Oh my gosh, I just had the craziest day ever. So right after I left the internet cafe last night, I went to this really sketchy restaurant next door as I waited for my roomate to finish up. I ordered a falafal sandwhich, and they treated me as if they had never had a westerner walk into their restaurant before. I was seated at a table and was brought my drink and sanwhcih (which was terrible)compared to the other guys there who had to haggle with the guy at the counter to get their food. A few miutes later some kids came in and started staring at me. They came over and said a lot of stuff I didn't understand as it was rapid-fire Arabic. Eventually I told them I was American and they all started talking even faster while pointing at me and laughing. I heard the expression "George bush" a couple times, but I couldn't understnad anymore. As they left they all shook my hand, but the last kid, who had just washed his hands, splashed the water in my face on purpose. I wasn't quite sure what to think.
This morning we went to the Egyptian Museum. It was like an overdose of Egyptian antiquites arranged in coronological order. It is said that if you spent 30 seconds at each thing, it would take 7 continuous days to see everything in the museum. Because we were a BYU group, Jason, a grad student who went to BYU showed us a bunch of pupyrus facimilies similar to the ones in the book of Abraham. Over all, we hardly saw anything.
Jason then took some of us to go see a place that is refered to by Americans as "Trash City". It is a Coptic christian part of town by some cliffs where the people process all of Cairo's trash. So me and three other people got in a taxi and drove all the way to the other side of town. We were suppossed to meet the other people who were going there in trash city. The driver ended up taking us to the wrong church in another part of the city. He demanded more money to take us to the other place, and the people at the church we were at offered to help us out instead. It turned out that we had arrived at a Francescian Catholic Monostary which also served as an orphanege. They gave us a tour of the church and the gardens where they grow the orphanage's food. We had a really interesting time trying to explain to them that we were Mormons. "So your catholic then", one of the guys said. They told us that the fare we had payed for the taxi was a total rip-off. One of the guys offered to drive us to the right place.
The ride to "Trash City" was sureal as we watched the streets turn from new and nice concrete roads with lots of cars, to dirt roads and absolute squaler. I have never been in such a dirty place in my whole entire life. The town smelt of burning garbage and we saw people sitting in heaps of garbage sorting it out. As we kept diving though, it turned from absolute hell into a really nice place. We had arrived at a holy site for the copts where a famous saint suppossedly lifted up the montain to show the muslims that god was on their side too. They had built a giant outdoor church into the side of the cliffs that could hold several thosand people. It was one of the most sureal things I've ever seen as there was this beutiful place in the middle of a place where people sort garbage for a living. It's kind of funny because none of the people made it to this place on their first try of telling their taxi drivers. I guess no Egyptian would think that some Americans would actually want to visit a place like that.
After that we walked back down through the town where people were really happy to see us. when we got to the main road, Jason hired a mini bus to take us back dowtown. On our way, the driver started trying to renegotiate the price from 50 pounds to 70 pounds. The guy from our group who was hagaling changed the subject and tried to keep him from talking about it until we got there. Then, we all got out really quickly and the guy handed him how much we had agreed to pay him initially and left.
After eating another dispointing Falafel sandwhich, we took at taxi to the Cairo zoo. The dirver in our Taxi droped us off on the wrong side of the street so we had to wait forever for a place in traffic that we could even manage to attempt crossing the street. Now the Zoo here in Egypt is a thing that the lower class people go to. As we walked in, I felt as if we might have just as well been the animals as people were starining at us with curiousity. Somne guy with a camera and wearing a vest indicating that he worked for some photography business started bothering us about whether or not we wanted to pet a lion or something. We refused, but another guy in our group said he wanted to do it so we followed him to the lion house. The guy asked us if we liked Aerican movies, and then informed us that he was Eddie Mirphy's borther. When we got there, the guy said something to the zoo employees and led us out to a alcove in the building. Then they locked the doors leading in to the main part of the building. We thought they were going to let the tigers loose on us or something. We went into this room and the zoo employee picked up a really cute tiger cub and had the kid stand next to it as he got his picture taken. Then the zoo keepers started provoking the animals to growl at us from inside their cages. It was at this point that I realized something was up. It then occured to me that all of the Arabs had disapered. What had happended was this photography guy had bribed the zoo keepers to close the lion house down so they could give us "a special tour". The tigers/lions were treated horribly and I started to feel really mad/furious/depressed. When we left, 4 of us broke away from the ten others in the group so as to loose that guy who was bribing the zoo keepers for us. Again, people kept staring at us and saying, "Halo, welcome sir" to us. I have never seen so many depressed animals in my entire life. There is no such thing as animal rights practiced here. At one place we saw some kind of Ape eating some plasitc that had been thrown in his cage while three kids threw rocks at it. As we started watching them throw rocks, an older guy came up to them. I thought he was going to tell them to stop but he just started laughing and patted one of the kids on the back as he kept throwing rocks. We decided to leave the zoo from a different entrance so as to avoid the picture/bribe guy. This little girl started following us asking for money. Gretchen finally gave here an egyptian pound (20 cents) after about 15 minutes and the girl headed strait for me. It took me 10 minutes before I gave here a pound as well afer which she started asking Ben for money. A minute later a guard came out of nowhere and took the girl away. I felt really bad.
