Let’s (Not) Make a Deal

**Note: The Camera died so limited pictures tonight, I'll post more tomorrow!**


This trip is my first time in a non-western country and I quickly learned how different Egypt truly is. Day 2’s sites included the Giza Pyramids, the valley temple, the great Sphinx, and a papyrus “museum.” Sure these are different structures than what we see in the United States, but we learned a lot about the commerce and culture of Egypt…pretty frustrating at times.


We started our day at the Giza Pyramids and they were remarkable. You often see the Great Pyramids in pictures and movies (Rugrats Passover, anybody?) but they don’t do it justice. They are the only remaining ancient wonders still in existence. I don’t think I can accurately describe the scale of the pyramids, so Melanie recorded a video of me!

Seems related during this trip?

So, some quick facts about the video in case I missed anything: It was taken in front of the Pyramid of King Kiops. The pyramid is made of stone from the other side of the Nile River. The structure wasn’t always jagged; it was covered in smooth limestone. How did they get the limestone across the river (apparently not Rugrats Passover)? The 3 Million blocks of limestone were transported via big boats and ~100,000 workers during a three month period when the Nile flooded. At the pyramid complex, 20,000 workers built the actual pyramids. And no, they weren’t slaves since the workers worshiped the kings and believed by doing a good thing for them, they would have a better chance of being in paradise in the second life. There are three pyramids at this site for the father, son, and grandson (L’ Dor va Dor?).

Unfortunately, we didn’t see any mummies or artifacts at the complex because there aren’t any that were preserved. Tomb robbers stole the artifacts and the smooth limestone. Additionally, the mummies were stolen in order to boil them to make medicine and antibiotics.

We then drove up to a small market area where we took a bunch of pictures (we’ve taken so many group pictures that Professor Ghaly’s often-used expression, “10 Seconds” as he runs back to get into the group photo is our group’s name). A guy at one of the market tables told Mike Jacobson that his Roslyn (NY) High School football hat was good luck and he wanted to trade his head covering for Mike’s hat. In fact, the guy took Mike’s hat off his head…but Mike took it back from him. I went to a different guy to look at the goods he was selling and immediately put stuff in my hands. I hondled with him for a while as we disagreed on prices. Every time I said I had to think about it, he added more stuff to the deal. I wound up getting 13 things for about ~$7 USD, so I was pretty content with that.

Look mom! No Hands!

After bartering, many people in the group took camel rides to Menkaure’s Pyramid. Instead of dealing with the camel guides and getting ripped off like no other, Professor Ghaly made deals for us. I thought the camel was going to smell worse than it did, but luckily my camel (who I named Jed Bartlett) didn’t smell too bad, though the people behind me told me that Jed was peeing most of the time (nice). Tips to riding a camel, lean back and hold tight when going downhill. It's high up, but pretty fun...however, I don't need to do it again I think.

On my way into Menkaure’s Pyramid, another guy selling more stuff stopped me and asked me where I was from and my name. Giving both of these answers, he then told me he had lived in various US cities (he named nearly every major US city) and in Canada. He proved his “Canadian” stay by showing me his hat from a Canadian construction company. At this point I finally realized why that other man wanted a hat from North America—as a selling point to buy stuff from him. He then “gave” me an Egyptian headdress as a gift because he had also been in New York at some point. I repeatedly told him I didn’t want it but he loved Obama and told me to have it.

We couldn’t take bags into the pyramid so I left my stuff with our tour guide. The pyramid was kinda cool, but there wasn’t anything it—just empty spaces where things would have been. The lights went off for a minute so that wasn’t nice, but it was an experience to go into a real pyramid. This was not included in the tour price and cost 15 pounds (~$2.50 USD). Knowing that the man was going to ask for me to take his goods and buy them, I separated my money—5 pounds ($0.83 USD) in one pocket and the bigger bills in the other. When he asked me for money, I told him I only had 5 pounds and quickly asked for the stuff back—and I gave it back with pleasure. My plan had worked! I already exchanged my 100 pound (~$16.60 USD) notes for 20 (~$3.30 USD) pound notes, so I’ll be continuing this plan for the next three weeks. Melanie has a story of her own, so be sure to check out her blog on the right hand side (melwatinegypt.blogspot.com).

