Day 2 - Baksheesh

Baksheesh is an Arabic word that Egyptians use when they ask for money. It's meaning resides somewhere between 'tip' and 'bribe.' Baksheesh is an important part of any trip through Cairo, as the only way to truly see some parts of the city is to pay people off. Alex and I woke up early on Friday morning so that we could get to the Pyramids around opening time. They are located about 45 minutes drive from downtown Cairo in the nearby suburb of Giza - a suburb significantly larger and more populated than Haifa. We walked over to the Nile Hilton where we caught a minibus to "Al Haram", the Egyptian name for the Pyramids. It seemed to be a nice morning, but visibility began to go fast while we were on the minibus. Some sickly combination of dense fog and air pollution descended on Cairo, and by the time we got off the bus we couldn't see 10 meters in front of us. Don't take my word for it though, watch this video and judge for yourselves.



We hopped off our minibus in an impenetrable haze. Our breathe was visible, even though it couldn't have been colder than 50 degrees Fahrenheit. We began walking in what we believed to be the direction of the pyramids when we got approached by another scammer. This time, we were ready. The guy insisted he was with the "Cairo Tourism Board", there to offer tours of the area to lucky tourists like us. He even had an official ID badge identifying him as such. Unfortunately for him, we had read about this particular scam in the guide book the night before, and apparently there is no such thing as the Cairo Tourism Board. Just like everyone else, he was just looking to shaft ignorant tourists. It took us a while to shake him off, but we got rid of him and followed the signs to the Pyramids.

"To The Pyramids."

We climbed up towards the Giza Plateau but saw no sign of the pyramids. The sun was starting to climb in the sky at the point, but it looked like a sickly impostor, mocking the grandeur of the real sun. We sat down outside the entrance to debate what to do. Even if the Pyramids were right on the other side, would we even be able to see them? It would a waste of money and of our entire morning. Bummed out, we decided to stick around for about a half hour to see if the situation improved. We watched as bus load after bus load of tourists unload and enter. The smog seemed to be lifting a little bit over time, as the stone ramparts were becoming slightly more visible. We decided to take a chance and go in. We talked our way into student prices, bought our tickets and entered the plateau.

The Giza sunrise.

I am really glad we decided to head in. As soon as we walked through security and turned to our right, we could see the base of Kuffu's Pyramid. It had been sitting less than a city block away, and it was completely invisible to us! Now the smog rose quickly, and the majesty of the plateau came into view. We eschewed a mounted tour at first, preferring to walk around and see things on our own. Besides, there was no lack of people waiting for us behind the gates with camels, horses and lots of touristy garbage if we chose to take advantage and ride later. A ten year old boy walked up to us by the base of Kuffu's Pyramid, trying to sell us postcards. We refused, but he was determined, and took out two keffiyahs from his bag, to give to us as 'gifts.' He put one on Alex first, and then put mine on, and remarked that it "made me look just like Mr. Arafat." My skin crawled.

::Shudder::

The Pyramids are even more impressive than I expected. It boggles the mind that anyone could have built something so large and imposing without the aid of modern technology. Even in crowded, cosmopolitan Giza, they still dominate the skyline, over 20000 years after being erected. It is truly a sight to see and worth the hassles from the hustlers on the plateau. We eventually found a mount to ride through the plateau on: a Bedouin man was very persistent with us that we ride his camel, and we haggled him down from 50 Pounds each to 20 Pounds total for a guided tour on the camel. We got on and he showed us around, guiding us on his camel, who we learned is called "Columbus."

That human shaped dot is me. These things are HUGE.

The camel ride took us out into the wilderness a few kilometers away so that we could see the entire sight at once. Three Pyramids jut out of the earth as if they were a natural part of the landscape, while off the to right, the modern day city is plainly visible. The man leading our camel asked us where we were from. Tired of getting the American punchlines, Alex told him we were Brazilian. He began to ask us questions about Brazil, and I told him that we were specifically from Buenos Aires... Alex gave me a sharp jab in the ribs and whispered that Buenos Aires is in Argentina, not Brazil. Naturally I felt like a dumbass. Luckily, the Bedouin didn't know any more about South America than I do, and the incident passed without mention. We rode back to the edge of the smallest Pyramid, dismounted and thanked our guide with some baksheesh, and then walked back towards the entrance.