I'm writting this at an internet cafe where the keyboard is totally covered in dirt and the pryaers from a nearbye mosque are being broadcast outrside over a loud speaker. Kind of sureal. I feel really bad because we are all laughing at everything here because it is so ridiculous. I have never been to any place like it where anything, ANYTHING, is for sale. If you want to do something and you have the money, you can totally do it and have the police look the other way for the right price. What's worse, we as Americans are exprected by the people to do it. I'm seeing more and more all the time that Jordan might as well be a thousand miles away from Egypt. I'm looking forward to getting out of here. I don't think I'm that into it after all. Jordan is so much better. Tomorrow we are going to Luxor which should be pretty good though. And yes, I am over my initial food troubles.
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Monday, April 28, 2008
Egypt
So I made it here to Egypt after 20 something hours of continual traveling. This place is totally different than Jordan as there are people everywhere and Cairo is massive. I have never seen so many police walking around carying machine guns.
Its been quite eventful since we got in. So last night we found a delicous sandwhich place that sold Falafel sandwhichs for 75 piasters, the equivelent of about 12 cents. Being so overwelmed by how delicous and cheap it was, I bought two more sandwhichs and a sprit for less than 50 cents. So we start walking around trying to find an internet cafe without any luck. Somebody told us if we got on the Cairo Subway, we would find a bunch of stuff two stops away. The subway was sureal as it was totally modern and clean, something that the streets here aren't. As we were waiting for the train, I thought to myself, "man, I don't feel to well". Apperantly, the Falafel didn't agree with me. I had a sudden fever, and began to feel that salty taste in your mouth that tells you that you don't have much time before you throw up. As soon as the train stoped at the next stop, I jumped off with my friend Mike looking for the nearest bathroom. I thought I was going to loose it right there in the staition. Thankfully, once we got outside I started to feel much better. We started walking back to our hotel just in case it came back. On our way however, this guys started talking to us. I'd say he was thirty, and he seemed really nice at first. I have learned that there is a difference between Jordan and Egypt in that when random people talk to you in Jordan, they are sincerly interested in you. Here, while there are several people that are sincerly interested, there are a lot who want to sell you something. This was the case with this guy. So he starts introducing himself by showing us his passport and pictures of his Russian wife. This is a common tactic used by these people to make them seem friendly. Somebody in my group was even shown a picture of the guy selling whatever it was and Muhammad Ali. So then he started in with a sale pitch about how he makes pupyrus paintings. We tried to leave, but he insisted that we go to his car to get his business card. From what he said, we thought his car was just around the corner so we deicided to just try to get the card and leave. I don't think he had a car as he just kept leading us farther and farther away from where we were. It was at this point that I started feeling really sick again. So me and Mike started playing the "I'm sick and need to go to our hotel" card. He didn't beleive it for a second and tried to take us to a pharmacy. He then insisted that we come to his house tomorrow for lunmch to meet some hot Swedish women. Thankfully we got through with just getting his phone number and promising him to call him. He don't plan on it.
