Cairo, Egypt

Climbing the pyramids ;-)

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I took an overnight flight out of Morocco and into Egypt.  No food at the airport so I ended up eating a box of cookies I found at the duty free shop.  Felt quite sick after that.  Never fly with a box of butter cookies in your belly.

I got to Cairo in the early AM and took a taxi into town.  My first impression... Cairo is dirty!  Sort of like Bangkok but much dirtier (which, if you've been to Bangkok is an unbelievable statement!).  Cairo is also hot and dusty.  And because its a muslim city, no shorts.  Yup - long pants are a must unless you want to seriously stand out (and trust me that isn't a good thing).

The food is slightly better than Morocco, but that isn't saying much.  Had I come here first, I probably would've thought it was worse than Morocco.  I think I am just getting better at ordering post-Europe.  I also met an Egyptian who worked at the Israeli embassy who took me to his favorite spot.  We ate vegetarian Kushary, which has pasta, rice, beans and some other stuff that makes it crunchy.  You can also add super spicy stuff which makes it kicking hot!  Loved it!

The Sphinx

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Cairo is decently cheap too. $4 taxi rides and $.60 bottled water.  The streets are packed with cars and traffic is everywhere.  16 million people in this city and it feels like everyone one of them is driving at the same time!  Regardless, whoever is driving is honking their horn! They honk for everything - to say hello to a friend, to say the car is on the road (yup just on it, not necessarily trying to do anything), I even heard people honk cars in front of them at red lights.  Not after it changed - when the light was dead red.  It gets quite annoying when you are walking... listening to honks everywhere, all day and all night.

The people I met were nice, once you got past the fact that I didn't want to buy anything, didn't need a guide and didn't want to go back to their house for tea.

I got the bus in the pic for perspective... the pyramids are huge!

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Obviously while in Cairo I headed to Giza to see the Pyramids, Sphinx and Egyptian Museum.  Man that was awesome!  It was a childhood dream for me to see the pyramids someday.  And it didn't disappoint.  I loved walking all around the area and just being near them.  The pyramids are a sight to behold and rank right up there with the Great Wall of China as must see's.  I still can't believe they built them 5,000 yrs ago.  Crazy!

Egypt doesn't use coins.  Its weird to use paper for $.25.  Takes a bit of getting used to using bills for small stuff.  I stayed at the Sheraton in Cairo and I ended up in a huge suite (because I am still a Platinum member from my working days).  It was a nice respite after Riads and Kasbahs.  I even ate at their sushi restaurant, which was as one would imagine quite sub-par.  But at least it looked like sushi!