Our last stop was at the Sphinx of Giza. The Sphinx was very cool but you can't go right up to it like you can with the Pyramids. It is smaller than I imagined it to be, but I think that is more the fault of Las Vegas and our collective imagination than of the ancient Egyptians. We hung around for 5 more minutes before heading for the door. We spent about 2 hours at the site, marveling and taking photos and trying to understand what was standing before us. Needless to say, this was a really cool stop on our trip.

We got a bite to eat at a stand in Giza, and then took a city bus back to central Cairo. As with everything else traffic related in Cairo, the buses are a frightening reminder that we are no longer in Chicago: Buses do not step to load or unload passengers. People are expected to see their bus coming, wade out into traffic and then climb onto a moving vehicle through the open back door, then walk to the front and pay their fare. When it comes time to get off, you hop off the still moving bus wherever is convenient for you. For someone uninitiated with this system it is quite intimidating. Luckily for us, the buses originate outside the Giza Plateau, and so we were able to get on and pay before the bus had left the station. We did, however have to climb from a still moving vehicle back in Cairo nearly an hour later. The driver, taking pity on the tourists, at least attempted to slow down while we jumped off.

The "Cairo Transit Authority." If you know me, this needs no explanation.

We walked back to our hotel to rest for a bit, and determined that we would spend the rest of our day in the eastern part of the city, colloquially known as Islamic Cairo. The area is a maze of small streets and alleyways, and completely saturated with mosques and Islamic schools. It is the location of the Al Azhar Mosque and its sponsored university, the oldest university in the Middle East. We determined to take the subway out there, following the east-west "yellow" line. We went down into the subway at what turned out to be the Sadat station, where the yellow line was supposed to pass through. It turns out that the yellow line is currently under construction and has not yet been built. Great! We were arguing in the station and wondering about how to get where we were going when a couple of guys walked into the tunnel next to us and opened up a guide book in English. We pounced on the situation, asking for help immediately. They turned out to be from England, and had been in Egypt for a few weeks already. They were able to tell us that the line didn't exist and get us going in the right direction.

Our English tour guides.

We got off the train in the middle of western Islamic Cairo and took a cab the rest of the way. Islamic Cairo is a world apart from Downtown. It is older, more conservative, and in my opinion much more beautiful than the new architecture that dominates the business districts. At the same time, it is more crowded if possible, and poorer. We got out of our cab outside of the massive outdoor bazaar known as "Khan El Khalil." The bazaar has several sections, including one specifically for tourists, another for crafts and artisans and another for food. We stood on the side trying to decide where to go when we were approached by another Egyptian scammer, this time claiming to be "an English teacher who like to give tours to Americans so he can keep his English sharp." We went with it because it would mean a tour of the less touristy parts of the shuk. He lead us into the bazaar and started showing us around.

Jugs of free drinking water in the Khan El Khalili market.

We wandered through the shuk popping in and out of artisan workshops. Even though the sales pitch was totally transparent, it was still really cool to see the amount of energy that some of these craftsmen put into building a handmade backgammon set or a papyrus painting. The tour certainly ended on a high note. The guy took us into a papyrus painting shop and attempted to show us how much higher quality the handmade paintings were over the machine printed ones. The test is simple. If you lick your finger and then touch the paint, a hand painted drawing will leave some ink on your finger, while the machine printed one will not. He demonstrated first on the machine printed drawing and nothing happened. Then he went to the hand painted version and did the same thing. The ink certainly came off on his finger - it also smudged about an inch all over the lower part of the papyrus! The dude began to flip out as he tried to fix the problem, but to no avail. He looked at us with pain in his eyes before carefully concealing the error beneath the frame and hanging it back on the wall. He couldn't hide how disappointed he was that we weren't planning on buying anything though. We gave him a few pounds baksheesh as thanks for the tour, and made our way back onto the main street and hailed a cab back to our hostel.

The Beautiful Al Azhar mosque in Islamic Cairo.

That night we ate cheap before going out to our ahwa again. We learned the name of our waiter that night, Khel. He was really excited to see us again. I imagine he thought we were just yanking his chain when we told him we would be back the following night. We idled away about an hour and a half playing backgammon and enjoying the atmosphere, and then went back to our hotel exhausted, satisfied in the knowledge that we would get to sleep a little bit later the next morning.

A fine end to a killer day.