Today is my last day in Egypt and I’ll tell you my trip has been an eye opener.  I never thought of Egypt as the “Middle East” with Afganistan, Iraq and Iran but indeed it is.  I talked politics today with an Egyptian and the first thing he asked me was in all honesty, how do people think of Egypt. I told him that people are still cautious of Muslims but are mostly scared about what will happen in the Middle East.  I think alot of people when they think of Egypt, they think Pyramids not Middle East chaos.

So today I went to St Catherine’s Monastary and saw Moses’ burning bush. No it wasn’t burning but it was there green and all.  On our way back to Sharm, we stopped by Dahab which is right across from Saudi Arabia (Mom don’t tell Dad I got close enough to see Saudi Arabia.)    In one of the shops, I was alone with the shop owner.  Now in my 12 days of being here (or so) nothing, NOTHING, has ever happened to make me feel uncomfortable.  But this guy, in leading me to see something else, put his bare hand on my ass.  Granted if his hand was gloved, I still would have been offended but geez!  I bolted, shocked, into another store where the rest of the tour group was.  I have never felt so uncomfortable.  Granted yes just a hand on my butt, but we were alone in his shop and he makes a brash move like that and it was a full hand, full coverage, very obvious.  I was just surprised and very very uncomfortable. So now I’m stuck in a store where there is obviously nothing i want to buy.  I wait for about 3 minutes and realize I can’t be kept captive like this. I didn’t want to leave to face him, but I couldn’t just stay there either.  So I took a big deep breath and walked out.

I just got booted off the computer but let’s just say the kindness of other people helped.

I fill in more later.

ciao

In Cairo, I developed a cough due to the serious pollution.  If we drove around it got worse since the road fumes are horrible.  Now that I’m on the coast I’m relearning to take deep breaths again although I’ll get a good one in to find a smoker near by and start coughing again.  I’m so spoilt by northern California.

I landed in Sharm early Sunday morning to find most activities don’t open until 4.  Okay the only activity I wanted at the moment was a massage.  My back and legs are a bit sore from the horse ride I did on Saturday.   I could have done the camel thing but I realized it would have been fun for about 15 minutes then I would have gotten tired of the rocking forward and back on the hump.  This way with the horse, I had my own guide and we got to gallop and run.  I totally want to take horse riding lessons when I get home.   So around the pyramids (yes finally I saw them up close and personal) and into the desert we went.  The desert wasn’t the Lawrence of Arabia kind but more of a rocky terrain.  After the tour, I wandered about with all the other tourists and found myself deep inside the second largest pyramid in Giza.  It’s hot, sweaty, smelly (but better smelly than outside at times actually) and I could feel the thickness of the walls around me.  The claustrophobic would not do well in here at all.  You climb down a steep incline and then climb up another to find yourself in an empty  mid sized room where the sarcophagus used to lie.  The room wasn’t too bad, it was the in between corridor between down and up.  That was intense.  I could feel the thickness of the walls as I tried to catch my breath.  I could feel them closing in and realized, this was a bad place for this and stopped it from happening.  yeah mind.

Now I’m in Sharm and you are wondering why I wished people would wear clothes.  Every woman is in a bikini except 2 so far.  And these aren’t the two that should be wearing a one piece (as I have).  That topped with the European men and the nude sun bathing… my eyes my eyes,  I’ve been in a land of modesty too long maybe?

okay I planned to not send this until Monday, but maybe I’ll have a new adventure to chat about.  Lucky day for you, two in one.

Ciao.

-C

I thought Hazem would be a natural barterer since he’s Egyptian.  However he’s a city boy and I think he might not have been prepared for the work it takes to barter.  So imagine yourself, if possible, in this situation.  You are on a side street where there are endless ‘shops’ selling all sorts of things like spices, perfumes, bags, tshirts, nicknacks, cottons shawls etc.  You want some of these things, others you don’t care for.  As you walk down the street (closed off to cars, filled with pedestrians like yourself) you are constantly accosted by new friends.  “Hey Canada!” (they know the flag on my daypack) “Canada Dry!”  (I have yet to see a can of ginger ale, but it sure beat “Canada? Celine Dion!”).  But let’s say you are not Canadian, or not wearing the maple leaf, if you are wearing a floppy hat, you are British, if you are tall skinny and scantily clothed you are Russian and they all have sayings to get the attention of each group….Not sure what they said if you are American because honestly I haven’t seen any.

