Cairo - last day and night

The next day we walked from the hotel a little and then took a taxi( 5 Egyptian pounds) to Tahir square. A bustling bus terminus. There we went to the Egyptian museum. Saw mummies, jewellery, all things old, beautiful and Egyptian. But we were overwhelmed, the museum is just too big. I also had my attention on all the things I still wanted to see, so it was a bit of a disappointment. Then we took a taxi ( a little old man illegally using his car as a taxi), and shared it with two Spanish girls. We went to the market - sook. We started to buy all our souvenirs. Sat in a coffee house with men smoking Hukkas/nargila. I had a banana milkshake. The floor was covered with sawdust and the men spat straight onto the floor. We continued walking down the endless narrow corridors of buildings. I bought a fez - my plan being to collect hats from everywhere we go. I immediately put it on. that is when the day changed, everyone who saw the hat reacted to it. Most touched their heads and said welcome, women in the full covering, laughed and children pointed and whispered to each other.
We saw live chickens having their throats cut, large bails of cotton, cobblers sitting outside repairing old boots and Egyptian barbers, all of these in shops without a front wall or door. At one point a man touched my bum, I swung around, hit him with my bag and shouted " don't you touch me!" Immediately about ten men swooped down on this guy , shouting at his and clipping him over the head, telling him to apologies to me. They too all came and apologised for his behavior. It was Ramadan and they are not supposed to touch woman in that month, or even look at them. We had chosen the right month to travel to a Muslim country, although it also meant there was no belly dancing, which we had wanted to see.
We sat at another coffee house and a group of about 5 Iranian tourists asked to take a photo with us - maybe the hat. Next we went into a mosque next to the market. It wasn't as impressive as I had expected. Of course we only saw the woman's section. Then back to the hotel to rest before another night out on the town. This time we went with the group on an organized Nile cruise. It was a large boat, with an open deck, buffet and lounge with a dance floor and a band which played mellow Western music throughout dinner. We ate a lot, including stuffed pigeon, and about half a bottle of wine each. Then to our surprise a belly dancer came on. Extremely beautiful and ornate. She pulled me up to the dance floor, and I jiggled around with her. Later we stood on the deck and felt the cool breeze coming off the river.
The next day we were on our way home. On the bus we met a guy from Singapore and invited him home with us. He cooked us a Chinese meal and gave us some travel tips.
So now Egypt is out the way, the real Europe trip can begin.
I know I am not the best writer, but bare in mind this is all taken from real letters written home during the journey, and the interesting part is to see the moments when the differences between traveling in 1991 and in 2009 show themselves.

Cairo

"Your driver today is Mr. Fooad, and he is driving a nice bus". Memphis - ancient capital of Egypt. Egypt was divided into two, and the King joined the two halves, making Memphis the capital. Huge statues in honor of the God they tried to use to unite the people. He was supposed to be a potter who molded al of life together on his wheel each morning. The two halves of Egypt worshiped different gods so when the King united them he tried to give them a common God. Most of the statues were distroyed by Persians. Tombs always face west as when the sun goes down everything sleeps, so the dead can "rest in peace". A King's funeral would start at noon, princes, priests and all dressed in gold would walk till sundown from Memphis in the east to the tombs in the west, with the sun following them. We saw the first pyramid, which is graduated with steps all up the sides. Wonderful heiroglyphics, very detailed, even pictures of a grasshopper. The stones are my hight. After that we had lunch in a thatch roofed court yard where we ate kebabs and pita bread which we watched the woman prepare in open ovens. They did that lulululu thing with their voices.
Then we went to a carpet weaving factory where only children are used because of their small fingers. They wear bright colored long dresses and head scarves, and work very fast on the weaving machines.
Now to the Gaza pyramids and the Sphynx.
We went inside a pyramid with hundreds of people trudging up a steep corrador of steps . Very hot and clostrophobic. We got to a large empty room and then the same grueling climb to another empty room. We then rode camels from the pyramids to the Sphinx. The Sphinx was a disappointment, it was much smalled than I had imagined and it had scaffolding all around it.
Anyway two goals accomplished - Sphinx and riding a camel through the desert. Lastly a papyrus museum, where we saw the process from the plant to the paper.Plant stripped, hammered, soaked, rolled, pressed. Then back to the hotel.
That night we were supposed to go on a Nile cruise but it was fully booked , and once again our Egyptian dates came to the rescue. First we went to a place that serves you fruit cocktails in your car. Then we drove - no speed limit, no lines on the road, no lanes, just hooting and squeezing - to the edge of the Nile. There with a little bargaining the men got us a Falucca from an old man. We cruised down the Nile around the Golden island and back, chatting all the time.
This was a real working boat not meant for tourists at all and much better than the cruise we had missed. We returned to the hotel and parted with our dates. Then we got chatting with the hotel staff as we were hungry, and asked them to recommend something really local. So they said they would get a waiter to take us to a take-away. OK we were ripped off. First we were paying for the taxi and it drove around and around finding every food place closed. Then they finally took us to a fancy restaurant which wasn't really the idea. We asked for kebabs and they sold us 1kg of meat!!We had wanted to spend only 10 Pounds, and the taxi alone cost us 4. Since then we have found out that the price for a taxi in the Cairo area should never go over 3 Pounds. We spent the night having a private party, in our hotel room, me, Paz and a kilo of meat, until 2:30am.
In Cairo everyone asks for Baksheesh - a tip. By now we were so fucking sick of baksheesh, the next day we took a bag of fruit and gave that out instead. Maybe we should have used the left over meat!

