Days 1-4

ِAfter 4 days in Egypt, we finally got the chance to get on a computer and share how things are going.

Cairo is the craziest city we've ever been to…and we've been to some crazy cities. There is unbelievable traffic. Two lane highways become 5 lanes of traffic. There are only a few traffic lights, which everyone ignores. City buses are vans, packed with people, literally falling out. Pedestrians walk on the road with cars, and cross the highways in what amounts to a bizarre game of Frogger. There are flatbed trucks packed with vegetables, including beachball size cauliflower (seriously, the biggest thing you've ever seen).

Luckily, we've had incredible guides and drivers who have made everything efficient. We feel like Egyptian Queens (but only Moira has been told she looked Egyptian…and no, Irene, she hasn't converted religions), especially when our rooms were upgraded to a beautiful suite with a view of the pyramids. We almost turned it down as we thought it was too good to be true!

Our guide in Cairo was Dahlia. With her, over two jam-packed days, we visited all major sights in the Cairo area, including:
- The Citadel/Mohammed Ali Mosque (not the boxer)
- The Egyptian Museum (built in 1887, the building itself could be in a museum, and includes King Tut's treasure and the Royal Mummies)
- Memphis
- Sakkara
- Plateau at Giza: Pyramids (we went inside a tomb…it was very hot and claustrophia inspiring), the Sphinx and a camel ride! Our camels were Charlie Brown, Michael Jackson, Sloby and Moses. Guess who was the slowest? (it was Sloby)
- The Bazaar: lots of things to buy
- Amazing restaurant for authentic Egyptian food. Our favorite was Koshari.
- The cheesy light and sound show at the Giza Pyramids

- We had a 2:30 am wake up call on Monday for our 5 am flight. All domestic flights have to leave before 8 am. And we needed to leave time to get to the airport with traffic. We arrived in Luxor shortly before 7, where we met our next guide Ahmed. He calls us his four queens and his quite a charmer. Luxor is much cleaner, and has clear air. However, it's very hot starting around 9 am and there are a lot of flies. With Ahmed, our first day we visited The Valley of the Kings (Ramses VI tomb was the highlight), Valley of the Queens, Temple of Hatshepsut, Memnon's Temple.

We then hit the boat, where we spent last night in a suite bigger than most hotel rooms. This morning, after our 5 am wake up call, we went to Karnak, which at 160 acres is the largest temple to Ra, who is the universal God, and was in a word amazing. From there, we went to the Temple of Luxor. Our guide Ahmed was an archeologist here for 14 years and was involved in a lot of the excavation.

That brings us to right now, where we are cruising the Nile. Forgive any typos as the computer keys are a little different and I'm having trouble with bullets and numbers. We'll end with things we've learned thus far about Egypt:

Beware of men with calculators.
Haggle! Haggle! Haggle!
Even police want baksheesh (tips).
Eat a lot at breakfast and pack a snack (not a raw egg…make sure it's hard boiled) as lunch is late…3 pm to 5 pm. We have found we rarely have lunch and dinner. It's more dunch, as we call it.
The smell of a camel and a burial chamber can linger on you.
Hire a good guide (as we have). They are like mayors of their town and know how to cut lines and dispense baksheesh to get you behind ropes.
When in doubt, a man is named Mohammed.
Moonstone glows in the dark.
The Egyptians pretty much invented everything.
Ring tones in Arab countries are kind of crazy.
The call to worship that we hear 5 times a day is beautiful.
The aliens did not build the pyramids.
We need to adopt a highway in Cairo so there is at least one that is garbage free.
Egypt is incredibly dusty. It makes you thirsty and gets you dirty fast. And you need to wear hikers and not Tevas.
Days start early because of the heat. Sites open at 5 or 6 am. The latest we have slept in so far is 6 am.
Once Egyptians realize we are from America, they want to talk about the presidential election and Obama in particular. They say "Go Obama!" and tell us that we should stay in Egypt if he loses. Maybe the next time that we write this, he will be President-Elect, Inshallah.