Egypt, Day 2

Crossing the border into Egypt!  Honestly, probably not among my top ten favorite parts of the trip, but still, an interesting experience.  It felt like I had my passport checked about every 12 feet, and it was really, really hot... just made me grateful for the shade every time we got to the next building :)  The border terminal is located literally on the shore of the Red Sea--just enough of a sea breeze to make us all sticky :) But all the sweat was worth it: I officially have an Egyptian stamp in my passport!!

Once we loaded the buses and took off, it wasn't long before I did a double take looking out the window--I could have sworn I saw a ship sailing through the middle of the desert. Hallucination, I thought... But it turned out I was right--we were approaching the Suez Canal!  It was just such a funny sight :)  We actually drove through a tunnel underneath it, which was a little bit disconcerting when I thought about it!  But it's really such an incredible feat of engineering!

So... usually rest stops aren't worth any commentary, but the ones on this trip merit a short bit. And not in a good way. Oh man.  I'd been warned ahead of time about the bathrooms in this country, but wasn't quite sure what to expect... Let's just say that it is a real blessing to have been raised in a country in which the average bathroom is free of charge, provides toilet paper, has a toilet seat (anything besides a hole in the ground, for that matter), a real door, and a toilet that flushes, has pump soap (and not a hair-covered bar of soap, if any, and crusty faucet handles,) and doesn't require the occupant to chase out spiders or to roll up his or her pant legs to avoid getting wet.  Yep, I've never known how good I've had it :) Such an interesting experience! :)

 Finally getting to our hotel in Cairo was such a relief!  The drive into the city as the sun was going down was unforgettable, though, in a few ways.  First, to look out over the skyline and see the pyramids--whoa!  Second, I will never complain about Utah drivers again.  These Egyptian drivers are nuts! Straddling the lane lines, just scraping past other cars... When you cross a street, you have to be careful not to change your speed in the middle, because the drivers have it timed and are planning on missing you by about 4 inches (to quote Dr. Muhlestein, "They know how thick their paint is.") No joke. Third--there are SO many people in Cairo! The amount of housing there blows my mind.  It was weird to see how many of the buildings there have bars sticking out of the top, the roofs unfinished, until I learned that they had no intention of finishing them (with laws in the past, property taxes based on the value of the property were an awful lot lower if your property was "unfinished." Hmm.) I also loved seeing the colors: apparently, when you buy an apartment in Cairo, you're really only buying the walls.  The windows, doors, paint, and everything else are up to you! Lots of personalization.

After dinner we drove over to the Giza to watch the Sound and Light Show at the Pyramids!  Really cool--mostly just because they were the pyramids.  The Sphinx's voice wasn't quite as deep as I imagined it would be... ;)  It was hard to see much in the dark, but loads of fun just to be there! (I'd post a picture, but I can't tell you how difficult it was to get a good one with the weird lighting!)