i keep a diary

March 27, 2008

Egypt Part Five

Pyramids of Giza, layover in Abu Dhabi and the trip home!

Thursday, March 27th

me
Thursday morning was my last full day in Egypt! I got out of the shower and found that my hotel only had tiny hand-sized towels in my room. When I put one around my waist, it made me look like an ancient Egyptian! Haha.
towel ˆ me
After showering and breakfast (my stomach had thankfully returned to feeling normal after a close-call with Cairo's tap water the previous evening), I caught the subway and headed cross-town over to the district of Cairo that's near Giza.
cairo ˆ subway
After getting off the subway, I decided to forego a taxi (and all the hassle of a driver not taking you to where you ask to be taken) and instead hopped on a local bus that looked like it would get me really close to the pyramids.

I know I mentioned this in an earlier post when I tried to go visit the Giza pyramids the first time, but it bears repeating: I always thought that the pyramids were in the middle of a desert miles away from modern life, but they are literary right on the edge of a densely populated, totally modern suburb of Cairo. One minute, you're sitting on the bus passing strip malls and fast food chains and then suddenly, out of nowhere you're like...
bus ˆ giza
..."Oh, shit! Is that a motherfucking PYRAMID?"
cairo ˆ giza ˆ pyramid
It's the most literal sense of juxtaposition I've experienced in my life.
giza ˆ pyramid
This time around I decided that rather than trying to fight the current so insistent on taking me on a private camel-back tour of the pyramids, that I'd openly embrace it and proactively try to seek out the best private tour company I could find. I ended up striking up a conversation with the guy in front of me in the plaid shirt - and since any local worth his salt in the area is basically an amateur tour guide ready to take you to any number of good places in exchange for some sort of "finder's fee."
bus ˆ giza
I was dead-right in my assumption, and a couple of moments after introducing myself, the man in the plaid shirt took me to a private camel-tour business run by an in-law of his. I got hooked up with a great deal and less than an later I found myself on the back of a camel (named Banana! Awwww!) riding through the desert right next to the huge fence the Egyptian government puts up.
camel ˆ giza
This fence surrounds the entire site and tries to ensure that people only enter the site through the main entrance. But all of the local stables simple ride you out a couple of kilometers into the desert on camelback and circumvent it.
fence ˆ giza ˆ pyramid
On the ride into the desert, we kept passing the carcasses and skeletons of horses and camels that weren't able to make it. Seriously. Not very reassuring!
giza ˆ skeleton
Lucky for us, we made it around the fence! Here's us headed towards the pyramids!
best ˆ camel ˆ giza ˆ pyramid
Go Banana, Go!
camel ˆ giza ˆ pyramid
Getting closer! If you look to the right of the pyramids, you'll see just how near Cairo's sprawl comes! From L to R: Pyramid of Menkaure, Pyramid of Khafre and the largest and most famous Pyramid of Khufu.
giza ˆ pyramid
Crazy, right?
giza ˆ pyramid
me
Me rubbing Banana's camelly head!
camel ˆ giza ˆ pyramid ˆ me
Check out the three smaller pyramids that Menkaure had built for his Queens!
giza ˆ pyramid
The pyramids are really big. Way bigger than I always imagined them to be. At first you don't think they're all that large, but then you keep riding towards them and riding towards them and you're like "Uh, shouldn't they be getting bigger?" Nope, they're still really far away.
giza ˆ pyramid
They're basically the opposite of the Mona Lisa - WAY more impressive in person than I ever imagined they could be. If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend seeing them in person. (Fuck taking a tour and going through the official gate - it's a hell-on-earth clusterfuck of tourist crowds).
giza ˆ pyramid
We rode all the way around the funerary complex so that we could check out the Sphinx.
giza ˆ pyramid
me
Here's my on Banana around the other side of the pyramids. If you look under Banana's chin, you'll see the Sphinx.
camel ˆ giza ˆ pyramid ˆ me
The Sphinx kind of gets short-changed if you ask me. If this statue were pretty much anywhere else in the world, it would be one of the most impressive things ever. But considering it's basically a couple hundred yards away from two of the largest, most famous monuments in the world, it's way less impressive in person than it should be.
giza ˆ pyramid ˆ sphinx
me
My guide snapped this awesome pic of some huge Egyptian bird flying near the peak of the pyramid in the background.
bird ˆ camel ˆ giza ˆ pyramid ˆ me
I got back to my hotel in Cairo around 5pm. I showered, dropped off my bag and headed out into town to go shopping. Before leaving, I promised Mama Zandi, our elderly neighbor who is originally from South Africa, that I'd pick her up a new kaftan! Here's me about to enter a huge mall that was entirely comprised of stores selling women's clothes!
cairo ˆ shopping
Here's the kaftan I ended up picking out for Mama Zandi!
kaftan
I opened my backpack to discover that my Kindle was broken! Something happened to the display (the heat? Sand? Smashed against other stuff in my bag?) and it was totally bricked!
kindle
So I went back out to do some book shopping so that I'd have something to read on my long flight back the next day! I picked out this Baldacci thriller because it had an apropos name...
book
...and because I thought it was reasonably priced. 19 Egyptian Pounds = $3.50 USD. But when I checked out, I learned that that little dash you see after the number "9" is how Egyptian's denote a zero and the book that I thought was a reasonably-priced $3.50 turned out to cost me $35! But, that's pretty much what hard-cover books in English cost in Cairo! Doh!
Not wanting to risk another run-in with local food before having to sit on an airplane for many, many hours, I decided to stop at McDonald's and see if they had a veggie burger! They did - but it just turned out to be lettuce and special sauce on a bun! Fail!
fast food in foreign countries
After my delicious "Bread Mac" I stopped off at a pharmacy. The pharmacist didn't speak English, but after my awesome pantomime of "I rode a camel for four hours today and my thighs are really bumpy and itchy," he laughed and produced this tube of cream for me!

