OnTheRoad

Perhaps I'm bad luck for a country? Pakistan had the Lal Masjid confrontation and the resulting fallout while we were there, now Egypt has been bombed again. We were in the Khan al-Khalili area around a week ago, in fact. I'm just slipping out an update to let you know that June and I are alive and well, safely out of Cairo.

Speaking of the Khan al-Khalili, it's not a bad place to check out. It's had the worst of the Egyptian touts so far, but overall it's an appealing warren of shops, mosques and tourists. Photos should have been up for a while somewhere under the Cairo section, which will include a few from the area.

We managed to get out to the pyramids as well (of course), although it took a couple of attempts. We started too late the first time around, arriving at the pyramids at three after eventually finding a bus to take us there. Not the bus that we were looking for (which is airconditioned and sealed against the fumes of Egyptian traffic), but a local bus, wide open windows allowing a good flow of exhaust fumes.

Second time around was more successful; we gave up on the aircon, covered our faces and took the local bus. Wandered around, took photos (I need sunglasses - Egypt is too goddamn bright, so I may look like I'm squinting in any photos of me), climbed into small pyramids, rode on a camel, drank sweet, sweet, sweet tea (as June has pointed out, our guide didn't even bother to use a spoon for the sugar when making tea - just poured it from the bag).

I'll fill in the details from there later, along with more photos; we've been down to Aswan and Abu Simbel, and are now hanging out in Luxor. Tomorrow we're taking a day off the holidaying, and reverting to the do-nothing-at-all style of holiday that I try to make a significant part of my travel. If you're out seeing things all the time, every day, it starts to feel like a job :D