, it's nice to sit on the hotel patio and drink mint tea to recover.

As Cathy mentioned it's Ramadan right now. This hasn't put much of a dent in sightseeing, because the tourist spots are still open. But eating is more expensive, because the only restaurants open are those that cater to tourists, and so probably cost five times as much as local food.

The Egyptian Museum in Cairo is amazing. I'm glad we'd gone to the Egyptian exhibits at the British Museum in London, and that I'd taken lots of notes, because there is little to no interpretive material at the museum. About one in 10 cases will have an old yellowed card, apparently typed some time in the 1940s, with short descriptions in Arabic, French, and English. Of course, if you don't find the exhibits themselves informative enough, you can hire an "Egyptologist" guide who will give you a personal tour. From what I overheard of these "guides", I'm glad we didn't bother. Basically, their interpretation consisted in pointing out the obvious. For instance, in the "animal mummies" exhibit: "That is a mummy of a cat; and that is a mummy of a crocodile; and that is a mummy of a bird; and that is a mummy of a fish."

The highlight of the museum is the royal mummy room, where about a dozen of the best-preserved mummies are on display. It's amazing how well-preserved the faces are after 4000 years. Ramses II was my favorite of the lot -- he looked like an old man who had just died. He still has tufts of blonde hair fringing his scalp. Apart from the mummy room, the best two exhibits were the Tutankhamen exhibit, and the animal mummies room. The Tutankhamen display is filled with fascinating objects -- my favorite were the four gilded nested shrines in which his sarcophagus was placed. The animal mummy room was unique in that there were actually labels and interpretation, and the objects on display were arranged in some sort of logical order!

The day before yesterday we went to the Giza Pyramids. The pyramids themselves were quite impressive, of course. And we spent some time poking through the tombs in the Western Cemetery, which is where bureaucrats and nobles were buried.

It's difficult to enjoy the place though, with the constant buzz of camel drivers and junk sellers around you. "Where you from, sir? America, very good, I love America. Camel ride? Camel ride sir? Do you know how much? Veeeeery cheap price. Go out to desert, get veeeery good photograph. Okay, maybe later. Later, sir? Camel ride later?" "Post cards? Post cards? Write home sir? Only five pounds. Very cheap postcard. What about papyrus, sir? Very cheap, very good papyrus. Please, just take a look." My favorite was "It's too far to walk, sir, 10 kilometers, you must take camel" -- in fact, the pyramids are in about a one square kilometer area. Then there's the tourist police trying to get baksheesh from you: "take a picture sir, you touch pyramid. I take picture you and wife touch pyramid".

Most of the tombs in the western cemetery weren't open, but those that did invariably had a guy stretched out on a piece of cardboard, half asleep, by the entrance. Of course as soon as I walked up, he perked up, and wanted to show me around. The "guiding" consisted of turning on lights and either pointing out the obvious or giving outright misinformation. "Look, the king" as he points at a relief that is clearly not a king. "Look, alligator. Look, hippopatamus. Look, flowers. Look, boat . . . Baksheesh?"

After the pyramids I felt like I was about ready to crack. But it's important to step back and realize that these guys are not representative of most Egyptians. Most of the people we've deal with, outside of the pyramids, and the airport, have been perfectly lovely -- friendly, helpful, eager to help us with our lousy Arabic pronunciation.

Today I'm just taking it easy, and Cathy's running a couple of errands. There's still a lot to see in Cairo, but we'll probably spend a few days at the end of our trip, after Ramadan is over, to see the sites in Islamic Cairo, and to go to Saqqara. Either tomorrow or the day after, we'll catch the train down to Luxor . . .