The only remaining wonder of the ancient world
Saturday, March 17th
Something in our wonderful dinner the previous night disagreed with me, but luckily Pat Day gave me some imodium, which did the trick. Our breakfast was at Omar's Cafe in the hotel, which was huge. They assigned us a table, but when we got back from the buffet someone else was sitting at it, so we sat with the Day's from our tour.
Our morning was spent at the Pyramids. We started out at the solar boat museum. The boat was beautiful, and the museum very well laid out so we could see it from all angles. However, for some reason we had to wear annoying slippers over our shoes that kept falling off. We saw the pit where they had found the boat. The slabs of granite that were covering it were turned up on end so you could see into the pit. There was also some ancient rope from the boat that looked as good as new.
When we were done in the museum we walked a short distance to the tourist entrance to the pyramid. The passage was 2-way, and there was a never-ending line of tourists going in and out. The way down was very steep, and the walk had annoying wooden crosspieces, which were meant to give you traction, but could also trip you. Everyone (even I, short as I am) had to stoop down to enter the pyramid, and the way was narrow. When I got to the entrance I took one look, then turned around and went back up. Michael went in, but did not last much longer. I went and stood where I could look down on the entrance, and took pictures of our tour group as they came out. Some of them went quite far down in the pyramid. As I watched there were many other people that hesitated when they got to the entrance. Eventually they would be holding up the line, and a guard would go and yell "Down, down, down!" at them.
Next we got back on the bus and drove a short distance to a picture spot. Karima took everyone's picture with their own camera in front of the pyramids. On the other side of the parking lot were men with camels, and we walked over there to get our camel rides. I paid for my ride with everyone else, then took a dollar to tip the camel guy, gave Michael my purse, and went to get my camel. It was very confused, and the head camel guy somehow thought I hadn't paid and asked for money. I wondered why he was asking for the tip when I hadn't taken the ride yet, but gave him the dollar. A big discussion then ensued, so I started out late, and was not able to take pictures of the other people in the tour group on camels. However, Michael was not getting near a camel ride, and was very happy to stay behind and take lots of pictures.
When I finally did get on the camel, it seemed very large, dirty, and it gurgled a lot. It was too big to get a good grip on, so it felt particularly insecure when the camel stood up. The driver told me to hold tight to the pommel. I hadn't realized, but the back legs of the camel go up first, which made me feel like I was going to fall off head first, and I had to hang on for dear life! We walked about 50 yards, where the driver asked for my camera to take a picture. Then he wanted a tip, which of course I did not have any more. However, he seemed to understand when I said later, and I asked Michael to give him a dollar when we got back. Then he took another picture of Michael standing in front of me and the camel, with the pyramids in the background. Very nice! Getting down was another adventure. The front end of the camel went down, but he didn't want to put the back end down. So I was hanging on for dear life again until the camel quit gurgling and went all the way down.
Finally we went to view the sphinx and mortuary temple. The queen of Thailand was there on a guided tour, being escorted by the #1 Egyptologist in Egypt. Many people were walking down the causeway from the pyramid to the sphinx, which made me understand much better what the causeway was (a giant stone sidewalk) and why it was built (because it's tough to walk on sand).
Next we were off to the Khan el Khalili market, where we had lunch in a nice restaurant.
Afterwards we wandered around the market, which was huge, with many interesting looking small shops. There were also a few artisans working, and we saw a guy pounding silver wire onto a brass dish. I finally got the technique for bargaining, and got 3 onyx pyramids for $10 and an inlaid box for $3. The market was a maze, and Michael got lost immediately, but I knew exactly where we were at all times. We got to a dead end, and some guys wanted us to go through their shop to get out. However, we did not want them to get us in there, so we went back the way we came. Back on the square, a man wanted to give Michael a shoeshine for 1 Egyptian pound. I thought Michael should have done it, since it was cheap, his shoes were filthy, and it was the last day (so his shoes would maybe stay clean), but he wouldn't, and then it was time to get back on the bus.
Next we went to the Alabaster Mosque at the Citadel. We had to take our shoes off when we crossed the threshold and carry them around. This is to prevent sand from getting in the outdoor courtyard. Karima gave a nice talk on Islam while we were sitting on the floor in the indoor part of the mosque. The mosque looks much like a cathedral, except no pews. This is because many cathedrals were converted to mosques, and so this type of architecture came to be accepted, and was used for new mosques.
The domes in the mosque are quite spectacular.
On the way back the bus we saw a man making fezes.
Our last stop was a perfume shop. Unfortunately, the shop was crowded when we got there, so our salesman did not speak English very well. Karima had promised us an interesting and funny lecture, but this guy pretty much just recited the price list. I am totally not interested in perfume, so this was pretty much a waste of time. However, I was amused when the Japanese speaking salesman was determined that Gail could speak Japanese, and wouldn't take "iye" for an answer.
We returned to the hotel, packed, paid our bill, and got the tip ready. Then we went to the farewell dinner, at a floating restaurant named Le Pacha, which was excellent. The head of the tour company came to ask our opinion about the tour. While it was nice to be able to give our feedback, after a while I wished he would go away and let us enjoy our last meal together.
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