Egypt - Part 1
Egypt has been conquered...again. I didn't manage to plant the NZ flag (I'm still not really sure which one to put up - the silver fern, the old classic, the rising sun...) but there were enough kiwis on my trip to make a small town.
Wellcome to Egypt! or Welcome to Alaska! as they also kept saying because it was unseasonably cold. I think it is the first english they learn at school.
I was a pretty good trip by all accounts, it was great to have someone look after all the travel and accommodation arrangements, it meant you could sit back and enjoy the ride. There were 9 kiwis on board (including Andy the tour leader/trip guide/most expensive tout), 1 token Ocker (and he is a ginga, poor fella as if he didn;t get enough stick already), 2 Singaporeans, and a Canuck from Calgary. We met on the first day at the Happyton Hotel in Cairo's hardware quarter (where you could even buy lawnmowers! which is funny 'cos they don't have any lawns to mow), Andy proceeded to lay dow the law, I firmly established myself as the wise-arse class clown (no surprises there), and we all forked over $100US to 'grease the wheels' - a.k.a 'baksheesh'. A baksheesh is like a tip for all occasions; even for the privilege of using a rancid, sloshing squat toilet used by 5,000 other people that day at the Sphinx - I never paid to go to the toilet - I just didn't drink as much as I could have...I must confess now that I was the only person who received baksheesh from locals, and I did it more than once! Hah! I think the mandatory Maori guitar song earned me a couple of Egyptian pounds, so i'd better thank the ladies kik the kitchen for that one.
THE Islamic University in Cairo
Egypt's most revered cats hunting just like the old days
Rach, Mike and Solomon our 'official Egyptian Tourism Operator's Association guide'. We are inside the mosque on the Egyptian £1 note, in the Islamic quarter of Cairo. I can't remember the name of it, it's in the LP (Lonely Planet) which Mike and Rach have. Can you believe i lasted the whole trip without calling him 'Sez' in front of anyone else! i didn't think i could do it, and there were some difficult moments.
The view from the top looking west toward the Pyramids...speaking of which:
How funny is this photo! Rach and her mate who didn't get any baksheesh for his 'magic trick'
They don't make jaws like they used to. We got a better one of Rach giving the sphinx a good ol' pash.
This one just had to be done...
Wellcome to Egypt! or Welcome to Alaska! as they also kept saying because it was unseasonably cold. I think it is the first english they learn at school.
I was a pretty good trip by all accounts, it was great to have someone look after all the travel and accommodation arrangements, it meant you could sit back and enjoy the ride. There were 9 kiwis on board (including Andy the tour leader/trip guide/most expensive tout), 1 token Ocker (and he is a ginga, poor fella as if he didn;t get enough stick already), 2 Singaporeans, and a Canuck from Calgary. We met on the first day at the Happyton Hotel in Cairo's hardware quarter (where you could even buy lawnmowers! which is funny 'cos they don't have any lawns to mow), Andy proceeded to lay dow the law, I firmly established myself as the wise-arse class clown (no surprises there), and we all forked over $100US to 'grease the wheels' - a.k.a 'baksheesh'. A baksheesh is like a tip for all occasions; even for the privilege of using a rancid, sloshing squat toilet used by 5,000 other people that day at the Sphinx - I never paid to go to the toilet - I just didn't drink as much as I could have...I must confess now that I was the only person who received baksheesh from locals, and I did it more than once! Hah! I think the mandatory Maori guitar song earned me a couple of Egyptian pounds, so i'd better thank the ladies kik the kitchen for that one.
THE Islamic University in Cairo
Egypt's most revered cats hunting just like the old days
Rach, Mike and Solomon our 'official Egyptian Tourism Operator's Association guide'. We are inside the mosque on the Egyptian £1 note, in the Islamic quarter of Cairo. I can't remember the name of it, it's in the LP (Lonely Planet) which Mike and Rach have. Can you believe i lasted the whole trip without calling him 'Sez' in front of anyone else! i didn't think i could do it, and there were some difficult moments.
The view from the top looking west toward the Pyramids...speaking of which:
How funny is this photo! Rach and her mate who didn't get any baksheesh for his 'magic trick'
They don't make jaws like they used to. We got a better one of Rach giving the sphinx a good ol' pash.
This one just had to be done...
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