Pyramid Blitz

There they are
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One day in Egypt:

After a bad airport experience where I’m convinced the Egypt Airport tries to rip foreigners off with the “visa fee” of different amounts it seems like I get to my very nice hotel and make a reservation for a guide to take me to the Pyramids and Sphinx.  Not knowing or being told that a visit to a perfume factory, jewelry factory and papyrus factory were “included”.  I guess it could have been a lot worse.  My guide Israael was a super nice guy who called me (and I’m sure every woman) his Egyptian queen and wherever and whatever I wanted to do we would do.  What I wanted was to see up close and personal the pyramids and Sphinx.  What we did instead was from the second story of a Pizza Hut you get an unobstructed view of the Sphinx and from the side of the highway you get a good view of the three pyramids.  What a rip.  I never actually got close enough to even touch them.  And the jewelry was no where near being real silver or gold as it was claimed to be and I said NO to the papyrus – I told him I had seen it in Morocco already thinking maybe it would fly – but he laughed at me thinking I had really been ripped off since it only grows in Egypt.  Who knew?

I was driven to a perfume factory that I didn't ask to go to....
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Cairo is the only city I didn’t feel safe in, was spoken to rudely and crudely, and it’s just plain ugly.  Rocks and dirt everywhere.  Trash piled, awful smells, worse than anywhere so far.  Best part was the 34 dollar massage and sauna.  Speaking of the massage – there was no room for shyness.  Not only did she stand there looking at me, telling me to disrobe but then when I laid on the table all sprawled out for the world to see there was nothing to get under so I just laid there pretty much naked until she found the small bath towel to put over me.  Then (and I won’t go into to much detail here) but there was no part of my body left untouched.  It was very weird and I suppose a bit freeing to know that she completely didn’t care and why should I?...

self explanatory
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One other good memory to mention:  My guide took me to the “best hotel in Cairo” and basically forced me to go take some pictures – So I did what I was told and walked around.  Of course I had to pee, so I found the ladies room which was packed full of about 7 women speaking Spanish.  A Muslim woman came in to switch her head scarf from her personal one to the hotel approved one and the Spanish women wanted to know how to put one on.  So she very kindly and slowly taught all of how to do it.  A Muslim woman in Egypt speaking broken Spanish to a bunch of Latin ladies and myself showing us her custom.  It was a very cool multicultural female bonding moment.