Saturday 6 December 2008 - Cairo, Egypt
Arrived back in Cairo at 6am. Slept on the train this time, and it arrived on time, once again a first in 12 months. But it arrived at Giza, and we thought it was dropping us in Cairo. Luckily we found a Brit that knew Cairo pretty well and was taking the subway, so we followed him and got our tickets to our station. Without him we would have been pretty stuffed I think as we didn't know where the station was, how to get there, how much it cost or what station to get off. Our arabic is kind of, well, not up to date. Arrived back at the hostel by 7am and Pete was ready for a big sleep. While he slept I caught up on some reading and trying to do a bit of research about Ireland and the sites we could get to while we are there. I woke up Sleeping Beauty at midday, and we headed off to the Cairo Museum, our last thing we really wanted to get to. What do you say ... its filled with Mummies. There is a pretty serious scanning process just to get in the doors of the museum as you go through 2 x-ray machines, as does your belongings. Then I was told quite sternly that I had a knife in my bag, a pocket knife no less. I insisted that I didn't. But yes, apparently I did. I was ready to cause a scene, take everything out of my bag, and proove I wasn't there to make a sandwich. When I got the, oh no its okay, you can go. Its the old, test em out theory and try and bribe em trick. So over it.
There is a strict no photography rule at the museum, but once again it still doesn't stop the police from trying to sneak you into an area to use your camera then bribe you. We saw plenty of tourists being done. Of course if you don't pay then they will report you for taking a picture and its like a $10,000 fine.
This museum is everything you dream of when you think of a real museum. Dust is floating through the air as the sunlight beams through the high windows, there is that stale smell in the air, and it is relatively as quiet as a library. Everything they have pinched from tombs and pyramids is in here, so it is packed with so much stuff, 120,000 objects or so. And, lots of mummies! The highlight is King Tuts groovy stuff. He was the boy king that died at 19 years of age, so that meant that they didn't have much time to prepare his tomb and gifts for the afterlife. But that does your head in even more. This was the only tomb that hadn't been robbed by grave robbers, so it was the only one where the whole world can see the amazing treasures that were sealed away for thousands of years, and this was for a young King. Imagine what all the other treasures for all those other Kings would have been like. King Tuts belongings were covered in gold including chariots, and the upteen layers of what was inside and out of his sarcophagus.
In the evening our hostel organised a cruise on the Nile for us which included dinner and some belly dancing. It all sounded very appealing and we were willing to see what it was like. 'No Smoking' signs everywhere, but there must be exceptions for the crew. I think 'No Smoking' signs in Egypt are a suggestion rather than mandatory. The meal was really lovely and we were serenaded by an Egyptian one-man band singing western songs in a Arabic accent. Part of the experience. Then there was some Arabic singing which was really interesting and it was clear that the Egyptians on board really enjoyed it as they were up dancing, and singing along ... must have been part of the Top 40? Then came the belly dancer. She was pretty good, and I think they are right when they say that Egyptian women have belly dancing in their blood. We were captured by a photographer as she came up behind us. We didn't pay the 10 pounds for the picture but a got a photo of it as it was on the table. Pete tells me he looked surprised when she came up behind us (the picture is below). She was then followed up by another dancer, I don't know what type of dancing it is specifically called but basically he wears a coloured skirt and spins round in circles for about 30 minutes while playing finger cymbals, filling glasses of water, spinning his skirt over his head, it was really entertaining.
There is a strict no photography rule at the museum, but once again it still doesn't stop the police from trying to sneak you into an area to use your camera then bribe you. We saw plenty of tourists being done. Of course if you don't pay then they will report you for taking a picture and its like a $10,000 fine.
This museum is everything you dream of when you think of a real museum. Dust is floating through the air as the sunlight beams through the high windows, there is that stale smell in the air, and it is relatively as quiet as a library. Everything they have pinched from tombs and pyramids is in here, so it is packed with so much stuff, 120,000 objects or so. And, lots of mummies! The highlight is King Tuts groovy stuff. He was the boy king that died at 19 years of age, so that meant that they didn't have much time to prepare his tomb and gifts for the afterlife. But that does your head in even more. This was the only tomb that hadn't been robbed by grave robbers, so it was the only one where the whole world can see the amazing treasures that were sealed away for thousands of years, and this was for a young King. Imagine what all the other treasures for all those other Kings would have been like. King Tuts belongings were covered in gold including chariots, and the upteen layers of what was inside and out of his sarcophagus.
In the evening our hostel organised a cruise on the Nile for us which included dinner and some belly dancing. It all sounded very appealing and we were willing to see what it was like. 'No Smoking' signs everywhere, but there must be exceptions for the crew. I think 'No Smoking' signs in Egypt are a suggestion rather than mandatory. The meal was really lovely and we were serenaded by an Egyptian one-man band singing western songs in a Arabic accent. Part of the experience. Then there was some Arabic singing which was really interesting and it was clear that the Egyptians on board really enjoyed it as they were up dancing, and singing along ... must have been part of the Top 40? Then came the belly dancer. She was pretty good, and I think they are right when they say that Egyptian women have belly dancing in their blood. We were captured by a photographer as she came up behind us. We didn't pay the 10 pounds for the picture but a got a photo of it as it was on the table. Pete tells me he looked surprised when she came up behind us (the picture is below). She was then followed up by another dancer, I don't know what type of dancing it is specifically called but basically he wears a coloured skirt and spins round in circles for about 30 minutes while playing finger cymbals, filling glasses of water, spinning his skirt over his head, it was really entertaining.
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