Anyway, I digress.  You are walking down the street and getting approached by various vendors. If you express any interest in an item, they can give you a good price.  Special deal for the day.  Depending on the item, you can usually get it down to a third of the asking price, but if you don’t know this, you honestly think these men (usually) are giving you a great deal.
They say they bought it at this price.  They say they are working for their father and he would be mad if he sold it for less.  They say theirs is genuine and the rest are fake.  There are so many stories.  Since I’ve been through this in South America, I’ve heard pretty much all of them.  The trick is to get them to name a price.  You act shocked (well you are) and say no way and walk away.  Usually they say then ok ok name your price or they drop it automatically.  You should eventually way underbid a price (say you’ll pay 20, tell them 15 or even 10).  Never, ever buy it until you’ve left the store at least once.  If you leave and they don’t change the price then it’s usually the lowest they will go.  If you leave, look at another shop that is selling the same thing (there always are) then do the same process again.  You can eventually use the stores’ prices against each other, atleast you’ll be better informed.  Unfortunately, my friends didn’t know this game.  Hazem doesn’t like this game and I don’t blame him.  Honestly though, I handled it better than I thought I would and actually enjoyed the process this time.

I’m actually in Sharm el Sheik now and man what a resort I am in.  A salt water lake on land and a swimming pool in the ocean.  Crazy.  I don’t want to ruin anything so I’ll send an update Monday.

Salam!

Corinne

So we have made it to Aswan which is more south on the Nile. Our time in Luxor was pretty nice. We did toured the Valley of the Kings and went into a couple tombs. Then we went to Hatshepsut’s temple (HUGE!), Karnak Temple (even more HUGE!) and Luxor Temple. When I post pictures (hopefully when I get back to Cairo) I’ll go into more details. I do wish I could have gone into more tombs but we didn’t have time for more that day so there were only two.

Our guide said there were over 11,000 tourists that day and that didn’t count the people staying locally in Luxor like ourselves. These were just the people bussed in. so you can imagine how crazy and busy it was. It was difficult to imagine the time when Pharaohs walked the land but I did have a moment (while 40 other people probably in this one stone room) where a Pharaoh would come to this small stone room and make offerings to his god. For about 5 seconds I was able to put myself in that time and imagine what it would be like. It’s pretty amazing.

Today we are heading off for another full day of tours. This time we are joining with a larger group (British) I think and heading Aswan Dam (which is where the Nile is dammed and where all the crock’s stop making their way up the river (as well as the sediment that once made the farm lands more fertile sadly) and we’re going to an island or two.

So some explanation for the mute subject line. Merchants of various kinds approach tourists on the street and try to get them to take a ride on their boats or horse drawn carriages or buy their stuff. Normally I just say la, la shukran, which means no, no thank you. But this time I pretended to have lost my voice. Well the little bugger followed me to the point that I had to cross the street. Next time I’m going to pull a Nell and just start making up my own language.

So it looks like my trip started with a bang and has progressed to a nice lull. When I get back to Cairo you’ll see more stuff because I can just use Hazem’s computer then.

Until next time…

I thought I did, but apparently I must have missed that on my check list. So it’s been quite an adventure the past 24 hours. When I landed in Cairo, I forgot about the $15USD Visa fee in order to get into the country. I *thought* I had some cash, but it appears all I had was 1.17. This fell quite short of the requested total. No problem though! I have two credit cards and even though the bank ATM was either unplugged or just unjuiced the Visa office could take credit cards.

Unfortunately they were both denied twice, each. Damn what to do? So I found an Egyptian who could speak English and he called Hazem (thankfully I had the fore-thought to actually get his cell number). Hazem however, was at the wrong terminal and it would take 15-20 minutes to get to my terminal. So while I chilled and waited… and paced…. and kept bugging my new friend, my story was retold over and over and over again to new people getting added into the mix. Thankfully, I never received a pitiful look of a tourist who should know better. I should but I hate that look.

