While today was a great day, I can't help feeling a profound sadness for Egypt. It doesn't seem fair that a country this rich with history, culture, sites, food and incredible people has to suffer so much.
Not only did people say we were crazy to come here, most people looked at us in horror when we said we were coming, and advised us to "get out" as fast as we could. One guy I ride with said Cairo was just ok...he'd seen it on a stopover between flights one time. When I pressed him on details I eventually found out he had 5 hours starting at 5pm to drive the hour and a bit to the Giza pyramids, check it out in the dark, then head back to the airport. He said the drive there and back was pretty unimpressive. I tried to think what someone would think of Canada if they did a similar trip to Niagara Falls.... "the trip on your Queen Elizabeth Way was not impressive... and everywhere you looked you could see the shops of Tim Horton's and lots of highways.... besides, everybody stayed in their lanes on the road which was verrrrryy unnerving".
Sure, we got a lot of stares - they really don't see a lot of our folk around here. Yes, the girls got a lot of stares, from boys and men for sure, but also from the girls. I tried to imagine what the reaction would be if someone walked topless down Yonge Street in Toronto... would they get similar stares? I realize seeing legs and arms isn't the same as seeing someone topless.... to our western brains, but to them, maybe it is. Anyway, I'm not female but the girls definitely felt more uncomfortable earlier in the trip. Gradually, you get used to it. I think?
On the other hand, we've found people to be very polite - never pissed off when you reject them, always greeting us in a friendly manner. The people we've asked for help have always been very good and we sure get a fair number of smiles and greetings from strangers. I have been a little surprised with the lack of proficiency with English. For a country that relies on tourism and generally studies English as a second language throughout school, it's not working very well (I guess my French level could attest to the fact that they may have learned from Canada??).
But I digress... we had another long day to go, but we were all in sync to the time zones so we felt ready to go. Laila met us at 10am and we packed all of our stuff into the car and said goodbye to our hotel. First up, the Antiquities museum of Egypt and a meeting with King Tut... we'll sort of.
It was a hot day... already 42 degrees when we started at the museum - d'oh! The whole place was really fantastic - the kids actually had a great time and we ended up spending about two and a half hours there. While the first floor was filled with artefacts, statues and artwork from various ages, most of the second floor was all about young King Tut. Many people know the story of King Tut - his main reason for fame was that his tomb was intact when discovered in the early 1900's. He wasn't the most famous pharaoh of the time, not even close, but because all of the other "known" tombs of the great kings had been robbed, he moved up to become the number one draft pick in the NPL (National Pharaoh League? No? It's really hot here...).
King Tut's treasure was stunning. I can't really do justice to how in awe we all were at the volume and magnificence of the find. The mask itself was amazing, but all of the other things were incredible. I can't imagine how Carter must have felt when eventually realized the magnitude of his find.
Another main point of interest was the actual mummified remains of famous kings. To actually see a five thousand year old body in front of you in pretty good condition was a bit surreal. On the other hand, if you spent too much time in the sun and heat, I could see how easily we could end up like that!
After gorging on a ton of local food (we feasted like pharaohs?), we strode through a market with a huge concentration of tourist oriented shops. The vendors looked a little down, though they did come up with the occasional zinger "hey mister, how can I help your wife spend all your money" or "hey sir, everything 50% off just for you". Again all with good humour. We weren't big purchasers - dates and saffron for us...that's about it.
The highlight was when Laila continued to lead us down a cobbled street and we turned onto Muizz Street (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muizz_Street), a collection of streets that make up one of the oldest streets in the world. A lot of the buildings there were made from facade rock taken from the pyramids, and they were quite beautiful. There were a few pockets of younger people enjoying the scene, but it was mostly empty (Egyptians simply don't hang out in the sun, and I don't blame them!). The street really reminded me of old sections of Jaisalmer, though this was a more substantial street with far fewer cows :-).
By around 4, we were all done. The van picked us up and after settling with Laila and giving her an eye opening tip (I don't think it takes much here), we said our goodbyes. The driver crawled through the packed avenues until we finally got to the small bit of highway leading to the airport.
Our plan was to stay for a "night" at the Meridien airport, which was a short bridge away from terminal 3 where we were flying out at 2:30am! Another long day indeed.
We made a big splash at the pool, trying to beat our record of keeping a beach ball aloft, until we were kicked out at the pool closing time of 6:30. What? Just like the Novotel, the pool closed today at 6:30... so weird.
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