Feeling a bit dirty...

Sand gets EVERYWHERE!! When I was a kid and played outside with my buddies, I often came home quite dirty, sure. But as I grew older I learned to appreciate cleanliness. OK, you're right, I'm a bit obsessive over personal hygiene. But, when you travel, you must be able to put this aside a little bit. Maybe not to the extent of one fellow traveler I met in Johannesburg (who happily and willingly volunteered the information that he only had one pair of underwear with him on his trip, which he wears for 4 or 5 days before washing it...), but you can't expect to be sparkling clean constantly.

Going to the pyramids, however, gave all this a whole new dimension. It was going to be hot and sunny, my first full day here, so I figured I'd put on some suntan lotion. Big mistake. Once I got out to the pyramids, it turned out to be extremely windy and, well, seeing as how it's the desert and all, that meant that a LOT of sand was blowing everywhere. Literally everywhere. I'll spare you the graphics (or let you think them up yourself should you so be inclined). Also, it's not a good place to have the longest hair on the trip; still not all that long, really, but long enough to trap a small sandbox in it. First thing I did afterwards was e-mail my family to make an appointment for a haircut for Saturday. And then a long, long shower.

But aside from the sand and wind, the pyramids themselves were amazing. What a sight. It's weird, because I've seen so many pictures of them, pictures much better than I could possibly take them, but to actually stand right beside them, or on them, and touch them and look up at them is quite humbling. Suck on that, today's engineers! A remarkable accomplishment. The ones I went to see were the pyramids of Gizeh, which include the largest one of all pyramids (Cheops) and, of course, the Sphinx. The Cheops pyramid was, in fact, the largest non-natural structure in the world for thousands of years, before the Eiffel Tower came along 100-some years ago.

You are allowed to go inside the three pyramids there, but there's a bit of a trick to it. To the largest one, they only allow 150 people in the morning and 150 in the afternoon, and tickets are extremely pricey ($30, or about 25 euros). The smallest one is rather unexciting, I heard. So, I bought a (much cheaper) ticket to go into the second pyramid. It wasn't as spectacular as I had hoped (basically just one long walkway, going down, then up, to the center of the pyramid to see the burial chamber), but an interesting experience all the same. Sadly, the ventilation shafts the Egyptians had built in them were probably fine for one dead pharaoh, but with hundreds of tourists coming through every day, it was hot as hell inside.

The best part was when a guy acting as though he worked there (and he probably really did) showed me some back paths to get inside a tomb. Of course, I realized it wasn't entirely on the up-and-up, since he kept saying "secret, you no tell", but I wanted to see all the same. He showed me some well-hidden hieroglyphics, a sculpture, and the best part, a series of tombs. They were all hidden inside a cave that was quite difficult to climb into. I knew all along he would be asking for money once inside, so I had my plan ready. The moment he did, I feigned hyperventilation due to claustrophobia and worked my way out of there. He didn't want to let me out at first, but hey, I'm a very convincing actor. And it wasn't like I wasn't going to pay him anything for his trouble (or law-breaking, if you will), but his demand of 200 pounds (about $40, or 30 euros) I found quite outrageous. In any case, I got outside, paid him 30 pounds, and left it at that. Got some great pictures out of it, and certainly it was one of the highlights of the day.

So, I spent most of the day around the pyramids, then went for a late (as is custom here) lunch at Andrea's, one of the restaurants touted in the Lonely Planet as one of the five best ones in Egypt. And it was truly spectacular. The half chicken I had was spiced and spit-roasted to perfection, but that wasn't even the best part; the baba ghanoug and tahini were spectacular! I heard that, compared to other Middle-Eastern countries, Egyptian cuisine isn't all that exciting. If that's true I need to travel this area more often.

All the food I've had here so far has been very good at a bare minimum. Maybe not all of it my favorites per se, but ranging from good to spectacular. I of course did have the good fortune of getting a list from Char with all the restaurants I should try out, so that certainly helps avoid some of the less interesting ones. But whether it's upscale dining (jumbo prawns at the Fish Market, or stuffed pigeon at Abu El-Seid), mid-scale dining (lamb sausages at Felfela) or fast-food-like dining (felafel at Gad), all of it has been great. And the deserts too are spectacular. I just had lunch at Abu El-Seid (one of the most popular places, if not THE most popular place in town, and very hard to get in!), and as my desert I got fiteer. This is sort of like a flaky pancake (in het Nederlands: een soort bladerdeeg pannenkoekje), which was served with the creamiest, almost sweet butter, and honey, and topped with various nuts and yellow raisins. It was un-be-lievable!!!!

Yesterday I dragged my soon-to-be-enormous butt through the downtown district, which is where my hotel (Pensione Roma) is located. I was surprised to find that lots of stores are closed for Easter. Until of course I found out there is also an Islamic holiday going on at the moment, though nobody could make clear to me which one, or what it's called (closest thing to an answer was "prayer holiday"). Most people here don't seem to pray the required 5 times a day anyway. Though it is interesting to see people with all different degrees of devotion, at least, in their appearance. You see girls in anything ranging from ripped jeans and miniskirts to full burkas with gloves, and men with beards in dresses to men with designer leather jackets.

