Sunrise at the Pyramids

Day 1

I am not going to lie, I didn't do much today. My head cold that EVERYONE on the ship has finally caught up with me, so I slept in and just lounged around on the 7th deck until everyone returned from their trips. I didn’t really want to go anywhere anyway since I was alone and this really isn’t where you go wandering around alone, especially if you’re a girl.

But, when I went on my ATM adventure with Rachel, I saw that almost everyone was in a full hijab with only their eyes showing. Those that were not, wore headscarves and full body coverage. Only very seldom did you see a younger girl, around our age, in only a long skirt and long sleeve shirt and nothing over her head. It was definitely different than Turkey. I was hit on by a 10 year old boy! We walked past him and he started screaming after us, asking us what our names were and how we were pretty. It was interesting.

I talked to one of my friends that did a city orientation, and he said that he drove past the beautiful beaches and the women were all swimming in full dress including head scarves unless it was a private beach for a hotel. My other friend Katie was on a tour of the library of Alexandria and she stubbed her toe on the stairs and at the top she bent down to check it because it was bleeding, and she said when she stood up, 3 men were standing right in front of her and asked her if they could take her picture and when she said no, they took it anyway. She then looked around and guys were just taking pictures of her on their cell phones. That is so awkward.

During pre-port, we had one of our fellow students, a girl that is from Cairo originally, speak to us about it. She said, very bluntly, that men will come up and touch you if you make eye contact. They know it’s not OK and if you scream they will go away, but they will grab you. Definitely different than any of the countries we’ve been to before.

So the next few days should be interesting. A lot of my guy friends are on 5 day trips and others are just staying in Cairo for a few days so that limits the extent to which I’ll be going out. I know sounds lame, right? But I would rather wait for them to get back than to go out with just a group of me and two other girls and have the sun go down and us still a good ½ hr from the ship.

Day 2-3

Cairo was pretty intense, not going to lie. First we left Alexandria and drove down to Cairo, which took about 2 ½ hrs. It was really interesting driving through the countryside. You would see these gated communities that were made up of condos and such, then nearby a billboard advertising the community and it would not look anything like what you actually saw. No green grass and trees, no shopping centers and pools. Just homes, some unfinished, sitting around in the sand with maybe one or two palm trees scattered here and there. Then outside of the gated/walled communities were some fields growing crops and then small shacks built with reeds that people were living in. The poverty here is really bad, especially since the recession hit. It wasn’t as evident in this part of the countryside as it was around Cairo.

Coming into Cairo, the city just sort of sprung up slowly. The apartment buildings and the roads are all covered in a layer of sand and dirt. Most of the thinner inner roads were just dirt roads and not paved which was different than any other city that we’ve been to or that I’ve seen. About 90% of the buildings were unfinished too. Anywhere from no glass in the windows to even the stairs leading to nothing where the next story should be, or sometimes just beams that should holding up the ceiling over another story holding up air instead. Our tour guide explained to us that people would never finish their homes and buildings because if they were unfinished, they didn’t have to pay taxes. It was really interesting. Maybe only a handful of the apartment buildings were finished and they were all the older ones.

Cairo’s streets and everything were covered in litter and mud/dust. There were people EVERYWHERE.  Usually at some point in time in a city, you drive through an area that is nice such as a business district or the rich district. We did a lot of driving around in the city, and I saw nothing like that. The business buildings were surrounded by dirty side streets and unfinished apartment buildings and homes. The areas around the pyramids and the sphinx and other tourist areas were just as dirty and poverty stricken and litter covered. The dust is to be understood since the city is situated on the edge of the great Sahara desert, but the litter is awful.

It was really weird driving around and seeing that some people even had livestock while living on the edges of the city and camels. Where did they keep them!? It was more understandable in the homes that were farms on the flood plain on the edge of the Nile, but these were just random homes with sheep flowing out of them. Gotta do what you gotta do I guess!

Our tour guide was very informative. She talked to us about the way the women dressed and said that the full face covering was something bad that was brought to Islam. I was unaware that it was a bad thing, but she said it was a habit that Muslims learned from the Bedouins who covered their faces from the sand. Instead they adapted it to make their women cover their faces so that no one could look upon them save the husband. She told us that when praying or making the pilgrimage to Mecca, your face must be uncovered. I didn’t know this about Islam, I just thought it was something that was just done. I do wonder about the lifestyles of those that do cover their faces and those that don’t and those that wear form fitting clothing instead of the full hijab. It would be really interesting to learn about the differences in their faiths, families, and how they were raised.

