UNREAL!

So I have a few pictures from my stay in Cairo but I forgot my cord to upload the pics so I'll upload them when I get back to Baghdad. All I can say about this city is that it feels like a movie set. It is huge and during season (which I take to be the fall/winter) there are 32 MILLION people here.

My hotel is right on the Nile so I wake up to a view of the Nile every morning. We snuck out early yesterday from our meeting to try to catch the pyramids before the sun went down. We hired a car/driver to take us there. OUr our way to the pyramids we crossed the Nile and saw these lush areas of gardens next to the Nile. Growing up from these areas are incomplete apartment buildings that have cropped up throughout the Nile valley. They are incomplete because if they are ever finished then they can be torn down because they are illegal. (Yeah I dont really understand that either but there is no capacity to bulldoze the buildings)

To avoid the horrible traffic our driver took us through some of the back streets of the neighborhoods in Giza. I can only say that it was like driving through another century. Horse/donkey drawn carts, people riding horses and the odd camel, traditional dress, tiny shops in the walls of these small buildings. Tiny streets that seem to turn without warning or direction. Oh and of course the odd motorcycle or Michael Jordan shirt which was a quick return back to 2007. We were turned over to Ali for our camel ride. I must admit I was terrified - I've heard stories about how MEAN those animals can be. But we each got a camel - my camel's name was Madonna, the other camel was Moses and we got 2 guides, a little boy and an older guy. The guides made me feel MUCH better bc camels are HUGE. The guide was on a little horse and rode along next to us. Its a little startling how jarring and quick the camels get up off the ground once you are on their backs. We rode the camels throught the streets of this little neighborhood to the entrance to the desert just as the sun was setting. We rode through the desert while enjoying an unbelievable view of the pyramids. We got to see all 9 and rode up a little mountain to enjoy a view of the city. As the sun was setting and we were riding our camels, we could see in the distance coming over some hills a group of riders on a horse - completely reminiscnet of Indiana Jones or Laurence of Arabic. The whole night was surreal. I must say that camels are not the most comfortable creatures to ride on and I'm convinced that I have some bruises (Kath - think our horse back ride at the Grand Canyon) but I didn't fall off or get thrown (jen remember our horse ride in NZ). We also had encounters with police riding camels through the desert around the pyramids.

The sound and light show at the pyramids was starting at the end of our trip so we got to see a little bit of it. The lights were very cool and the music not bad but the voices they used reminded me of the Great Oz from the wizard of Oz. I think they were doing voices of the pharoahs, etc to tell the story. Was a bit silly if you ask me.

After the camel ride, we went back to Ali's to enjoy an Egyptian beer, Stella, and to learn all about Egyptian aroma therapy. Then we stopped in the Papyrus "Museum". I put it in quotes because its really just a gift shop, but I learned how papyrus paper is made and got a souvenir.

We have a mornign session today but we are hoping to have enough time to drive over to the Citadel today before we head over to the aiport.

I should arrive in Erbil, in Kurdistan (northern Iraq) tomorrow morning at about 4am. As soon as I get some rest I log back in and let you all know I've arrived.

Miss you all!