Camel ride and more market shopping

Trip Start Feb 07, 2009
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Trip End Mar 19, 2009


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Flag of Egypt  ,
Thursday, February 26, 2009

Woke at 6:30 and picked up in the bus at 7:30. Drove to an area just down from the Pyramids to start a camel ride. Mike had to do some serious negotiating cause he wanted 150LE each to start with but we got him down to 80 each. Then when we got on the camels he still wanted more. We had a camel ride up to the same area as Mike and I had done last year but not quite as far. We went up to a dune and got off for photos and to rest our bottoms. I had a fairly placid camel and was in front of Adrian. His camel kept snorting and burping the whole way, then when we stopped he made a disgusting gargling noise in his throat. His mouth was a revolting yellow/green! I have a video of him which is pretty funny. He would come right up close to me as we were going up and down the hills, at one point even slobbering on my back and sneezing. Glad I wore several layers and a scarf, the wind made it bitterly cold.

When we had paid (he still wanted more money), we drove to the Pharonic Village, but decided not to go in as it was 200LE each Awww, he's cute!
Awww, he's cute!
 . Instead we drove back to Khan el Khalili for some more market shopping. The kids bought carry-on bags and more souvenirs. We wandered around by ourselves (unlike yesterday where we were led by Ahmed), and ended up in more local style markets. Trying to get back we got more and more lost as the lanes and alleyways are so tiny with lots of dead ends. Luckily we found a lady walking through with baskets on her head and she managed to lead us through the maze into the tourist area again. I think I would have enjoyed it more by ourselves but it was an uncomfortable experience for the girls with lots of staring and hassling. Back in the tourist market we got camels for the girls and met our bus just after 12:30.
 
Back to Helene's place, then hung around till they came home from work and we ate around 4:30-5. Watched TV, and got ready to go to Gerard's place. He came over just after 8pm and we got in his car and also a friend of Joe's drove us as well. They live in a flat on the 12th floor (lift with no door so pretty scary ride) and the unit is pretty cramped. Dinner was nice, but his mum and grandma have limited English, so they spoke to Mike and Joe, and the kids and I spoke to each other. Mike had an interesting conversation with Gerard's grandmother about her seeing Jesus, I think she was horrified with his lack of beliefs. We had to wait for Joe's friend to come and pick us up to drive some of us home, so by the time we left it was 11:30. Joe tried sleeping in the bed with Alanna and I and she got pretty pissed off with him. Finally got some much needed sleep.
 
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