we had definite plans to go to alexandria for a couple of nights, but meeting zach and muniir really threw a kink into those plans. they were only in town for two days and they called me up and said come get drunk with us and then come to the other oasis tomorrow, and most of my room said yes and so we did. the night out wasnt that spectacular, i suppose; we went to an english pub (because it is the only place where one can buy alcohol during ramadan) and i found out that i dont like egyptian beer, either. so then we got up way too early the next morning and set out for al-fayoum.
we had heard a rumor that we could catch a 6 pound, hour long bus ride easy as pie, but in the end getting to the flipping town was quite a lengthy and complicated endeavor involving a taxi ride to a bus-less station, a subway ride to another bus-less station, and then another taxi ride to a gigantic parking lot filled with probably 500 mini-busses (which are basically vans with very shady reputations). luckily muniir speaks, like im sure i have mentioned in awestruck tones, about 15 languages, so he found the right flipping bus and we hopped aboard and made our way to this tiny little town. on the way, i was looking up the place in lonely planet and i discovered that it has some of the tightest tourist security in the country; westerners arent allowed to travel around anywhere without an armed police escort. naturally we were all pretty pumped about being potential terrorist targets (sorry mom), but we had already spent so much time and money getting to the place that we decided to bite the bullet.
unfortunately this tiny town is ringed by colossal monuments that are all at least 10 kilometers away from both the town and from each other, so a walking tour in the blazing sun is quite impractical. we hired a cab to the first place, which was this really old (and therefore quite ruined) roman city complete with several pagan temples and a Christian church. the cab driver stuck around during our little tour because he was brilliant and realized that he had struck gold with this group of white kids. there were 8 of us and he probably had the only cab able to seat so many in the whole town, and plus the ruins were pretty much in the middle of nowhere so he knew we had no other escape. he fairly systematically overcharged us as he drove us to the beach and then to a random mineral spring, just a couple of the myriad of fabulous sights that al-fayoum has to offer. on the plus side, he waited around for us to check out all of the sights, so it was convenient in the end. then he took us to the only hostel in town (its only competition was a fabulously expensive hotel, so it basically held a monopoly and was able to charge whatever it wanted to poor students like us) and we haggled with him about how much he should charge to pick us up in the morning and drive us around all day. im proud to say that i was responsible for getting a 50 pound discount even though i dont speak much arabic at all, so hooray for that.
then we went into the hotel to chill and wait for iftar to pass so that we could eat. yeah, i guess i didnt mention that i had fasted all day. this had nothing to do with ramadan and everything to do with the fact that in a small, strictly religious town like this one everything closes during the day and opens after sunset. everyone is Muslim so noone is eating so there is no reason for restaurants to be open. finally the stupid sun set and we headed out, but we couldnt leave the hotel without an undercover police officer. he was really good to have around, though, because he took us to the atm and the ice cream shop and to the store so that we could buy food so that we wouldnt have to fast the next day. but first he took us to my favorite restaurant in egypt. the main reason that i loved this place was the fact that they had these amazing crepe things that were folded up and filled with deliciousness. i got one filled with cheese and vegetables and another filled with chocolate (chocolate!) and they were both the best things ever. and then i had rice and tahini and water (which they charge for) and sheesha; we were there for over two hours, and the best part is that we paid 20 pounds a person. thats like 4 dollars for a gigantic, delicious meal plus hookah. like i said, the exchange rate rocks.
then we went to bed, and in the morning (i didnt hear about this until later) the girls were awoken by the cab driver banging on their bedroom doors, which i thought was really inappropriate since guys and girls arent usually allowed in the same private rooms in this country. but anyway, we drove around all day packed into his car- we met another girl who decided to come with us, so, including the driver, there were 10 in a 7 seat car. it was cozy. we went to a really amazing temple that was incredibly well preserved surrounded by a (destroyed) city named after dionysus (the roman god of wine, in case you didnt know). and then we went to 3 of the oldest pyramids in egypt. the last one of the day, the step pyramid, was 4600 years old and was the first pyramid every built. unless im totally overlooking some other really old civilization, it is the oldest manmade thing anywhere, other than footprints and stuff like that. we went inside of it, 57 meters down said the guide, and then up several ladders into the actual tomb on some pharaoh. i know calling him "some pharaoh" is anticlimactic, but i dont remember and its 2 am and i dont care enough to look it up. and then we went next door to these other random tombs and another guide took us down this incredibly dusty and low and narrow tunnel and then down this sketchy, rickety ladder and then across some planks spanning random deep holes in the floor until we finally arrived at the tomb of all of the children of the pharaoh to whom we had just paid respects. it was like spelunking in a grave- very cool. and then we got our driver to take us all the way back to cairo, which was extra fun with 3 too many people in the car (please refer back to my previous notes on egyptian driving).
then back in cairo we piddled for a few hours and then went to eat and then went back to that same pub, which is why my title is thus.
and school starts tomorrow and thats awesome. ive decided (i think) to take both modern standard arabic and egyptian colloquial arabic in order to speed the learning process. its really too bad that i dont go to a school at which i could use all of these fine art and language credits :)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment