Our first stop of the day was at the Mosque of Muhammed Ali Pasha, also known as the Alabaster Mosque. Our guide asked us to bring scarves with us the day before, and while Rami told us it wasn’t necessary as tourists, we wanted to be respectful.
When it came time to enter the Mosque courtyard, our guide first arranged our scarves, however, at the door, it seemed my arms were not covered enough and this was more important, so we rearranged.
Also, we had to take our shoes off or use small shoe covers (not unlike booties used for clean rooms), which were selling for 5 Egyptian pounds (< $1). Nelia and I both elected to take our shoes off and stepped across the threshold, where there is a wide open courtyard, with a washing station at the center (for washing before prayers).
We stepped over the second threshold of alabaster, into a large room for praying. Inside, in one corner, is the tomb of Muhammed Ali Pasha. There is a lot of stained glass and some large chandeliers above, but mainly, the whole room is large, open, carpeted space. Our guide told us the carpet is from the 18th century.
Outside, we got some gorgeous views:
Our next stop was the hanging church. As we approached the Christian side of town, I noticed more women without some form of headscarves.
Our guide told us the fables of the famous Bible characters who were supposed to have visited the spaces beneath the hanging Church: Mary and baby Jesus, Moses, etc. Also, there were pictures of all the famous celebrities and politicians who had come for a visit. A church has been active on the site since the 3rd century AD. Our guide pointed out the detail in the very old icons of various saints and the apostles, and the mother of pearl that was inlaid in a lot of the decor.
Around the corner (and through the woods) we visited a very old temple, which we were not allowed to take pictures in. It is no longer in use, but contained a large tomb at the center, and was a fairly small space.
We went to the papyrus shop next, where a man showed us the process (briefly) of making papyrus paper, and explained to us the unique qualities (mainly that you can crinkle it into a ball and it will retain its shape and smoothness) and how to tell a fake from genuine papyrus paper at other markets (mainly it will crack). He then tried to sell us papyrus paintings. However, they were really expensive and making a deal here was harder, as they are the one place the government sanctions as certifying it is real papyrus.
The perfume shop was next, and quite beautiful, decorated with perfume bottles against mirrored shelves all around, cut into the stone behind the cushioned benches where one can only suppose showing and selling happened. We sat at one such arrangement in the back, where the perfume shop owner showed us his list of perfumes, explained what they were for, and that they were all pressed, essential oils and very strong. He proved it by placing exactly one drop of the mint oil in a glass of hot water and allowing us to smell it. The odor was so strong we both pulled away quickly when we went to smell it. I tried to convince him to allow me to mix oils (this seemed obvious to me, since so many individual scents were listed, that we could mix our own unique scent we might like) but he would not allow mixing between groups. He explained they would not mix well.
We finally stopped to eat at a restaurant on a boat, where everything was delicious again and our guide even got us some ice cream, which, possibly partly due to the heat, was the best ice cream we ever ate.
Our last stop late in the afternoon was the famous markets. Our guide warned us not to tell anyone we were Americans, as they would ask for higher prices. Better to say we were Canadian or British. We chose Canadian since we were from near there anyways. Vendors called out to us, begging to ‘give them a chance,’ etc. They tried anything to get our attention. Our guide helped us tremendously in bargaining. She refused to take no for an answer, and usually bargained for roughly half the asking price until she got that and got us a free gift thrown in, too.
It was a fun afternoon of shopping and laughing. At the end, we reluctantly hugged our guide goodbye and Wa-el drove us back to the hotel. We had to pack, shower, and get ready as we would be leaving at 6:30 AM for the airport to finally go home.
We had to rush our included breakfast, but were glad we ate. We met our guide, Shea-hee, who greeted us and joined us in the mini SUV we had ridden in yesterday, sitting in the front and talking about the city to us the whole way to the pyramids. We were hesitant about paying to go inside the pyramids, partly because Erik and Ashley, his wife, had told us it wasn't really worth it since nothing was inside anymore; also, it was expensive - 200 Egyptian pounds, around $25 each. However, when we got there, we saw there was a 50% discount for students, and we since we both happened to have our student IDs handy, we reconsidered, and decided to go ahead and see the inside of the great pyramid.
We took lots of pictures outside, and climbed to go inside. No pictures were permitted inside. It was long and narrow and one piece of the climb inside was very short so we had to duck to climb (and we're not very tall!). We took a few breaks along the way, but climbed all the way into the main chamber. While there was not much there but some lights and the tunnel itself and a large stone sarcophagus, we thought it was worth it just to be inside the great pyramid at Giza and climb through its passageway. We also saw one of the other tunnels on the way out, which was gated so people don't fall, but pointed downwards. It was hundreds of meters into the pyramid.
We drove to another outpost where we could see the three larger pyramids in the distance, took some pictures, then got ready for our 25 minute camel ride. We were first fitted with Bedouin head covers to protect our heads in the sun, then climbed onto the camels, who stood up back-end first. We were a little scared at first - it feels very different from riding a horse. On a horse, you feel balanced because their backs are wide, but the camel's back is more narrow and you feel like you might fall when you are not used to it and they start moving around. We told ourselves if we could dive with sharks, we could ride a camel, however, and it soon got easier as we got the feel for it. The boy who led our camels talked to us the whole way, and boasted that one of his family's camels was named 'Obama' because President Obama had ridden it when he came to Egypt. Mine was called Michael Jackson, and Nelia's was Casanova. We stopped in view of the 9 pyramids of Giza to take pictures, then we rode back where Wa-el, our driver, and our guide waited to pick us up.
