Day 2: Cairo, Giza "We're luxurious like Egyptian cotton..." - Gwen Stefani

04/15/2007 Cairo and Giza

So we all get up early and meet for a carbilicious breakfast at the Victoria before heading off to Giza to see the Pyramids and the Sphinx. I guess everyone was slowly trickling in. Most of the Doctors without Borders were already seated. I was enjoying a croissant when Kerrie decided to check her voice messages (her cell phone miraculously worked...probably cuz it's one of those super duper phones that lets you check the internet). The brain trust at Continental neglected to put her bag on the next flight out like they were supposed to (this despite 3 phone calls from Kerrie' stepmom, where she was assured the bags would go out on time). I guess we would only have one good luck baggage story. Henna's bag had also been re-routed (to China), but hers actually made it to Cairo. Kerrie...no such luck. We'd have to go shopping later since the next flight out wouldn't leave until the next day, and we were leaving Cairo tonight.

We make our way to the subway. For women traveling alone, there's the first car, which is all female. Since there were a bunch of strapping young men in our group, we took an uneventful ride to Giza, where we are met by a minivan. It's always a little harrowing in the minivans. I've mentioned before that no one drives inside the lines, and they barely respect signal lights. At one point, our driver was yelling back and forth with another. The other driver got so into the shouting match he ran into the car in front of him. We laughed and laughed.

So when I imagined the Pyramids, I pictured them as being in the middle of this big desert, but that's only half true. You round a corner in the city and there they are. You can pretty much drive up to 'em.

So we get to the first pyramid and we start breaking up into our usual little groups. Next thing you know, we're practically accosted by a bunch of baksheesh seekers. Those selling crap and those selling crappy services. Kerrie and I are telling this one guy as politely as possible that no, we don't want to buy any postcards, pyramid paperweights, bookmarks, etc. Meanwhile his friend has pretty much dragged poor Kate away. Kerrie and I go to "rescue" her just as she's having her picture taken. She's obviously pissed. Apparently baksheesh seeker #2 grabbed her camera and practically forced her to take a picture. Seriously, you had to hold onto your things, otherwise someone will try to carry your bags or take your picture in order to get you to come off some money.

Anywho, after about 20 minutes of snapping pictures, our group comes together again, and Mohammed continues our walking tour. I nearly bust my ass walking down into the Queens tomb, and I sit on a camel for the very first time (it's kind of scary the way he gets up and down; you have to really hold on tight).

There were a hell of a lot of kids roaming around the pyramids selling souvenirs...especially for that time of the morning. This little girl came and sat down between Kate and I at the Sphinx and started shooting the breeze. At first, she was trying to sell us some bookmarks. Once that didn't work she just started telling us about school and how she's basically out selling when she's not at school. In the end she gave us each a free bookmark. I shoved 2 pounds into the kid's hand, but she tried to give it back, saying the bookmarks were a gift. That was the only time someone tried to give me something and truly expected nothing in return.

Our group heads off to lunch where we have some local cuisine consisting of no meat and a bunch of beans and pasta that I never would have thought to combine. It was good as hell, though, especially washed down with a Fanta. Fanta is one of the big drinks in Egypt. When you go to someone's home there, they all have Tea, Coke, and Fanta. I think I drank more Orange soda while I was in Egypt than I have in my whole life.

After lunch, we climb back into our minivan and the driver takes us to the Egyptian Museum. Mohammed impresses us with his knowledge of pretty much every piece in the museum. He has arranged for Tamer to meet up with Kerrie and I so we can go shopping for her some clean clothes. After a harrowing game of what I now call "Egyptian Frogger", Tamer, Kerrie and I have made our way on foot to the shopping district.

Egyptians love their tobacco. You see someone smoking a sheesha pipe around every corner, and people will light up a cigarette any time and anywhere they damn well please. One of the salespeople lit up while helping Kerrie find the right size pants. No wonder there's so many hardware stores stocked with a ton of fire extinguishers everywhere you turn.

We had to go to a number of different stores to find undergarments. The men didn't even seem to want to acknowledge that women wore such things. Tamer seemed embarrassed to show us which stores would sell 'em. Once Kerrie found a store that sold 'em, the cashier averted his eves and just asked how many as he quickly shoved the panties in a bag. She later said "I should've just said one, and dared him to challenge me."

Oh, I forgot to mention that while we are shopping for replacement clothes for Kerrie, we were also hunting for a sheet. Later in the week, we were going to be spending the night on a felucca, and nights in Egypt are a little chilly...the boat crew would provide blankets, but we heard you kinda want to have a barrier between you and the blanket, and our original sheets were in Kerrie's bag back in New York.

For some reason, Tamer couldn't understand what a sheet was ("I've got to see this sheet of which you speak"). We described it in a million different ways, and nothing. Finally, as we're walking back to the hotel, we pass a bedding store. Ah, he finally sees what we're talking about. We wait for the cashier to finish his prayer, and then we get a nice Egyptian cotton sheet for 50 pounds, so now we're set.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but Kerrie and I couldn't remember Tamer's name. Not to save our lives. But in our defense, it's not an easily pronounceable name. To this day, I'm not sure I'm saying it right. We basically referred to him as "sidekick" all day and never addressed him by name.

So the three of us make our way back to the Victoria, Kerrie and I say our goodbyes to Tamer. As I'm slipping him some baksheesh (see, that was service worth paying for), I tell him that I've forgotten how to pronounce his name. He started laughing and said "after almost 3 hours together, now you ask?" But I'm sure the 50 EGP he got from each of us helped him get over it. We say our goodbyes to Tamer (hell even after he told me, it flew right out of my head, so once again I don't know his name) and go upstairs to shower and change and get ready to go to the train station where we'd catch a sleeper train to Aswan.

I actually thought seeing the Pyramids would be the pinnacle of my experience, but the adventure just kept getting better and better.