Egypt Recap

Welcome to Misr! Before I describe what happens in good ol’ Egypt, I thought that it would be nice for you to read what we were told before debarking… These are just some general guidelines provided on our green sheets (lifeline if you get lost or something happens, contains emergency numbers, native language writing that says “take me to the MV Explorer”, etc.) and on a blue sheet of tips:

Tipping is expected from anything from opening doors to pointing out the obvious in a museum to taking pictures of things.  

Public toilets, when they can be found more than likely will not provide toilet paper.

If you do drink, avoid Egyptian gin and whisky, whose labels resemble famous western brands, as they may contain wood alcohol and other poisons

Remember that the left hand is reserved for “unclean” activities and the right hand is reserved for shaking hands and eating.  You should never put food in your mouth or touch a communal plate or accept anything using your left hand.

Egyptian authorities strictly enforce a law that provides the death penalty for anyone convicted of smuggling or selling narcotics. 

Be wary of street vendors selling stuffed animals- the stuffing often contains insect eggs that will hatch in your room after a few days.

DO NOT CLIMB THE PYRAMIDS!  Each night, a number of tourists bribe the guards and climb them.. each year a number of people die from it. 

For women:

Dress conservatively- serious assaults are unlikely, but do happen.

Women travelers should also try to avoid eye contact with Egyptian men.  Dark sunglasses may help avoid misunderstandings.  (We were told in pre-port that if a girl looks at a man and is dressed revealing more than she should [AKA any girl in the US wearing the norm] and that man takes advantage of her [including rape] it is the girl’s fault)

On public transit, sit by other women.  In Cairo there is a cab reserved for women only.

If you need help for any reason, ask a woman first. Remember that even innocent, friendly small talk or physical contact can be taken as flirtatious.

Egypt is NOT the place to swim in a bikini.  At the very minimum you will want shorts and a T-shirt.  Egyptian women who swim in public will be fully clothed, head scarf included.  (People that went to the beach said there were also no men without shirts)

Other tidbits:

60% of the voyagers got sick from the food and water consumption the last time SAS came to Egypt, so we are told to eat only at respectable places, drink only bottled water and have NO fresh fruits and vegetables, dairy, ice cubes, etc.

80% cars are uninsured, so when accidents happen (all the time because a two-lane street easily becomes a 3 or 4 or even 5 lane one with all of the taxis and because of the fact that there are rarely any stoplights and even when there are some they are always on yellow- meaning “use your judgment”) people avoid police at all costs whether it be paying cash right there, getting address, or the more unfavorable, street fights..

only 11% or the land is populated in Egypt, so cities are ridiculously crowded

people cross streets whenever they want, not even looking because “they know the cars will stop”-- when a car hits a person, it is their responsibility to rush them to the hospital, because with traffic and ambulance easily takes over 30 minutes.

My personal favorite---->  On all tour buses, there will be a driver, a guide, and a guard in full uniform carrying a machine gun. 

Needless to say, the intensity of this port and country are far more extreme than any of our others so far.  After our preport meeting, a majority of the girls had to replan their trips because of the fact that they didn’t have any guys with them and would have been risking a lot to travel without.  I was personally planning on traveling in Alexandria with only Hillary the first day, but by the time we left I had picked up five girls in total! Haha

Also they informed us that two people did get mugged in Bulgaria- one just got a big ol’ black eye, but one got everything on him, including passport stolen.. All pretty nervous and knowing we were in for one heck of a day, we left the ship at about 10:30.

Thursday, July 30- Risking Our Lives in Alexandria

Even getting off the ship we knew we were in a way different country.  There was an Egyptian security guard on our ship checking our passports (actually checking them unlike the usual “if you have one in your hand you’re okay) and at least 3 or 4 outside of our ship before you even get to the terminal.  Inside the terminal it’s like a 5-star hotel… with guards and machine guns everywhere!  I saw more security there than I have a few other countries combined!  It was pretty scary, and they even had airport-like security that I was patted down in before being allowed to enter Egypt.  (Not quite as extreme as our ship pat-downs though now that people have been caught smuggling alcohol onto the ship by strapping it to their upper legs… the ship pat-downs are more like ball-grabs…)

Well we made it less than 100 yards out of the terminal before we were stopped and pretty much forced to be interviewed for the channel 6 Egyptian news :) They just asked easy questions like what are you seeing, what are you most excited for, etc. but it was still kinda weird!  After that we finally get to walk over the extensive bridge to the port gate, where another line was awaiting us.  We stand in line for about 10 minutes and when it’s finally our turn, a guard at a table asks us how many people are with us (6) and we each have to write our name and cabin number on this sheet of paper. Then he hands us a tiny piece of paper (about 1 square inch) with which he wrote a bit of Arabic on, and said, “do not lose this and bring it back when you come back, all together of course.”  I wonder what happens if you do lose it but we weren’t about to find out!  After another passport check, we were allowed to enter the real world, one hour after we left the ship!

