Ok, so here I am back in Cairo on my own. When I last left you I was in Dahab with Roni chillin by the sea and relaxing after our 18 hour bus journey from Siwa. You'll be glad to know that we found a place where Roni could eat in peace without a clowder of cats crawling all over her. We had big plans to go to St. Katherine's Monastery and Mount Sinai on our last day, guess what, didn't happen. You know what happens when I get near the sea and beer...nothing, and that's exactly what we did. We found out you could only visit a small portion of the monastary and although we were interested in seeing the burning bush (yes, the one where God spoke to Moses) we apparently weren't interested enough to pay money and get back on another bus, especially since we were going to board one that night for nine hours heading back to Cairo. We also found out that you had to climb one mountain to be able to see Mount Sinai, that didn't work for us either. So it was relaxing, reading, eating and sheesha for us, I don't think we earned religious points but I plan to build up loads of good karma in Asia. We arrived at 7:00 am on Friday in Cairo ready to fall in love with the city (which we didn't the first go around) after every one we talked to told us how much they loved it (that includes you Tof). We tried to get a room at the place we stayed before but they were full and walked us over to a great little hostel in the neighborhood, up 85 stairs, no elevator, yes we counted. We scheduled a driver with the hotel to take us to the pyramids and had him pick us up at 10:00 am after we loaded ourselves with caffeine and pastries. We were off, an exciting day of viewing all the great pyramids of Egypt. Have I mentioned that women seem to be second class citizens here and some men feel as though they can order you around and that you don't have a mind of your own? Well if I haven't I have now (keep in mind there are definitely exceptions and some men are really great). So we take off with our driver heading out to our first stop Dahshur to see the Red Pyramid (the world's oldest true pyramid), the Bent Pyramid and the Black Pyramid. We arrived at the entrance and needed to pay our admission fees and a fee for the car but instead of explaining that to us the driver just started barking "give me 62 Egyptian pounds!". Side bar for Vania, reminiscent of our sunset Taj Mahal incident. Well I FLIPPED OUT! I was tired after our long overnight bus journey and we were paying him way more than we probably needed to, but wanted to make sure we had a nice driver who knew exactly what we wanted to do. Let's just say a book flew through the air, the tourist police came over smiling to make sure everything was ok and I told the driver that I was sick of being talked to like a donkey and if he couldn't speak to me properly then he should just shut up! We proceeded to Dahshur and once we were finished with the pyramids there he apologized, said "no pushing" and behaved like he should have all along. There was even a flower/weed picked and given to us as part of the truce. Back at the Red Pyramid Roni and I had climbed up the front of the pyramid, I stopped 3/4 of the way due to fear of heights and Roni went the rest of the way on reconnaissance. She concluded that once you reach the top you have to go inside the pyramid. Per the Lonely Planet via 125 extremely steep stone steps and a 63m-long passage. Well as we were contemplating it a group of Japanese tourist came out of the hole and looked as though they had been through hell! Clutching the railing, white as ghosts saying they couldn't breathe down there, it was extremely hot and there were parts of the passage where you had to bend way over to fit (these were small Asian people). I'm out! Roni came back down and rejoined our attitude adjusted driver. Next stop the Step Pyramid at Saqqara, the world's earliest stone monument. We effortlessly paid our admission and the driver kindly informed us that we would go through the museum, watch a DVD on the site and then head out to view it. I was really excited to see Serapeum, which was dedicated to the Apis bull and supposedly a "highlight" of visiting Saqqara. The bull is portrayed as black with a white diamond on its forehead, and image of a vulture on its back and a scarab-shaped mark on its tongue....right up my alley, dying to see it. Sorry, it's closed. Oh well, we roamed around Saqqara utterly confused and then headed over to the great Pyramids of Giza. After hearing and reading about "the battalions of buses, armies out touts and legions of visitors", I was over it, Sheckler Style! We informed the driver that it would be just fine to see Giza from a panoramic view outside the gates and to pull around to where I could see the Sphinx and that would conclude our pyramid circuit. Veni Vidi Vici, or was I conquered? A hot shower, a good meal and a few Sakara beers and we were off to bed. The next day, our last together, we shopped the old souk of Khan al-Khalili and eagerly anticipated the Sufi dancing we were going to see that night. We finished shopping and grabbed a snack and a beer before heading over to see the show. Get this...I'm sitting at Cafe Riche in Cairo when I hear someone behind me saying he owns a cafe in Morocco and his voice sounds really familiar. I turn around and it's the guy who owns Cafe Clock in Fes. He recognizes me instantly, we had a quick chat, he was on holiday with a friend from the UK and killing time before their train to Luxor. Small world, right? Anyway we head off to see the Sufi dancers where we ran into Jennifer who we met in Siwa and is from NYC here on vacation. The dancers were excellent! Part religious worship and part entertainment spectacular! They are Egypt's only Sufi dance troupe and way more colorful and wild than the whirling dervishes of Turkey (who are also excellent, just different). We all went to dinner after the show and then Roni was off at midnight for her overnight flight back home, I'll miss you Grandma. I went back to the hotel and got on the computer to check email when one of the owners of the hotel (twin brothers own it) asked me if I wanted to join him for a beer, of course I did, and we hung out talking till 4:00 am! Needless to say I slept till 11:00 and had to drag myself out of bed, shower and pack because I had to check out today and hang around till my flight at midnight. I have plans to meet Jennifer at 6:00 for dinner and had big plans to go to the Egyptian Museum, but instead I had coffee walked around town and did this blog post. I'll probably just finish up in time to meet Jennifer and this computer is too slow to post images, I'll do that later. I'm on my way to Kuala Lumpur tonight to see my old friend Justin Tan. More from there. Peace out...Jan
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