The people in Egypt are so aggressive in selling stuff—postcards, statues, media cards, head coverings, anything and everything really. I only saw males of all ages (~5yrs old to ~70s) selling stuff in the tourist areas. It got very irritating dealing with the people, they were so pushy! Pops (my grandpa) would really get a kick out of these people after selling used cars for so many years. And I thought used car dealers and lawyers (happy birthday Dad) were corrupt.

Anyway, we then traveled to the Mummification Temple and the Sphinx. I picked the Sphinx’s nose but there were so many Egyptian kids there on a field trip! It was a madhouse unfortunately. We then headed to lunch and had decent chicken with some French fries. This was my first experience with tipping the guy at the bathroom door for a piece of paper towel (though Professor Ghaly paid the guy for everybody).

We then traveled to the Papyrus “Museum” which was really a store selling papyrus artwork. We learned how to spot counterfeit papyrus—real papyrus can roll up without breaking and the vertical lines crisscross with the horizontal lines. I didn’t buy anything but I helped Melanie deal with the merchant (she got a major discount on the calendar papyrus she bought and the guy also threw in 2 smaller pieces for free). Check out the pictures of these on her blog!

Dinner was similar to lunch and once again I had chicken and French fries…nothing special, again.

So today was filled with culture shock, price shock, and chaos but all in all it was a beautiful sunny day in Cairo-- 23 degrees Celsius. Tomorrow we head to Memphis, the first capital of Egypt, and Saqqara, the home of the Step Pyramid.

Pyramid in the palm of my hand!

Quick Notes:

Good ol 57 varieties

• There is no Arabic word for “Ketchup.”
• People say “Good Morning” until 5pm. Instead of “Good Afternoon,” Egyptians only say “Good Evening.”
• Happy 2^nd Night of Chanukah (lit more candles!)!
• The traffic on the roads is crazy as I described yesterday, but the infrastructure is amazing. The girder bridges are all concrete—no rusting! The road is asphalt and is often repaved overnight due to the constant abuse it gets.
• Happy Birthday Dad! (Melanie, Professor Ghaly, and I all sang happy birthday at 12-midnight Cairo time—5pm EST)

Mom’s Question Corner

Pizza Hur

Mom—You can come to Egypt; they have a Pizza Hut! Still looking for Friendly’s…

How is the Mama and the professor? Is it fun being with them? --They are great and it is nice to have Prof’s Ghaly’s Mom around.

Food okay, or should we have listened to steroid man and gotten the million dollar probiotics?  --So far (poo-poo), so good (knock on wood). Melanie might be sick…oy…

Well I guess I should see a patient, although e-mailing you is more fun.—Enjoy!

See you tomorrow on the blog!

Hello Egypt!

Good early morning from Cairo, Egypt (Dec 2)! After approximately 11 ½ hours, 9230 km (5735 miles), and a 22 degree F change in temperature (55 F to 77 F), I, along with 41 other Union Dutch(wo)men as well as Union Engineering Professor Ashraf Ghaly, have made it to Egypt for the 2010 Union College Egypt Mini Term.

After arriving at John F. Kennedy Airport at 3pm EST (and stopping before hand to get one last NY delicacy—a pastrami and corned beef sandwich on Rye from Woodrow Kosher Deli), I boarded the EgyptAir Boeing 777 “A HUGE IRONBIRD” for the 6:30pm direct flight to Cairo (flight# 986 MS). My original seat was 26H, an aisle seat near the front of the plane, however, Melanie found me and told me there were unoccupied rows in the back of the aircraft. Melanie and I had the entire middle section of row 52. This allowed us space to relax during the flight, which was really great. I had the aisle seat, 52G. Of course, JFK airport didn’t disappoint; we waited on the tarmac (which is a misnomer, runways are made of concrete—not tar or macadam pavement, but that’s for another Professor Ghaly class) for a good hour before taking off at 7:34pm EST.