We also learned that there are 75 million people in Egypt and that there are about ½ million more men than women. Bedouins marry around the age of 14 or 15 and their dowry is in the form of camels. I was told by the one shop keeper that he would give me 1000 camels for my friend Rachel. I asked him what I would do with 1000 camels and his dad said he was lying and that he didn’t even have 1 camel. Needless to say, I still have Rachel. Bedouins can also have a second wife when the first reaches the age of 40. After that, the second wife, usually around 25 or so, keeps the house and takes care of things, while the first wife is the supervisor, so they usually encourage a second wife. Hey, I would too!! They also treat their small boys/sons with venom from poisonous snakes (except the Viper) and scorpions like a vaccine, so when they are older, they are basically immune to the venom. I thought that was really interesting. Murderers, Rapists, terrorists, and drug dealers are all executed for their crimes. Apparently drug dealing, of anything even hashish, is punishable by death. Pretty crazy! Especially since we don’t even put to death those that have murdered and raped in the States.. then again sometimes we don’t even keep them in jail. They’ve reformed! Put them on probation! The gun restrictions in Egypt are very strict. To carry a gun you have to apply for a license and you have to meet many criteria such as living in the country, using it for hunting or if you have a high risk job. The initial license is $5000 and then each year you must renew it and it’s still a few thousand dollars to renew. And that is USD not Egyptian pounds!

She taught us about a few of the images in Egyptian culture too. The scarab beetle is a sign of good luck and wealth. If you see a scarab beetle, a great fortune will come to you. The ancient Egyptians saw it only out during the day, pushing it’s egg in front of it, so they believed that the sun god was a scarab beetle that pushed the sun across the sky during the day. Today’s version of the devil, the red guy with the fork and the spiked tail, is from ancient Egypt. She taught us about cartouches, which are pendants with your name written in hieroglyphics. Each letter adds a different characteristic to your personality. So if you have an A in your name, you have the characteristics of an eagle – powerful and strong. She only told us a few of them, but there was a paper passed around with each of their meanings, I was sleeping at the time though, oops! If you have a double of a letter, it means that that characteristic is very strong in your personality. J – which is a snake – means intellect, L – the lion – means you’re controlling and bossy, m – an owl – means you are wise, and B – the mouth – means you’re very talkative.

Anyway, so on to things that I actually did in Egypt!

On the first day of my 2 day Cairo visit, we first visited the Step pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara, the oldest pyramid on earth and the one that lead from the mastaba shaped pyramids to the smooth great pyramids. After walking around there, we went to visit the Mastaba of Ti which is one of the best decorated mastabas from the old kingdom. They did a great job preserving the drawings etched into the outer layer of plaster on the inner walls. We had a chance to go inside and walk around the tomb. It was really cool to see the pictures depicting life back in Ancient Egypt. One of the best things about visiting this site was actually seeing the boarder between the Sahara desert and the flood plain/oasis on either side of the Nile. The fertile land and all of it’s green trees and grasses just hit an invisible barrier and the desert stretches on and on after that.

After this we headed back to Giza to get some lunch at a hotel that had a view of the great pyramids. It was crazy just driving past them. I mean, in Italy there were roads just kind of driving around the Coliseums and such, but these are one of the ancient wonders of the world, the only ones still standing, and there is just a road driving right in front of them.

After lunch we headed to the Archaeological museum in Cairo to see different statues and treasures from each of the dynasties that ruled over Egypt starting in 5000 bc! Some of the statues there were SO old and preserved very well. We went upstairs and the rumor was that King Tut’s stuff including his mask were in San Francisco. NOT! They were all here except a few random things and his mummy, but his mask, all of his sarcophagi and jewels and everything were here! We had a chance to walk around and check them out including the 4 gold plated, stone burial chambers. It was really awesome just staring at his mask that they found covering his head and shoulders in the grave. We walked around the museum a little longer. Saw some mummies including some mummified animals like a giant alligator and this really HUGE Nile perch. People back then mummified everything! There were mummified snakes and cats and birds and random things. Its ridiculous to think about how they came up with ways to do this. The scientific research that must have gone into determining the best embalming formula and the best way to get all of the organs out of the animals and humans. Really gross at the same time.

Following this, we checked into our really amazing  hotel, The Conrad, watched, in English, Pirates 3 and then went to watch the famous light and sound show at the great pyramids and the sphinx. Definitely not what I was expecting. I don’t know… We were told that people fly from around the world to see it and everything, but I just wasn’t as impressed as I thought I would be. I mean it was really cool, but they just lit up the pyramids in different colors and projected slides and some short movies on the wall of the temple and some colors on the sphinx while some Egyptian music played and the story of the ancient pyramids was told. It was great as far as educational value and to give yourself a sense of how incredible the pyramids and everything were and how much history happened at the foot of the sphinx, but if you want something outrageous and entertaining, this really wasn’t it. It was good, but no crazy lazer show.

