Day 111...Oh my GOD - Egypt! - 15th October

Got up pretty early and ate at the hostel again. For 5 euro you get eggs, toast, jam, coffee etc. Good deal when a cofee in Plaka is nearly 5 bucks alone! The hostel waitress is funny. She has the same line as she doesn't know much english 'can you pay me please?' and its funny watching people look slightly disgruntled at that. The hostel also has a book exchange, so we are so relieved to dump our books and get a whole bunch of new ones for no cost. phew!

We packed up and legged it to the train station and caught the trainto the airport. Got there in good tie and were able to make some calls home before boarding our Egypt Air Flight. Some people we called got a call from us - but they didn't know it! The connection was really odd, so they answered but couldn't hear us. Oh well. So anyone who got a blank call that night - hallooo!

Flying into Egypt - I was struck by how Cairo really is just plonked amongst sand! I thought it would be desert, then a gradual thing of stones and a bit of tree or something. But no. No rocks, no shrub, just sand. Even the Nevada desert had shrubs. Here it was just miles and miles of creamy caramel sand.
We landed and were met by our company rep (temptation tours) where we bought our visa to get into Egypt. On the way out to the van I got a 'yo America! wassuuuup!' pick up line from a young Arab guy, even though I had a jacket on.

As Nathan puts it well - arriving in Egypt was like arriving into chaos. My eyes were the size of saucers and I was completely fascinated. (All nate says is that he doesn't rate the 3rd world). It was the time of Ramadan and the highway was choked with hot tempered Muslims trying to get home to eat and drink something. Not eating during daylight hours is bad - but not even a sip of water? And in such hot weather too. Cairo has a population of 19 million - thats nearly Australia in one city! And they are also the fastest growing city in the world, in terms of urban migration.

There were cars and bikes zigzagging crazily, people and donkeys all over the highway. Men in dishadashas sitting on cars laden with crops, wacking the crap out of the little donkeys pulling frantically. Women in burkhas. Sandy, dirty sprawls of apartment blocks, with palm and date trees dotted here and there. The occassional empty block was bright green and being plowed by buffalo or donkeys. Sitting in the car, I got many stares by men in other cars and was sweating it out in a hot black jacket (i didn't have a long shirt on me at the time), and tried to look demure. There were many high fences, upon which perched little huts each containing a guy with a massive gun. The horns were an absolute cachoph0ny.

At one point, we passed a rear ender accident. There was a crowd of Egyptians yelling and gesticulating at one guy (who I took to be the rear driver). One started smashing him in the face over and over again, back against the chainlink fence!! Then he continued to verbalise his argument and gesticulations while the victim clutched his face.

We weaved through traffic, clutching onto what we could - although our driver was better than most. Then suddenly we lurched forward as our driver slammed on the brakes! A couple of cars ahead, a truck had collectd a car and they both were scrapign down the concrete divider with a massive roar - smoke and radiation fluid exploding everywhere. I didn't think things could get mor chaotic, but before the two could even come to a stop, about 50 Egyptians appeared from nowhere began pelting across the highway. (Ignoring the traffic still coming full steam ahead at them). They all ran to the sight and began yelling and flinging their hands everywhere. The drivers side was crushed (Egypt drives on the right side of the road) and I thought we'd see a mangled mess . But as we rolled cautiously passed, the driver crawled out, his arms in a victory sign before being swamped by crowd, and getting stuck into the fun of yelling and flinging hands. I am sure it would have degenerated into fisticuffs, but we were off and driving past by then.

We drove towards the neighbourhood of Giza, where suddenly through the haze - loomed the Pyramids! we were surprised at how close they were to the city. And I couldn't get over the size! Photo's can't capture how imposing they are. The Statue of LIberty struck me as smaller than I expected. The pyramids seemed a good 3rd to twice the size I thought they would be.

Ginza had lots of dirty, dusty, busy roads. We saw water buffalo being pulled behind a cart piled with what looked like water reeds. I couldn't get over the number of little donkeys everywhere - being ridden by men in white robes and little hats, standing folornly in fields, pulling carts, tethered by the road. There was rubbish everywhere too - some in absolutely massive piles. We arrived at our hotel (complete with bomb detector at the door) and checked in. Our room was tired and sad looking, but had a big creaky double bed, TV and the best? A view of two of the Pyramids! (the baby one was hidden at the back). I looked out the window and down at the street - to see a little donkey pulling a cart frantically. Every few seconds the guy riding it would smack it on the ass with a bit of rope that even I could hear, several stories up. They aren't big on the animal cruetly issue here in Egypt).

Nathan had spoken with our tour leader Mohamed, and he said it was a bit crazy out there at the moment. Cairo doesn't really have a 'tourist' district, or highlight of places to go. For a place that has the pyramids and such a large number of tourists, we were surprised at the lack of ...well...anything. So we decided to stay at the hotel (Kaoud Pyramid Hotel). We had a quick look at the Pyramids from the rooftop. There was some kind of party going on there with oud music and no drinks - remember this is Ramadan. Ladies in near full garb were sitting looking at me unopprovingly.
We had dinner downstairs and ate some rice and meat dishes. We declined the 'set menu' as all we got from the girl was that it was "meat, sweet, salad". hmmm. After that we relaxed in the room, watched some TV and went to bed.