Next day had breakfast and met our tour guide. He was a young Arab man with a good sense of humour and spoke fluent English. We went in a large bus and it was great as the driver stayed with the bus so we could leave things in the bus instead of packing things around, for example water and cameras, etc.
Egyptian Museum
First stop was the Egyptian museum a lovely huge building. Highlight was king Tut’s treasures. Guide said “Englishman spent forty years trying to find his tomb when a donkey fell in hole, so Egyptian donkey found the treasure not Englishman.” The other tombs were robbed of everything. The kings spent years getting their tombs ready with secret tunnels and rooms for all their treasures. They even blind folded their workers and architects before they were taken to the pyramids and then killed them afterwards. After the work was done they found out that as fast as they were sealing off the rooms the priests and politicians were stealing all the treasures.
King Tut’s Tomb
King’s Tut’s tomb was the only one found so far that was intact. It stayed hidden until 1923. Half the large museum was filled with just the things he had saved for his after life. Statues of his servants, soldiers all dressed in their suitable garments, jewels, money, gold throne, furniture, chariots, clothes, food, and armaments. They also had his caskets from the Valley of the Kings, there were four of them all made of pure gold that fit one inside the other, the last one was the size of a large room. Even had his dogs (with original hair) and crocodiles mummified.
We went to large Arab café for lunch and had all the different dishes, not too impressed. Next stop was king Tut’s pyramids. There were 3 of them one for him, medium one for his wife, and smaller for kids and parents. What a wonderful sight to see them with the camels and horses and donkeys in the background. The Bedouins own camels, a nasty looking bunch they were. I took a picture of one of them on a camel and he rode after me looking for “baksheesh” after that I took their pictures when they weren’t looking.
Peddlers were all selling post cards and for change they give you the dirtiest, filthiest bills then when you try to use them again they give you a bad time and don’t want to accept them. Guide takes you inside the pyramids and the drawings and colors are gorgeous and look like they had just been done. , Hieroglyphics tell the whole history of their past. We then went to the sphinxes it was so big and impressive it was built to guard the pyramids. It was sad to see townhouses built right beside them
Back to the hotel and we all went to the old part of Cairo to an Arabian café. Had a dollar dinner a bowl of dried onions, barley, chickpeas, pasta and heaven knows what else, they all gobbled it up, yuck. We then walked through this crowded old part of town; very safe as in Egypt you never worry about crime because their laws are too strict.
Whirling Dervish
Andi took us to an old hall to see a free performance, no liquor served in Arab places. It had 6 piece Arabian band and this character did a dance called “The whirling Dervish” it is a part of a cult that is banned in most of the Arabians countries as they worship the devil, it was the weirdest most fascinating dance I have ever seen. He was dressed in a long skirt and spun rapidly around without stopping for 35 minutes; he seemed to go into a trance. He was in his sixties so it was amazing to watch him. They would not let Shane take videos of it, which was disappointing because he is going to make me a copy of the video for me and I would have loved to have a record of this weird dance. When he was finished we all gave him a standing ovation. We then went to a karaoke bar in a fancy hotel, which are the only places, which sell alcohol and had a ball. The Arabian countries are so strict about drinking that even tourists can be arrested for being too high in public. Left at 1 a.m. and took a terrifying taxi ride back to hotel. Great day and by then we felt we had known each other for months.
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