Cairo

After a grueling set of plane rides I finally am in Cairo. For some reason, flights are hard to come by from Kathmandu to Cairo, so I had to endure a flight back to Bangkok, an extremely long layover, then a flight to Cairo. So here I am in Cairo, extremely jet-lagged and all alone for the first time in a month in the craziest place I have been to so far on my travels. The last US State Department warning for travelers to Egypt was on March 29, so I thought that this would be an alright time to go. Less travelers and people are happier to see you and more desperate to sell so bargaining is easier. We will see if I was right. Luckily, I agreed to have someone from my hostel pick me up from the airport for a fee or I would have been a little overwhelmed at the Cairo airport. Taxi drivers swarm you as you exit the building and do not leave you alone until you either give in to one of their demands or you find someone holding a sign with your name on it (the latter luckily for me). The first thing I noticed on my drive in to Cairo was that the city is nothing like I expected. The route that the driver took wove its way through some rather nice areas with pretty houses and nice retail shops and little squalor, a lot of traffic though, a problem in much of Cairo. Upon arriving early at my hostel, I slept for a few hours and then decided to walk twenty minutes to the National Museum. What I did not realize was that to get to the Museum, I had to walk through the square where most of the killings and riots took place back in January. My walk started out innocently enough. The strangest thing about Cairo is that almost everyone speaks English and they all want to know where you are from when they see a white person in their midst. I got asked almost every minute by someone that question on the streets, and when I say "American" they look as though they are either surprised that I am ballsy enough to be there right now as an American, or I am stupid enough that I was there at that time, not sure which one. From what I can see and what people have told me, there are a fraction of the usual number of tourists for this time of year in Egypt. I did not see one other white person on my walk to the museum, and only Europeans in the museum. It is unclear why Egyptians like to talk to me. Sometimes it is clearly because they are looking to scam me in some way (Egypt is notorious for this and I will explain in more detail later) or sometimes it seems they just enjoy talking to one of the few American tourists here. An example of this was a man came up to me and simply said "you look like a tourist" which caught me off guard. I proceeded to smile, to which the man remarked "you have a great smile though" and proceeded to walk away. Another man came up to me as I walked and once I told him I was American he became ecstatic. He began to tell me how just the day before I arrived there had been another altercation in Tahrir Square where the police and military had to come and stop the violence. Not a good thing to tell me as I walk through the square as the only American person in Cairo. Finally, I made it into the museum and was swarmed by men that said they were guides. I began walking through the museum but realized that I really did need a guide, so I bargained with one to take me through for what I thought was a fair price. He seemed smart and knew his stuff. It took three hours to get through the large museum, which houses  many Egyptian artifacts, most notably various items found in King Tut's tomb (just not the mummy itself which is in Luxor). After my tour I got my first taste of Egyptians and their scams. I had noticed that my guide during my tour was bribing many of the guards and other museum workers with small bills and at the end he told me that the price was actually twice the agreed upon amount. I argued with the guy but he said that we had agreed on 200 Egyptian pounds instead of 100 (200 is almost 35 US dollars). When I began to cause a scene, it was clear this was a battle that would not end well in my favor, so I paid the guy and left as fast as I could. My walk was very similar to my walk before, with every other person trying to talk to me and ask me where I was from and talk to me about Obama or what is going on Egypt. One man even invited me to a protest rally for something in a few days. I told him I would attend and got away from him as soon as possible. I also noticed that the streets were getting more and more packed with people as the day wore on. Sellers had begun setting up their stalls on the street selling t-shirts commemorating January 25th or ones that said "Egyptian Revolution" and other similar sayings. I got back to the hostel as soon as possible because I was tired of being harassed. When I left to get dinner later that night, the streets were absolutely packed with people, meaning I got harassed even more than before. I decided that this was not a good situation to be in alone, so I grabbed two swarmas (sandwiches) to-go and got back to my hostel. I decided that I would have to do something different and this walking around by myself at all times would not be safe. I booked a tour through my hostel where I would have either a driver or tour guide for most of my days and decided to spend two more days in Cairo and then take a train south to the cities of Luxor and Aswan. This alleviated some stress off my shoulders. The next day I woke up early and was driven to the Great Pyramids and Sphinx, located just outside of Cairo at Giza. Another thing that is inevitable about Egyptian travel is that drivers and guides will always take you to places that you do not want to go as well as your agreed upon destinations. For example, I was taken to a shop that sold papyrus paintings before the pyramids. After enduring a thirty minute presentation and then politely declining to buy something (the men were not happy), I finally made it to the pyramids. I voiced my displeasure to my driver about the detour but he seemed to not care. The pyramids  sit in a desert located just outside the bustling city of Giza. There are three large ones, and an old run down small one all in a row on a steep hill. They get larger from left to right. The two bigger ones are extremely immense. Each block that was used to make the pyramids must have been at least 6'x6'x6', amazing when you think these massive structures were built by man. For very hefty fee you can go inside the largest pyramid, something that I declined to do and was lucky because I found a spot where you could enter the back for free. But, once again I saw how Egyptians exploit tourists. I went crawling into the small opening and tunnels of the cave, and snapped a few pics, and upon leaving a guard told me that cameras were not allowed. I was forced to pay him 5 US dollars to not confiscate my camera. Many people ride camels or horses in between the four pyramids because it is quite a distance to walk. Because of this, men are constantly asking you to ride their animals for a fee or take a picture on their back. I was also warned about the guides that prey on tourists because they are not actually guides at all, and simply take your money and leave you. Egypt sounds like a great place huh? The sphinx is also quite magnificent, and sits at the foot of the hill leading up to the pyramids. The funniest thing for me was that everywhere I went, all the Egyptians I ran in to that were sellers, guards, camel riders, etc. all told me I looked Egyptian (my beard is getting very long and I am very tan) which I got a kick out of. While the pyramids were interesting and quite impressive, I guess they should be as the only surviving Wonder of the World, but again, I was a little overwhelmed being alone and aggressively targeted by all the various Egyptians selling me trinkets, camel rides, and all the other crap they threw at me. It gets to the point of where it is a total annoyance and makes you want to leave. After leaving and eating a delicious traditional meal consisting of various meats, breads, and various sauces I could not decipher, my driver began taking me to places that I did not wish to go again. I told him bluntly that I would not go in to the carpet store or flower shop that we were scheduled to go to (the driver gets commission for taking me there), and after seeing how pissed off I was, the driver obliged. I finally am back to my hostel and laying low because Cairo at night is a place I want no part of at the moment. It is a shame and I feel as though I am missing out on a huge part of the city, but I just do not think that after what I have seen so far that it is a smart idea to be roaming the streets alone at night. So far, Cairo is not exactly my favorite stop so far. At least it is near the end of my trip, I am not sure what I would have thought coming here early on in my travels.