The Laughlins

Day #2 was our first full day in Cairo. We got our hard-boiled egg, bread, little cheese, and tea/coffee breakfast and talked to Mustafa (works at the hostel), who was very helpful with lots of information. You get around by taxi in Cairo, and "meters" don't exist in most cars, so it is good to know how much it should cost to get from here to there. Mustafa gave us all of the info we would need, hints, good places to visit, how to avoid getting ripped off, etc. We even got a basic map of the city from him.

The hostel is only about a 5-10 minute walk from the Egyptian Museum, so we went there first, because we knew it was huge and would take some time to walk through. If you have your International Student ID Card (ISIC), you can get into every tourist attraction for half price in Cairo...that is a nice perk. You are not allowed to take a camera into the museum, so I just have some pictures from out front, but we did buy a little book of exhibits from the gift store there, so you can see those when we get back to the U.S.. Here is an overview of the museum, as described on the official website:












"The mummies of some pharaohs of the 18 to 20th Dynasty found in Thebes. The first group was found in Deir el Bahari cachette and these consist of the mummies of: Seqenenre, Ahmose I, Amenhotep I, Tuthmosis I, Tuthmosis II, Tuthmosis III, Seti I, Ramses II, Ramses III.The other group was found in the tomb of Amenhotep II, consisting of the mummies of: Amenhotep II, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III, Merenptah, Seti II, Siptah, Ramses IV, Ramses V, Ramses VI, (and three women and a child.)


This museum exhibits over 120000 objects, some of the important groups of these objects are : Artifacts from the tombs of kings and members of the royal families of the Middle Kingdom found at Dahshur in 1894.The contents of the royal tombs of Tuthmosis III, Tuthmosis IV, Amenhotep III and Horemheb and the tomb of Yuya and Thuya.Artifacts from the tomb of Tutankhamun, consisting of more than 3500 Pieces, of which 1700 objects are displayed in the museum (the rest are in storerooms).


Objects from some royal and private tombs at Tanis (in the Delta) dating from the 21st and 22nd Dynasties. Artifacts from the Amarna period made for Akhenaton and members of his family and some high officials. These were found in Tell el Amarna, Hermopolis, Thebes and Memphis between 1912 and 1933. Collections of artifacts from the royal palaces."

If you visit this LINK on Egyptian Museum's Website, you can take a virtual tour of the ground floor; this LINK will give you a tour of the upper floor. There are so many artifacts there, that there is not nearly enough space for all of them. There is a whole 3rd floor of artifacts that are literally piled on top of each other and in boxes on the top floor that the public cannot view. Word on the street is that they are going to building a new multi-million dollar, state-of-the-art museum in Giza (where the pyramids are) in the next few years. That sounds weird when you take into account the low standard of living in Cairo, however, when your largest money-making industries are all in the area of tourism, I guess it can pay off in the end. One of the coolest rooms in the whole building doesn't look like it is on the virtual tour - the mummy room. You actually have to pay a seperate entrance fee for the mummy room, where you can stare into the glass cases of famous mummies: Ramses II, III, IV, IX, Tuthmosis I, II, III, Amenhotep I, II, Seti I, Queen Maatkare (+ pet baboon), Queen Isetemkheb, and other kings, queens, princes, princesses, high priests, etc.

We ate lunch (chicken shwarmas) at the museum restaurant and then went back to our hostel momentarily. We only had a few shopkeepers trying to pull us into their shops, but we knew the general routine (from Israel). They ask you in English where you are from (just to start a conversation - open a door). Then when you reply, they say something about your country being the best and using have some witty little phrase or tie-in to make you feel like they like your country (and you). It is all a rather funny and intricate game/dance of sorts. Some of them really hate it if you don't "play" though, but we only got cussed at once for not responding to someone, but it made us laugh :)





We had to take a taxi to the Sheraton to check-in for our bus-ride back. The taxi scenario goes something like this: always carry small change and pick an exact price you want to pay to get from Point A to Point B. There are thousands of taxis in Cairo just lining the roads, so you don't have to hassle - just move onto the next car if you don't get your asking price. You pull out your money (i.e. 15 pounds), show it to the driver through his window, tell him where you want to go, and then, if he says "yes," everyone gets in the car. When you arrive, exit the car, hand the money to the driver, and walk away. Luckily for us, we did not have driver problems after that first incident, because we followed this procedure, but even Mustafa says that they try to rip him off, and he is Egyptian. When we got to the Sheraton, the office was closed. We were there on a Muslim holiday weekend, so some things closed early, and establishments are forbidden (by law) to sell any alcohol on Muslim holidays.




















We walked around the banks of the Nile, which is quite a beautiful river. We had already decided that we wanted to take a felucca (sailboat) ride at sunset on the Nile and have dinner somewhere, so we were just scouting things out and enjoying a nice walk. Right as the sun started setting, we found the perfect little felucca boat, and took a one-hour ride, just the three of us and our driver (no motor), for about $8.50 altogether. AMAZING! This just may have been may favorite thing of our whole time in Cairo. It was one of those surreal vacation experiences where everything seemed so perfect and dreamlike: cool breeze, huge, beautiful river, the sun setting, tea, and laying on the deck of a felucca...so much fun!


















After the ride, we went in search of a restaurant. The best advice for food in Egypt, is to eat at the nice restaurants and hotels, or the American chain restaurants - even if they are fast food, because they have higher food standards and you don't want to get sick on vacation in Egypt (as many of our friends have). We were really excited to find the Hard Rock Cafe Cairo - a taste of home at amazing prices, and it even felt like you were in the U.S. inside. I hadn't had a burger in over a year, so Alana and I got a big delicious burger and fries, multiple Roy Rogers', and Mark got a grilled chicken salad and iced tea. Altogether, our bill came to $25 for all three of us.






We then took a taxi to the Khan el-Khalili Suk, which is still one of the most famous outdoor markets in the Middle East. Read HERE for some interesting information on this market's history. Mustafa had told us that we should go to the El Fishawy coffee shop, which is the oldest coffee shop in Cairo (beginning of the 20th century). They have great tea, coffee, and sheesha, also known as nargila, hooka, etc. We tried the apple sheesha, tea, and coffee, and it was all very good. We walked around and shopped a bit, but not too much because it was getting late, and we had to get up early for the pyramids!!!