If it’s Monday, it Must be Cairo
Our Trip Song: Africa by Toto
So we flew to Cairo early this morning from Luxor. Everything has been going well.
Jim and I have been battling some minor health issues. He’s been having gastrointestinal problems and I believe I have a cold, although the symptoms are still presenting themselves. I have a very sore throat and today I started to feel a general malaise which is not good. I had to leave the museum and take a nap at the hotel.
Yesterday was a HUGELY packed day in Luxor. We went to the Valley of the Kings, Colossi of Memnon, Hatshepsut’s temple, Medinat Habu and an alabaster shop (where Jim got ripped off). I also found the most amazing shop ever, the Fair Trade Egypt shop – there is one in Luxor and Cairo. I bought some beautiful things, and they don’t hassle you there, it’s cheap, and the money goes to local artisans (and also where we found how much we SHOULD have paid for alabaster).
So…We paid our driver, Hussein, 100 Egyptian pounds (about $18) to drive us from site to site in Luxor for about 5 hours. What a deal! I almost felt bad, him sitting in his car waiting hours for us while we browsed. He was great though.
At the Valley we went to the tombs of Ramses IV, Thutmosis III and Menerptah. It was a hot sunny day – bareable – but when you went down into the tombs it was stifling and I felt kind of lightheaded. It was strange – maybe the air was thin? Anyway it was crazy to be in those tombs… it’s so hard to actually wrap your head around what you are seeing.
Hatshepsut’s temple was actually kind of lame. Medinat Habu, which is often overlooked by tourists (according to LP), was much cooler. A little old man with brown teeth pointed things out to us (for baksheesh of course) including inscriptions where the Egyptians cut off the hands of their prisoners (Nubians or Assyrians) and you could see a pile of hands. Same thing with their private parts.
We went to the Egyptian Museum today and will do the Pyramids tomorrow. The next day we fly to Sharm el-Sheikh and the fun begins.
We are staying in a sick posh hotel, the Cairo Marriot. We couldn’t stop laughing at how out of place we looked walking in with our backpacks.
Cairo Streets
FUTURE TOPICS
More on Touts
Weather & Sun
Harrassment
Clothing
Food
Tags: Egypt, Petra, Jerusalem 2007, Travel
Kelly
Always glad to hear that your trip is going OK, except for the minor sicknesses, hope that passes quickly. Don’t forget to add the “tons more to tell you at another time” promise. I was reading your other blogs from RTW and Turkey and you sometimes forgot to fullfull those promises. I forgive you, but I’m so curious as to what the “other stuff” was.