Royal Gardens Giza

... some street photography in the nearby village of Mit Rahinah. The guide was very nervous and insisted on following me down the main street like a UN peacekeeping convoy. I managed almost fifteen minutes before some plain clothed police type asked us to leave town. I've attached a few shots.<br><br>Lunch was at some mad restaurant on the way back to Giza. We had a table top barbecue which had such dietary sensations as rice and chips and my ...

... building the great pyramid. They'd travel to Giza from Upper Egypt (ie the upper part of the Nile) and live in temporary housing near the pyramids working on these great construction projects as a way to honour their Pharaoh/God. Sand was used to build ramps which the huge blocks were pulled up and into place. Once it was done they removed all the sand and the pyramid became visible. Remember this all happened around 2500 BC, 4500 years ago. It's amazing to ...

... in the air with a mix of livestock, and throw in a bit of petrol fumes from all the passing traffic and you have a basic idea of what the real city is all about. The atmosphere is completely different from downtown. Here we spent a couple of hours wandering around getting hassled in khan al-khalili, (the Bazaar) a patchwork of alleys and shop fronts. Before heading back through the maze of people back to our hostel.<br>Cairo can wear you down but you still can't help but loving it anyway.

... and modern, except for it's one atm which was broken, had to go to one near customs..to pay for our Visas. We weren't given a second look going through customs, not even our passport was looked at and we were greeted by a young Egyptian man. Seems we were the only pick up so we loaded ourselves into the bus and got taken to the Fairmont Heliopolis Hotel. After a guard and canine sniffing the bus for bombs at the ...

... singing and dancing though, seemingly more concerned with having a good time themselves than actually just entertaining the tourists. Maybe they were still on because I was there, but at one point they greatly outnumbered the tourists at the bonfire. Of course they were having so much fun that the Aussie girls, if not the boys, came back to dance and Abdu went to work. He danced with every girl on the beach, and as one danced with the 12 year old ...

... br>Dinner and some conversation (chinese food and dirty jokes) are shared before a trip back to a friends house. lots of cool stuff floating around his hallways. like parts of meteors and old school boat navigators... even coins from shipwrecks where only like 2 or 3 coins exist in the world... crazy...<br><br>TIRED..... tomorrow is Alexandria. can't wait. <br><br>Valium. haze. hash. <br>Ipod: Curious case of benjermaine button<br><br>ZzZzZzZz <br>

Well, all my "plans" have been shot to hell. Despite spending in excess of 42 hours over the past nine days attempting to make travel arrangements to Russia, I will not be going. Administrative red tape has taken its toll. The Russian Consulate now says I can likely get a visa....in 7-9 more business days. **** them - I'm outta here. <br><br>I felt much better after making the decision to stop trying for the Russian visa - more relaxed and looking ...

... Islamic countries would be even more antithetical to US interests in the area.<br><br>Sounds fair. But his weak evidence -- comparing India (a democracy) to China (authoritarian) verges on bizarre. Taking his point to its logical conclusion, democracy may actually encourage terrorism. Hooray! Let's all become authoritarian to stop terrorism! It works in China, after<br>all . . .<br><br>His two real ...

... 8211; like fearless young boys getting around for free by standing on the rear bumpers of mini-vans, holding on only by the ladder hanging off the back window. Or, my personal favourite, the guy in a wheelchair plodding along the broken painted line of a main road in the midst of five lanes of traffic all heading in his direction.<br> <br>And so this leads to the second incident of the afternoon, and it came not too long after the first when we got a ...

... slung the gun back over his shoulder I couldn&#8217;t help but feel that I was in far more risk of accidentally being shot by the very people employed to protect me than I was by terrorists. <br><br>After Hoges was railroaded into a shop and didn&#8217;t manage to escape without purchasing a souvenir, plus a return taxi ride where the driver at first wanted LE50, we went on the hunt for a late lunch. What we found was Gad, a large kebab-style fast food joint ...