Livin' like an Egyptian

I've been in Egypt for about 4 days now and yes, of course, the pyramids are amazing. I will post pictures. But what I really want to describe for you are the cultural differences here because Cairo and to a lesser extent, Luxor, are the most different places I have been on my trip so far. The easiest way to do this is to simply write about my first few minutes in Egypt.

Chad and I arrived at the airport and were looking to buy some airplane tix to Luxor and then hail a taxi to our friend's place. We were immediately approached by someone wearing a Cairo airport name tag who walked us to the EgyptAir counter. On the way, I noticed he very quietly removed his Cairo airport tag. When we got to the counter he began to wait for us and wanted us to go with him to his "friend's" travel agency to book a tour. Everyone is Egypt has lots and lots of friends. And they all get kickbacks from referrals. We declined the offer (though he did follow us anyway) and hailed down a taxi after buying the airplane tickets. Taxis have no meters and no prices in Egypt. Instead you have to negotiate all fares and, after a somewhat lengthy negotiation, we got the taxi driver to agree to what we knew was the fair price. On the way out of the airport, one of the many, many security guards in Egypt (who do absolutely nothing) made our taxi driver pull over and the driver had to pay the security guard some money. It was then I realized that I was in Egypt. Though the airport is only 20 km from center of Cairo, it took an hour to get there because of the stifling traffic throughout the city. On the way, we saw a think layer of cloud covering Cairo due to the massive amount of pollution in the city. We were later told that the farmers are burning their leftover rice crop. This is illegal but, of course, no one does anything about. It's Egypt after all!

Despite this encounter and many similar encounters like it (i.e. people pushing you out of the way when you are on line to get in front of you, taxi drivers refusing to give you the correct change, everyone hassling you to buy anything and everything, etc.), I have really enjoyed the past few days here. The pyramids may be the most amazing thing I have seen on the trip so far, the valley of the kings in Luxor (where all the tombs were dug up) is equally amazing, the food in Cairo and Luxor is outstanding (and unlike Italy, healthy) and the people here just love "Amrika." They really do. I think because the U.S. gives Egypt tons of money and they love the American culture (so different than the reception throughout Europe). Anyway, I am going to my third city here tomorrow, Aswan. A much quieter, less touristy city and the southernmost city in Egypt. I will write more when I get there and hopefully post pics.