Desert :)

The desert was exquisite. Quiet, pristine, geologically fascinating (for those of us who are huge nerds)... We began the trip by leaving our hotel at 5am in a cab that took us 4 hours south to the town of Baharia. The drive was slightly terrifying, as there was so much fog that visibility was almost zero on the small two lane road on which were were going quite fast. Once we reached the town, we switched to a Toyota 4x4 with a Bedouin guide who was an excellent driver and cook. He set a beautiful camp up for us, and we stayed up late talking in broken English/Arabic. I think pictures will speak here better than words:

More pics to be posted on facebook soon... and I will write more here about what I've done since the desert. <3

Pyramids, Khan El Khalili

As I'm in the middle of an allergy attack, I figured it was an opportune moment to update the world on my adventures.

Where to start..... Yesterday we walked to the Khan El Khalili, a huge marketplace full of twisted streets, mud, tons of people, and every kind of shop imaginable. It was ridiculously fun - especially when we finally found Mahmoud's 4 story bellydance shop AKA the most amazing place you will ever spend tons of money! :D Mom and I both almost immediately fell in love with two fabulous red costumes (luckily impulse buy costumes were budgeted for in el-student-loany!). The top sizes needed a bit of adjustment, so Mahmoud called the tailor to come in and meet with us in a couple of hours. While we waited, we picked out some fun presents for our friends, and got an amazing lunch of pitas, hummus, falafal, eggplant, chicken, and mango juice.

After lunch, we went back to Mahmoud's and made some bellydance friends while waiting for our appointment. Dance is such a great community thing - I swear I could go anywhere in the world and make dance friends... When the tailor arrived, we went to the fourth floor dressing room with her and quickly discovered that she doesn't speak a speck of English! Between hand gestures, and my minimal Arabic somehow she and I managed to accomplish a basic understanding of each other though. Mom's costume will need a custom made top that I will pick up and bring home with me in June. We have a fitting for her tomorrow, at which time I will be picking up my adjusted red costume, and start the process of custom ordering the first costume on my actual shopping list. a;lsgdkn;laksg :D yay!!


To finish out that day, we made our first attempt at bargaining, at which mom totally failed, but I was OK at. I still think we paid too much, but whatever. It's a learning process.


Moving on.... Today we went to the Pyramids (at Giza, Sakkarah, and Dashur). The sites themselves were pretty cool, except that there were no signs to explain what anything is. It was kind of fun tromping around them though. Giza was FULL of Egyptians trying to get money out of tourists.
Here is an example of some of our interactions:
(earlier in the day)
Hello miss! Welcome to Egypt! Where you from?
us: Colorado. America
Ah America! Obama good! Here, come! I take your picture in special spot! (leads you away from everyone else to remote spot)
us: Uh.... um ... OK? You are going to ask for money aren't you...
No money, no money! Here give me your camera. (takes camera, puts you in corny pose with your hand on top of pyramid and takes picture)
me: Thank you, here let me take a picture now (I take camera back from dude, and he starts looking upset)
Here wait, give me camera! I take picture of both of you! Together!
me: no thank you...
Ok, then give us a little something. a little baksheesh (tips).
me: ugh. here's two pounds, now thank you, bye!
wait miss, you realize this is a very small amount??
ETC...

Later on:
Hello miss! you want camel ride?? Cheap price Cheap price! You know how much? 20 egyptian pounds!
me: La. Shukran. (no, thank you)
Come on miss, very cheap price, good deal.
me: scusi, non parlo inglese (excuse me, I don't speak English, in Italian)

Or:
Hello! Welcome Egypt! Here, I take your picture, give me camera.
me: La. Shukran. I know your tricks ;)
Ah ha! Well you know... we must make a living
me: I know :)

Or:
Hello miss! Welcome to Egypt! Cheap price, come ride camel! Best views! Panoramic views!
me: No thanks, we have our own camel.
Oh really?
me: yes. His name is Rob, he is 50 feet tall and pure black.
Very nice, you tell good story. where you from?
me: Timbucktoo
mom (best line EVER!): A Maasai tribe.
(best response ever) Oh, very nice, nice to meet you. Welcome to Egypt.

Conclusions:
Touristy places get really old, really fast. Stick to the less traveled places.

Yeah.... We'll leave it at that. Haha.
~Kerry

First two days!

Hey guys!!
I just finished my second full day in Cairo...

So far, Mom and I have been exploring the downtown area near the Nile. We have done lots of wandering/exploring, a little bit of shopping, gone to an amazing show, and finally this afternoon we went to the Egyptian museum.

Last night, we were not sure what to do for dinner, and were looking through a guidebook for ideas when we came across a note that the famous dancer Dina dances at the nightclub at a hotel we are staying quite close to. So, we decided to go there for some food and the show. We first ate some delicious Lebanese food while listening to two excellent musicians playing Oud and Riq (tambourine). As we were finishing our meal, we heard a big ruckus of joyous mizmar, drums, and men singing from somewhere in the hallway. Turns out it was the end of a wedding ceremony, and it was incredible!! Everyone was clapping and cheering, while about 8 dancers with large candelabras on their heads shimmied and spun around to the large live band. I recorded some of the music, so we'll see how that comes out. :)
We then sat around for at least an hour and a half to attend the show at the nightclub (we had a reservation for midnight... and Dina wasn't going to start dancing until 2:30am). Mom fell asleep in a random chair, and I read through almost the entire section on Cairo in a guidebook we had with us.
Finally we headed up to the nightclub, where we enjoyed a few singers and a couple of boring ones. :P
Next, a large band with a great, charismatic zill player came out. The singer was wearing: a short leather skirt, lacy tights, a leather jacket, and to top it off thigh-high leather boots with tons of rhinestones covering the top part of each boot. Sweet.

And at long last, out came another large band accompanied by the fabulous Dina!! She was more amazing live than I ever could have imagined by seeing videos of her. She did about 3 or 4 costume changes, including blue, green, gold, and black/gold - all of which were gorgeous! We picked up some good moves ;)

The Egyptian museum had so much to offer..... there were literally thousands of priceless ancient artifacts to look at. Our favorite exhibit was the "ancient egyptian jewelry" section. The museum was reminiscent of the rest of the city - not quite enough labels to know where you're going, but a LOT of amazing things to see and think about. Unfortunately, there were an annoying number of tour groups (full of people who were dressed in complete ignorance of the local culture, and clearly were going to see only the "sights" in Egypt, not any of the true culture), and we were treated much more like stupid tourists than usual. For example, all the locals were exiting through the regular doors, but we weren't allowed to go out that way - we were ushered to the exit that passes through the giant over-priced gift shop ;). Haha!

OK, computer's about to die... I'll post pictures soon!! <3
~Kerry

Travel Blog

Hey everyone!!
I decided to make a travel blog for my trip to Cairo - I leave Tuesday Jan 11th, which is really freaking soon!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyways, hopefully I will actually keep up with this, and those of you who aren't on facebook can keep up to date on my adventures. :)

xoxo,
~Kerry