Disaster: Cairo

Cairo, Egypt

So I never really imagined that I'd be able to visit EGYPT at the age of 22. It's always been one of those places I've always told people I want to visit (along with Greece) and I was so stoked when a group of 8 of us decided we would spend 9 days exploring the home of civilisation as we know it.

So we get into Cairo (better known as Disaster) on a Saturday and then get picked up by a van to go to our hostel. I think we should have expected it when we paid $5/person/night to stay there.. but I mean when is anyone ever prepared for a building with all the windows broken and no lights, a man sharpening knives downstairs, and an elevator suspended by a thick rope?!?!

Lobby of Desert Safary Hotel
(picture compliements of Sean Wickersham)

Thank goodness the actual hostel was more welcoming -- with people watching Al Queda training videos in the living room.

So our first meal in Cairo was suggested to us by Ali, who works at the lobby in Desert Safary Hostel. We couldn't find the restaurant which he claimed to be just down the road (I would guess mainly because we were focused on crossing the maniac streets without DYING), we ventured into an cute African restaurant decked out in rich red and gold decor. Our meal of salads, dips, pita, choice of meat, rice and drinks came out to about $6/person, which we were told was absurdly expensive. Obviously we had a lot to learn about what and where to eat....but I think not getting diahrea our first night ranked higher than a cheap, traditional Egyptian meal.

So we do the obligatory first Egyptian shisha experience with a group of local men who line up to take pictures with the blond of the group. We named her then and there "BoozeFace: Pimp of Cairo" (more nicknames to come). We head off to bed early, tomorrow's suppose to be an event filled day planned by none other than the owner of the scariest hostel in Egypt.

So we wake up at 6, get ready to leave by 7:30 to tour the city of Giza with our tour guide Heba (name which means "gift"). So first head off to Memphis - the first "capital city" of Egypt & of the world - which houses a statue of Ramesses II, father of 100 children. Incredible. Even more incredible if Ramessess II was a woman.

We go to a papyrus making factory, which was actually really cool to see the the process of soaking, laying the pieces out, flattening and drying. Mohammed (our tour guide there) also gave us a great presentation of a lot of the comment pictures they print onto the papyrus, such as the original calendar - Zodiac of the Denderah:

Ancient Egyptian Calendar printed on Papyrus.
3 seasons, 4 months each. 10 days a week, 36 weeks a year, 360 days a year.


Papyrus in the making! When the 8 of us got there he asked if we were 4 couples. "Nah, we're swingers"

Next stop, the Great Pyramids. One of the original seven wonders of the world. It didn't matter that I'd seen endless pictures of these in history books as a child, or that I had hyped myself up for this for THREE months since the day we'd booked the flights, the first sight of these pyramids from our van was absolutely breathtaking! Except for the Pimp of Cairo... she was more engrossed with the fact that there existed a Dixie Chicken in Cairo!

The Great Pyramid w/ a glow of the afternoon sun

So we take some pictures (who doesn't when they're at the pyramids), and actually managed to get really good ones with the help of policemen. And bribe money of course. I love this country. Everything is possible with a bribe. "No cameras in the pyramids!!!!! You want a picture? HURRY! and give me money." Done and done.

We hiked our way down into the second pyramid... I suggest everyone do this.... UNLESS THEY ARE CLAUSTROPHOBIC. Here is another reason not to go to Egypt during the summer. Due to the lack of air in the actual pyramid - it gets ridiculously hot w/ the large amounts of people trekking in and out each day. It was already comfortably hot in January.. I don't even want to know what it would be like to go into one in the summer months.

Heba drops us off at KFC (obviously so Egypt) so that we can meet with the group whose taking us for a camel ride during Sunset, in the desert, next to the pyramids. He brings us to the backyard of someone's house, literally in the middle of the city. I had a weird feeling about this but my friend said "All of my good experiences have started out like this." ... I'm not even going to ask.

So we hop on the camels, ride through the little town of Giza through peoples backyard, front yard, next to benches where they're eating dinner, huts where they're washing vegetables, balconies where they're hanging clothes. I'd have to say it was a little unsettling that we were paying $50 for this amazing experience whilst trotting through their territory like it was no big deal. These people would never understand what it would be like to go on a vacation, or the fact that I'm writing about them indirectly on the internet. They would never, ever see what it would be like to live in our world, and I won't even say we've seen a glimpse of what it would be like to be in their world.

So we end up riding parallel to the great pyramids, passing horses who have just died, horse skeletons lying in the desert, and howling dogs. We hung out w/ the group that was leading us around, told a few jokes about tea cups and named our camels Michael Jackson, Elvis and Mickey Mouse. Im pretty sure this had to be one of the most surreal experiences of my life. ABSOLUTELY AMAZING.. and below are some pictures for your visual pleasure:

Pimp of Cairo: Camel on a Camel

Through the streets of Giza

Meet Darrell - he's Egyptian. Not.

The 8 of us on our camels, in front of the Great Pyramids.

