Tutti Frutti

We had Mama Pharaoh back today! She is seriously awesome. In the Cairo museum, as we were about to go up to the second floor to see the Tutankhamen exhibit, she said, "Have a look [at what she'd just shown us] my lovely Pharaohs and then we go upstairs to see Tutti Frutti!" Lol.

Guys, I'm already planning my next trip to Egypt. There's so many things I still want to see and do, and bring my family to see one day... I want my kids to meet Mama Pharaoh (I got her email address so they can!) and see the pyramids and ride in an Egyptian taxi. I know I'll be back someday. I love this place too much to leave it behind forever.

Yesterday we did the temples. Karnak and Luxor. We took a motor boat up the Nile to Karnak, and then took the touristy horse carriages to Luxor and back to the hotel, lol. K, so Karnak does not look enough like Ramses III's funerary temple for me to have had that much deja vu. Dude, I keep having all kinds of crazy deja vu. It's made it a really crazy trip for me. But fun, too. Like driving to the airport Tuesday I saw the Mohammed Ali mosque/citadel our the window, and I had completely forgotten it until that moment and all of a sudden I started having like, random flashes of memory. It was nuts. But anyway, Karnak was fun. It was neat to be there with an actual tourguide because I felt like I got more meaning out of the place, but we also didn't have as much downtime to just wander around as I would have liked (once again). My favorite part is the hall of columns. There's 134 huge columns that are 10 arm spans around (I have the picture of us measuring...) and about 10 feet apart and I just love walking through them. They're also one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world (along with the pyramids- I need to find out what the other 7 are, and then go visit all the ones that are still standing :D).

Luxor temple was new to me. I'm pretty sure about this one. No crazy deja vu or anything. The coolest thing about Luxor was the Avenue of Sphinxes that used to stretch all the way to Karnak. And the ones that are still there are still pretty intact (k, another hindsight interjection here- I was looking at my picture of them and actually only about 1/2 of them are, but still). It's prolly about 100 yards long now. And there were some more big statues of Ramses II. There were a bunch of those at the Cairo museum, too. To be perfectly honest, I think they have more of them lying around than they even know what to do with. They guy ruled for 67 years and he wanted everyone to know it, but you can only marvel at so many statues of the same guy.... I don't know if I already mentioned that he's believed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus, but it makes sense because he built a lot of stuff, and somebody had to do the grunt work.

After the temples we just had lunch and free time and I pretty much just chilled. Laid out by the pool, took a nap. I thought about going to the bazaar again with some people (in fact, I actually signed out and was about to go) but then I realized how tired I really was, and the nap was definitely the best decision I made all day. Then we got on the night train to Cairo. Not gonna lie, it was pretty sketch. But honestly, it was really only as bad as the train I used to take to Stratford. Except with beds and like, actual compartments. Granted, I also didn't have to sleep on the train to Stratford.... But, surprisingly, I slept really quite well. I didn't even use the Tylenol PM the "Bus Doc" gave me. And in the morning I swear I was more awake than at least 80% of our group, lol. When we were at the museum, one of the girls remarked, in a kind of "who are you?" tone, "She's [meaning me] the only one who doesn't look tired!" Lol.

So then we had breakfast and sacrament meeting at the hotel. On Friday. Ya, don't worry about it, no big deal. Lol. This is what I love about the Middle East. It's so cool to be in church on a day that's not Sunday! :) Then we went to the Cairo museum to see Tutti Frutti, lol. I actually saw mostly a different part of it this time. Coz with my fam we didn't spend as much time downstairs (with the Old, Middle, and New Kingdom stuff), mainly I think because we didn't really know much about what there was to see except Tutankhamen's stuff. And I didn't go in the Mummy Room last time. Also I think one of Tut's sarcophagi waws on display somewhere else before, so we didn't see it, but I could be totally making that up... But ya, the Mummy Room was pretty sweet. Completely disgusting. Some of them still had teeth and they all had finger and toe nails, and one evn had curly long hair. It was sick. One thing Mama Pharaoh told us is that they keep the mummies covered except for the head, and sometimes hands and geet, and it's out of respect for the people who used to live in those bodies. She said, "We never asked them to display their bodies for everyone to see, so we try to give them respect." I thought that was kind of cool. I didn't get to go in the animal mummy room tho, because I didn't even know about it until too late. Apparently they have a crocodile and a baby crocodile and all kinds of cool stuff. Rude. Next time, I guess. Oh, we also got to see some round carved disc things that kind of look like facsimile number two. And some papyri that were written in black and lined with red ink like the ones Joseph Smith had were supposed to be. Pretty cool.

So then we went to Khan al-Khalili, the huge bazaar in Cairo. It was nuts. All the merchants were yelling and trying to get us to come look at their stuff. Some of my favorite lines were, "I don't know what you're looking for, but I have it!" and "How can I take your money?" Lol. The only thing I bought was a little scarab beetle magnet. I'm pretty stoked about it, tho, coz I'd been kinda wanting a scarab beetle but didn't really know what I would do with it, so when I saw it as a magnet I was like, I'm pretty sure I need that. I got it for a dollar. It's ridiculous how much you can get for that much here. Seriously, they will sell you anything for like, $1-3. It's out of control.

Then I had my very first Hard Rock Cafe experience ever. It's in the Grand Hyatt, which is across from the Four Seasons in the nice part of Cairo. The next time I come here, I want to stay in the Four Seasons. :) Seriously, tho, it was kinda fun being down there because I'm pretty sure that's the street my grandparents lived off of when we were there. That was another thing I'd forgotten about the Four Seasons. The Hard Rock was fun. The waiters all got us up and line dancing. Seriously, we are so cool. I had to pay extra to get cheese on my burger, and when I was trying to pay at the end, I wanted to give them exact change in American but I guess they don't take coins. So I was figuring it out with the waiter and he was all, "You have beautiful eyes" and like, grinned at me like he's just made my week. I was like, Thanks sweetheart, but I really just want to pay for my food... And there's was this amazing sign on the bathroom stall doors that said "No drugs or nuclear weapons". Like, what the heck, right.

So then we went back to the hotel and I once again had a very chill, relaxed evening. Some people went to the Pyramids Sound and Light show, but it ws 25 bucks and I've already see it. People were talking about having another dance party, but I don't think anyone was up for it. After all, we have to hike Mt. Sinai at 2 am in a couple of days and we're already exhausted. I think that's why everyone gets sick on the Egypt trip (it's got a rep). Between sharing germs on a bus all day and the brutal pace, we've got no chance. My goal for this trip, though, is to not get sick. Good luck me. Ooh, the hotel made us a cake tonight, too. it said, "BYU DAKKAK QUEEN TOURS" and they brought it out with these awesome flaming torches. It was sweet.