Tryin’ real hard to keep my centuries straight

I know – it’s a little misleading to start with a picture like this.  You’re all thinking Ron bought this guy to add to the random selection of large statuary that stands outside his front door.  But this isn’t proof of consumer impulse but instead proof of evolution because, while Ron wanted to buy this item, he did not make the purchase.  Does he regret it?  Check with me in 4 days when we’re routed back through Cairo with another shopping opportunity.

For now, we’re moving on from Cairo – I’m typing this at the airport – waiting for our flight to Luxor.  From Luxor, we’ll take a 4 night cruise down the Nile.  We saw a lot incredible sites in Cairo in the last two days.  As always, I’ve gotten off topic and I’m taking pictures of random buildings and cars, stray dogs and people waiting for cabs.  It’s perfect, though, as Marwa and Ron can talk about history and correctly date pyramids and rulers to the correct century…heck, maybe even the correct week… while I would be hard-pressed to get the millennium right.  And they’re marveling over who married whom and spitting out dozens of names while I’m mesmerized by the 4000-year-old tweezers and the fish-shaped compact that some woman used maybe 5000 years ago. Here’s a few pics of Ron and Marwa conferring on matters historical.  

But even for me, the highlights of the history here seep into my limited historical view.  We went out to Sakkara today. This is where the oldest stone building in history exists . We saw the Pyramid of Djoser, which was built by  Imhotep, during the 27th century BC.  There’s a courtyard there as well, with really incredible ceremonial-type structures that we got to walk around in.  It’s quite a feeling to walk around the courtyard and walk up into the ruins.  Here’s a few shots from our time there.  If you want significant (and accurate) detailed info on this place, I would definitely resort to any resource other than my blog.

We then stopped for lunch at a little roadside restaurant. It was basically a tented-in outdoor seating area with long rows of tables. I think it’s probably quite popular, although we were lunching at 10:45 to accommodate sightseeing (worked out well as I woke up at 4am) and so we were the only ones there, save for the dozens of cats that kept watch on us while we ate.  There was fantastic hearth-baked bread, cooked on the spot and brought to the table.  The best thing about the restaurant, aside from the vegetarian stew they brought out for me, was the fact that, when I went around the tented corner to use the bathroom, I saw that they are putting up a new building for their restaurant and it’s indescribable.  Of course I did not have the camera – but this thing is about 5 stories tall, built of marble (??!!) and will have about 7000 square feet.  It seems a bit like moving up from a dorm room to penthouse overlooking Pike Place Market.  It’s almost worth the trip back to Egypt in a year to see what they do with this mammoth restaurant.  So, below are pics of my stew and the lady who made our bread.  And, because it’s my blog, the puppies running around right next to the woman baking our bread.  The bread pic cost us $1.  The puppy pic was free as they are yet not savvy enough to demand payment.

We do all around our running around Cairo with Mohamed, our driver from Egypt and Beyond Travel.  Mohamed is one awesome and unflappable driver.  He is kindhearted and didn’t laugh at me when it took me at least 6 times in and out of the van before I learned how to move the lock lever to open the door.  Egypt definitely doesn’t have the traffic that China has – China is actual gridlock – it can take an hour to go a mile or two.  Egypt doesn’t have any comparable gridlock – what it has instead is driving of the more reckless and inventive quality.  It’s a little hard for a traffic attorney such as myself to not wish for a Washington State Patrol ticket book to hand out some infractions to the most hardcore violators.  We saw two open back trucks racing in front of us today, both filled with prepubescent boys, who were hanging over the sides and acting as if they might jump between the racing, careening trucks, which were carrying, of course, bottles of natural gas or propane gas. The situation really seemed as if it needed some adult oversight but hey, maybe that’s just the over-protective parent in me.  I found it ironic that the two trucks finally pulled into a cemetery.   Here’s Mohamed and our comfy van:

I’ll never get past my main focus for traveling -I know the history is always incredible – but I pretty much travel just so I can have a look around at stuff.  I like to look at the buildings, to see the wash on the balconies, the kids hanging out in the alleys.  I want to see what a Snickers costs and I like to look at the packaging in the grocery stores.  Egypt hits a lot of these highlights for me.  I’m including some of my favorite random pictures below.  And maybe it looks like chaos and maybe it looks extremely different than the US but there’s a lot of evident pride and community in these pictures that’s really awesome to get to drive through.  Even these crazy buildings, half-finished but lived in, have these wildly-painted balconies, clearly the subject of much affection that would be easy to dismiss as unattractive.  They’re not – they’re fantastic.  The more I travel the more I see that the spirit and resilience of people is definitely not dictated by their social standing and acquired possessions.  That’s what so special about Egypt, I guess – walking amongst the pyramids or the just the riot of apartment buildings and tiny stores – this place oozes history, invention and longevity.

So here you go – a cool apartment building with colored balconies in Cairo:

Here I am today, having discovered I am a historical idiot, I try my hand at carpet weaving and I am so slow that it is clear it will take me 10,000 years to finish one rug.  I accomplished two entire stitches today.  I was slow on the first one and slower on the second and that cute 10-year-old-girl to my right couldn’t take it anymore and stepped in to guide my fingers.

I just gave this to Ron to read over and he had no comment whatsoever about my rhetorical skill or my keen observations, choosing only to mention instead that I forgot to mention that we went to the Citadel of Salah Al-Din and mosque today on a hillside overlooking Cairo.  It was built somewhere near the 11th century and it’s a beautiful compound.

Here we are in front of the mosque.

We had a nice conversation with Marwa in the mosque – about tolerance and religion and acceptance and I walked out so happy that we have her to lead us around Cairo.   Although I should practice peace and non-confrontation, in keeping with my preachy paragraph above, I offer instead, by way of revenge on Ron for failure to compliment my hard work blogging, that despite his claim that he was going to brave this trip with two mere pairs of undergarments, he buckled under pressure and packed 11 luxurious pairs.  And in a first for both of us, we’re not washing our unmentionables in the sink and laying them out around the bathroom – we’re going to partake of the laundry service on the cruise.  We are getting soft and pathetic.

Good night from Luxor!  We’re at the beautiful Sofitel Winter Palace here – the pool and courtyard is fabulous-pics later.