Day 3: More Cairo

Today was much better. Honestly, I think the tour company or the tour guides are just unaware of what we want. I guess they aren't mind readers... We told Osama that we wanted some good, local, cheap food, and he took us to some place in the city. We ate a steaming hot (for once) meal that consisted of spaghetti, macaroni, and other things all in a bowl. It was pretty good - much better than the lame Western-imitation buffet crap. I also crossed an Egyptian street for the first time in my life - miraculously, I lived!

We went to the Egyptian Museum and saw everything they found in Tutankhamun's tomb - very interesting and informative. We also saw a ton of statues, hieroglyphs, false pyramid doors, columns, and other ancient Egyptian accoutrements. Anything used or touched by the pharoahs was solid gold or at least covered with gold leaf. They REALLY liked gold... a lot. I don't have any pictures of any of it, because they didn't allow cameras in the museum. The Ka statue of King Hor I is pretty cool though. I AM CORNHOLIO! If you're interested in all the stuff in the Egyptian Museum, check out this link: http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org.

We also went to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar. It was awesome - more so for the atmosphere than the actual items being sold. It's basically a labyrinthine series of shops and alleys filled with cheap spices, clothes, trinkets, and Egyptian art and jewelry. Every shop has someone trying to lure you in. They speak every language it seems - they hawk their wares in English, Spanish, French, or whatever language they think you speak. I probably said "laa, shukran" ("no, thank you") a hundred times. Sometimes when you say "laa", the shopkeepers start singing "laa laalaa laa laa laa" - they hear "laa" a lot, hehe. Towards the end of our trip to the bazaar, we sat down at a crowded but cozy cafe. We had tea, coffee, and shisha with our guides. It was nice - one of the few genuine-feeling moments in the trip. Today I felt that we got to see a little bit of the real Egypt.

We did stop at two more shops, but there didn't seem to be much pressure to buy anything. Either they were more laid back, or I am just getting used to it. The first place was a jewelry store in a small community of jewelers and metallurgists. Very beautiful jewelry, but most of it was Egypt-themed: scarabs and ankhs and more scarabs and ankhs. The second place was a store called "Funky Bros" that sold a lot of made-in-Egypt cotton products. I got a new shirt and some pants for around $30 or $40 each - not that cheap, but they're very nice clothes. I'll wear them tomorrow.

I'm currently on the sleeper train to Luxor. It's getting late and we have to get up at something like 5am local time. I'm going to try to get some good sleep...