Hello again my good readers,

Actually, everyday was a good day, but Day 3 was a nice, calm, hassle-free day, which we really needed. The weather was beautiful (of course, it hadn't rained in Cairo for the past 9 months), there wasn't any stress, and we had conquered bargaining.

After sleeping until 10 (and then Perry still had to drag me out of bed), we decided to have another go at some pyramids. This time it was to go to Saqqara which is where the oldest pyramid stands, the Step Pyramid.

The drive to and from Saqqara was very interesting. We didn't drive on a highway, but rather through many dumpy, polluted, poor villages. It took about an hour each way. Our driver was much better today too. He didn't try to change our minds or hustle us. We settled on one price up front and he didn't ask for any more at the end. He even let us stop at a carpet school/store on the way back. He was very accommodating.

Compared to the Giza Pyramids, the Step Pyramid and its surrounding sites were practically deserted. Very few camel drivers and no children trying to sell me kleenex. What a relief! There were hardly any tourists too. It was a pleasure to be there. We were our own tour guides today, no 16 year old boy saying in an insincere, sarcastic, flat tone, "Lovely" after every photo I snapped (think I forgot to mention that in Day 2's tale). Of course, this didn't happen naturally. When we initially arrived at Saqqara an older man who didn't speak much English latched onto us. He walked through the columned entrance way with us, explaining that there were x number of columns. Before politely dismissing his services, I managed to get him to take a photo of us. Next to snapping pictures of unaware camel drivers, this was my second favorite thing to do -- have people who wanted our money take our picture. The photograph the man took was one of the best from the entire trip.

Also in the entrance way, we encountered a group of men, dressed in semi-traditional clothes -- although one had a baseball cap on and another one had on blue jeans -- who were sitting between some columns rubbing stones together. They asked me to take their picture and to feel the smooth rock they had created (which I suspect was manufactured for this purpose). After doing so, they wanted some money. Fortunately this being a Muslim culture, and more importantly a male dominated culture as I have pointed out many times before, they didn't bother me after I explained Perry didn't let me hold the money, which was, of course, a total lie.

We wandered around the Step Pyramid and funeral complex of Zoser (for some reason, this name really reminded me of Ghostbusters and I hummed the theme the entire visit here) for about 2 hours. You could see the Great Pyramids of Giza across the desert in the distance. So cool!! This was the quality desert time Perry was looking and hoping for. We even headed off into the desert for a walk. Actually, we were on a mission to go to the Serapeum, reportedly the creepiest place in Egypt, to see the hub of bull mummification. On the way, a camel driver rode over to us, exclaiming it was too far to walk and we should ride his camel for 20 EP. I yelled back at him that he didn't know where we were going so how would he know if it was too far to walk. That seemed to to dissuade him, and he no longer wanted our business. I felt this was a personal victory in my battle against the camel drivers. Unfortunately when we arrived at the Serapeum, we discovered it was closed! A nice camel driver told us this before we walked all the way down to see it -- it was still about 200 feet away, looking disserted. We went to the Mastaba of Ti, a royal hairdresser who married a royal and now had a little, royal tomb.

The Mastaba of Ti was really fun to see. We had to fight off paying a camera fee to enter. Here we had our lone experience of crawling into a tomb. You have to crouch over and walk through a 20 foot long, 3 foot high passageway. At the end of the passageway is an empty room where the tomb used to be. We had the opportunity to do this at the Great Pyramids and now I'm really glad we didn't do it. The passageway there was 100 feet (or was it yards?) long and only 3 feet high. Very uncomfortable. I was glad I tried it here, where it was much shorter.