We FINALLY had dinner around 10pm and headed straight to bed since we had a 4am wake up call planned!

The next day, well morning, the phone woke us up at 4am sharp. After showering and watching some High School Musical 2, we headed downstairs and grabbed our box breakfasts and went out to the bus. We napped a bit on the way to the pyramids. They opened the pyramids at 6am for Semester at Sea Only! WE were going to be the only people there to watch the sun rise over the pyramids. Pretty sick huh? We got there and it was a little brighter, and then we watched as the sun slowly climbed over the 2nd pyramid. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever experienced in my life. Of all of the SAS trips I’ve taken and all of the things I’ve seen and done, this was definitely the best. You can’t really top watching the sun poke it’s head around one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world while you sit on a brick wall in the Sahara desert. If you can think of something, name it!

It was really amazing and words just can’t describe how you feel when you just watch the pyramids. It was really cold there too. I definitely appreciated that. It’s been so hot everywhere. But that’s beside the point. We took pictures and then we headed down to an area between the 1st and 2nd pyramid where we had more photo opportunities. From here, we got tickets to go inside of the pyramid, but first we went back up to the panoramic view and had a chance to ride a camel. Which was awesome. I’m kind of sad that I didn’t sign up for the 4 day camel trek and camping in the Sahara in Morocco, but I think I’ll live! The 10 minutes I was on the camel was good enough I suppose. My camel was pretty chill; I liked him.

After this we headed back to the 2nd pyramid to go inside. Quite the experience. It was so hot in there and there was next to no oxygen. Our tour guide warned us that we shouldn’t go in if we have any sort of respiratory issues, heart diseases, anything, because she had someone die in there who had a history of heart disease. It’s really short, but it’s really difficult to breath. You climb down this ramp while you’re crouched over and then get to the bottom and walk a few steps before your crouching over again and climbing up to the burial chamber which is this giant room with the date that it was discovered painted on the wall. You just look around a bit, take it all in, maybe lay in the stone burial chamber and then head back out the way you came in. It was pretty awesome to think that I’ve been inside of a pyramid!

After this we headed to the bazaar.  We were given far too much time there. I got a sweet coin skirt though that’s about it. Perfect for belly dancing class! We were all tired and hungry after waking up so early and it was getting hot outside.

We headed to the Nile after this and our boat cruise/belly dancing show. It was really interesting. The food was OK. I realized I’m not really a fan of Egyptian food.Well at least what we were served. The boat was really cool though and it had a deck where we could sit and watch as we cruised up the Nile. After this we all boarded the buses and headed back to Alexandria. Everyone was basically passed out on the bus, it was hilarious. We were all so exhausted.

After getting back to the ship, we had dinner, and then me, Rachel, and Erin went out to the shops by the port and got some souvenirs and our cartouches. They sold the cartouches on the bus, but they were more than double the price of Muhammad’s and I really liked his better. I’m really excited to get mine! He’s bringing me a hand made leather chain too. He was really cool. He gave us free shot glasses and the other shop keepers gave us bags and bags of things for like $10 USD. It’s nice to not have to really leave the area. I know I should be more outgoing and everything, but the bit of time I did spend outside of the port area was pretty insane. I’ll probably head out the last day for a bit or today or something. Depends on what time Nate gets back from Cairo. Hopefully he’s still alive after staying in a hostel!

Overall this has been a good trip to Egypt. I wish I would have had a chance to get to Sharm el-Sheikh, the beach resort town on the Sinai Peninsula. Tim is there now. I’m jealous. Some of the best snorkeling in the world is around there! The Red Sea is supposed to be amazing. Maybe next time when I come back to Egypt!

I’m not sure I’ll make it back to Cairo. I would like to see Luxor, but mainly the Sinai Peninsula. It was a 10 hour bus ride from Cairo and Cairo is a 3 hour train ride to Alexandria, so I would have had to go the first day and come back the 4th/5th day and I probably still would have gotten dock time. I think in Morocco, I’m just going to go to Marrakech for the first 2 days and then chill in Casablanca the second 2 days. I’ll have to see what’s going on with everyone. Most of my friends are doing the 4 days trips again. I would like to get into the Atlas Mountains as well. Well we have 5 days between Egypt and Morocco to figure that one out!