Today we went to the Pyramids. The Pyramids are just as big as they look in pictures. Pretty cool. The problem is that it is a breeding ground for tourist con-men. These guys would stand around and try to give you a "gift" in which they would demand money from you in return. I faked an Icelander which worked really well as non of the guys that cornered me had ever heard of it, and I pretended to speak very little English and Arabic. We went in one of the pyramids and I thought I was going to pass out inside as there was no venelation and therefore EXTREMLY humind, and the tunnel was like 5 feets high. At the sphynx we saw it...but it was kind of disapointing as it was much smaller than it looks like in pictures. We saw a Japanese boy band there doing a photo shoot. It was awesome because they had spiked colored hair with lots of glitter and were wearing camo outfits. After that we saw the infamous steped pyramid of King Zosar, and then got dragged around to a lot of touristy places. These places , which were out in the country were way thrid world...like people with donkey led carriages and hearding goats in the street. Through this area we had a police escort and were going faster than everyone else. I think this was to make sure that if anybody was following us, they would be spoted. I felt really safe though as we had security guards from the 'tourist police" traveling with us. On the outside they just looked like guys in suits standing around, but it turned out they had machine guns under their suit coats.
Thats all I got today.
Its been quite eventful since we got in. So last night we found a delicous sandwhich place that sold Falafel sandwhichs for 75 piasters, the equivelent of about 12 cents. Being so overwelmed by how delicous and cheap it was, I bought two more sandwhichs and a sprit for less than 50 cents. So we start walking around trying to find an internet cafe without any luck. Somebody told us if we got on the Cairo Subway, we would find a bunch of stuff two stops away. The subway was sureal as it was totally modern and clean, something that the streets here aren't. As we were waiting for the train, I thought to myself, "man, I don't feel to well". Apperantly, the Falafel didn't agree with me. I had a sudden fever, and began to feel that salty taste in your mouth that tells you that you don't have much time before you throw up. As soon as the train stoped at the next stop, I jumped off with my friend Mike looking for the nearest bathroom. I thought I was going to loose it right there in the staition. Thankfully, once we got outside I started to feel much better. We started walking back to our hotel just in case it came back. On our way however, this guys started talking to us. I'd say he was thirty, and he seemed really nice at first. I have learned that there is a difference between Jordan and Egypt in that when random people talk to you in Jordan, they are sincerly interested in you. Here, while there are several people that are sincerly interested, there are a lot who want to sell you something. This was the case with this guy. So he starts introducing himself by showing us his passport and pictures of his Russian wife. This is a common tactic used by these people to make them seem friendly. Somebody in my group was even shown a picture of the guy selling whatever it was and Muhammad Ali. So then he started in with a sale pitch about how he makes pupyrus paintings. We tried to leave, but he insisted that we go to his car to get his business card. From what he said, we thought his car was just around the corner so we deicided to just try to get the card and leave. I don't think he had a car as he just kept leading us farther and farther away from where we were. It was at this point that I started feeling really sick again. So me and Mike started playing the "I'm sick and need to go to our hotel" card. He didn't beleive it for a second and tried to take us to a pharmacy. He then insisted that we come to his house tomorrow for lunmch to meet some hot Swedish women. Thankfully we got through with just getting his phone number and promising him to call him. He don't plan on it.
Today we went to the Pyramids. The Pyramids are just as big as they look in pictures. Pretty cool. The problem is that it is a breeding ground for tourist con-men. These guys would stand around and try to give you a "gift" in which they would demand money from you in return. I faked an Icelander which worked really well as non of the guys that cornered me had ever heard of it, and I pretended to speak very little English and Arabic. We went in one of the pyramids and I thought I was going to pass out inside as there was no venelation and therefore EXTREMLY humind, and the tunnel was like 5 feets high. At the sphynx we saw it...but it was kind of disapointing as it was much smaller than it looks like in pictures. We saw a Japanese boy band there doing a photo shoot. It was awesome because they had spiked colored hair with lots of glitter and were wearing camo outfits. After that we saw the infamous steped pyramid of King Zosar, and then got dragged around to a lot of touristy places. These places , which were out in the country were way thrid world...like people with donkey led carriages and hearding goats in the street. Through this area we had a police escort and were going faster than everyone else. I think this was to make sure that if anybody was following us, they would be spoted. I felt really safe though as we had security guards from the 'tourist police" traveling with us. On the outside they just looked like guys in suits standing around, but it turned out they had machine guns under their suit coats.
Thats all I got today.
Sunday, April 20, 2008
The Bruce in Jordan blog reloaded
After almost two years of idly sitting among the nether worlds of the information superhighway, the "Bruce in Jordan" blog is being reactivated. This coming Saturday I'm heading back to the Middle East for 4 months, and therefore going to have a lot to write about. So, you should check out the old posts on my trip from 2006 (below) to get some perspective on the whole thing until I have something new to write. The blog has a new look and is much nicer to view than before, but the old posts are still chalked full of speling and grammatical errors that might make for some difficult reading...so good luck.
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