When I started worrying about my bag that I had to check in, someone must have read my mind because a security guard came to get me and told me to get my things. This is on the other side of the Customs/Visa people.. but that’s ok because they had all left to go sit somewhere in the back room. So out I walked, grabbed the bag and actually contemplated skipping the visa and going to find Hazem… luckily I wasn’t that tired and tried to get back into my holding area. The security guard, a different security guard who didn’t know my story yet, was quite concerned that I didn’t have a Visa and I was on the OTHER side of the visa gate. I called my friend over and again the story was retold.. I think I could retell it now in Arabic myself. So back I went to my chair and waited. It was about 1 or 1.30 am now and I had been waiting for about an hour but time did seem to fly because there were always people around. The women in various stages of dress and cover and even some men who must have come from Saudi Arabia with their long robes and head dress thingy.

Eventually another man came to find me and he had received the money from Hazem and had purchased my Visa and put it into the passport. Then we needed to go find some customs guy to verify it or something (he didn’t seem happy about getting interrupted from his daydream) and then I was out… almost. I had another two queues to stand in and get verified again. Boy they are thorough! I saw Hazem waving in the background (behind all the other people waving) and I sighed. I knew it was all going to work out but it was just nice to see him. Unfortunately our adventure wasn’t completely over yet.

Hazem, in his rush, parked in a no parking zone and as we made our way to the car he started running faster. His car got booted! The man had just finished locking it as Hazem came up to him. So the thought that every one is bribable in the Middle East isn’t exactly true. We tried and I even did the puppy eyes but the man held steadfast. Hazem had to go pay off the ticket. What a night!

As we drove home, Hazem showed me how busy it still was at 2am in the morning. Granted Ramadan had finished that day and Eid started at sun rise the next day, people were planning on staying up all night. I mostly saw teenage and college aged boys, but once in a while there were a few girls out. I think we drove around for 1 1/2 hours catching up on old times and eventually we arrived at home. Cairo reminds me of Lima and other South American cities. Dirty, busy, buildings half finished and people everywhere! I think the drivers are more crazy here though.. yes Tanya it is true. Lima isn’t the worst city.

Today has been a pretty easy day filled with an early morning rise at 5.15 to go see the hoards of people on the street (we missed prayers unfortunately, but it was cool hearing the men on the speakers praying). I did have a nap after lunch because I was running off 6 hours of sleep since the day I left and we couldn’t get in to see the Pyramids since they close up doors at 4pm (and early today because it was a holiday). Tonight we hop aboard a Sleeper train to Luxor and I probably won’t get back to anyone until I return to Cairo on the 18th. But we’ll see in sha-allah (I’m trying to pick up the language as much as I can..so I figure I’ll have like 4 phrases down hehe).

I had an eventful start to my time in Cairo, but so far it’s been pretty tame. The pollution is strong so getting out of the city will be good. It’s equivalent to smoking three packs of cigarettes a day and I can totally feel it on my throat after driving around for a few hours. I will also be surprised if I don’t see atleast one person get hit while I’m here. Luckily the cars aren’t super fast but people are all over the roads walking and the drivers just honk and slow down and don’t really use their lights at night.. well they are basically on low beam and turn the lights on when to warn someone.

Hazem and Hala are great hosts and their kids Omar and Nour are very cute and quite fun. Especially since I have no idea what they are saying although I know how to say “no” now…”la” and I’m running out of finger games…

Until next time!

Salam!

I don’t know what’s crazier: the fact that I am awake at 4am or the fact I’m not curled up on the couch right now napping. It’ll be interesting how this little experiment works out. The idea is that I won’t be totally flat out with jet-lag (which means needing a nap between1-3pm local time for me). I will definitely still have it since Egypt is 9 hours ahead of us, but I hope it won’t be too too bad.