Within the first twenty steps I wanted to be back in my cabin.  Three or four different taxi drivers swarmed us and one would not leave me alone!  We kept walking and saying no we’re walking, but he was in my face for a minute or two!!  It didn’t help that we had to cross the street before he would leave us alone.  Picture the busiest street you’ve ever seen and multiply the chaos factor by 2.  It is ABSOLUTELY NUTS!  Cars drive wherever the heck they want, people are running in between cars, and EVERYONE honks.  Every time you cross a street here you risk your life…

Our goal for the day was to get some souvenirs, but there was no ATM in sight.  It was like Naples, but worse, filth everywhere.  We walked for a good 30 minutes before actually finding an ATM inside a bank being guarded by 4 guards.  We could tell they were talking about us for awhile, and finally they asked where we were from and they even asked to take a picture with one of the girls.. um… weird!

The only decent looking spot to eat was a fancy French hotel, so we stopped there (in the air conditioning) before heading to the Library of Alexandria, the site of the largest library of the ancient world.  Now it is just a massive library that holds millions of books.  We spent a while there on the internet and seeing ancient books before heading back in hopes of finding shops.  Since we saw none on the way there, we took a different way back.  It was over an hour before finally finding some, but we wanted the mini bazaar specifically.  I was walking and notice a face right next to mine walking stride for stride.. He finally turns to me and says, “Hi! American?”  We had some small talk and finally he asked if we were headed to the bazaar.. Pretty much he suckered us in because he was a shop owner and I knew I would either have to tip him or buy something.  He leads us through the bazaar and down these narrow streets and all the girls are freakin out because they don’t know why I’m following this guy! Haha We finally get to his shop and lucky for me it was a shop that sold the one thing I was planning on buying from Egypt as a gift!  It may have been a little overpriced for the quality I found out later, but I successfully bought something from him and probably made his day! Haha  He tried to take us to all of his friends’ shops after my purchase but I told him we were going back to the ship so he would leave us alone.  He leads us out of the bazaar..

The girls wanted to do more shopping though so we go back and they buy some scarves and then get suckered in to the same style of shop that I was at, so we were led back through the bazaar nearly in the same spot and we were all hoping we wouldn’t see my friend!  (which we didn’t)

Feeling defeated, we went back to the ship for dinner and a relaxing night.

Friday, July 31- CAIRO I

An early busride was in store today (machine gun guard included) to Cairo.  Lucky for us, it was Friday- the holy day of the week in Islam, so there wasn’t any traffic!  Interesting fact- the weekend here is different for each person because there are too many people to all take off the same two days.  There are three different weekends- some have thrs/fri some have fri/sat and some have fri/sun, but everyone has Friday off. We had multiple checkpoints for security, but made it.

The road took us along a canal that is no longer used and is planned to be filled in for road expansion, but it was the most disgusting thing.  It was filled with trash and the banks were basically mounds of crap, but that didn’t stop the poor from fishing in it and even bathing in it.  It was really sad and was the most eye-opening poverty I’ve seen. 

First stop was the step pyramid and a tomb, which was exactly what I expected Egypt to be like.  The tomb was amazing with all of the raised carvings in rock with such precise detail and they were 3000 years old! Simply amazing art to be preserved that long.  Our guide was exceptional and warned us of all of the scams and things to not buy/ prices we should be paying, so nobody was duped by the camel dude there. 

Lunch was served at this ridiculous 5-star hotel, all you can eat buffet.  It was sooo good and I ate sooo much!  After that was the dreaded M-word.  Museum.  I can’t take any more museums, but to my surprise, I loved this one AND it didn’t even have air conditioning!! (temps around 110-120)  It was all so fascinating- the treasure of King Tut, mummies, etc.  My favorite artwork of all time is now the headdress of King Tut.  It is beautiful and for being so old, just amazing.  Good thing our bus driver sold us waters 2 for $1 because we would have all gotten dehydrated without potable water anywhere. 

