Walk like and Egyptian

Sara’s brother, Zac, decided to visit, his flight got in on April 29. The two of them decided to go to Egypt that following weekend, and Sara invited Ariana and me. I had an inclination my father would say yes this time (being that he was very against it in the past) considering that Sara’s brother is in the US Navy. I figured my dad would feel safer under those circumstances, so I decided to give it a try. It my semi-surprise the parentals said yes! We were on our way to the pyramids.

You see, the thing is that there are two things on this planet I have always wanted to see (well there’s more than 2, but 2 specifically that were at the top of the list). Guess what they are…the Taj and yes, the Pyramids!!!

That Thursday, May 1, after class Ariana and I took the 5-hour bus ride down to Eilat, Sara and her brother flew. We got there late at night and passed out.

The next day, May 2, we woke up at 5:45am and headed right to the Taba border. Once we crossed we got in a small van and had a 5-hour drive through the Sinai to Cairo. I was not nearly as nervous as I had been in Jordan, I think this was due to the fact that Zac was with us, and that we used the same tour company so I had a bit of trust in them. also, with us at all times was a security guard. Apparently, all American, Canadian, and Japanese tourists are required to have a body guard with them at all times. See tourism in Egypt is important, it supports a large portion of their economy, inasmuch they could not afford to have anything happen.

When we arrived in Cairo I was surprised as to how clean it was, everyone kept telling us how disgusting and dirty the place was, but it was equally as clean as India’s upper class neighborhoods. Yet, just as my thoughts were a-churning, Ariana came out with her own, that Cairo was not clean at all. Apparently Sara and I have greatly lowered our sanitary standards after our 2-week excursion.

Our first stop was the Museum of Cairo. We walked around for 2 hours and looked at tons of historical artifacts, I must say the most impressive was the mummy of Ramses II, the Pharaoh that held the Jews as the slaves, the Pharaoh from Exodus. The guy still had nails, and several strands of white hair. He looked gross, but was still intact it was incredible. And still while I was looking at him I felt this sense of disgust, disgust for enslaving the Jews…call me over protective, call me proud, call me crazy, I cant help it.

While in the museum we also saw the mask commonly associated with King Tut, you know the gold head with the blue headband crown. Replicas are featured in all the Hollywood blockbusters concerning ancient Egypt. We also got to see the chair that King Tut sat on. It was beautiful.

After the museum we were starving so we went to a place for lunch, the restaurant was in Giza, where the pyramids are, a 20-minute car ride from the center of the bustling city. At that point we got a glimpse of the pyramids…soooo cool! I was so excited to feast my eyes on those beasts, but I would have to wait till tomorrow to get up-close and personal, after lunch we went to a papyrus factory and saw how the paper was made. The guy that did the demonstration has a huge black circle on the top of his forehead. It looks like ash, but it’s a mark that develops after years of praying, after years of hitting your head on the mat as you bow to Allah. a lot of men sported them. talk about cultural differences.

I wasn’t too into the papyrus making, I just wanted to see the pyramids to be honest. After we saw the demonstration we headed to the hotel for an hour and a half of down time. at 6:30 we were getting picked up to go on a cruise along the Nile.

The Nile cruise was cool because, well, we were on the Nile River!!!! But there were no reeds around, no papyrus baskets with baby Moses’s or anything like that, the days of exodus are long gone to say the least. Rather I got to see every 5 star hotel in Cairo, since they all have real estate along the river, I'm talking four seasons, Hilton, Sheraton, crown plaza, you name it, it was there (although I'm not sure about the Ritz).

On the cruise we had dinner (very mediocre) and dessert (borderline gross), and watched a belly dancer do her thing. The music was too loud of any kind of social conversation so we headed upstairs to the deck to hang out. That’s where it all went down. Our body guard for the day, Muhammad, fell in love with Sara, let me rephrase, fell in love with Sara’s looks, her beautiful blonde hair and crystal blue eyes really gave her a unique twist. before she knew it he proposed and handed her his necklace, his family heirloom. The poor girl had no idea what to do and clearly Ari and I weren’t about to do her dirt work. The rest of the evening (all 10 minutes of it since the boat was close to the dock) was kind of awkward while we girls decided on the best way of returning the heirloom. When we got to the hotel that night Sara simply handed it back.

I was excited for bed that night, tomorrow: PYRAMIDS!

The next morning, May 3, our tour guide (who was not nearly as great as Ali, our tour guide in India) picked us up at the hotel. 20 minutes later there they were in all their glory, right in front of our faces, we could see them from the bottom to the very top, AMAZING.

We all got out of the car and started exploring the first victim, the great pyramid, the largest of the three. It was unreal, its size was gargantuan. And standing there I got the chills, the same chills I get when at the Kotel. Jews built these I thought. Wow. At that moment our tour guide started talking and explained how the Jews didn’t build the pyramids. Yadda yadda yadda. Ari started asking some complicated question about who did build them, how much they were paid, how they were build and the guys had no answers. All he knew was that the Jews didn’t build them, the Egyptians did. Remember, Israel and Egypt share a cold peace. Just because they have an agreement doesn’t meant they are friends, and that doesn’t mean Egyptians recognize or respect them, clearly! We took tons of pictures, walk up the pyramids, touched the boulders (which were as tall as Ari), and just relished in the moment. After we went to see a view of the three pyramids all lined up and then of the second one. They were really spectacular, utterly amazing, and reminded me how proud I was to be Jewish to be apart of a minority with such a he voice and a bigger heart.

After the pyramids we went to see the sphinx, which was also very impressive. There, Ari asked who carved the rock, the face, the headdress, the long arms, and our tour guides answer, “it was here, it came like this”. He refused to believe that while the rock may have been there man carved the statue! Imagine that.

Surrounding the sphinx and pyramids, these two amazing representations of history, is, what else? American commercialism, Pizza Hut and KFC. Haha. It was too much.

After being blown away by the pyramids we went to an oil shop. Sara and I both bought an oil called lotus flower, which smells delicious. Following we headed to an old church and a synagogue in Cairo, synagogue Ben Ezra. While most of the Jewish population had left Cairo it was still comforting to walk into a Shul. I prayed before we left, imagine praying at a Shul in an Arab country, unreal! We ended the day by walking along the Bazaar in Cairo. It looked like a smaller version of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

At around 4:00 we got in the van for our 5-hour bus ride back to Eilat.

The next day, May 4, Ari and I stayed in Eilat, we went to the beach and hung out. It was a great way to end an amazing weekend.