Mysterious sights (and smells) of Cairo

We zoomed in and out of traffic.  Cairo traffic includes the occasional horse cart full of sugarcane, and child wilding whipping a donkey as he bumps up and down on its back.  Instead of using the mirrors and turn signals, drivers just beep their horns, to convey such messages as "I am here", " I am about to put my vehicle into exactly the space you occupy," and "move!".  these messages are more congenially made and received than in, say, New York, where a car horn is just a louder expletive than you can make with your mouth.

The driver stopped at a weird place—Cleopatra’s fragrances,a shop of sorts, and said “I will be right back”.  This was in a neighborhood of Arab menstanding around talking and smoking, with a canal choked with plastic bottles in the median of the road.  He returned with Saber, our cheerful tourguide.  But why pick him up at afragrance shop?

Directly in front of the Sphinx

The pyramids are mind-blowingly big, even if you know that they are mind-blowingly big. And they are right up against the city.  Walking out of the gate by the Sphinx, the first thing we saw was a Pizza Hut.

Though we walked in and had tickets and all, somehow our driver and van met us inside and drove us up the sandy roads, swerving around tourists and politely beeping at camels and horses, from one pyramid to the others.  There were many horses and camels.  Our tour guide warned us that the dozens of entrepreneurs in the area would hands us things, and then demand that we pay.  Or they would ask “would you like to photograph my camel?”  and then say you must pay.  We followed his advice and avoided buying anything.  Very good advice, but what’s in it for him? Read on and see.

A typical moment was when he offered to take a picture of both of us, standing on the pyramid of Khufu (the biggest one, without a smooth top).  He pointed to a spot, and then a guard yelled at us in Arabic that we could not stand there.  Then our guide yelled at the guard, who decided that even though it is not allowed, for us, OK.

My favorite salesman at Giza was a fellow who had a spiel that started “do you want to kiss my great grandmother?”  Then he did some gestures with his hands.  I had no idea what he was talking about, until he pointed at some other tourists taking silly photos—standing just so, so that the Sphinx looks like it is kissing you, holding one finger downwards in a spot so that it looks like its atop the pyramid, etc.   No sale. 

Our tour guide was very good, after having two years of Egyptian history to qualify as a licensed guide.  He was also very good at helping us keep our money.  So kind of him.  But on the way out, we drove through Cairo to the place we’d picked him up.  Then Saber ushered us inside, to learn how the famous water lily is pressed into an essential oil, only available in Egypt. We were led into an amazing room, like Ali Baba’s parlor, filled with genie bottles.  Then we got a 30 minute sales pitch for buying perfume.  We got samples, so I left smelling like Lotus, sandalwood, mint and scents guaranteed to drive women and men wild.  I admit I blew $60 on 4 oz of water lily oil (don’t tell my wife, it’s a gift), but a bit miffed that the tour ended in a captive sales pitch.  No tip for you, Saber.