When we were browsing through hostels, Arabian Nights stood out to us because they serve complimentary breakfast every morning in the lobby. Abraham and one of the many Mohammed's we met while we were their prepared fresh crepes for us (Abraham learned how to make them from
his French wife) and they were served with banana's, honey and I opted to put cheese on mine. They had this amazing bread too! I put some apricot jelly and cheese on that bad boy and I was in heaven. Washed all of that down with at least three cups of tea and then we began our journey to the pyramids.The drive through Cairo was less than scenic to say the most. As we were driving I saw a body of water that looked very much like the Hudson and I asked out loud to no one in particular "Is that the Nile?" Lauren was quick to tell me no but much to our surprise the tour guide Wasif said it was indeed the Nile and we
even got out to take pictures. In retrospect, I have no clue why I thought the water would still be blue and there would be palm trees towering over the river banks. It's hard to accept that images in textbooks are not the same in real life, even if it's 5,000 years later. As we were driving I observed that the natives do not have much appreciation for the Nile. In certain areas there was trash piled up alongside the banks, spilling into the water. I actually saw two women who appeared to be walking from their homes dump two big trash bags into the water and it looked like it was apart of their daily routine. Honestly, there was garbage every where. I guess 
the government isn't concerned with the cleanliness of the city because there were no garbage cans/dumpsters in sight which of course leads to people disposing of their trash any where. When I get famous, I'm going to donate a considerable amount of money towards a Cairo clean up project.As we got closer to the pyramids the surrounding neighborhoods became more rural. We drove along side several carts of vegetables being tugged slowly to their destination by donkeys and a woman carrying fresh veggies on her head. It was pretty funny the way they fit right in with the flow of traffic. No one was disturbed by the presence of the other. Before we entered the part of the desert where the pyramids
were, we had to stop at a rest-stop/check point to purchase $12 Visas. Abraham neglected to tell us that our entry to the many sites we were seeing for the day was not included in the amount we paid him the night before. I forgive him but a heads up would have been less frustrating because when you find out at the entrance you feel like you no longer have a choice.Our first stop on the pyramid tour was the Step Pyramid of Saqqara. Wasif, our tour guide, is an archaeologist and he gave us an intense history lesson before our physical tour of the pyramids (Click the link for more information). He also told us to steer clear of the men selling trinkets and warned us about how persistent they would be. You know I'm a sucker and and I ended up spending
al
most $30 before I left. It's cool though, 20 post cards for $2 and 3 necklaces for $25 wasn't a bad deal if ya ask me.Next we visited a Papyrus shop where we learned how to make papyrus and learned the story behind some pieces of Ancient Art work. Check out the video footage! (It's uncut.)
The whole group was starving when we left so we went to have lunch at the Cleopatra Restaurant which overlooked the pyramids. The food was good but I didn't take the time to savor the flavor because I was so anxious to get to the pyramids and the Sphinx! (Don't fret my pets, i did indulge in traditional Egyptian cooking and i will tell u about it later.)
When we got to Giza, Tone, Gillian, Kam and I decided we wanted to ride camels up to the pyramids. If I remember correctly it was $30 per person and we got to ride for an hour. My camel's name was Mickey Mouse and he was very well behaved. I'm only saying this because he didn't throw me off. I feel like that's the only thing that can make a camel bad, lol. We split up from the rest of the group and had a guide named Alex who accompanied us on horseback but he/she (still not sure of his/her gender) was not historically informative. We talked way more about camel rearing and eating than anything else. Apparently camels make really good dinner when their no longer good for riding. I almost forgot to tell ya'll how me and Tone got caught up!
Knowing that such a monument still exists after so many centuries is one thing but to actually SEE it still standing and not just as an image in a book is like... so crazy, man. It was smaller than I imagined it to be but amazing nonetheless. And there were a ton of people there! The entire Giza complex was teeming with tourists from all over the world as if it was peak season. I'd hate to see the crowd during the summer months! After the Sphinx we trooped it all the way up the hill to the pyramids but it was such a task between the souvenir sellers and dodging the mounds of camel poop. These men were crafty I tell you! One of them offered to take a picture for Kam, set up the shot and took it with Kam's camera and then tried to charge him 60 pounds. We literally had to play tug-a-war to get the camera back. When they weren't haggling us to buy presents they were busy trying to figure out who Tone and I were to each other. We decided to say we were siblings because the term "Best Friend" went in one ear and out the other.
We had this conversation ten million times...
Native: Sir, is that your Wife?
Tone: Nah, that's my sister.
Native: Well your sister is beautiful. May I have her?
Tone: You can have her! I don't want her!
Me: TONE! -_-
Overall, everyone was in LOVE with our brown-ness that day. So many people stopped us to compliment us on our skin tone and gush about how much they love Obama. My favorite was a little pre-teen boy who saw us and gushed "I love my complexion! We are beautiful people!" Being Black in Egypt really made me appreciate my brown skin more. Coming from America where there are a million people that look like me I guess I've grown to take it for granted but Egypt made me remember that before I'm an American, and before I'm Jamaican or Haitian, I'm an African Queen. Though Egypt has some people of a darker hue, the majority of Egyptians are extremely fair skinned and European looking due to the years of Greek and Roman influence. Wasif, the tour guide, said to Tone that his skin was pure and he should be happy that his blood has not been diluted. That, my friends, was a BIG statement. All my readers give yourself a quick kiss and rejoice in your melanin!
