I went to the Tahrir Square on my way to the Egyptian Museum today. It was quite an interesting experience. To imagine all the violent protests and demonstrations that has happened just weeks before at the same spot..was just crazy. I feel lucky to come at this period to Egypt. Though the violence is rare now and things are moving in the right direction, military/police presence in every corner clearly shows how much the city center is still tense.
There were many people on the street selling revolution goods. Shirts, Egyptian flags, revolution keychains and hats, and many more. I got myself a revolution shirt that says "Viva la Revolution" in Arabic. Hussein and Yussuf also got shirts.
So after walking through the main square, we moved onto the Egyptian Museum. Supposedly it was the first time for both Hussein and Yussuf as well. The museum was huge and I regretted not taking a photo from far away because by the time I paid for my ticket and entered the gate, the building was so large that it wouldn't fit in the frame. But it was unfortunate that about 20% of the items in the museum was stolen during the revolution demonstration, so many of what was there a month ago was now gone. Even so, there were so much to see inside that we took some rests in between. Oh, and what's not fair (and this can be said for India and Kenya) is that it costs tourists 80 pounds to enter the museum while it costs Egyptian citizens 1 pounds. I mean, I understand that due to purchasing power tourist should be charged more, but that only makes sense if the price set was proportional to the exchange rate. But 80 pounds v. 1 pound? Thats 8000% more. What a rip..
But the museum was good overall. Never seen a museum that has so much stuff inside. Felt like I was in a storage room half the time. It was also unfortunate that it doesn't give explanations of each item. Either you buy a guide book for the museum, or you hire a tour guide. So either way, its pretty difficult to learn from just going there and walking around.
山本山
日本人だと知った人がよく「トヨタ」とか「トウキョウ！」って言ってきますよね。インド・ケニアではそうでした。でも今回エジプトで新しい呼び名に出会いました。そう、「ヤマモトヤマ」です。エジプトでは日本人といえばトヨタ、ホンダではなく、全員が山本山（さん）なのです。最初はたまたまその人が山本山を知っているのだと思ったが、次から次へと（多い時は一日に３・４回）呼ばれていました。当然「なぜ山本山？」、と聞きましたが、まともな理由は一度も聞いたことがありません。皆「知って当然だよ。山本山だよ。」的な感じで軽く流そうとします。なので未だに山本山の謎は解けていません。
そして苗字が山内だと知った時（山本山の｢山｣とかぶっているから）のテンションの上がり方が尋常ではない。
Luxor
Hussein and I went to Luxor for 2 nights. I was lucky that Hussein decided to come because I can't imagine doing all that we've done by myself.. I still would have managed to do the same stuff, but probably for twice the price. Throughout the trip to Luxor and the overall stay in Egypt, I was really able to see the difference in treatment towards tourists and fellow Egyptians. It's shockingly different. I'll talk about that later if I remember..
Anyway, we took an overnight train there and arrived around 10 am. Hussein kept stopping and asking people for help while I tagged along from behind (it was like this for all 3 days). We got the hostel and met the owner, Mr. Salid, who was probably the nicest Egyptian that I've met in Egypt and one of the few that I can truly trust. I ended up having tea with this guy twice a day for all 3 days. The hostel was decent, except our first room didn't have a working shower, toilet, or sink. Cost was around 25 Egyptian pounds per night, about 4 USD.
The Tour
After spending about a week straight with someone, you start seeing bad sides of him/her. Hussein. The kid is rich. He kept telling me that we have to go on a tour. I tried and failed too many times the whole point of "backpacking" is to do everything on your own and try to avoid reaching in your pocket as much as possible. Going on a tour, hiring a tour guide, entering unnecessary buildings, are things I didn't want to do. But then I also felt bad because for him, its just a vacation and he wants to see what if offered in Luxor. And his father probably wants him to have the best (quality) experience and to not miss out on anything. So in the end we ended up taking a tour, which included going to the Valley of the Kings, Valley of the Queens, the Worker's House, Hatshepsut (pronounced like hot-chick-soup) Temple and Colossi of Memnon.
Outside of the tour, we also visited the famous Karnak Temple and the Luxor Temple. Both of these are right along the Nile River. Karnak Temple is said to be the largest temple in the world. It was quite amazing walking around and getting lost in the huge temples, just imagining what it would of been like to actually be there 3000 years ago. And for One Piece readers, this is were "Alabasta" comes from.
Possibly the best experience in Egypt
After long consideration, I agree that we should try the Felucca ride (boat ride on the Nile River). So with couple people we met on the tour, we hired a Felucca driver and went on a hour long ride on the Nile. Turns out to be one of the highlights of the trip. The boat ride itself was nice (they even offered us tea), but it got even better when all 4 of us jumped into the river and swam to a nearby island. Definitely a priceless experience.
Then after seeing the sunset along the river, we went to a local restaurant and had Egyptian pizza (or a pie as they call it, which turns out to be pretty good!)
Then we had the usual kassop, a drink made of sugarcane that Hussein got me obsessed with
So with that our time in Luxor was coming to an end. At our last night at the hostel we had tea with Mr.Salid for the last time. I'm actually gonna miss this guy. Overall the trip was great, and I think I learned an important lesson from talking to other backpackers and travelers: every mistake makes the trip more flavorful. In other words, a perfect trip is boring, and a flawless journey only means that you didn't take any risks. So far my journey has been almost perfect (with help of many people), but from now I shall take on more risks.
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