Egypt

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Cruise-Day 5
We entered Egypt through the port of Alexandria where we were met by Usouf our guide who would escort us to Cairo and the pyramids. Before leaving Alexandria we stopped by the Library of Alexandria, the largest library in the world and saw the site of Alexander’s Lighthouse, another wonder of the ancient world.
We drove 3 hours through the desert of Egypt to Cairo. The land of a 1000 minarets-there is a mosque on every corner it seems. Our Muslim guide commented that he had never met an American family like ours, deeply religious who believed in modesty. Sadly his perception of America is greatly tainted by Hollywood it seemed.
We played a game of who could spot the pyramids first, Ethan excitedly won the contest. How cool that we get to visit the pyramids and ancient sphinx on this trip?! We rode camels around the periphery of the pyramids in the desert surrounding Cairo. After climbing and exploring the pyramids, visiting the ancient site of the embalming process, and the sphinx we began our journey across town to the oldest world museum where most of the discovered treasures from recovered pharaoh tombs are housed. What an amazing museum, the King Tut exhibit was especially stunning with all the jewels and gold found within his tomb.
We had a Alexandrian driver who proceeded to get very lost in Cairo, so much so that finally a taxi was hailed to lead us to the museum and after lunch he was replaced. We saw parts of Cairo that most tourists never see!! We were shocked by the poverty of Cairo, much worse than Thailand and were exasperated by the Egyptian people and their begging and demanding of tips. Our camel guide seemed totally insulted by our $5 tip for a 15 minute camel ride. So many of the buildings are not completed which Mark had learned on an earlier trip to the Egyptian capital that if a building is never completed no taxes have to be paid on that property. Our guide confirmed that and thus there are many, many buildings that are still in the construction process.
Our guide led us to the Hard Rock Café of Cairo for a buffet lunch, we would have much rather have eaten at a more authentic Egyptian eatery but our guide was sure the Americans would rather eat at a widely recognized place and he was concerned that we might become ill from local food. Of course, he didn’t know we were coming from Thailand and that we usually look for the places off the beaten road and hardly ever frequent the Hard Rock in America!
It was a long, memorable day of sight-seeing. The boys were thankful to be returning to our ship late on Christmas Eve after a day of not feeling totally safe especially when we were lost in the poorest slums of Cairo earlier in the day. We did stop at the Carrfour of Alexandria (Carrfour is the French Wal-Mart) for some last minute stocking stuffers before boarding our ship.