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April 10, 2000
I'm sitting in a cafe having a soda water, waiting for my turkish coffee, and I'm listening to the "call to prayer." It's noon. Two speakers across the street are in "battle" with each other. Kind of cool.
At another table are a couple finishing up lunch. I speak with them and find out that they're Egyptologists. Wow, I'm meeting a lot of Egyptologists in Egypt. Go figure. Martin and Liz are from Oxford University and are working on their PHDs. There was some conference in Cairo a couple of weeks previous, and they're all here checking out the sites. They get into all the places free. How cool is that?
I leave them, and head off to Karnak temple.
After a few attempts at securing a horse'n'buggy thing, I finally get a ride from Khamal. He agrees to take me for LE20 as well as wait as long as I require. (The going rate is under LE15...whatever!!!)
Karnak Temple is amazing! As you walk in you're greeted by high wall after high wall. I wander through and am amazed by the Great Hypostyle Hall. It's a room filled with gigantic pillars. Great place to play tag or hide'n'seek.
All throughout, I am asked by "tourguide wannabe's" to take pictures, and they point out things on the wall to take pictures of. Then they expect "baksheesh" for stuff, I probably would have found anyways. After a couple of times, I stop listening to them.
After a couple of hours of roaming around, I proceed to make my way to the exit/entrance. I stop by the front, and ask a tourist for a pen so I could mark my roll of film (#4). As I do this, I hear someone say hello. It's Martin.
I was about to leave but I figure it would be cool if I could tag along with Martin as he walked to wherever he was going. I ask if he minds. He doesn't.
He says he's looking for the botanical gardens and I follow. He starts to explain what the "pylon's" are (the big walls). As we enter the hypostyle hall, I ask about the symbols that interested me. He reads them with no problem.
He takes me to a few places that I missed, and explains some heiroglyphics, as well as why things were built the way they were. Cool. We agree to meet Liz later on for dinner.
Now, if I could only remember half the stuff he told me. Looks like I need to buy the book.
After a good dinner with Martin and Liz (I had shish tawouk), I get harassed by a "friendly" local as I walk back to my hotel. Turns out he wanted me to buy him some Marlboro's for informing me that my pack was open. After several minutes of him following me, I almost lose it on the guy who kept insisting that he was just helping but insisted that he be paid a reward. Yeah, a regular good samaratin. I offer him LE2 to screw off and he refuses. Then when he realizes that he's not getting the smokes, he settles for the LE2. I tell him that the offer is now null and void and that he gets nothing. Stupid punk!!!
After that I deal with several harassing taxi and kalesh drivers, but too tired to write about it. I'm back in my room, and relieved to be alone. Great day, but it ended shitty.