Our next stop was the sphinx. We took lots of pictures, including more silly ones, and asked a lady with a baby to take a picture of the three of us (Nelia, the guide and myself). She obliged, then asked if she and her kids could have a picture with us. We said sure, and soon the whole family wanted pictures with us. Our guide explained it was rare that people got to see foreigners so it was exciting for them.
We visited a jewelry store, where we could purchase a Cartouche on various pieces of jewlery if we wanted (writing one's name in hieroglyphs). It was also air conditioned and we were offered a cold hibiscus juice, so we stayed awhile before moving on to the cotton shop, where everything was 100% Egyptian cotton.
We passed by many irrigated green fields of palm trees and papyrus on the way to the pyramids of Sakkara, which are much older. We got a tour of the columned hallways, structured like papyrus stalks, and then our guide let us explore seeing into the tombs. She warned us not to go further as it was illegal. In front of the standing pyramid, a crew was making a movie.
While we were hungry, we held off on lunch to go to a carpet school which was nearby (lunch was not). We were shown how the carpet makers make the carpets with different types of threads and patterns. Each was made by hand and could take up to 5 months to finish. Then we looked around their shop at all the fine work. Some were made of cotton, others wool, and the finest from silk threads. They were also categorized by the level of weaver they were made by. A beginner's work was less expensive than that of an intermediate weaver, which was cheaper than that of a master. The works of the masters were incredibly intricate and purposeful.
At long last, we made it to lunch. We were a little thrown by the fact that Nelia and I were eating alone, since the guide was going to accompany the driver, who was not allowed to eat with us as a company policy. We found this kind of strange. The restaurant was outside, and we sat in the shade and watched stray puppies play with each other until their parents came to collect them. The food was really good, and too much. We drove back to the hotel and crashed until it was time for our Nile dinner cruise. The day was so hot and dry, especially as the late afternoon approached.
The dinner cruise was cute, there were a lot of families. There were several entertainers lined up. The salad bar was really nice - fresh salad with tahini and tzatziki sauces, fruit, hummus, etc. Once again, our guide, Rami this time, came with us, but sat far away from us on the other side. We thought this was really odd and expressed it to him. We explained that part of what we wanted to do when visiting a new place was learn about culture, language, etc., and one of the main ways we’d done this before was sharing meals with our guides, drivers, etc. Rami explained that the company tried to respect our space/privacy, but we said we weren’t interested in that at all. However, we enjoyed the evening. Entertainment included a ballads lounge singer, followed by a traditional male dance that involved constant turning with a long skirt and tricks done with the skirt and the many folds of the costume. Lastly, there was a belly dancer, which everyone was psyched about. It was hard to enjoy a lot of what was going on because the smoke was constant, and the boat was an enclosed space. There were many kids, and no parents seemed upset that there was a constant air of cigarette smoke surrounding them. We kept having to go outside to breathe fresh air for a bit. There were a lot of small party boats out there, all decorated in their own unique set of colorful, shaped lights:
After breakfast, we all finished our packing and hung out until check out at 11, then rolled our luggage downstairs to store behind the front desk until our cabs brought us to the airport. Maria, Erik and Miles were leaving at 1, and Leah, Nelia and I at 3. We decided to go back to the waterfront to shop and eat lunch together, but none of us was very hungry when we got there, so we just shopped a bit in a large Africa store Erik had found this morning. Around 12:15, Erik, Miles and Maria got hot dogs at a stand, and we said goodbye before they walked back to the hotel to get their cab at 1. They were all headed home. Leah, Nelia and I had lunch together overlooking the water. We were all traveling a bit more - Leah to England, and Nelia and I to Cairo for about three days!
We walked back together at 2:30, went to the airport, and shopped at duty free before hanging out until Nelia and my flight was ready to go. We said goodbye to Leah, and got on our 12 hour flight to Dubai. We had a 3 hour layover in Dubai, followed by a 3 hour flight to Cairo.
Rami, our guide, picked us up inside the airport and showed us where to wait on the line to get our passports checked. However, he quickly decided he might be able to do this faster himself, asked for our passports, and came back quickly, and had cleared us to skip the whole line, be approved, and leave to collect our bags. We were really impressed and felt a lot safer already. Rami spoke Spanish better than English (Nelia had written she was from Peru instead of the US), and so he spoke Spanish to her most of the car ride and she translated the bits of information he was giving us about the sights we were passing. He promised our guide tomorrow would speak in English. We arrived at the hotel, checked in, then sat down with Rami to review our itinerary - it would be a busy few days. We quickly noticed that people smoked in the hotel. There were ashtrays in the lobby and in front of every elevator on every floor. It was a problem we had not anticipated. We asked about our room, if it was nonsmoking, Rami said yes, and did we want a smoking room? We explained that we desperately did not, and were relieved, but we found that in order to get to our room, we had to pass by quite a few smoking rooms and cough until we made it. We mainly rested for the rest of the evening. We would have an 8 AM pick up tomorrow morning, and it would be a long, busy day.
