I've been doing really well with my blogging and getting things up pretty quickly, so I'm proud of myself for that...heh. Anyways I got to webcam, err, half webcam with Jonjon, RJ, Tracy, and Karina today; I couldn't get the hotel's webcam to work but the sound was semi-working. I haven't even been able to call anyone because it's kind of complicated ; oh boy life without a phone and a data plan…my family is probably worried out of their minds but I emailed them to let them know that I'm alright.
So this morning we were semi-bold and just walked about downtown Cairo trying to find that really good bakery that we found the other day at night. Apparently it's like the 85⁰C Bread of Egypt, people from all over come to eat at it! We ended up almost getting lost and making a huge box around the area we were looking for. We kept looking for "the traffic circle with the statue", and we kept finding it, but nothing looked familiar. So it turns out that there are traffic circles with semi-similar statues in the middle EVERYWHERE.
To make things more hectic ,we totally stood out in the bright daylight, we were the only people walking the streets and not working. Also I had my hawk, my shorts, my shades; Viv had her sleeveless top and her shades, so we got so much attention. I get really frustrated when the taxi drivers try to holler from across the street and honk their horns until you look at them. Some of them try to convince you to go to certain tourist locations. Sure, it's business and I actually may want to go to some of these places but they shout and seem so forceful, so I get defensive, especially for Vivian sometimes. I mean, if they were more approachable and nice about things, maybe I'd be more responsive…I like people at night, they're more chill.
So after that we explored some more and ran into some cray cray taxi driver who was getting the lead about us through the hotel. But we successfully stood our ground, still we're tired of people hawking on us all the time.
We then moved over to the Indiana Hotel in Dokki district of Cairo. We actually like the room better than our room in the Cosmo, it's brighter and nicer...but the toilet is wonky and there is no hot water in the shower. Also, it is not located in central Cairo, so there are not as many tourists around, we now stand out even more. But people were less forceful for tourism, which is nice.
We then got really antsy and decided to wash our own clothes to practice for Tanzania; I developed a new sock washing technique that worked pretty well.
We found a mini bazaar that had some fun souvenir things in it. The owner was pretty nice and made us a deal for a Nile dinner cruise + taxi for only ~ 25 USD. Other groups offer that for 75 bucks! So we decided to go on the Cruise because we didn't have much else to do and there were promises of belly dancing, music, open buffet, sooo why not?!
Then we got lunch! YUM!
1 x Medium beef shwarma sandwich
3 x falafel pita sandwiches
= £E 10 (Egyptian pounds) ==> $1.79 USD
CRUISE TIME!
Food was salty...and I wasn't sure if I was eating liver or buffalo...
The top deck of the boat had a pretty awesome view of Cairo, we also noticed the poor visibility. It's very hazy in the distance. We theorized that this is attributed to the sand and wind always blowing around leaving much particulate matter in the air. The sunset felt like a just a distant gradient with no focal point.
The belly dancer lady chose me to come dance with her. She had some tricks with a stick...and she kept grabbing me very roughly by my mohawk, it kind hurt...but it was sort of fun being like the only one able to kinda keep up with the belly dancer and her balancing tricks.
As we came home, we ran into some more smaller souvenir shops….we learned our lesson. Shop around. Seriously, we got ripped all those times before! Anyways we now know that there are alliances and business/commission partners in the tourism industry here. It's sneaky but almost unavoidable. It can be hard to find smaller more affordable shops but they do exist!
Whew! I only have like £E30 left, I need to make it last... One day closer to arriving in Tanzania…. better go practice some Swahili! Kwa Heri!
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