Okay fast forward a bit ...
It's like two hours later, its the evening and a big group of us decided to go to the market near our hostel to look around before the dinner cruise on the Nile. The market is a street filled with shops that have outside displays. Same kind of haggling techniques but the merchandise is on the table to the men's hands are free to drag you back over while they pitch the sale. We started off all together but I stopped at a table for a little too long and poof! Everyone disappeared except for Tone. No biggie, we're used to making moves together anyway. I strike up a conversation with the owner of the table, another Ahmad, and I explain to him that I need to have a name plate with hieroglyphics made. He tells me he sells them but I need to walk with him to the factory where they handcraft the jewelry. Naturally, I ask him if it's close and he says yeah yeah of course we'll be there in 5 minutes! So I ask Tone if he minds walking with me and he says "No problem" so we begin walking through the market with Ahmad. We got to the end of the market place and then the street turned into more of an alley way but there were still a lot of people, lots of shops and it was well lit. Smooth, no need to panic. We walked for five minutes and things started to look quite sketchy. The lighting got dim, there were less shops and more creepy entrances to buildings with not so nice looking people hanging out in front of them and the floor was GROSS. I had on some suede loafers and I couldn't even look up for long because I had to make sure my foot didn't get sloshed by some foolishness. I'm getting nervous at this point because it's just me and Tone. No one has any idea where we've gone and we had no means of getting in touch with anybody. Tone asked Ahmad if we were almost there and he says "Yeah, Yeah! Soon be there." But after 10minutes of walking when he assured us it was only 5minutes away before we left, I was convinced Tone and I were about to be dismembered and our organs were going to be on the black market before sunrise. Just when I had given up, Ahmad busted two quick turns and motioned for us to follow him up some stairs. Upstairs, Jafar reincarnate was seated at a metal desk smoking a cigarette and there were 7 men ranging from age 15-50 in a back room eating dinner and carrying on. I almost didn't bother ordering the name plate because I had ran out of all kinds of currency and I was scared to find out where the ATM was but luckily I had 10 Euro in my pocket and that was sufficient funds. They made the name plate in front of my face and I made it back to the hostel in one piece. Was it worth it? Yup! The person I got it for would give me their right foot if I asked to borrow a toe. Would I do it again? Absolutely not, I'm not crazy! Lol. I'm sorry I don't have pics but my camera died while we were at the pyramids. It was too skeevy to share visually anyways.
Can I breeze through the Nile dinner cruise? Thanks. It's 5am and I'm about to crash.
The first Ahmad was our guide for the evening of dinner and dancing on the Nile. When we pulled up to the dock there was a crowd of people outside and in very high spirits. Turns out it was a wedding party and they were getting on the boat with us! Legit Wedding Crashing in Egypt. Every traveler's dream come true! Lol. The marriage had clearly been arranged, the first song they danced to as newlywed's was "Hello" by Lionel Richie and they were asking each other questions the entire time. Not to mention they weren't even touching tummy to tummy.
The food was really good but not traditional Egyptian cuisine so I'm not telling you about it. In addition to the live singing, there was also a Belly Dancer and a human kaleidoscope for additional entertainment. During each set of performances people were drawn fr
om the audience to participate and I got to be the human kaleidoscope too! The pictures have yet to surface. After the dinner we went back to the hostel where there was a 
party in the lobby for Mohammed number two's birthday. I hung out with Abraham and took pics on his camera phone for a few and then I called it a night.
Keep in mind that I have yet to tell you about Saturday and Sunday. Told you it was a crazy weekend!!
When we got to Giza, Tone, Gillian, Kam and I decided we wanted to ride camels up to the pyramids. If I remember correctly it was $30 per person and we got to ride for an hour. My camel's name was Mickey Mouse and he was very well behaved. I'm only saying this because he didn't throw me off. I feel like that's the only thing that can make a camel bad, lol. We split up from the rest of the group and had a guide named Alex who accompanied us on horseback but he/she (still not sure of his/her gender) was not historically informative. We talked way more about camel rearing and eating than anything else. Apparently camels make really good dinner when their no longer good for riding. I almost forgot to tell ya'll how me and Tone got caught up!
So we're riding through the streets of Giza on our way up to the pyramids and a group of men run up along side Mickey Mouse and tell us to lean over. They were all smiles so Tone and I both leaned over and two of the men proceeded to put traditional protective desert head wear on us. We were so excited because we thought the head wear came as a complimentary gift with the camel ride. Sike! After the man gassed us entirely by grabbing my camera and snapping pics of
us posing like natives, he begins asking us for 25 Egyptian pounds. I did the math in my head really quickly and realized it was only $5 so I paid it but golly! I swear I met some of the most persuasive/manipulative salesman ever in life on this trip. Our camel riding time ran out before we actually got up to the pyramids so we sent Alex back and hoofed it on our own. We stopped at the Sphinx first for a few pictures. It was unreal to be looking at the Sphinx with my own eyes.
us posing like natives, he begins asking us for 25 Egyptian pounds. I did the math in my head really quickly and realized it was only $5 so I paid it but golly! I swear I met some of the most persuasive/manipulative salesman ever in life on this trip. Our camel riding time ran out before we actually got up to the pyramids so we sent Alex back and hoofed it on our own. We stopped at the Sphinx first for a few pictures. It was unreal to be looking at the Sphinx with my own eyes.