So we head back to the little yard to part ways with the camels, thinking we're going to go back to the hostel to hang out before we our belly dancing show that night. The owner of this camel business asks if we want a special VIP place to watch the nightly pyramid light show. So end up in someone's apartment building, then head up to the roof to watch the light show, in German.


So then we get dropped off on a boat cruise - apparently we were celebrating two Egyptian weddings and a birthday! So of course, there was a karaoke, with traditional Arab music. Oh yeah, and Lady in Red. And country music... gotta love meshing of the cultures. So all 8 of us Americans and drinking wine and falling asleep after one of the most adventure and event filled days.. of our LIFE... UNTIL Billie the belly dancer takes her place on the stage. I mean, who wouldn't wake up when someone is jiggling a cane between the rolls on her stomach?


So the second day we wake up and look out the window to typical Cairo traffic:


There are no crosswalks (well no drivers to obey them), so this is what we had to maneuver through everytime we wanted to cross a street. Talk about high stress vacation. So we decided to take a nice little stroll (if you can call it that) to the Old Cairo to see the mosque and to visit the bazaar. We get lost, stand at a corner watching a man carry a huge platter of pitas above his head as he maneuvers through Cairo traffic, only to make it to the sidewalk and have half the pitas fall onto the black dirty germfilled dusty Cairo cement. Don't worry, everyone else around us just picked up the pitas and piled them back onto the tray. Sometimes it's better not to know. At least it wasn't raw meat pieces that fell on the floor (that we know of).

We tried to hail a cab (for 8 people?!) and somehow in the craziness decided that a van which looked like it should be transporting livestock would be a safe option to get us to where we wanted to go. We get in, he picks up his friend who asks if we're American (great, we're about to get sold) and he jumps out of the car to hold traffic up while we make a U-turn. We're already taking off on the street as he runs after us and hops in the car again...barely missing being hit by the car next to us!!! Again, talk about high stress vacation.

We are now pros at crossing the street.

Our makeshift taxi and our legit had an escape plan. 6 fly out the side door, and two hop out the window.

We roamed the bazaar, got asked by the shopowners "how they could help us take our money," and then decided to hit up Johnny Carinos. I know it's ridiculous, but we were already slightly tired of Egyptian food (and we still had 5 more days of it). Plus, 5 months in London brought us to realise that we actually miss American chain food restaurants where you get ridiculously large portions that make you fat. So an appetizer, a drink, and a huge pasta dish all for about $15? Well worth it, until we all got Johnny Carino fever at the airport that night and had to pop Tylenol pills like candy.

The bazaar... I could spend a whole day here.

Next stop, Egyptian museum. I'd have to say this place housed some of the most interesting artifacts of any museum I'd ever visited (maybe because there were mummies and artifacts from about 5,000 years ago!). However, the presentation was a bit ridiculous. At best, I'd say it was a storage room of artifacts... no one knows what you'll find in there. Most of the exhibits didn't have names or explanation cards (except for the King Tut exhibit which ironically is the one that probably didn't need explanation) and huge statues of important pharoahs were hidden behind rolling ladders and plastic storage bins. Cool to see Ramesses II mummy, and to compare how some bodies have been kept in such good condition even thousands of years later.

In front of the Egyptian Museum - where I got called "China." At least they got the right country this time.
xie xie!

And on to Luxor.....

LODGE-istics

LODGING:
Desert Safary Hotel - Rated #2 Hostel in AFRICA!
Between $5-$15/night.

The reason why this hostel is rated #2 in all of Africa is definitely not because of its' shared bathrooms, old run down building, and beds that had plastic over the mattress. But honestly, the people at this front desk are SO MUCH FUN!! They totally love their job and love giving suggestions for people to really enjoy Cairo and get exactly what they want out of their holiday. We already had flights books to leave for Aswan and Luxor, but he even suggested an itinerary for us for the rest of our 9 days. I know my parents wouldn't be able to stay here, but if you can get over the grime and the initial sketchy feeling, staying at this place is one of those things you'll be able to talk about for the rest of your life.

TRANSPORTATION
BMI (purchased from cheaptickets.com) from London Heathrow (LHR) to Cairo (CAI) for less than $575. It's def cheaper to fly from London than the states, so if you ever find yourself in the UK - you may want to take the chance to venture out to Egypt.

PASSPORTS/VISAS - If you fly into CAI, you can pick up the $15 visa at the airport (with cash). If you fly into smaller airports you may need to visit an Egyptian embassy ahead of time.

CAMEL RIDE : One hour sunset or sunrise camel ride.
About $50 for pick up, 1 hour camel ride, about a 45 minute break to take pictures and hang out once you're in front of the camels, and transportation back to your accomodation. (and in our case - free light show on the roof of their house!)

Definitely do it. I recommended it one of my collegues to do too. It's an Egypt-must-do and they were definitely a fun group to do it with!

ISIC Card
If you have an ISIC card, definitely bring it to Egypt. If you don't and can get a hold of one, it'll probably be worth it for you to purchase one for $20. You get 50% off to ALL the museums, tombs, and temples. They don't cost TOO much to begin with (I would less than $5 for each site), but since we were visiting so many, the savings really did add up.