Egypt is a very poor third world country. Poverty is the norm. It is clearly a country of the 'haves' and 'have-nots'. People live in cemeteries and they 'hustle' to make a living. There are no 'extras' as far as equipment is concerned. If something as simple as a door lock breaks, they will attempt to repair it, rather than throw it away and install a new one. That is what happened on my trip. The lock on our hotel door became inoperable and we could not get into our room. We had to wait until a worker entered the room thru the balcony to open it from the inside. And we were told there were no new locks available and they would attempt to fix the old one themselves.
Everywhere we traveled natives along side the road motioned for us to pay them for taking photos of them. Toilet paper is tightly guarded as well. Not a good thing when most visitors to Egypt develop diarrhea while there and keep it until they leave.
Women have to be careful how they dress. Nothing provocative is to be worn in public as it causes sexual excitation. By provocative, we were asked to keep the elbows covered, no shorts or bare backs. Low cut tops were out of the question.
I think the most interesting weather phenomenon I have ever experienced was when we found ourselves in the midst of a sand storm. Our group was in the hotel lobby waiting to go on a field trip but was stopped by the storm. Nothing moves when a sand storm is going on! I dashed outside to experience it. I had only seen them in movies and I wanted to see how it felt. I came back inside a few minutes later with sand in my teeth (though I had my mouth shut)! You can't see too far ahead of you either. It was fascinating! Afterwards people came outside with brooms and swept the sidewalks free of sand.
The Cairo Museum holds the King Tut articles and if you want to see some of the worlds' most beautiful gold, that is the place to go! I have never seen such beauty! It just takes your breath away to look at it. Makes the gold jewelry sold in anyone's store today look like pauper's items. I am not even interested in buying gold anything today. To me, it is a waste of money.
One of the best pieces of jewelry I have ever purchased was brought from Cairo. We were visiting a shop that sold ivory, gold and silver. At that time I was a 'shopaholic' and very curious as to what was being offered for sale. I had always wanted an ivory bracelet. This was back in 1982 before the sale of elephant ivory was banned. In the US, if you found ivory anything, it was expensive.
I asked to see the ivory bracelets and was given a fine array. I chose a very thick, plain one and asked how much. The shop owner gave me a price of $45. I hesitated, telling my husband I thought it was too high. A man shopping heard me and took us aside, telling us he just came from Nigeria and they were selling much thinner bracelets for the same amount of money, so he advised us to take it and 'run'.. He thought it was an excellent bargain!
We took his advice and I am happy I did. That bracelet is worth much today (not that I would ever sell it). I was offered $500 for it in Hawaii about 17 years ago by a boutique owner. Value in elephant ivory bracelets goes up if it is carved from one piece of ivory and not pieced together.
Charlie was a 'brave soul.' He decided to take a sunset ride across the Sahara on a camel! He thoroughly enjoyed it. I, being a 'chicken' felt much safer on the ground and waited for the group to come back.
Here is a better photo of the Great Pyramid. I cannot begin to tell you what a thrill it was for me to climb to the King's Chamber inside! I was offered an opportunity to sleep inside the chamber overnight, but quickly declined. First of all, the entrance to the pyramid is locked with an iron gate from sundown to sunrise. It is dark inside, and there is no bathroom. Bats must become active after dark as well. Not to mention the electromagnetic energies that are constantly pinging about in that structure. It might very well be the reason why everyone who has ever spent the night in the Great Pyramid either goes mad, or finds something quite altered with their mind, physical body, or both. I appreciated the offer though. It was made quite 'under the table' by the guard who was in charge of opening and closing the structure.
Everywhere we traveled natives along side the road motioned for us to pay them for taking photos of them. Toilet paper is tightly guarded as well. Not a good thing when most visitors to Egypt develop diarrhea while there and keep it until they leave.
Women have to be careful how they dress. Nothing provocative is to be worn in public as it causes sexual excitation. By provocative, we were asked to keep the elbows covered, no shorts or bare backs. Low cut tops were out of the question.
I think the most interesting weather phenomenon I have ever experienced was when we found ourselves in the midst of a sand storm. Our group was in the hotel lobby waiting to go on a field trip but was stopped by the storm. Nothing moves when a sand storm is going on! I dashed outside to experience it. I had only seen them in movies and I wanted to see how it felt. I came back inside a few minutes later with sand in my teeth (though I had my mouth shut)! You can't see too far ahead of you either. It was fascinating! Afterwards people came outside with brooms and swept the sidewalks free of sand.
The Cairo Museum holds the King Tut articles and if you want to see some of the worlds' most beautiful gold, that is the place to go! I have never seen such beauty! It just takes your breath away to look at it. Makes the gold jewelry sold in anyone's store today look like pauper's items. I am not even interested in buying gold anything today. To me, it is a waste of money.
One of the best pieces of jewelry I have ever purchased was brought from Cairo. We were visiting a shop that sold ivory, gold and silver. At that time I was a 'shopaholic' and very curious as to what was being offered for sale. I had always wanted an ivory bracelet. This was back in 1982 before the sale of elephant ivory was banned. In the US, if you found ivory anything, it was expensive.
I asked to see the ivory bracelets and was given a fine array. I chose a very thick, plain one and asked how much. The shop owner gave me a price of $45. I hesitated, telling my husband I thought it was too high. A man shopping heard me and took us aside, telling us he just came from Nigeria and they were selling much thinner bracelets for the same amount of money, so he advised us to take it and 'run'.. He thought it was an excellent bargain!
We took his advice and I am happy I did. That bracelet is worth much today (not that I would ever sell it). I was offered $500 for it in Hawaii about 17 years ago by a boutique owner. Value in elephant ivory bracelets goes up if it is carved from one piece of ivory and not pieced together.
Charlie was a 'brave soul.' He decided to take a sunset ride across the Sahara on a camel! He thoroughly enjoyed it. I, being a 'chicken' felt much safer on the ground and waited for the group to come back.
Here is a better photo of the Great Pyramid. I cannot begin to tell you what a thrill it was for me to climb to the King's Chamber inside! I was offered an opportunity to sleep inside the chamber overnight, but quickly declined. First of all, the entrance to the pyramid is locked with an iron gate from sundown to sunrise. It is dark inside, and there is no bathroom. Bats must become active after dark as well. Not to mention the electromagnetic energies that are constantly pinging about in that structure. It might very well be the reason why everyone who has ever spent the night in the Great Pyramid either goes mad, or finds something quite altered with their mind, physical body, or both. I appreciated the offer though. It was made quite 'under the table' by the guard who was in charge of opening and closing the structure.
Here is a photo of members of our group climbing up to the entrance of the Great Pyramid. The indentation might have been the 'original' entrance, but is not in use in modern times.
This is a favorite photo of mine because it shows the profiles of three men; two Egyptian brothers, and my husband standing side by side. Charlie and I were the only Blacks in our group and it was a pleasure for us to talk with our Egyptian guide (Ali; the man in the middle) and vice versa. Ali's brother ended up asking Charlie for his fishing hat as a souvenir to remember him by and to shelter him from the sun.
