Egypt III - Weekend in Cairo -- Touristy Stuff

[emo_snal]

Comments

[belleweather]

Aaah, Cairo. Funny, I always felt safer on the street in Cairo than I did in cabs. The cabs I was in never seemed to have door handles on the inside, and I ended up nearly-kidnapped in one once. Good times!

Also, what the heck are they doing to the step pyramid at Saqqara? Scaffolding is so 1530BC.

[emo_snal]

Yes I agree! On the streets you're surrounded by the public so nothing is terribly likely to happen to you, but once in a ab you're kind of locked in the cabby's world. When I was there in 2009 every cabby tried to scam me every time. This time that didn't seem to be the case, I can only imagine it was because I was not traveling between tourist destinations -- but out of habit I was pretty overbearing to them about what I would or would not pay for any given trip, and it seemed to freak them out a bit ;D

And as to the scaffolding, I don't know! I forget if the guide had mentioned it at the time. I just skimmed the wikipedia entry (it is the "step pyramid of djoser") and didn't see an explanation of the current scaffolding. It was damaged in an earthquake in 1992 though so maybe they're trying to repair or stabilize the damage from that (after all, 20 years ago is only a blink of an eye to a pyramid ;) )

[magenta_girl]

These are great pictures! Great pictures of you, too. :)

[emo_snal]

Haha thanks (:

[athenais]

This is great. I want to go to Egypt so much! Excellent time travel photo. :)

[emo_snal]

Now's the time to go, before the tourism recovers! Right now one can snap up tour packages for a fraction of the original price!

[athenais]

Hmm, I could go from Sweden to Egypt fairly easily. I wonder what the weather's like in October? *runs off to check*

[emo_snal]

In particular, I don't know how much time you'd have to be there, but my friend Nan Bergau after her assignment when on a river cruise up the Nile which sounded pretty awesome, which normally cost a few thousand dollars I think and she got it for $500, or something. I was incredibly envious when she told me about it.

[mac_arthur_park]

Good lord...you are the spitting image of my friend Duncan. It's scary!

[emo_snal]

Is Duncan known for his dashing good looks? ;D

[mac_arthur_park]

Well, I did have quite the crush on him back in college. ;)

[emo_snal]

Ahahahaha entirely understandable ;D ;D

Do you happen to have a picture of this doppleganger of mine per chance?

Two of my friends look extremely similar, and there's a bunch of people who have met them both and agree, but we've never succeeded in getting them into the same room at the same time.

[emo_snal]

Thanks! (: