Well here I am back in Cairo waiting for my flight later tonight. Yesterday, I went to the Egyptian Museum and wore my poor little feet out. That place is absolutely packed with stuff they've found in temples and tombs throughout Egypt. There were even crates lying around and forklifts with statues on them just sitting there. I know that they're building an additional museum that will house some of this stuff over near Giza, but in the meantime, just just keep packing it in. And I hear that only a small portion of what the have is on display -- most is in storage. But I did come face to face with the tanned, withered remains of King Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut. And about 10 or so other mummies. And mummified animals, including a 20 foot crocodile.
After, I walked on over to the main Cairo post office to send stuff home. I was really dreading this and thought that it might be as bad as Delhi. It was surprisingly quick and easy. Very nice people directed me to the correct door and window, the man there explained everything and nicely packed up a box for me, I paid and he gave me a receipt. Total time spent: about 5 minutes. How cool is that? I really expected an hour or so of pure hell. Of course, we'll have to wait and see if the package ever arrives.
Today I spent just walking around, mostly along the river and exchanging money for Tanzania. It was so hot, that I came back by 2:00 and spent the afternoon actually organizing the photos that I've taken over the past 2.5 months. Tedious? Yes, but it needed to be done. I just got back from getting dinner and thus took my last walk in Egypt. I'm very excited about that because the men here are relentless. They really think that being pushy and rudely demanding to know your name and where you're from is going to get the a western girlfriend. The funny thing is, when I talked with one of the tour operators about this, he didn't understand. He (and I think all Egyptian men) believe that when they honor you with their presence and questions, you should be flattered and fall at their feet. So sad. It's a wonder that any of them ever get a girlfriend or get married.
Egypt has been an interesting experience. But here you just cannot go "off the beaten track" and meet locals very easily. About 10 years ago there was a shooting at Hatshepsut's temple (the one I hiked to from the Valley of the Kings) in which over 70 people were killed. And a few years ago there was a bombing at an Egyptian resort on the Dead Sea. Since them Egypt has put some systems in place to help safeguard its tourists -- tourism is the #1 industry in this country and they can't afford for it to go away. Now, a tourist can only ride in certain cars on certain trains. When traveling between cities by car or bus, you must be in one of the scheduled caravans which are closely monitored by police checkpoints. There are special tourist buses and minivans that take groups of tourists to the various sites, although if traveling within the same city, you can use a private taxi -- but the police do check these as well. Basically, the Egyptian government keeps you within certain confines to better make sure nothing bad gets to you. (For those wandering about the tourists who were kidnapped and taken to Sudan, everyone here says that they were pitching their tents actually within the Sudanese border.) So if you want to rent your own car and travel on your own, forget it. You'll be turned away at the first checkpoint you find. So there's no real getting away and seeing the real Egypt. For that reason, you might as well book a tour. Mine was very low key. It wasn't like Jordan where I was in an air conditioned bus with the same folks every day -- here I had the various train rides, minibus tours, etc. pre-booked. But every day, I was with different people who had signed up to see the same thing or take the same train that I did. Alexandria, I did on my own. Live and learn!
Tonight starts flight hell. You see, from now until I land at SFO on the 18th, I have 7 flights. That's right -- 7 flights. Here's the schedule for tonight/tomorrow:
Leave Cairo at 2:20am and fly to Addis Ababa via Khartoum. Since it's the same flight number, I'm hoping that I get to stay on the plane in Sudan.
2 hour layover in Addis Ababa and fly to Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania.
After a 5 hour layover in Dar Es Salaam (courtesy the safari company), fly to Zanzibar. 1.5 hour drive to the resort.
ICK!
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