We had this conversation ten million times...
Native: Sir, is that your Wife?
Tone: Nah, that's my sister.
Native: Well your sister is beautiful. May I have her?
Tone: You can have her! I don't want her!
Me: TONE! -_-
Overall, everyone was in LOVE with our brown-ness that day. So many people stopped us to compliment us on our skin tone and gush about how much they love Obama. My favorite was a little pre-teen boy who saw us and gushed "I love my complexion! We are beautiful people!" Being Black in Egypt really made me appreciate my brown skin more. Coming from America where there are a million people that look like me I guess I've grown to take it for granted but Egypt made me remember that before I'm an American, and before I'm Jamaican or Haitian, I'm an African Queen. Though Egypt has some people of a darker hue, the majority of Egyptians are extremely fair skinned and European looking due to the years of Greek and Roman influence. Wasif, the tour guide, said to Tone that his skin was pure and he should be happy that his blood has not been diluted. That, my friends, was a BIG statement. All my readers give yourself a quick kiss and rejoice in your melanin!
Okay fast forward a bit ...
It's like two hours later, its the evening and a big group of us decided to go to the market near our hostel to look around before the dinner cruise on the Nile. The market is a street filled with shops that have outside displays. Same kind of haggling techniques but the merchandise is on the table to the men's hands are free to drag you back over while they pitch the sale. We started off all together but I stopped at a table for a little too long and poof! Everyone disappeared except for Tone. No biggie, we're used to making moves together anyway. I strike up a conversation with the owner of the table, another Ahmad, and I explain to him that I need to have a name plate with hieroglyphics made. He tells me he sells them but I need to walk with him to the factory where they handcraft the jewelry. Naturally, I ask him if it's close and he says yeah yeah of course we'll be there in 5 minutes! So I ask Tone if he minds walking with me and he says "No problem" so we begin walking through the market with Ahmad. We got to the end of the market place and then the street turned into more of an alley way but there were still a lot of people, lots of shops and it was well lit. Smooth, no need to panic. We walked for five minutes and things started to look quite sketchy. The lighting got dim, there were less shops and more creepy entrances to buildings with not so nice looking people hanging out in front of them and the floor was GROSS. I had on some suede loafers and I couldn't even look up for long because I had to make sure my foot didn't get sloshed by some foolishness. I'm getting nervous at this point because it's just me and Tone. No one has any idea where we've gone and we had no means of getting in touch with anybody. Tone asked Ahmad if we were almost there and he says "Yeah, Yeah! Soon be there." But after 10minutes of walking when he assured us it was only 5minutes away before we left, I was convinced Tone and I were about to be dismembered and our organs were going to be on the black market before sunrise. Just when I had given up, Ahmad busted two quick turns and motioned for us to follow him up some stairs. Upstairs, Jafar reincarnate was seated at a metal desk smoking a cigarette and there were 7 men ranging from age 15-50 in a back room eating dinner and carrying on. I almost didn't bother ordering the name plate because I had ran out of all kinds of currency and I was scared to find out where the ATM was but luckily I had 10 Euro in my pocket and that was sufficient funds. They made the name plate in front of my face and I made it back to the hostel in one piece. Was it worth it? Yup! The person I got it for would give me their right foot if I asked to borrow a toe. Would I do it again? Absolutely not, I'm not crazy! Lol. I'm sorry I don't have pics but my camera died while we were at the pyramids. It was too skeevy to share visually anyways.
Can I breeze through the Nile dinner cruise? Thanks. It's 5am and I'm about to crash.
The first Ahmad was our guide for the evening of dinner and dancing on the Nile. When we pulled up to the dock there was a crowd of people outside and in very high spirits. Turns out it was a wedding party and they were getting on the boat with us! Legit Wedding Crashing in Egypt. Every traveler's dream come true! Lol. The marriage had clearly been arranged, the first song they danced to as newlywed's was "Hello" by Lionel Richie and they were asking each other questions the entire time. Not to mention they weren't even touching tummy to tummy.The food was really good but not traditional Egyptian cuisine so I'm not telling you about it. In addition to the live singing, there was also a Belly Dancer and a human kaleidoscope for additional entertainment. During each set of performances people were drawn fr
om the audience to participate and I got to be the human kaleidoscope too! The pictures have yet to surface. After the dinner we went back to the hostel where there was a 
party in the lobby for Mohammed number two's birthday. I hung out with Abraham and took pics on his camera phone for a few and then I called it a night.Keep in mind that I have yet to tell you about Saturday and Sunday. Told you it was a crazy weekend!!
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