Cairo II
I am going to spare you the usual "we went here, then we went there, then we went here" saga because we did a lot of moving around and those of you who will be subjected to my photos later will hear it anyway. But we did see THE PYRAMIDS! and THE SPHINX! and both Mere and I agreed it felt unreal, like we were watching them at an Omni Theatre instead of standing in front of the last Ancient Wonder of the World. We've been so conditioned by video images we can't comprehend the real thing. I'm going to try to get photos up on the blog but so far it hasn't been working.You always make ill-informed decisions while travelling, and one of ours, when we were down the Nile in Luxor, was to decide to walk the 1+ mile back to our hotel from the Luxor temple, because it was along the river and good exercise. Two women walking unaccompanied in the streets there is like putting a plate of raw, fatty beef in front of starving hyenas. We were constantly and persistently accosted by men--little boys coming home from school, old men sitting on benches in the shade, young men who walked behind us and attempted to engage us in conversation. We walked on pretending we didn't understand English, but here are a few of my favorite quotes from this increasingly bad-tempered stroll:
"Do you have an Egyptian husband? I am Mr. Lonely! I want to help you spend your money!" (from a middle-aged man in a turban.)
"Look! We are two, and alone, and you are two, and alone. We need wives!" (from two young men on a bench.)
If they aren't out to marry you, they're out to hustle you. I hear Lagos is worse but Cairo and Luxor (the so-called "hassle capital") must be a close second to people spending an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to rip you off. The constant tipping is just the smallest facet of it. At the temples strange men come up to you and just start talking about things to look for, history, etc., none of it very interesting or anything you didn't already know, and they will follow you around until you give them a tip.
One of the best hustling attempts was at Luxor temple; when Mere and I first arrived, we were gazing at the friezes and a man who had been sitting in a chair at the entrance approached us and showed us the tiny carving of the Pharaoh's wife under his massive knee. Experienced temple-goers that we were by then, we had told him we didn't want a guide, to which he replied, "I'm not a guide, I'm police," and opened up his jacket to reveal a very serious-looking gun. Thus convinced, we followed him around the corner to take a look at this statue. As we walked away, he asked for a tip! I was irritated enough at this point to turn around and reply, "But you are police, not a guide, right?" We were careful to leave the temple while he was occupied with another group of tourists. I need to learn to stop antagonizing people with guns.
We were quite lucky in our timing at all the major sights in Egypt (there is one exception to our good planning, and Mere will be providing the details of that later.) We went late to the museums so they were empty; we went mid-morning or mid-day to the outdoors sights, after the early morning crush of tour buses and avoiding the fake guides; and we were able to check in early to all our hotels, which after two overnight train rides was badly needed.
Mere gets all the kudos for pulling this trip together and planning it flawlessly, and she will be contributing to the next blog post to share her experiences. (More incentive to visit me--you get to write a guest post!)
posted by Margot @ 12:58 AM
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