Adventures of a Texan

Day 8 - Cairo and the Citadel

Monday morning came quickly with some guy swinging a hammer somewhere in the building. So, up by 9:30 but laid in bed for a bit longer. Thump. Thump. Thump. Fine. Time to get up.

Breakfast at Costa Coffee and then off to the Citadel. The Citadel, as you would guess, was used as a fortress, a palace, and a mosque. Now, the greatest section of it is two different mosques (is the plural right or is it, mosqui?) The Mohammed Ali mosque is the largest which commands its presence on the hill top overlooking Cairo. The inside has rugs everywhere and you have to take your shoes off. Cairo is not for the faint of heart when it comes to sanitation. :) The other is the An-Nasir Mohammed mosque. This one has a certain charm about it that I liked more than the other. One point of interest was the tops of the minarets, the twisted finials, are covered in glazed tiles. Something rarely seen in Egypt. Also, the dome is tiled in the same color of sea-foamish green. Despite your feelings toward sea-foam green, it looks very nice and not a color seen in Cairo much.

Inside the Citadel is also the National Police Museum and the National War Museum. One section of the NPM, is the assassination section. One leader in particular, I was actually looking for. Former President, Anwar Sadat. He wasn't in there. I asked around and found out that there was some bad blood still being felt about that and his assassination was left out.

I pretty much spent the rest of the day in a coffee shop doing work and looking for the next set of travel plans. Looks like Luxor is on the horizon. Hung out in my room that night and watched TV. Easy going.

Supplement to Day 5

There is a 30 minute part of Friday that I neglected to disclose earlier. Partly due to just hurrying to get a posting up and partly due to the nature of not wanting people to know. But, I decided to tell for the sake of a scientific experiment. The experiment will be in the area of word association and you will be the guinea pig. There are many ways that I could take this, so I will try them all.

I got a massage. Said like that you would think, no problem. But, like many people out there, that never does paint a clear enough picture. I will add words and phrases that will help to paint said picture. You may feel uncomfortable, but let me assure you...you won't feel as uncomfortable as I was.

• I got a massage at my hotel.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it by a man.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it by a man of Egyptian decent.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it by a man of Egyptian decent who was sweating.

Doing ok? Don't forget to breathe. Ready for more? Here goes...

• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it by a man of Egyptian decent who was sweating and rubbed massage oil on my back.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it by a man of Egyptian decent who was sweating and rubbed massage oil on my back and continued for 30 minutes.
• I got a massage at my hotel by the pool in a little grass hut on a table with a towel on it by a man of Egyptian decent who was sweating and rubbed massage oil on my back and continued for 30 minutes with Amy in the room.

Notice that as I unfolded the scene for you that you began to laugh more and more and started to cringe. Now, I will try it one more way. I will say it in a manner that may sound a tad bit 'dirty' but actually says the same thing.

I got a rub-down from a sweaty Egyptian cabana-boy for 30 minutes as he continuously rubbed oil all over my revealed and exposed back for 30 minutes in a message shack by the pool as my friend watched.

I am pretty sure that you are laughing hard enough that you need to go to the bathroom. Well, that is the end of the experiment. If you would, leave me a quick comment with your thoughts. Cheers.

Day 7 - Cairo Chillin'

After sleeping on a very lumpy bed, I got up around noon and headed out to a cafe called Beano's in Zamalek. It has aspirations of being a cool cafe, and it is doing well. But, my cappuccino is horrible. Not sure what kind of coffee they are using, but dang...yuk. So far, I should have learned to drink the tea and not the coffee, but I just want one good cup. Free wifi though.

So, 3:30 rolled around and it was time to meet Amy and Eli. I had decided to take Eli to get a good milkshake. Where? The Hard Rock Cafe, of course. We walked down to the Hyatt on the Nile and ducked inside for a few hours as we consumed great food. Here's one for ya... One of the classic menu items at any HRC is the pulled pork sandwich. But, if you remember, pork doesn't go over too well in an Islamic culture. So, at both the Cairo and Sharm El-Sheikh cafes, the pulled pork sandwich was replaced with the 'pulled lamb sandwich.' What makes this really funny, is that they keep the remaining description. It says that it is a "real" southern classic. I am sure that some southerners have had lamb, but to say that it is a classic...well, i just don't think so.

We caught a cab back to Zamalek where we got coffee at a cafe called the Costa Cafe. British owned and not too bad. Best coffee I have had in Egypt. :) Got it to go and proceeded to walk the neighborhood in search of a phone for Amy. When arriving back to the hotel, I learned that I could get a TV put in my room for a little under $2. And, there is a great movie channel. What a deal! I admit, today wasn't a huge 'touristy' day, but it sure has been nice to relax.

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Day 6 - the end of the Sheikh

Today was a lazy day. Amy and I slept in until 10 ish. We went sunning for a hour or so, then went into town along the cliffs to a great sea side cafe and just sat for a couple of hours. Then, we had one last hurrah at the Hard Rock Cafe for lunch. This time, I got a cobb salad. it was pretty good, but there was no Avocado. Can anyone explain this to me?

At 4 pm, we went back to the hotel and caught the shuttle to the Super Jet bus station. We chose to go with the upgraded bus service back to Cairo for a whopping 5 Egyptian Pound more costly ticket (about a dollar). It was worth it. We had more leg room, A/C, drink service, and videos. The first video was some odd Arabian movie that we just couldn't understand. So, we listened to my iPod for about 2 hours. The second movie was a Jackie Chan flick with Arabic subtitles. Not sure which flick, but a 1980s jackie Chan movie. Action movies really don't need dialog, so I think everyone understood it.

