Eqypt: Part 2

Day 2 - 8:00 a.m.

We were dropped off at the Mona Hotel - our driver for the night later informed us that this was the location of Camp David for the signing of peace treaties between Egypt and Israel. After battling with a stubborn ATM, we were able to withdraw some Egyptian pounds. When we tried to figure out how to get to the light show, the hotel pointed us in the direction of one of the hotel's drivers to take us there. He offered to take us to the show, wait for us during it, and then take us to our hotel (which was a good 20 miles away) for 120 pounds (about $22). As it turns out, Kushusu (who gave us his business card) has been a taxi driver for 47 years. He speaks perfect English and has never gone to school a day in his life - he learned it all from tourists. It seems like he is the person to know around town - he knew every cop in the village.

After the light show, which I will get back to later, he asked us if we had ever seen papyrus. He took us to the local papyrus shop where a friend of his who also spoke English gave us a free demonstration of how papyrus is made. Then he took us to out hotel, which, wit the traffic, was quite a ways away from Cairo. The free-for-all traffic system is like the 8th wonder of the world. The streets of Cairo make New York City seem like a graveyard. Our hotel, the Hilton Pyramids Golf Resort, turned out to be AMAZING. After a day of in-your-face intense culture shock, it was nice to have an English speaking staff. Our room overlooks the pool which is awesome - we plan on going for a swim this morning as soon as Sam wakes up. I'm sitting next to it now. We both agreed this is one of the nicest hotels we've ever been to. It wasn't that expensive either, since I booked it last minute and it's not in Cairo. There is a perfect breeze and it's not too hot in the shade - I'm surrounded by palm trees and a swim-up pool bar. I could spend several days just at the resort but that would defeat the purpose of SAS.

So, back to the light show. We arrived early and went to a restaurant across the street. We sat up on the 3rd floor which had an outside deck and had a phenomenal view of the Pyramids and the Sphinx. We were both speechless. Every restaurant that claims to have a nice view is now kind of a joke to me. We ordered pita bread and hummus - neither of us were very hungry. We could have seen the entire show from the restaurant but since we had already purchased tickets we went back across the street and got seats. The light show was informative, albeit cheesy at times (like when it made the voice of the Sphinx), and was an hour-long presentation on the history of the Pyramids. The lights were awesome. I'll try and explain how I felt being there, but there are no words qualified enough to fully describe it. Sitting in the desert, the cool Arabian breeze blowing - a welcome change from the scorching heat of the sun - watching the last colors of the sunset fade away behind the Pyramids made me feel like the little guy on the camel in the opening scene of Aladdin. To boot, the night sky was perfectly clear and you could see all of the stars above the lit-up pyramids.

In preport, we were told that a historian in the year 500 B.C. wrote about how old the Pyramids were; 2,500 years later, they still stand. They have seen countless sunrises and sunsets, dynasties, rulers, withstood wars and weather, watched civilizations rise and fall. They were there for 2,000 years before Jesus, in a time when doubts were few and far between - the gods Anubis and Osiris existed by sheer virtue of belief - a belief strong enough to erect these mountains out of dirt. So, there it was, the epitome of history staring me in the face. Saying any more about it would be doing it unjustice, so I will leave it with a simple remark - it makes everything in life and life itself seem so incredibly small.

Moving on, I woke up a bit before 8 today and went to the concierge. There's a 10:30 shuttle to the Egyptian museum. After that, we are either going on Nile cruise or to the Bazaar.

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It's now Sunday morning and we are in Greece. The sunrise this morning was beautiful. To get back to Egypt, it was a great experience - I never would have wanted to see it independently of SAS. I am glad I got to see the Pyramids but I don't think I'll ever be going back, there are so many more places in the world I'd rather go to first.

It's time to get of the ship and go explore Athens!!!!!!!!