I have to say, I was more than a tad nervous about the takeoff from JFK. I had never been on an airplane so big before and it was pretty intimidating looking at it from the gate. And yes, Mom, that same plane flew over the Subway Sub Shop—it was the only EgyptAir aircraft I could see and it arrived soon after you observed it flying over Queens. I was somewhat relieved to find a personal screen on the back of each seat to watch movies and tv shows and play games while on the airplane. I distracted myself during the takeoff (which happened to be very smooth) by watching on of my favorite shows—“How I Met Your Mother.”

Cairo Airport and the construction
in the New Cairo area

I passed the time by reading Moneyball on my new Kindle I got for Chanukah from Melanie, watching Inception, playing Solitaire, and taking Dramamine to fall asleep (which really didn’t work-I probably only slept for an hour). We finally reached Cairo at 1:17pm local time (6:17am EST). The Cairo Airport Company was pretty quiet, but it took time to get a visa to put in our Passports. It is a sticker that costs ~$15 USD and is very cool looking. I ate two meals on the plane: chicken for dinner (decent) and apple pancakes for breakfast (pretty good). Better than I expected for airplane food.

My porch 

My hotel room in Cairo! 

“December?” I asked myself as I left the terminal. It was hot and hazy—typical for the desert. The airport apparently is located in the “New Cairo” section of they city. It was originally planned to serve a poor population, however, it has become more of a higher-class suburban area. There is construction in every direction you look—it is really amazing how many cranes, bulldozers, and lifts there are. Buildings in Egypt are mostly made out of concrete (no wonder Professor Ghaly loves concrete) because there isn’t any forests to harvest lumber from so they use the abundant stone. I was very impressed by the new hotel under construction next to the airport; it is going to be huge.

After resting for a little at the hotel in Cairo (my room has a porch that leads out to a grassy area and the shower pressure is great!), our group went on a Nile River Dinner Cruise. It had belly dancing (not impressed) and tantric? dancing. The buffet (I had decent chicken and bad mashed potatoes—no Yukon Golds at all) was nothing special and I was pretty tired (it felt like morning even though it was night time). The most exciting part of the night was probably the ride back to the hotel when there was newly-weds in the car ahead of our bus. Professor Ghaly said they were doing something called “Zaffa.” This is a traditional Egyptian wedding celebration where the couple blocks the road to get people to notice them. Cars honk, flash their lights, and block the road in celebration of the new marriage.

The what I think was tantric dancing
during the Nile River Cruise

Some interesting things I’ve heard/noticed about Egypt:

According to Professor Ghaly, 80 Million people live in Egypt. 95% of the population lives in the Nile River Valley. Additionally, he says that the population increases by a million every eight months.

Gasoline is ~$1.50/gallon in Egypt (1.7 Egyptian pounds/liter), however, as we drove from the airport to the hotel, I saw plenty of Shell and OiLibia Stations but none of the signs displayed the prices. It turns out that the government subsidizes the prices—so all stations have the same priced fuel. 

There are few traffic lights in the city of Cairo. No roundabouts either. Instead they converted the 2-way streets to 1-way streets. Drivers seem to disregard the marked lanes (if any) as I have seen up to 3 cars in the width of one lane. Basically, it is utter chaos.

Melanie and I lit Chanukah candles with prayers and everything (gelt!). Probably we are two of the few people in Egypt to do that tonight. I guess a “Miracle Happened Sort Close to Here”?

Tomorrow I head to the Giza Pyramids and hopefully will ride a camel! I’ll write it here for all ya to read! Any questions? Feel free to ask and I’ll get back to you! Enjoy!