We are back, and I think this keyboard is way better.....so far :)

Now we are in Jordan, but I will get back to Cairo. Where was I.....I think we had just finished off about the pyramids. After the pyramids we got back into the car and drove south for 30 minutes to Saqqura and Iomtep's tomb. We were kind of rushed through everything as it was around 5pm and the place was closed but since we were on a tour then it was OK. The Pyramids at Saqqura are supposedly 5000 years older than Giza. There were also a couple of tombs around that our guide explained to us.

Then we headed back to the hostel and cleaned my wound and went for a walk around our local area. It was interesting but you just get so many looks from everyone, especially Amy with her blonde hair. In fact they ogle her all the time, I fell sorry for her. That evening we just relaxed at the hotel and cleaned ourselves up.

On Sunday we went on a tour of the city. We started at Mohammed Ali Mosque, and they take offense if you mention the boxer. It was huge and it overlooked the city so you had a great view of everything. Unfortunately Cairo is very dirty and has bad pollution problems so it is always covered in a smog which limits how far you can see. After that we went to old Cairo which is basically full of a lot of different denominations churches. You could tell that the people who live around there are also members of those different faiths as most of the women did need wear head scarves, therefore that are not islamic. The area was fairly nice with lots of very narrow streets and walkways, very roman I guess. We spent an hour walking around and then meet our driver who took us for a nice local drink, I think it was sugar cane juice.

Our driver then took us to the Egyptain Muesum. It was fantastic, mummies, coffins, tombs everywhere. Of course they have the biggest collection of artifacts and in fact they are planning on openning another muesum soon as they have so many additional artifacts that they have found. In fact every day they say it seems they find new sites to dig. There is just so much history burried by the sand. We spent about 3 hours there as there is only so much looking at old statues etc that you can do. We got back to the hostel around 4pm and cleaned up again for an evening cruise on the nile.

The cruise was a lot of fun as we got a different perspective of the city from the water. There was actually a TGI Fridays floating on the nile, it looked really popular. On the cruise we got to eat some traditional food, mainly rice and vegetables with beef which was all fairly bland, no spices. Then a belly dancer performed and some guy twirled around in cirlces for 30 minutes do tricks with his freezby kind of skirt. Anyway that was cool. Then we went to the top of the boat and it happenend to be Nile day so there were some fireworks going off.

Once we got back to the hostel we read and went to bed, well AMy did anyway. Again for some reason I couldnt sleep and I got maybe 4 hours again. So 4 hours sleep for the last 4 nights (Debbie just try that)!!! We woke up and packed and unfortunately discovered our money missing. Somehow from getting back to the room and waking up it disapeared. Someone was in the room the whole time and we searched everywhere and turned our bags inside outseveral times. It just walkked away. Or maybe I was sleep walkingf and went and spent it Amy said. So that put a little dampener on our time in Egypt.

Some things about Cairo, gas is about 30(US) cents a litre, so $1.20 a gallon. But the price has increased a lot in the middle East and it seems to me most people blame the US. Cairo has Hardees of all fast food places, and of course Mcdonalds, Pizza Hutt, KFC. Its really dirty.

We made our way to the airport, the security was a joke, nobody really checked anything, passport, liquids, tickets etc. But we made it to Amman and our hostel. Which by the way is very nice and has a fantastic manager who likes to have team and hummus all night long as you just chat and he tells you where to go.

Anyway I may sound bitter but Cairo was great and you have to go at least once, but maybe only once is enough.

OK goodnight, love to all,

Simon and Amy