CAI - AMM

Well today we leave Egypt behind and head to Jordan, we fly into Amman
and spend one night there before heading south to Petra for 3 nights,
and then possibly spending 2 nights at the dead sea. Jordan will be a
bit of a whirlwind since we really only have a week before we fly out
to India.

It's october 1st and a start of another month on the road, i feel as
good as when i started. I miss the people at home, and some of the
comforts as well, but everything is still new, fresh, and exciting
everyday over here, so time fly's by and goes slow at the same time.

As for our time in Cairo i'll never forget seeing the pyramids or the
sunrise camels ride earlier that day, Spectacular. I think if i came
back to Egypt(which I definitely would) i wouldn't need to come to
Cairo again, not because i didn't enjoy it, but there are a few other
places like Luxor, Aswan, and Alexandria i'd rather see.

Looking forward to India there was some potentially bad news regarding
the Indian government deploying 200,000 troops to the Uttar Pradesh
province which has both cities of Agra and Varanasi in it, and both we
plan on going to see. Hindu's want to build a temple of the grounds of
a Mosque that was torn down in 1992, that led to riots that killed
2000 people back then. The courts decided to split the land between
the 2 religions yesterday, so it seems that hasn't caused the conflict
everyone was expecting...good news for us as well.

Garbage City

Ok, now for the interesting part...everything in Cairo gets thrown in
the garbage, no recycling is done whatsoever in a regular person's
home or on the street, the government hasn't set up any kind of
program...however the plastics and metals do get sorted out, but in a
different sort of way...welcome to Garbage City, a place where the
trash is dropped of and a whole community survives off of sorting
through and selling bags or plastics, metals and other recyclable or
profitable goods found in the garbage. The garbage is sorted in the
street, and in their homes... it's unreal to see the poverty here,
with trash all over and lining the streets, falling out of peoples
homes, covering every available space in this neighborhood, the show
hoarders doesn't ever compare to what you see here. The churches
carved in the rock overlooks this part of the city...and it does have a
nice view of the citadel...but it smells bad...and looks
disgusting....makes you appreciate the life your born into for sure...

Churches Carved into Rock

There are 2 churches carved into rock that overlook part of Cairo, one
is open air, and the other looks like a cavern, both are lined with
unbelievable stone carvings. Thursday nights are suppose to be jammed
pack with people looking for God to heal them. Very interesting to see
Christian roots in such a Muslim country.

Citadel

Another day of seeing some major sites in Cairo. This mosque is called
the Citadel and is the main mosque in Cairo, all the calls to prayer
are initiated from here and spread through the city once the smaller
mosques hear the call over the speakers. The tomb of Mohammed Ali (Not
the boxer) is here as well. Some of the best domes we've seen besides
the Vatican...beautiful.

Another Picture

I removed the road that was in the middle of this picture with tour
buses driving down it towards the panorama point where this picture
was taken from...i also tried to push the colors in the sky out a bit,
but as you can see the hazy smog is just overwhelming ...

Pyramids :: Sunrise

A spectacular sunrise camel ride to see the pyramids from the
outskirts of the Giza site, something i'll never forget.

Pyramids

Cross that one off the things to see in my lifetime, an amazing day.
The size of these things is massive. Would have been nice to see
people take care of the grounds around them a little better, trash
everywhere...but that's in line with how the rest of Cairo looks. You
think a society that has been around for so long could have sorted out
their trash situation...the amount of hustlers trying to get you buy
things is unbelievable at the site...

I'm really looking forward to seeing the Treasury in Petra, Jordan in
a few days... history becomes a lot more interesting when you can
touch it.

Egyptian Market vs Tourist Market

Well we went down to the Market near where we attended that Music
thingy last night. There are 2 very different sides to that Market, on
opposite sides of the street. We decided to go to the Egyptian side
first and were greeted with food and drink by these young men our age
who invited us to sit down and share with them. They offered us tea
and talked a little about our lives and Canada, they also said they
don't like American's, or Bush (strong dislike for the policies of the
past), but they have hope for Barrack Obama. They said now that we've
eaten together we are brothers...this experience along with other
similar stories of hospitality really allows this beautiful country
and it's people to grow on you as time goes on....... we walked
through the filthy trash ridden streets with indescribable smells,
chickens getting butchered, cats eating garbage, she-sha smoking men
starring, veiled women walking around, houses crumbling around you...

The tourist market is full of hagglers and merchants trying to sell
you things that you don't want, the streets are clean, and the
buildings are in good condition...its a world away from real Cairo
across the street....

I prefer the smelly trash and lively streets of the Egyptian market as
opposed to the Tourist one...you can feel the heartbeat of the city
walking around and talking to the people that make this country and
city so amazing...

The first 4 pictures are of the Egyptian Market, the last picture is
of the tourist one...

Mosque

A mosque near Khan el Khalili square in Cairo..

Arabian Nights

OK, so we went out with Eric's friends tonight to watch a traditional
egyptian dance and music thingy in some old vagabond hotel's courtyard
built hundreds and hundreds of years ago in the old part of cairo.
After we then ate some falafel with hummus and veggies in pita and
smoked some she-shah (apple, super tasty) ....this city really shines
at nighttime...it's easy to love it here in the evening/night...

Eric's friends also are setting us up with a driver and car for 2 days
(28th/29th) to tour us around the whole day wherever we want to go,
and they will be our tour guides...so tuesday the 28th is to get up
early before the sun comes up and drive out to Giza and hop on some
camels and watch the sun rise from the outskirts of the pyramids....

Earlier today we went on a bit of an adventure in some run down parts
of town, makes you really appreciate how blessed we are...

Jason supplied these pictures as my camera was safe at home...

Plans in Egypt

You're probably wondering why i've been here for a few days already
and there aren't any pictures of the pyramids yet, well we've been
saving seeing those sites for a day not on the weekend so perhaps it's
not as busy, the weekends here are friday and saturday. Sunday eric
has to devote to getting his indian visa sorted out, and monday Eric's
friends from Canada teaching english are going to come with us to a
futbal game...so tuesday we'll be heading out to Giza to check out the
Pyramids and Sphinx, and the remaining couple of days spent seeing the
Egyptian Museum and Cairo Citadel, and getting our plans sorted out
for our week in Jordan...

I haven't taken my camera out too much on the streets so i don't
attract the attention, not from people trying to steal it, but from
hustlers thinking we have tons of cash and not leaving us alone to buy
things...but i'm going to choose one day inside the city to walk
around and shoot everyday life in Cairo...