Well, today was quite an adventure. Since Laila Iskander from the Recycling School is away in Europe until Monday, we are devoting the weekend to sight-seeing. Originally, we planned to walk to the Egyptian Museum this afternoon, but that plan was modified because 1) we learned from an employee at RadioShack that the Egyptian Museum is definitely not walking distance from our hostel in El Daher and "smart person take taxi" and 2) because once we hailed a taxi, our driver informed us that the Egyptian Museum closes at 2:00 p.m. on Fridays, the Muslim equivalent of our Sundays, and it was already 1:15. So instead, we let our driver take us the one-hour drive across town to see the Sphinx and pyramids. On the way, we crossedthe Nile River, which provided Casey and I with an invaluable sense of relativity in terms of our hostel's location in El Daher compared to downtown Cairo (turns out we are quite a ways away, which also helps explain the all the stares we receive whenever we walk about our neighborhood--we are very far from where tourists generally spend time). On a side note, a word about Egyptian driving: if you've spent any time in Los Angeles, imagine the 405 at 5:30. Now subtract lanes, stop lights, speed limits, and crosswalks. Add motorbikes and donkey carts. And, of course, substitute turn signals for honking horns and you have some idea of what driving in downtown Cairo is like. Let's just say I've never been more grateful to be in the backseat.
The sphinx and pyramids were certainly a sight, but equally remarkable were the various cultures present there. We saw people from Ireland, France, Spain, and, unfortunately the most readily identifiable by booty shorts, tank tops, and lobster "tans," plenty of Americans fresh off the tour buses. Egyptian children tried to sell us papyrus bookmarks, model plastic pyramids, bottled water, postcards, and camel rides at every corner. Additionally, they were eager to point out sites for the "best picture," with the expectation that we return the favor with "baksheesh"--a tip. We managed to avoid most of the harassmentby politely saying "la! la!" and I imagine our comparatively modest attire didn't hurt, either. The only real tour advice we accepted was from a park official who gave us a backstory of the tombs--that they were 5,000 years old and that the engineer of the tomb had engraved his name beside a self-portrait on the face so as to remember himself in his second life 2,000 years later.
After an hour of wandering around in the heat to the sounds of camel hooves ca-clacking on asphalt and donkeys braying like rusting metal rocking chairs, we returned to the parking lot to find, to our relief, our taxi driver waiting for us as promised.
We requested to briefly look around the market before returning home to El Daher, but instead were ushered into a store owned by a friend of our driver. There, we were temped by rum, Egyptian mint tea, and glass bottles filled with lotus flower perfume. Thankfully, Casey can add "saying no, adamantly and repeatedly" to his skill sets, and after another 20 minutes we were back in our taxi for the hour return trip across the Nile to the Association of Upper Egypt.
Overall, it was incredibly fulfilling to have navigated ourselves so successfully to the pyramids and back with money still in our passport packs. It was a much-needed dose of self-sufficiency, which is scarce in a country where you do not speak the language even brokenly.
Tomorrow, we will attempt to tackle finding an ATM, a post office, and perhaps give the Egyptian Museum another go.
--Keats
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