Next on the itinerary was a 2.5 hour siesta at the Conrad, our 5-star hotel!  Only they really messed up our rooms and I was one of the 10 people that didn’t get a room until 45 minutes were left.  Ugh.  But it was okay, I still got to shower (because I was nastay after being in the hottttttt and bakin’ all day!) The rooms were supposed to have 2 beds because we had to share with a randomly paired person, but mine only had one… it was a king though, and I don’t know how because I had already passed out for the night, but my roommate got his own room, so I got to enjoy the most comfortable king bed I’ve ever experienced with six pillows all to myself.  NICE!

Before that awesome 4-hour night of sleep though, we had gone to the sound and light show of the pyramids.  It was really cheesy, but seeing the Great Pyramids and Sphinx under the stars and lit up was marvelous.  I could have sat there all night taking in the fact that I was actually looking at these amazing structures.  Wow.  Double wow to the buffet we got at 10pm at the hotel.  I had a whole mounded plate of dessert and dinner because the dessert table was unlike any I had seen or tasted before.  To die for. 

Saturday, AUGUST 1- Cairo, camels, cards!

Lucky us, we got a 4am wake-up call today.  The funny thing is, nobody complained because we got to see the Pyramids AT SUNRISE! (something most people don’t get to do because the gates don’t open until 8 so we had special permission and were the only group there)  The hotel provided boxed breakfast (pepsi, croissant, ham and cheese on a roll, apple, it was impressive) that we ate on the way.  Our trip leader is my favorite faculty member as well- Stephanie the nurse.  She is this cute and young, always happy person and on our bus ride there says, “who likes happy people in the morning!? Well what better makes happy people in the morning than good morning songs!?”  She sings us a cheesy song and it was just really funny, everyone else’s leader I’m sure was just about asleep. 

Majestic is about the only way to describe the sunrise.  It is hard to put into words, but I took about 100 pictures to show it! Haha  The rest of the morning was spent at the Great Pyramids and Sphinx, truly awesome places.  The Great Pyramid took 200,000 men over 20 years to construct with I think it was like 2 million stones, each weighing 2-8 tons!!  At one of our stops, another group got ripped off on the camel-rides so that was pretty entertaining to watch!  Our camel rides were 50 pounds (about $10) which was pretty much just a photo-op. and 3 minute ride but definitely worth it! It is just something you have to do at the pyramids, and the camels are so ridiculous looking and sounding and just overall entertaining!

The afternoon consisted of another bazaar (nothing special) and a cruise lunch (another 5-star event, we were treated like royalty) down the Nile! I never thought that in my life I would be cruising down the Nile eating veal, hummus, mystery meat and dessert, etc. while watching a belly-dancer/dervish dancer.  Pretty neat, but the dancers weren’t the best and everyone was getting really tired!  Let’s just say I don’t remember the bus-ride home. 

Back in the cabin, I was greeted in shock.   I saw the stack on my desk and thought to myself, “I hope those aren’t all for me,… I would be embarrassed if those are all for me!!”  I’m of course talking about the TEN cards I got in the mail from all of you! Thank you so much, I didn’t expect that at all!! I’m assuming they are all birthday cards, so I’m waiting to open any of them for a week :)  I just can’t help to think what the steward thought, because usually the mail is just left on your door, but mine had to physically be brought into my room because there was so much! haha

Sunday, August 2-  Whole lotta nothin!

Today was designate sleep in day because I had nothing planned, no feeling of "I need to see this!", and Alexandria is pretttty sketchy!  Unfortunately (as it always is on this trip), whenever i have time to sleep roommates pull the weirdest stuff!  I slept solid until 6:30 when the sideroom in my room starts thumpin' gangsta beats with inappropriate lyrics I will not share here..  I sort of slept for 2 hours and wouldn't have gotten up if breakfast didn't end at 8:30.  Pounded some breakfast, wrote the first three days of updates, and got my tan on by the pool.  OHHH BABBY it was hot and OHHH BABBY did it feel good! I hopped in the pool for the first time to cool off and it was glorious!   We decided to head back to the library because it was nice and cool and had internet..

Getting a cab was pretty funny- a guy meets us right outside of port (of course) and demands that he will take us there and back for $5 each.  We say NO! Total, one way!  He just doesn't get it and says I wait one hour, two hour, no charge and will not change, so we say, "we'll find somebody else then."  Immediately 7 or 8 other guys swarmed us, it was hilarious! No problems though, just nerve wracking in that horrendous traffic. WOW, we're going to try to film it on the way home.. 

The light show.