CAIRO, EGYPT (4/7/2007 -4/8/2007)

From: Sherman Rootberg (BiggiRoot)
Date: Apr 9, 2007 3:48 PM
Subject: Saturday, April 07&08, 2007

Saturday, April 07, 2007
&
Sunday, April 08, 2007

CAIRO, EGYPT

We were supposed to start down the gang plank at about 6:15 in the morning, but, as the captain put it, welcome to Egypt. They decided at the last minute, not to let us dock just to be the nasty stupid rag heads they are. Instead we had to anchor out and tender in a long ways and in some very rough waters. Had this not been an important port, with many hotel and other paid for reservations, we would have just passed this pop stand.

It was about a two and a half hour ride to Cairo. We did have armed guards on our bus but it was nothing like last year going to Luxor and back. There was only one road block the whole way and no truck loads of guards riding with us.

First went to see the great pyramids. There had been a sand and dust storm as we left Suez and it was the same all the way and at the pyramids. They were actually hard to see. When we did get to the largest pyramid, we parked in a lot almost right up to it.

My first impression when walking up to it was WOW! That thing is BIG.

It does not look that big in pictures and movies. It was also not smooth as it looks in many pictures. There was a good portion of the top of each rock sticking out. Except for that, I was highly underwelmed.

The sand was blowing everywhere and it hurt when it hit you. It made the pyramids look like ghosts. We saw the Great Pyramid and the next greatest. The greatest was the biggest of all and the next was the tallest. They belonged to father and son. At the base of the big one was this ugly shed like building with solar panels. It housed some kind of old boat and totally destroyed the looks of the pyramid.

From the moment you got off the bus the local animals were all over you. They were selling most any kind of junk ever made. They would stand in your face so you could not see anything. They would stand in your way so you could not walk. One gimmick was to hand you something and say free. My gift to you. If you just barely closed your hand on it, they walked away for a minute. Then they would come and demand money for their free gift to you. They would scream and yell. If that wasn’t bad enough, there were little ones pulling on your clothes and others sticking camels in your face trying to get you to pay for a camel ride.

Our guard, in plain clothes, was still with us. They all wore nice business suits. The hawkers knew better then to go near them. One kid didn’t. He bothered the guard. The guard loudly hollered something at him in rag head. The kid started to pester him again. He really kicked the kid hard. He could have broken his ankle.

Next we went to the Mena House for lunch. This is the cities most prestigious hotel. An Oberi Hotel. Lunch was a buffet with pretty good service in a plain ballroom. The food was really nothing. Not Arab. Nothing more then cheap rice, tough meat, and dry chicken. If it was a restaurant at home, I’d never be back. If it cost a lot, I would have walked out.

After lunch we went to the Sphinx. He was very big too. At both places you could see many pyramids. Some larger and some smaller. Some looked almost new while some were nothing more then piles of sand. Depending on what kind of rock they were made of, was how long they last.

Next was the most important part of the tour. They took us to their favorite store to sell us overpriced junk. I mean really overpriced. Bobbi bought some shirts. They probably won’t fit anyone. Their sizes are for skinny pigmy’s. Way smaller then American sizes.

Now it was time to go to the hotel for check in. We were put up at three different hotels. Lucky us. We were at the supposed to be best of the bunch. The Marriot. It was formally the Palace and was the largest hotel in the mid east. Naturally it was another line to get a key, after a long walk from building to building. At least our room was ready and was on a high floor where there would be less noise from the outside. Some friends from Evanston did not get a room for an hour and a half and others not until 11:00 at night.

The room was a nice one and was very clean but nothing special. It was supposed to be an upgraded room and had a big balcony overlooking the Nile. It also overlooked some slums down the street. There was a problem with the Nile also. There are many branches of the Nile at this point in the river. The one we over looked was not the main one with the tons of riverboats and things going up and down all day and night. Ours was the mud hole Nile.

At 7:00 PM we were supposed to go back to the parking lot for a bus ride to a museum. We found our guide had given us miss information as to where to find the parking lot. From the one we went to it was over a fifteen minute walk to the correct one. Our guide spoke very well and was very knowledgeable, but was a ditz when it came to explaining where to go. She also would go running off and leave old people unable to follow.

