cairo pt. 2 - fireworks, rock piles & haggling

it seems as though every city we travel to puts on a guerrilla fireworks show just for us. cairo was no exception, as we got up from dessert (yes, despite our "independent explorers" travel approach, we tried out the hotel's dinner offering as it came highly recommended), we heard explosions in the distance stretching out from the balcony into the blackness of nighttime cairo.



not sure of their source or purpose, but there were fireworks nonetheless.


next day, we hired a mini-coach with driver and guide and took off for the pyramids. we would probably not do it this way again, but everyone's entitled to one free "typical tourist" moment in egypt. this whole private-coach-&-personal-guide setup is *the* standard for cairo tourists setting out for the pyramids. you hire the duo and the car as a package for the day. they pick you up at your hotel at 7 am, drive you to the first set of pyramids, the guide takes you around, takes some pictures of you, then back in the van and off to the next set of pyramids (the cairo area has three sets of them on the typical tourist itinerary).



you see some beautiful things, like this.


and you stand awkwardly in front of some remarkable things, like this.



you walk a lot of columned passageways, like this.



you stand some more, try to look less awkward, more british-colonial-archaeologist.












you eat lunch (included in the price of the day) at a weird tourist sort-of-egyptian-food buffet place. by this point, ann and I were super skeptical of the whole thing - it was all too safe, too prepared, too rehearsed. we purposely seek out restaurants where there aren't any other tourists. this place was *all* tourists - so we initially hated it.







then they brought this meat box to the table. ann got much happier.

a: we later talked with the hotel owners about the tour and choice of restaurant. they have to be very, very careful with what tour people they use and what restaurants they stop at because it is so easy for people to be taken advantage of. our hotel was very concerned with its customer service ratings and had first-hand stories of their own of getting sick on local food.
it would have been interesting to eat all the strange food in egypt but we were warned a number of times not to because of the kitchen conditions being inferior or uncleanly by western standards. we never once saw meat being refrigerated. but then again we saw most meat when it was still alive and grunting on the streets!



and the setting, fake as it was, sort of captured the '60s/'70s-height-of-Egyptian-tourism's-Golden-Age feel we love from James Bond movies.


after lunch, it was back in the van and back to more pyramids.


they made us pose in front these in the traditional pharonic burial pose. it was uncomfortable.



ann's true feelings.

at the "great" pyramids, they take you to a hill behind the area for a "very nice and beautiful" view. they tell you that pretty much everything is "very nice and beautiful" - it's a lie 90% of the time. here, it was rather true.






























this shot is looking from the pyramids, across the desert and toward cairo.


the cops ride camels.





the sphinx - smaller than you imagine.






this is the seating area for the nightly (yep, they still do the *exact same show*) sound & light show at the pyramids - the one that figures prominently into that James Bond movie (The Spy Who Loved Me) with the villain Jaws (gold teeth guy). Ann and I like that one a lot.


So we made the guide take a picture of us in front of that area instead of in front of the sphinx/pyramids. he thought we were a little weird.




after the last set of pyramids, it was back in the van and across the nile, back into cairo. mouhammed, our guide, sang and translated the muslim call to prayer for us, we resisted buying any crappy papyrus at the weird store he made us stop at, and we talked about his semi-arranged marriage to a girl whose sister he likes better.

a: he also asked if next time I came to cairo I would be bringing a little prince or princess. I tried to explain that I was too young for babies and that I wanted to buy mine anyways. I think it was lost in the translation to him :)


for whatever reason, the cairo-giza corridor (about 10 mins. drive) sports a lot of mildly pimped vintage VW microbuses.



next day, cairo, I went out to get some water. and remembered to document the everyday weirdness for this blog.



horsedrawn carts are common in cairo. downtown cairo. like, blocks from the times square of cairo. it's a weird mix of third world and modern.



oh, and this street sign was a rare one in that it had an english translation. otherwise, it was all arabic all the time. and google maps doesn't translate well either. getting around was challenging.


but the hotel did have a nice rooftop relaxation deck offering a panoramic view of smog-clogged cairo.





smog- and trash- and satellite-clogged, that is. it's an odd thing there, but they love to throw garbage and debris on their roofs. so, cairo from above looks like a bunch of small, tall landfill islands dotted by satellite dishes.











the morning after Eid, the streets ran with blood from the slaughtered animals.


we strolled around, snapped a picture of a typical egyptian taxi.


ate some kushari - real egyptian street food finally!



it's a mix of rice, lentils, spaghetti, chick peas, fried onions, some other stuff and no fewer than three secret chili/tomato sauces. and a huge bowl of it costs about a quarter. it's quite good.



not sure what's going on here - but I think this restaurant serves brain - and wants you to know it's "exlant". oh egypt.


oh egypt, indeed. the day after Eid (you remember - Sheep Slaughter Festival), the back streets of cairo were literally covered in carcasses and skins. mostly skins. and they were being bought and traded like mad all day and night. pickup trucks piled high, guys tossing them around like pizza dough.


ann made another foreign friend.

a: the stray cats in egypt are quite sad looking. there was an abandoned litter of kittens under a car that limped around and screeched for food.





these random blood splatters on the pavement were common.



as were these giant piles of bloody animal skin. the smell was, how you say, amazingly sickening.

a: it is very strange how fast one can adapt to different surroundings. by the last night in cairo we barely gasped at the site of bloody carcass piles. instead it became more of a game of "give us what you got, cairo" - meaning it took more and more to shock us and we learned to expect almost anything. locals weren't making weird faces about the butcher practices, so why should we act like their way was wrong and sickening? I am not saying that I want to start butchering my own meat but there is something about it that makes more sense than other *modern* forms of meat farming.


McDonald's there delivers - via Vespa.


Egypt is still Africa - and the plethora of people carrying heavy things on their heads doesn't let you forget it.


our last night, we went to the bazaar. ann bought an awesome neon green scarf from this guy and I bought a t-shirt. we got a good price, but the guy was in love with ann and kept saying he would only agree to the low price if he got a kiss on the cheek from ann. yeah, didn't happen.


this guy and I haggled over the price of a large piece of fabric for at least half and hour. he was loving it. he would swear to allah about his low prices, I would ask him for a "bearded friends club" discount. it went on and on. we got angry, we laughed, we gave and refused money and goods. eventually, we settled on a price and took this picture. insane.

a: this was some of the best negotiating I have ever seen! even the locals smiled at keith's hard bargaining skills. I especially like the part at the end, when keith finally gave him the money and he kissed it and rubbed it on his forehead. that is the other man, not keith!

that reminds me, a lot of guys in egypt complemented me on my "very nice mustache" (referring to my beard). A few even asked me if I was muslim. I think it might have helped how they treated us sometimes. Strange, a little sad, but seemingly true.

a: I liked the part when egyptian men would gesture toward me and remind keith that he is "very lucky!"


After five long, weird days in Cairo, we took an 11-hour day train along the Nile and onto our next locale, the city of Luxor. These shots are looking out from the train onto the Nile's flood plain.






once again, our hotel was a little weird (they loved to put up signs with long lists of rules on them. the one by the pool even outright discussed diarrhea! yep, it wasn't the hilton ...). but it was clean and had a rooftop pool.


and balconies off the rooms.



from which you could watch homeless people light fires on the ground floors of half-constructed, half-abandoned buildings situated just across the way.

Hey, welcome to Luxor! (post to come)