I’m packed, printed (itineraries, passport, essential information), yawning, iPoded up, more or less ready to go. My flight isn’t for another 12 hours from now. It might be the early morning and lack of sleep but I’m definitely filled with mixed emotions right now. This was never really intended to be my trip and to be done alone. Tanya had the life long dream to go to Egypt and she put the thought into my head. I was looking forward to another adventure with her. But when she had to pull out due to work reasons (and although I might not agree with the reasons, it was her choice to make) I had to decide what was next. I probably would have never gone if it was for my friend, Hazem, being there. He’s such a genuine person, I thought what an opportunity I can’t pass up. A local Egyptian to show me around his country! He remembers me so well from Fatbrain. He says Cairo is a city of contradictions and he wants to show this to me. So at some point I will be in the busiest place in Cairo and then the quietest; the richest and the poorest.

So here I am, about to embark on another adventure alone which I swore to myself I’d never do again. But in retrospect, what I didn’t like about traveling alone was being there alone and not able to share the experience with someone else. Alone, I’m not the most extrovert person while traveling and tend to be a little more cautious. The whole travel part is okay. All I need to do is sit on a plane, watch movies, eat, sleep and just keep myself amused. No problem. Getting from point A to point B is all good on the ground with a little planning and calm. Once I get there, I will mostly be joined by Hazem, his wife Hala and their two children (now that should be an experience). The only time I’m truly alone is while I’m at Sharm and I can handle a few days with myself.

So the conflict of emotions is a little sad, definite excitement, apprehension and the general feeling of unbelievability that 24 hours from now, well I’ll still be on the plane but I won’t be at home.

-Corinne

I have definitely started getting into the mind set of a traveling person. When I walk down the street, my mind isn’t completely filled with all the tasks of the day and tomorrow. I find my thoughts consumed by the actual moment. What the air smells like. How cool it is on my skin. What the cobblestones under my feet feel like. All of this even walking down the streets of Palo Alto, which is where I work every day! My mind is in more of a conversational self instead of ordering me to get things taken care of or things I should have done. Maybe this is why I look forward to my yearly trip. It allows me to focus on something else for once, the lack of a to-do list which seems to rule my every day. The other thing I like is I allow myself more non-necessary experiences. For example, this morning I went to Prolific Oven to get a soy chai tea. As I’m waiting there, I started thinking about my time in Italy and all the pasteries we ate there and how wonderful that was. No guilt, just a gotta-experience-this-cuz-I’m-here type of feeling.

Then I started thinking how we limit the fun we have in our everyday lives and I’m sure I’m not not the only one. And it’s not like I don’t have fun in my everyday life, I absolutely do… but I keep it on a rein, only letting out what I think I have time for. We give ourselves permission to slow down while on vacation (even though we might be speeding along in a completely different sense with airplanes, trains and the sights). I day dream more when a vacation is near at hand. I reflect on past experiences and how they’ve influenced my life today. Maybe this is one of the influences? This is the first time I’ve become so introspective before even putting a foot on the plane. Or just maybe this waking up at 5am has put me in an altered state and I’m just trying to make sense of it all.

-Corinne

Oh by the way. When I got that chai tea, I also got a breakfast roll thingy. mmmm raisins, whole wheat bread type stuff, ricotta cheese… yeah in my every day life I would think, “I need to run how far to work that off”, but in my vacation mindset, all I thought was I-gotta-experience-this-while-I’m-here. I hope I keep this feeling for a very very long time.

Egypt is 9 hours ahead of us.  Initially I was thinking I would stay up late and get into work late (sounds great no?) but then I realized it wouldn’t help much in the time zone deal.

This was my original schedule idea:
US     Egypt
Wake up 12pm     9pm
To Work 2pm   11pm
Go Home 11pm     8am
Go to Bed 2am   11am
Here’s the early morning option:
US Egypt
Wake up 6am    3pm
To Work 7am    4pm
Go Home 4pm    1am
Go to Bed 9pm    6am

I think the overlap works better this way so I can share more waking hours with the Egyptian time zone.  Wish me luck in getting up early.  Maybe it’ll be a consistent habit?  ha yeah right.

I have 16 or so days to really mess up my sleep, start my packing, figure out my credit card pins so I can get cash and determine if I have time to take a cruise in London down the River Thames.

Night

- C