Egypt

We arrived in Cairo after a long over-night flight from Athens. Luckily, we were able to sleep on the flight, so the 9 hours seem to go by fairly quickly! Our time in Cairo was really interesting, fun, and eventful. It was most definitely a culture shock for us both, since we had spent the last week on the beautiful islands of Greece. Despite that fact though, Egypt was the most interesting place either of us have been, and also the most different culturally.

We had originally planned to go to Cairo because we needed to stop somewhere along the way to SE Asia to keep flight costs down, and it appeared that most flights either stopped in Cairo or Kuwait. We settled on Cairo and it turned out that Lindsay's childhood friend Ryan was coincidentally going to be studying there for the summer, so we would get to spend some time with him while there. In addition to Ryan being there, Ryan's mother, who Lindsay spent countless days with growing up, was scheduled to be there as well. So during our visit, the 4 of us explored the city.

Our first night there, we went to Khan el-Khalili, which we've heard is the largest market in the world. This was a very interesting and exhausting experience. Don't get us wrong, we loved it, it is just a lot of work to haggle for every single thing you buy. You haggle for EVERYTHING you buy in Egypt. We were told never to accept a first price, so we didn't. This was somewhat difficult at first. The Egyptians are much better at this then either one of us, but we got better. Before we left, we were arguing over prices like the best of 'em.

Wallet solicitation

Kid giving kisses - then asking for money of course!

Cairo was a very dirty and poverty-filled city, which neither of us really anticipated. It was tragic to see trash everywhere on the streets and (literally) crumbling apartment buildings that people lived in.

Some interesting stories about our time in Khan el-Khalili: They love blondes. Several people asked Lindsay if she had been at the market several days earlier. We later figured out that this meant another blonde female had been at the market a few days before us. Natuarally, they assumed it was the same person. Apparently, they don't see too many blondes around those parts. Jon was also offered 2,000 camels for Lindsay. Later, an actual camel owner upped the offer to 3,000. Several men would ask him how many camels he wanted in order to "sell" Lindsay off. This became a pretty funny joke, seeing as most people we bought things from offered to purchase Lindsay.

The man who offered 2000 camels

We also spent one long and hot day visiting the Great Pyramids and the Sakkara Pyramids. Both were, well, just so awesome to see! They are truly amazing in person.

While at the Great Pyramids, we rode camels and then later fought with the men over the price. Again, this became standard practice. After the camel ride, Jon actually got into a big argument with the men over the price, which ended when Jon threatened to call over the tourist police. Even after all that, the camel owners appeared to be as friendly as ever when saying goodbye, as if they were not even phased by the argument.

Jon is in the scarf :)

Guide showing us 24th century BC tombs at the Sakkara pyramids with tons of hieroglyphs inside

All in all, we really enjoyed Egypt! We are in Thailand now, and of course we are loving it. Our time in Thailand so far as been very realaxing , which is a welcome change, especially after Egypt. We leave Thailand on Monday and head to Vietnam. We'll try to post soon on our time in Thailand.

Till next time,

Lindsay and Jon