At night it got cold and dinner was to be outside. The museum was opened just for our group from the ship. We went through the museum with our bus load and our guide. There were some very amazing artifacts throughout this huge museum. The building had a very nice and stately exterior and an old crappy interior. The place is filth over walls, almost all corners and wherever the floor and the wall met. Most of the first floor had marble base boards and was filthy. The top floor had soft tile floors. Excellent choice too. My fathers office had the exact same stuff back in the 1950s. None of the cabinets were temperature or climate controlled. This is how these priceless artifacts are being kept. They claim they will be building a new one. This was the main museum of Egypt where all the King Tut stuff is.

Dinner was on the beautiful lawn in front of the building. There were more then enough tables and far more food then needed, mostly because there was not too much you would want to eat. It was very cold out and we finished up as quickly as we could.

The next morning we were up early for a buffet breakfast in another nothing ballroom. The food sucked big time and there was really nothing to eat. The powdered scrambled eggs had run out and rice and bugger balls was not my idea of food. They finally brought another pot of powdered scrambled egg like stuff. Yech.

This morning we were off to Sakkara. This is an area out of town where the step pyramid is. It is an area of many, many pyramids. These are the oldest ones. Some are just crumbled piles of rock and others just sand piles. The step pyramid is supposed to be the oldest and is still in very good condition. There was a tomb we walked into nearby. It was in pretty good shape but not much compared to some we had seen in the Valley of the Kings last year.

Nearby is Memphis where we went to a small museum that housed the Ramses Colossus. A whole museum just for this guy. The Colossus is a huge statue of Ramses II. There were a bunch of statues outside the building also.

Lastly we went back to the real Nile River. We got on a huge river boat for lunch. The exterior was exquisitely decorated with a huge, very colorful Pharaoh head and Egyptian decorations over the entire exterior. Inside it was very plush. Nice carpets and large, heavy furniture. The food was not great but it was the best we had in this town yet. While we were on the return leg of the cruise there was entertainment. Two singers and a guy doing an imitation of a five piece band on electronic equipment. The guy was pretty good and did some American songs while the woman did some Arab stuff that sounded much like strangling a chicken. Ooooyyeeeaaah. Get the picture? Not at all good for digestion. Then it was back to the buses for a three hour ride on to Alexandria where we met the ship.

As we rode around Cairo I think we saw one of the most disgusting places on the planet. There was mile after mile of high rises made of concrete beams and poorly done brick walls. Most of the walls were made of the same red poorly made bricks. All had holes and in most there were just openings and no windows or doors. There had to be millions of apartments like this. Throughout the city it was garbage and filth everywhere. When these people get done with something, they just toss it. Garbage everywhere. In one area we saw that garbage had been thrown out windows until it was now about four stories high. This is not a nice place to visit but you really would not want to live there. We have always wanted to see the pyramids but I am not sure if this was worth it. What a disgusting place.

The ride to Alexandria was almost all on a eight lane divided highway. I think they said about 174 kilometers, 108 miles. It is not posted but there is a 90 kilometer, 56 mile per hour, speed limit. As we came over a rise, traffic was stopping. It was a speed trap. If you are going any amount over the speed limit, you give up your drivers license and $100 US on the spot.

By now we had lost half the people on our bus. We had some of the most miserable excuses for people riding with us. One did nothing but crab continually. When we had first started out a guy that sounded German started hollering at the guide. If she was going to talk he was getting off the bus right now. She thought he meant the volume was too high. They then screwed up the system while trying to soften the sound and we had no sound. He was still unhappy that she was still talking. Then someone overloaded the on board toilet and it was going over. We had a back up bus that we had to transfer too. It was old and the air was not great. The seats were smaller and the isles hard to fit down. That is what we had to use for the whole first day.

When we got back there was a big surprise. They were going to save themselves money and labor again. Up in the Veranda there was a big buffet. We had enough of buffets for the last two days. If I want to serve myself I’ll stay home thank you. But most people are very gullible. The Compass Rose was mostly empty and quiet. Except I should mention, the miserable crab from our bus. She was about 8 or 9 tables away but we could still hear the crab. She walked in about five minutes after we did. We had only been there about ten minutes when we could hear her yelling at the head waiter that she had been here fifteen minutes and all she had was bread and water.