Part 2,Cairo

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  Cairo, Egypt
Monday, November 23, 2009

We arrived in Cairo after about a three hour bus ride. Did I mention the prisons? There were huge prisons about every twenty miles. Some new. Some old. All very scary. Faten never explained what sort they were, but I imagine many were for political prisoners.
    We also saw many textile factories. She explained that these were for children. Girls  between 4-16 years old were taken by their parents to the factories. There they were schooled and taught how to weave, etc. They were kept as laborers in exchange for an education, food, and lodging. The fast ones got rewards. She did not say what happened to the slow ones. She said this was a wonderful thing and the kids were grateful to be there. Maybe, but the barbed wire, window grates, fencing and walls made me wonder.
We saw so much of the wonderful history of Egypt: We drove through the 'City of Death'. This is a cemetery, where there are private mausoleums. Each is built like a little stone house. Each has two rooms, one for men, one for women, with a center aisle. Well, no point in letting these places go to waste. The poor move into the mausoleums and set up residence. Don't know what happens to the previous occupants, but the housing is better than most.
   We toured the Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali. Absolutely magnificent, with perfect acoustics. We visited the National Archaeological Museum and saw the golden death mask of King Tutankhamen. I'd seen a few of these artifacts in SFO years ago, but this was the complete collection. Absolutely astounding.
    Lunch was at the Cairo Marriott which was built as a palace for a French queen. Two towers were added and it is now a magnificent hotel. The buffet was grand, all sorts of goodies. I enjoyed the Egyptian bread pudding with pistachios and hazelnuts and extra cream for dessert. After checking in and a brief nap and shower, we dressed for dinner and the evening's entertainment. First we were driven to the pyramids for the sound and light show. It's an outdoor pavilion, and at the appropriate time the show starts.Lights, sound, lasers, projected images. The story is of Egypt, and especially the pyramids and sphinx. Informative and beautiful, even if about a half hour too long.
   We then went to dinner aboard a Nile riverboat. Another buffet, but we had entertainment. A six piece band, with the guys in tight satin shirts, tighter pants and a sound system with the echo on full. Did I mention that the guys all wore gold chains? The were very coooool.
   The belly dancer came out, a beautiful plump girl with a big soft bare tummy. She was great, very accomplished. Then came the Whirling Dervish. They called him something else, but I couldn't hear it. He spun and danced through the crowd. My favorite. All the while we cruised up and down the river. After dinner we went out on deck, but it was a smoke cloud, and not bearable for more than a few moments.
    Back to the Marriott for a good nights sleep.
    Up early for a buffet breakfast and checkout. Back on the bus and total shock. The air pollution was horrible! Worse than China.We couldn't see more than two or three blocks. Smelled like wood smoke, maybe from the cooking fires? But Faten said it was from the farmers burning the rice straw.
    We drove 20 miles South to Memphis, where we visited the ruins of the temple of P'tah and saw the alabaster sphinx and the fallen statue of King Ramses the 2nd. Faten said P'tah like she was spitting. Very funny. This area was like one would expect of Egypt. Palm trees, agricultural, sand. Much more rural. Lots of donkey carts. The people are wonderfully friendly, smiling, waving, kind. The hildren trusting and beautiful
We drove to the Sakara(Sahara) and visited the stepped temple of King Zoser. We did not see Rick Moranis. ( A prize to the one who figures that out) Next to the temple was a mausoleum, built like an above ground house. It was recently discovered. We toured it and it was spectacular. The wall carvings were mostly intact, including the colours. Many of us noticed that the king and queen had distinctly African features. When this was pointed out to Faten, she again became quite animated and said, 'These kings are not African! From Luxor maybe, but NOT African!'
   Finally, off to the pyramids. What can I say? There are absolutely magnificent, awe inspiring, incredible. We were toured all around, then had an hour free time. I rode a camel!!! It was absolutely my favorite thing to do, and I bounced around like a kid waiting to get on. I mean, really. What better place to ride a camel than in Egypt at the pyramids?
Faten kindly pointed out that camels are recent additions to Egypt, via Afghanistan. Don't care. It was a blast!
    After lunch at another 5* hotel, we boarded our bus for the ride back to Alexandria. Uneventful luckily. About the superhighways: Every 20 miles or so there is a speed bump. so all of the traffic which is going about 80 suddenly slams on the brakes and creeps over the hump, er bump. Faten said, 'It's because SOME people don't follow the RULES!'
    We disembarked at our ship's dock and had 15 minutes or so until the 'All Aboard' time of 5:30pm Happily we scrounged the bazaar and then I noticed a passenger with their overnight bag. Our suitcase! Where was our suitcase??? I looked at Jim. He looked at me. 
   I ran back, but our bus was gone. Ok, no biggie, we can live without our overnight bag, but I started asking the porters and one VERY kind old man took me by the hand, saying 'Don't worry, Madam. Don't worry.' and we ran all through the buses. But our #8 was long gone. I was resigned, but this good man just kept asking. And suddenly, a young man joined the fray and took us to the security gate and there was our suitcase! The driver had realized it was left behind, and carried it to the security gate and the NCL reps. We fell all over ourselves thanking them and trying to tip them, but they would not hear of it. So kind. God bless the Egyptians. The NCL purser, however, shook her head at us and we were properly chastised.
    We were almost two hours late departing Alexandria because one of the NCL tour buses got stuck in traffic. Good thing it was the NCL tour, because otherwise they would have been left.
    I am going to send this without pictures as it's early, and I can't get the gizmo to download from my camera without Cosim, the computer guy. He doesn't get here until 10:00am, and it's only 7:30. I will try to send pics under another cover.

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