Friday, July 27, 2012

Egypt: pyramids, vendors, and a whole bunch of camels

"One dolla, one dolla! No charge to look! One dolla, one dolla!" As I slept last night after our twelve hour long excursion to Cairo, those phrases continued to infiltrate my brain. Egypt was truly amazing. It is unlike any other place we've been. Obviously, we were most excited for the pyramids. For me, the pyramids were the thing I was most looking forward to on the entire cruise. Let me tell you, they did not disappoint (and I had high expectations).

The day was exhausting, but unforgettable. Everywhere we went, we were harassed by vendors trying to sell: little pyramid statues, "lovely" tshirts, paintings on papyrus, sketchy looking nokia cell phones, purses, hats, bottled beverages....you name it, they sold it, and probably for one dolla! It was like I was living in a Dollar Tree where the employees were making crazy commission on all the sales.




We found the camel unattended and quickly tried to snap a pic before its owner was back. As soon as Andy snapped the pic, I heard "HEY that's my camel!!!!" and saw a man running at us, I did what I do best; I put my head down and walked away, leaving Andy to deal with the angry Egyptian. He tried to get Andy to pay for taking the picture, if you know Andy at all, you know that didn't happen.




"Hey lady! Hey lady! Hold my rope! Here! Lady!" ---2 seconds before we snapped this picture, the little boy actually placed the rope...which was leading his camel...on Wendy's shoulder...You can see how happy that made her. Holding the rope is pretty much equivalent to signing your life away and agreeing to pay for the photo. The little kids would continue jumping in your photo to try and get you to pay them to stop. As the dirty rope touched Wendy's arm, I could actually see her skin start to crawl. She bathed in sanitizer as soon as she went back to the bus.


















Yes, I was that tourist. Good job lining it up babe.

I'm having Internet issues, so I will update with more Egypt stories later...

Love from Egypt, one dolla, one dolla---
Jen and Andy

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