Cairo - By Brian

Of all the places on our trip, we were least looking forward to Cairo. We both had a desire to see the pyramids, etc., but would never have planned a separate trip. Since we had to fly through Cairo on the way from Uganda to India it worked perfect to stop in for a few days.

We had heard all kinds of stories from friends about how pushy the touts were in Cairo, and how everyone would try to get baksheesh (a tip) from you for just doing there job. We heard how dirty Cairo was, etc., etc. Guess what...we loved Cairo. The people were super nice (granted there were some exceptions) and we never really felt pressure for baksheesh. In fact we had several instances of random people going way out of their to help us out. The bummer was that we had only planned 3 days and 2 nights in Cairo.

We started our trip to Cairo with a 4am flight from Entebbe Uganda to Cairo. After arriving around 9am, getting through immigration and customs we needed to get to the city. Lonely Planet said there was a bus that stopped right outside the terminal and went into the center of Cairo. Like so many things with guide books, it's never quite so easy. After walking around for 15 min or so, we figured out the bus we needed stops about a 5 min walk from the terminal, not at the terminal. Cool, now all we need to do is wait for bus 356. Which it turns out would be easy if you could read arabic. This is were the first of the nice Egyptians come into the picture. A young guy came over and asked us in broken English if he could help. We showed him where we were going and he took off towards the bus info stand. He came back and pointed to the bus that was about to leave. Then ran up to the bus to hold it for us and as we boarded said "welcome to Egypt".

Once we made it to the center of town, we found a great hotel for $18 a night (Lialy Hostel, in Lonely Planet, we had a triple). I think we were both amazed at how well Cairo was going so far. Things were looking up for our brief Cairo visit. After a shower, changing some money and lunch we headed off to the National Museum. It's not cheap to get in, but it's worth it. And I would recommend hiring one of the guides that are waiting our front. Make sure to interview a couple before settling on one. Their English and knowledge can be very different. Our guide was pretty good, but his English could have been better. His knowledge was solid about the basics, which was really all we wanted as you can only retain so much.

There are lots of great things in the museum, but by far King Tut's treasure reigns supreme. For those of you that may have seen the Tut exhibit a few year ago in the US (it was a the Field Museum for a while), the items in Cairo put that little show to shame. While it's all great, the one item that stood out for me was Tut's death mask. It's the most iconic item; everyone is familiar with it. But, when you see it in person, 2 feet away, it seems to be alive. I must have stared at it for 10 min in total. It really is mesmerizing.

The bummer of the museum is the lackluster way in which the items are exhibited. There is just so much stuff, unlabeled and literally piled in places that it sometimes seems as though your in a warehouse of Egyptian knockoffs. Even the King Tut section, with what is arguably the greatest collection of ancient items, is sad relative to the magnitude of the collection. They are building a new museum, so it will be interesting to see if it's any better. I sure hope so. Either way, the museum is a must visit.

The following day we headed out to the pyramids. Instead of taking a taxi from the hotel we took the subway to Giza and planned to take a taxi from there. On arrival, however, a nice young guy named Abdul asked us where we were going. Skeptical at first we found him to be very helpful. He took us all the way from the subway station to the pyramids on two separate, very local "buses". He made a point of telling us he didn't want a tip, only for us to believe the Egyptian good, nice people.

After a few hours of walking around the pyramids we were ready to hit the road. They are very impressive, but didn't captivate either one of us. We managed to catch a bus back to the city center. We were rather pleased with ourselves that our transport to and from the pyramids cost us less then $2. We finished the night with dinner, drinks and sheesha at Abou El Sid. A bit expensive, but a fantastic evening.

The last day we spent wandering around the Islamic section of Cairo and the bazaar. There had actually been a bombing (1 dead, many injured) just 2 days earlier. Pretty crazy stuff since Cairo hadn't been hit in several years. We hadn't been to the bazaar before, but it seemed pretty quiet. Nevertheless we had a nice time and found some very tasty treats. That night we departed on a 2am flight for Mumbai. All in all we had a great time in Cairo and would highly recommend it. There is a vibrate culture, great food, tons of history and it's a super value.

Islamic Cairo

Enjoying sheesha in the bazaar

Marisa with the best deal in Cairo, tasty falafel sandwich for 20 cents!

McDonald's delivery, what a fantastically horrible idea.

Mummification pit at the great pyramid

Possible candidate for photo of the trip