Cairo, Egypt

We could not wait to get to Egypt, I have been wanting to go since learning about ancient Egyptian history in sixth grade. We have been looking forward to this leg of the trip for months.
After we picked up our bags at the airport we had to find a taxi to take us to the hotel and quickly realized that the men in Cairo are extremely aggressive and follow you everywhere. They do not take no for an answer no matter how forceful you are with them. We made it through the gaunlet of taxi drivers near the baggage claim and found a driver who seemed legit. You have to haggle for everything in Egypt, they can and will rip you off every chance they get. Luckily Sarah read up in one of our guidebooks and took control of the price talks and managed to get us a decent deal. We got in the taxi and headed for the hotel. I could not believe the traffic, it was like nothing I have ever seen before - it was around 9pm and the roads were totally gridlocked. There were four proper lanes but the drivers created five on their own (no traffic patrol here), everyone was laying on their horns, it was total chaos. Cairo was built for 1mm people and the current population is about 18mm, so overcrowded. Rush hour is from 7am to 11pm everyday. Next observation: most of the houses/apartments are unfinished, missing sections of roof, windows, foundation. We learned that if a house is unfinished that the residents do not have to pay property taxes, hence no one completes the building process. Our driver got in a minor ruck with another taxi after he drove the wrong way down a one-way street (like I said, no traffic laws here), but we finally made it to the hotel.

The next morning we met up with our tour group who we would be traveling all through Egypt with for the next 8 days. Everyone seemed really cool, we were excited to have a fun group. The group guide, Adel, was born and raised in Egypt and had been a tour guide for several years. Although sometimes hard to understand because of his accent, he was very knowledgeable about Egyptian history and told us the history about everything we were seeing. First stop: the Great Pyramids, jumping right in with our first Wonder of the World. The Pyramids were incredible, it was pretty surreal to be standing right in front of them. Sarah and I jumped at the chance to ride camels around them and loved it - riding camels in front of the Great Pyramids, not something you do everyday. We went into the tombs which required squeezing down narrow passages into the tombs. It was about 35 degrees Celcius outside, and at least 45 degrees and humid in the tombs, definitely not for the claustrophobic. Still it was so amazing to be inside the tombs and learn about how they were built. It was the most incredible architectural feat I have ever seen - built thousands of years ago sans machinery in the oppressive heat. I was so impressed. After the Pyramids we made our way to the Sphinx and had an amazing view of it with the Pyramids in the background. Again, it was pretty surreal to be standing right in front of it knowing that it was built thousands of years ago. It was truly an incredible feeling.

Our last stop of the day was the Egyptian Museum. I was pretty excited to see all of the artifacts from the tombs, I am kind of a museum buff. When we arrived I have to say that I was totally shocked at its condition - some of the glass cases could literally be pryed open with your fingers, most of the artifacts were not even labeled and if they were it was handwritten on notebook paper. It was disorganized and in my opinion, an insult to the importance of the artifacts it housed. I spoke to Adel about it and started to explain the level of corruption within the Egpytian government and how that has delayed the construction of a proper museum, roadways, schools, etc. Bribery is an everyday part of life for everyone, Adel even had to pay off police officers for us to pass through certain roadblocks. It is really sad because Egypt would be a relatively wealthy country since it generates so much income from tourism and oil, but the corrupt government does not fairly distribute funds. Adel said it has always been this way and there is really no end in sight, such a shame.

Despite the negatives Cairo is an amazing place and I am so glad that I got to see it. From Cairo the tour group heads to Luxor and Aswan. More to come, check back again soon...