After we were emerged from the subterranean, we went into the main vestibule/chamber/chapel which we would have completely missed if the little girl who decided to be our guide hadn't pulled Perry over to the entrance way. To think we almost missed the main event! Inside the two chambers were hieroglyphics showing the daily activities during the time of Masataba of Ti's life. It was really neat!! There was a peep hole in the wall to peak through...on the other side, the Mastaba of Ti was there staring back at you! It was kind of weird. While walking around the Step Pyramid, we experienced this little surprise again. This time it was Zoser staring at you from a peep hole cut into the side of the Step Pyramid. This one was even creepier than Mastaba of Ti, probably due to the dim lighting and glowing eyes. The Egyptians have a strange sense of humor.

Departing Saqqara, we stopped at a carpet school/store. I noticed them on the drive out and thought it would be neat to stop. Plus all the guide books said to check out the carpet schools near Saqqara. The carpet school was as interesting as it was disturbing to see. Young children with old eyes sit on low benches in front of looms tying little strings into little knots as fast as they can. It was like a child labor factory. Each bench had 2 younger children and 1 older child speedily tying knots. The older child was the bench supervisor. Per our taxi driver, these children have it lucky that they can go to school and earn money. When do they have time to play and be little?

Back in the car and off to the Nile Hilton. The roads don't really seem to have any steadfast lane indications or rules. The direction of the lane isn't even very important to the drivers, seems they don't care which side of the street they are on. Oddly, on the way back from carpet school, our cab's battery died in mid-drive. I didn't know that was possible! The driver didn't even blink an eye. He just stopped the car in the middle of the road letting the traffic pile up behind us, popped the hood, banged on the battery with pliers, and off we go again!!

After resting up at the Nile Hilton, we headed out for dinner and to the great bazaar. Tiring of Pizza Hut, we decided to be adventurous and try another local restaurant, KFC. The place was extremely crowded and the line was disorganized. It took Perry forever to order (half the time he was standing in the wrong place -- a nice, Egyptian woman in the line helped him in the right direction). Meanwhile, I was on the hunt for some seats, any seats. It only took us 30 minutes to have that all settled. I don't recommend KFC in Cairo.

Feeling confident from our day in Saqqara, we were off to Khan el-Khalili, the great bazaar. We took the subway part of the way, tried to walk the rest, but gave up after we couldn't read the few street signs we found, couldn't understand any of the directions people gave us, grabbed a taxi (a 3 minute ride, I might add), and then entered the bazaar. As an aside, the subway was very nice, clean, cheap, and efficient. To quote Perry, "This is the most efficient thing I've seen in this country!" The coolest thing was it had a clock all in Arabic numerals, suddenly the phrase "Roman numerals" had new meaning to me.

The Khan was really, really neat!! A sight to be seen!! I had a mission -- acquire a gold scarab bracelet (scarabs are a good luck symbol). I had spied one in a hotel store and hoped I could find it cheaper here. After some searching and Perry being a powerhouse negotiator, I bought one for 2/3 the price of the one in the hotel. Side note: we discovered it is very difficult to haggle on something that is valued by weight, a challenge we were to meet again the next day. I made the jeweler remove one of the scarabs (it was too big) and reweigh the bracelet to drive the price down a little. We also managed to get rid of some strange surcharge for a clasp. And the goldsmith gave us a very favorable exchange rate. What a guy!

Perry also did some other serious negotiating for me in regard to an inlaid box. I managed to negotiate the price down a little. When it was time to pay, I told the lady that I wasn't allowed to handle the money (lie again, but it seems to work and is a smart thing to do in a male dominated society) and that Perry would have to pay her. He refused to pay the price I negotiated and brought the price down even more. What a deal driver!

After our hard negotiating, we needed to relax in a cafe with some Cokes. Are we adventurous or what! The men next to us were enjoying a water pipe and noticed that Perry and I were clearly fascinated by it. One man offered Perry a puff on his pipe! Perry declined, fearing disease and bad tobacco taste I suspect. They were all very friendly and let me take their photograph. We ended the evening in a dirty, yet firmly negotiated cab ride home.

Day 4: Ibn Tulan, Khan el-Khalili by day, Cairo Tower .... and more

Back to Day2 The Pyramids
See Day 1 The Museum