CamelFarts (aka the Great Pyramids)

Day 2 in Cairo was a day of the pyramids and then a dinner cruise down the Nile river at night. I took over 200 pictures this one day. My point is that there is no way I can, verbally or in writing, describe the awesomeness of the day.

The Great Pyramids can be seen for miles away because they are so huge

We get up in the morning and head over with our guide to go see the oldest pyramid at Saqqara. It was pretty amazing to see in person. This pyramid is back from when the pyramids were still step pyramids as you'll notice below by the large steps.

Saqqara: The oldest one.

We then continued on where our guide brought us to this essence factory (I think that might be what it was). This is a place where they use chemistry to extract the oils from scented things (flowers, mint, eucalyptus etc) and these are then processed and turned into other scented things such as perfume, candles or scratch-n-sniff stickers. Fortunately, we recognized instantly that this is one of the things we were warned about in our guide books. Often, tour guides will bring groups to visit their friend's businesses to sell them stuff for a hefty commission. We were not interested in buying any of the overpriced odoriferous oils, but we did get a free coffee or tea out of the deal plus some time in an air conditioned room which was a nice break.

Used to do extract smells (gotta love orgo in action).

We then got some amazing Egyptian shawarma from this cheap place on the side of the road. So yummy. We then had to endure another sales pitch. Apparently we had only booked a car ride to the pyramids, so if we wanted to go by camel we'd have to pay extra. After extensive negotiating of packages and prices, we finally settle on a camel ride that came down to 150 pounds per person (so less than $30usd) for a ride on the camels to the vistas that cannot be reached by car. We then were to meet up with our car at the great pyramid. So thus begun our journey by camel to the Great Pyramids!!!

The ride was bumpy but fun. My camel (formerly known as Bush, and now known as Obama) was a feisty one. He didn't want to stay in the caravan of three, so I got to drive the camel all on my own. It was pretty exciting. Although the Pyramids look big in pictures, they look even bigger and are more amazing in person. It's not really even worth explaining too much because words don't do them justice, just look at the pictures and video included and talk to me when I get home (or see them yourself). It is just so amazing that these structures were built about 7000 years ago.

Three adventurers on their steeds traveling to the Great Pyramids!Landing the steed is accomplished by pulling on the rains and clearing one's throat loudly (i'm serious)Well, it worked for two out of the three

SPHYNX

Although not quite as amazing as the Pyramids or the Sphynx, CamelFarts are AWESOME! Although we never saw them spit (possibly because it was so hot and dry out), the farts were a flowing. I never could catch it on video but they sounded like this, “thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh (sp?).” The best way to imagine a camelfart would be by doing a brain rendering of what it would sound like if a small Harley Davidson engine was put in a camel's butt. Then after the surgical insertion (as a conscious one would be cruel to the poor camel), you start the engine. The engine would rev and burble for about 20 seconds before it realized that instead of being in a motorcycle it was in a camels butt and then shut off out of disgust. that's what it sounded like. I don't care what Sam and Pavel say, a camel fart is well worth about 20 minutes of laughter. I'm actually laughing as I type this because I'm remembering riding behind Sam's camel as it let out a huge camelfart. Luckily it was windy enough that the smell didn't get to me, but oh boy were they funny. Hahahaha. I guarantee that Vinny would love camelfarts too.




After riding through the desert on camels, we finally get to the Great pyramids and walk around them. They're so big. So so big.

After the pyramids, we went back to our hostel to rest up for a little bit before our dinner cruise on the Nile. The cruise was to include dinner and dessert (but no drinks of any sort were included) and entertainment. The dinner was ok, but the two guys from china sitting at our table were really nice. The entertainment was also fine. First the belly dancer came out. Imagine a woman in her early 40s with augmented, plastic looking breasts the size of my head trying to dance without much rhythm. There was an ~8 year old girl with better belly dancing moves than her, but I guess the boobies were enough to get her hired.

From the deck of our Nile floating boating

Next came on a really cool traditional Egyptian dance called Tanoura The opening act was actually a dwarf doing a basic version of the dance and then a real professional came on and it was really cool. The lighting was bad so it was hard to get good video (here's an example from youtube), but the dance basically involved a guy spinning in circles for about 20 minutes and doing things including balancing a glass of water on a tray, pouring the water into the glass and then drinking it all while spinning rapidly. It was much more impressive than I make it sound.

Great...Pyramids or Great Pyramids? we like pyramids