First night out in Cairo

The remaining distance between the final Rafiah border post and Cairo consisted of a road through Beduin inhabited desert with the odd, sparce, half built village. On our right was the Med and on the left the Sinai. We had an armed escort all the way, consisting of a jeep with 6 soldiers and every 50kms they changed escorts. We crossed the Suez canal on a small ferry. The Suez is about 150m wide and 40m deep and was man made. We entered Cairo about 8:30 in the evening. It is a very large city and reminded me of Johannesburg or London, until we drove over a flyover road and saw underneath hoards of people shopping in the brightly lit sook/market. Very colorful and noisy. Arrived at the Salma Hotel at 8:45 and at 9:15 we had a date!
The bus guide had volunteered to take us in his car and show us Cairo. He - Ayman - turned up with a friend and off we went.
First we crossed the Nile, which reminded me of the Thames, the way the city encases it. On the "island" which you can drive to, we saw Cairo tower, which gives an alround bird's eye view of the city. After that we went to the market, or rather a series of very small shops. We attempted to drive up a few very narrow alleys, passing shops, chickens etc. and then had to come all the way out, in reverse as it was too crowded to go any further. We decided to go and eat. So we went to the Farfaul restaurant. All the time the men insisted on paying and treated us with the utmost respect. The main impression of the place is the size, it is huge. We ate fual beans in garlic sauce, falafal balls, green tahina, 2 salads which I have no idea what they were, egg plant, and drank beer served in bottles the size of wine bottles. For deseart, a Umm Ali, baked milk pudding, pastry and nuts, a spicey dish a bit like bread pudding but with pastry. Then we returned to the market hoping it would have emptied out a bit. There we had a man snip at a piece of black paper and in about 30 seconds he had created silhouette portrates. We walked through the market - I hate to call it that, as each stall is in the arched entrance to a shop. We walked under a road in a kind of subway tunnel, where there were young children and beggers sitting or sleeping. All the woman were modestly dressed. There were many out door cafes, with tables and chairs outside and rows of men sitting smoking hubblie bubblies ( hukkas/nargila), they goggled at us with smokey blank eyes. The coffee houses rent the hukkas out. Our final excursion was to a very high hill, where again we had a bird's eye view of the city. The wind was blowing and I imagined I was standing on the head of the Sphinx looking out over the city. We were taken home without any unpleasent propositioning, stepped out of the car and into our hotel - exhausted.

From Israel to Egypt

This time we were on an "organized" tour, I use that term loosely, as we left half an hour late and with a sparce 16 people on a luxuary coach, after being told by the guide that we could only take 20 AEP in to Egypt and I began to worry about the 150 I had in my pocket. Stories were flying back and forth between me and my travel buddy Paz, of what we would say - "My mother gave it to me", "I forgot I had the money", "oh someone must have slipped it in", finally at the tenth hour we hit on a brain wave. Distribute the money 20 AEP to each person on the bus! We did this to about 5 people. Hoping we would remember who we had given it to, hoping they wouldn't think it was a gift and hoping the Chinaman really understood. Maybe they would just smile and refuse to give it back on the other side of the boarder.As it happened when we were finally on the other side of the boarder, in a large waiting room with officials milling around, one of our accomplaces approached us and said he was sorry but he had changed his mind, and could we take the 20 AEP, which he was now waving in the air, back. Yes we could. I grabbed it, and as discretely as was now possible stuffed it back into my pocket. Once on the other side we were allowed to change our money and of course keep the little pink slip to prove we had changed it there and not brought it into the country illegally. Paz, after changing $50 proudly sauntered up to me and announced - "Ha ha now we've fooled them, I have changed the 133AEP into 183AEP so we've covered the excess you brought in"...:that's great but doesn't the little pink slip specify the Dollar amount? 183AEP for $50, they must have given you a very special rate! Oh shit, and they have the original carbon copy. Once again the possible alibies flew between us, - change the $50 to $70; pretend you're a congenital idiot; loose the paper. Right! By now we are occasionally bursting into fits of nervious laughter. So I slipped the slip of pink paper into a nearby dustbin where it couldn't be retrieved. Aaah, sigh of relief.
"Will all passengers please declare all money at the following gate". - Great now we have even more unaccountable money. Oh well it's too hot to worry any more and our stories are so mixed up I don't know if I am a South African Au Pair or a Jewish Diplomate.
At last our passports were returned and we could leave for the dreaded customs, as I lept up with enthusiasm I knocked over the dustbin and out fell the famous pink slip. Paz discreatly swooped down and lifted the bin while retreaving the slip.
Now for customs. And quite frankly they couldn't give a dam what we had. We were just waved through.
Once on the bus and cruising through the sinai , we reclaimed the 60 or so AEP from the passengers, when we reached the Chinaman, he was very confused and explained that he had spent it, and could he repay us in Dollars.