This was the third time I've had to do this pantomime in another country - I've had to do it in Hungary, where they gave me the same tube of cream and Japan, where I ended up paying $23 for a tube of insect-bite cream! Doh! See, I always knew all that time spent playing Cranium would have a pay-off!
ouch
Back in my room, I de-pantsed and spent the next 20 minutes rubbing soothing gel onto my red, bumpy, camel-rashy thighs! Ew!
ouch ˆ rash
me
Then before going to bed I took this picture of myself! Look mom, two weeks in Egypt and no sunburn! Told you I use sunblock!
me

Friday, March 28th

I woke up on Friday morning, packed my bag and got ready to head to the airport!
bed ˆ cairo ˆ hotel
Before leaving, I took a whole bunch of pictures of Cairo from my room's little balcony. Check out the rubble-strewn roof of the building across the street. Totally the norm for Cairo.
cairo ˆ roof
The view across...
buildings ˆ cairo
...and down to the ground. Neato.
buildings ˆ cairo
Hailed a taxi and headed to...
cairo
...the airport!
airport
Here's a photo of my Egyptian visa!
passport
I boarded my plane to Abu Dhabi right at noon.
airport
Here's the map showing how I flew about 1500 miles out of the way east first for a layover in Abu Dhabi!
airplane ˆ map
Abu Dhabi from the air. I landed in Abu Dhabi around 3:30pm local time. I had an eight-hour layover before my flight to NYC...
airplane
...but lucky for me, my buddy Faisal lives in Abu Dhabi! So instead of just sitting at the airport, Faisal sent a driver to come pick me up at the airport! After clearing immigration, check out the sign the driver was holding up! Hahaha.
sign
The driver took drove me...
driving
faisal, me
...to Faisal's house! I hadn't seen Faisal since Meredith and stopped over and visited him in Abu Dhabi on our way to Thailand!
faisal ˆ me
Faisal took me to some fancy yacht club where we sat outside....
restaurant
...enjoyed the warm desert evening....
restaurant
me
....smoked a couple different flavored shishas...
shisha ˆ me
...and gorged ourselves on a ton of different little plates of food! Mmmmmmm!
food
faisal, me
Afterwards, we hung out back at his place for a little bit, then I took a quick shower, said farewell to Faisal, thanked him for his hospitality and laughed about how I'd been at his house in Abu Dhabi TWICE in less than one year...
map ˆ faisal ˆ me
...and then he had a driver take me back to the airport!
driving
Thank you, sir!
car
The aiport in Abu Dhabi is massive. Here's my riding on one of the many motorized walkways on the way to my terminal.
airport
me
Hahaha. On my flight back to NYC from Abu Dhabi I sat next a restless, grumpy older man from somewhere in Africa. He couldn't seem to get to sleep and opted to eschew the airline-provided sleepmask in favor of dramatically re-throwing a huge blanket over his head and sighing EVERY TWENTY MINUTES FOR THE ENTIRE FOURTEEN-HOUR FLIGHT. Hahaha. Here's me giving him very worst stinkeye after he elbow-jostled me awake for the TENTH TIME!
airplane ˆ best ˆ grumpy ˆ me
Hey, at least the food was tasty!
airline food

Saturday, March 29th

I landed at JFK at 3pm on Saturday!
airport
Hopped in a cab...
driving ˆ taxi
me
...excited to be home!
driving ˆ taxi ˆ me
After traveling for a while, seeing the Manhattan skyline from the BQE is always one of my favorite things!
nyc ˆ skyline
Sight for sore eyes!
nyc ˆ skyline
The East River seen from the Williamsburg Bridge.
nyc ˆ skyline
Our apartment building!
stuytown
me
Me on the elevator ride up laughing about the...
me
meredith
...tiny stuff camel I'd brought back as a gift for Meredith for being so cool and understanding about me taking a trip to Egypt by myself for two weeks out of the blue! Thanks, for being such an awesome girlfriend, Mer!
camel ˆ meredith