Another surprising thing here is to see so many men walking arm-in-arm. I know the press made a big deal out of Bush holding hands with that Saudi prince a few years ago, but this is different. Not just older men, but boys and men in their teens, tweens, twenties, thirties; everybody. They walk around arm-in-arm, the way couples do in the States and in Holland. Now, unless this country is far more progressive in their gay-rights-ness than this liberal Dutch boy is used to, it must be something else. What I wonder is, how do they decide who gets the "man" part in all this (the arm simply down, or sometimes with hand in pocket), and who gets to play "woman" (sticking their hand between the other guy's arm and side). Do you think I can ask?

But back to where I was heading with this. Downtown is interesting. Completely dead and desolate in the morning, at least until about noon or 1pm. After that, the crowds gradually swell, usually peaking about when I head to bed around 11pm. I wonder how long they keep going, and I wonder if this is standard or because of the holiday (lots of stores are closed). Luckily, there's always the Khan Al-Khalili; a bazaar that has been around for hundreds of years, with people trying to sell you everything, everywhere, all the time. I found it quite enjoyable, though I heard that lots of tourists prefer to avoid it like the plague because of all the touts. But getting beyond that (I'll explain how I did that in a little bit) it was fascinating. My favorite part was going to El Fishawy; one of the most famous "ahwas" (traditional teahouses), where people sit, drink tea, and smoke sheesha. I'd gotten the tip of trying mish-mish (apricot) sheesha, and it was spectacular. Sitting there, smoking the waterpipe, sipping some amazing tea (with a mint leaf twig in it and everything), watching the whole circus of a market. A truly amazing experience.

I mentioned the touts (a word, by the way, I had never heard of before this trip); they're everywhere! This may be more of an African thing, seeing as I've seen more here than ever before, anywhere else in the world. And more persistent ones too! In Zanzibar they're appropriately (but not exactly affectionately) referred to as "ticks", but here that term wouldn't be misguided either. They stick to you like glue and are basically just very hard to shake off. What I learned is that just about the worst you can do is engage in conversation with them. Saying even something as little as "no, thank you" (or even saying "no" in Arabic, one of the few words I know) opens up possibilities to them. So, what I started doing yesterday is wearing my headphones. And sure, some of the time I'll play some music on my iPod, but when I was in the Khan I actually didn't have any music on, just the headphones in my ears. It not only gives me an excuse not to respond, but I feel like it actually makes people approach me less often. It's a bit tricky sometimes to not respond to all the weird noises they constantly make, attempting to get the tourist's attention, but once you succeed, a simple big smile or grin in their direction shakes them off. I was quite pleased with myself having discovered this.

This morning, after checking out of my hotel, I went to the Egyptian museum. Char as well as my guide book had warned me about the enormous amount of artifacts there, and the utter chaos and lack of organization, so setting out with that in mind, it wasn't all that bad. Sure, there were hordes of people around Tutankhamon's burial mask (solid gold, weighing 11kg or about 24lbs), but with the tips from the Lonely Planet some of the cool, unique artifacts were quite easy to spot. I spent about 4.5 hours there but could have probably spent an entire day, if my legs hadn't gotten so exhausted. The only bummer was that the Lonely Planet said cameras were not allowed inside, and that you have to hand them over at the entrance to be picked up afterwards. But inside, I saw tons of people taking pictures, and the signs simply said no FLASH photography (though some people ignored even those to apparently no consequences from the 3 guards in the entire museum). So, I'm a bit bummed at not having been able to take any pictures, but hey... still worth it.

The lunch I had just now, I ate in Zamalek. This is basically (the northern part of) an island in the Nile, just west of Downtown. It's only about an hour walk from my hotel, so I generally prefer that over the crazy taxi drivers (more about them below). Zamalek is sort of a more upscale, Western neighborhood, not only in that lots of embassies and consulates are located here, but also because you get everything from fine, top-quality dining down to a Hardee's. There isn't much to see or do here per se (though some of the buildings are quite nice, especially a music school and an art academy), but just walking around here is pleasant.

There are two main bridges that run straight across the island east to west, where taxi drivers race around in their road-unworthy old Fiats etc. They're not quite as crazy as the Shanghai taxi drivers, I think, but the feeling of sitting in a car that'll fall apart if he hits the brakes hard once makes you feel perhaps even less safe than in Shanghai's Volkswagen Santana taxis. But, at least they give me the feeling of being an extremely beautiful woman, in that every taxi that drives by and sees my obviously foreign carrot-top will honk at me, just to make sure I know I can get a ride from him. I never understood guys honking at beautiful girls on the street, nor do I understand this. I'm sure it would make sense if there were only, like, 5 cars in all of town, but more than half of all cars here is a taxi... and there's a LOT of cars.

Tonight I'll be taking the overnight train to Luxor. I packed only two little bags and will leave the bulk of my baggage at my hotel here in Cairo. The train arrives at Luxor around 6 in the morning, so I'm hoping to drop some stuff at the hotel, and then hook up with a tour in Luxor. I want to spend two days there; one day doing the West Bank (where many of the tombs are, and Hatshepsut Temple), and one day on the East Bank (Luxor Museum and Luxor Temple, among others). Thursday I'll be "training" back up here to Cairo, spend one night and one more day here, then... well, I'm still not ready to talk about that yet.