We arrived back in Cairo around 11 pm with no drug raids or sniffing dogs. Then back to the May Fair hotel in Zamalek for the night.

Day 5 - Are you for Scuba?

I began the day with a light breakfast as I headed out the door to find a scuba shop to go diving with. I got my Scuba certification back in 1996 prior to going with 'The Waltons' to Hawai'i to meet up with Jeff, one of the main influences in my joining the Marines. But, I never travel with my certification card. So, I had to find a shop that was willing to trust me and let me do a non-intro-to-scuba dive. i found one called SUBEX, a Swiss scuba company that has been in business the longest in Sharm. That is a good warm fuzzy feeling. So, I planned a dive for later that afternoon in Naama Bay (Red Sea).

With a few hours to kill, I laid out in the sun for a bit, did some great snorkeling and just roamed the beach. Oh, the water temp was very cool for them at 23 C or about 75 F. For having been used to the Pacific, I though the temperature was perfect and very warm. I also met up with Amy, and we went on a glass bottom boat ride throughout the bay. It was great to go on a boat again. I truly think that in my other life, I was an old English Sailor in Her Majesty's Royal Navy...or maybe that is due to me playing the captain in HMS Pinafore in high school.

Scuba time came and it was great. It took a little getting used to seeing as I haven't been diving in 5 years, but the skills quickly came back after about 5 minutes. Sting rays, dog fish, 'cat' fish (not the bayou kind), and fish of all sorts of color and size. Oh, and the coral was great too. Very colorful. Sorry. No camera. No pictures.

Amy and I met up for dinner at the hotel and then headed out to town to see some music. We found a traditional 3 piece group with a stringed lute-ish thing, a tambourine, and a drum. They were really great. i even embarrassed myself, my country, and Amy by getting up an dancing. I was horrible, but fortunately, I was the only one. We finished the night with a boardwalk stroll and then back to watch movies in the hotel. Old School, with Will Ferrell was on.

Day 4 - Sharm El-'Shake'?

Upon arriving into town, we were hounded by taxi drivers at the front door of the bus. So, we ended up making a deal with one of them just to take us into town. Not having planned for a place to stay, we then had the task set upon us to find a hotel. At 7 am, the town was very silent. We hiked around for about 30 minutes when we came across a place I had seen on Hotels.com, the Sharm Cliff Resort. Supposed to be a 4* place, we haggled for a double room, with half board (breakfast and dinner), for $50 a night. They even had a private beach.

Well, after a non-sleeping bus ride, we took up the offer for breakfast then, we crashed for 6 hours. Upon awaking, we walked into town along the board walk. Then...all of a sudden... we saw it! It was like a neon angel, burning brightly through the haze of a catalytic convertor free country. "Hard Rock Cafe":http://www.hardrockcafe.com/locations/cafes/Cafes.aspx?Lc=SHAR.

Why is this so important? Two words. Burgers & Shakes. Seems trivial to you, but in the Czech Republic, neither exists in a good form. Sure, McDonald's is around in Prague, but can you call that a good burger. And, milkshakes in Europe tend to take on the form of, I kid you not, milk that has been 'shaked' (with a little flavoring). So, we hopped inside, got seated and treated ourselves to big burgers and thick creamy milkshakes (I had a regular hamburger with a strawberry shake).

'And the Lord saw that it was good.'

The remainder of the evening was spent roaming the boardwalk on the beach and looking in at the various resorts with their musical acts and fancy buffets going on.

Tales of a bus ride to the Sinai

So, when we last left our hero, he was riding in a bus from Cairo to Sharm El-Sheikh in the comfort of an 'East Delta' Bus....

At the beginning of the ride, the driver decided to blast his personal copy of an Imam for one hour as the ride was getting underway. loud. distortion. old cassette.

As the ride continued, we seem to make stops every hour for passport checks at some random, in-the-middle-of-no-where checkpoints throughout the Sinai Peninsula. As the sun began to rise, we could actually see the town of Sharm up ahead. Alas, one last checkpoint to go through. The guy who came onnboard seemed to have a stick up his ... and was taking forever. He ended up taking three people off of the bus at which time the K-9 team came. Long story short (too late), the K-9 team found a brick and a half of some kind of drug and hauled off a few of the former passengers. Whew! Glad that is over.

Day 3 - cairo, me oh my-oh

Unfortunately, some of the food from around the block has caught up with me. So, I slept until noon at which time, I tried to go out for a lunch, but the most I could handle was fruit juice. Only half a glass. So, Amy and I went back to the hotel and I took a nap. Eventually, we headed towards the bus station and got tickets for the over night bus to Sharm El-Sheikh (shake). One the way back to the hotel, I met up with Eli for dinner and tried to down a salad. However, it was drenched in oil, and what I think to be a saline wash. Needless to say...it didn't fly. Amy met up with us after going to a lecture at the university.

We, Amy and I, then started back to the hotel to pack and then headed off to the bus station. East Delta Bus company. Man. And I thought Greyhound was a tough ride. The first hour of the ride, the driver decided to play the Islamic "call to prayer" via cassette, very loudly.

Day 2 cont'd

After posting the earlier Day two post, I went back to the hotel and met another one of the guests. Her name is Amy and she is an Egyptologist studying in Bristol, UK. But, she is here to do some research for her dissertation. So, later that evening, we met up with Eli and headed out to the bazaar. Talk about unabashed salesmen. Scarves, silver, spices, chess sets, camel bone stuff, wallets, jewels...endless list. We went to Fishawy, one of the most famous sheesh places in Cairo. It is said to have never closed in the last 200 years.

Afterwards, we went back to Zamalek and went walking around the island for about an hour. The night ended around midnight or so and we went to bed. Until tomorrow...