Pyramids + Faluka = Maya Maya (very good)

This week has just been pretty crazy busy so far!! Last Saturday, we went to see the Pyramids and Sphinx AND we rode in a faluka on the Nile River. We started bright and early by leaving at 7:30am to get to the Giza by 8:30am because we wanted to be able to get there in the morning before it got blazing hot in the desert. Also, to go inside the Great Pyramid, you have to get there pretty early to get a ticket because they only sell a certain amount of tickets per day to go inside it. I was told this is because they want to limit the amount of traffic coming in and out to preserve the pyramid better. So, I got go inside the Great Pyramid and it was so, so amazing! You have to climb up this tiny ramp thing and bend over because it is really enclosed and not very well lit. So, it is a little eerie, to say the least, partly because it was so closed and tight (if you are claustrophobic I wouldn't suggest going inside the pyramid) and partly because you are like in a giant tomb. You climb up to this big chamber and their is a huge sarcophagus where the pharaoh was buried.

There are three major pyramids in Giza and they are the biggest 3 pyramids of the 8 that have been discovered in Egypt. The Sphinx is by these three pyramids and I was kind of surprised at the size of it. I just thought it was a lot bigger because pictures make it look HUGE. I mean, it was impressive and big, but just not as big as I thought it was going to be. This Sphinx is missing a nose and his little goatee because when Napoleon first saw the head sticking out of the sand, he and his men shot at it not knowing what it was. Then, the British came later and sawed off the goatee and took it to England where is now sits in the British Museum. It was really interesting learning all these fascinating things about Egyptian history as far as how these fantastic structures were constructed and why.

And yes, what would more silly then to come to the pyramids and NOT ride a camel. Come one, its part of the whole Egypt experience. The stables we went to get camels only had 2 camels and 2 horses, so since we had 4 people, the owner told us that we could take them and then switch halfway through our ride into the desert. So we set out and this man comes up to us and is like, "I will be your guide and take you to very beautiful view so you can get great pictures" and Jon was like "Well, we don't really need a guide because we don't want to pay extra." The this Egyptian man was like "oh no, I come with these animals....don't worry about the money...I do my best, and you do your best." We thought this was kind of shady, but we just went along with it. So, Jon and I were on the horses to start off with and Jackie and Tara were on the camels. Then this man decided that he didn't want to walk and jumped up on Jackie's camel with her, which is unheard of and she even insisted that she just ride with Tara, but he assured her it was okay and normal (which we found out later, wasn't normal). Our guide led us into the Sahara Desert and we got some great pics of all the pyramids and it was just so beautiful! Then on the way back, Jon and I were getting on the camels and Jon's plan was to get on the camel that the guide would ride on so I wouldn't have to sit with this creepy man, but it undoubtedly, I ended up on the camel with the guide. It was so funny though because when the guide was trying to sit on the camel, it started standing up really quickly and he fell off (we thought it served him right:)). Now you have to understand, when camels stand up and sit down, it is not very graceful. They use their back legs first, so you have to lean way back or else you'll fly forward and possibly off, which I almost did when the camel stood up really fast:) Anyway, when our little riding excursion ended, the guide was haggling us pretty badly and wouldn't take the money we were offering to pay him blah blah blah, but in the end we were able to bargain him way down from what he originally wanted.

So we had some quite humorous and entertaining events happen while we were walking around the pyramids. First, when we got there we had all these guys coming up to us and wanting us to buy their products and trinkets etc. and one man came up to Jackie and was like "Oh beautiful lady, where are you from?" So Jackie was like, "Uh, uh......I don't remember where I'm from!" It was so funny!! So apparently, these men will know how to say the same things in a bunch of different languages so if you don't respond to one they will try all they know until they get a response, so we thought it would be funny to start speaking gibberish to them so they would be confused and not know which language we were speaking:)
Another really funny incident that happened with these men trying to sell stuff happened, again, to Jackie:) She is just the lucky one who provides all the entertainment for us while we just watch:) So another guy came up to her and was asking her if she wanted to buy these postcards that he was selling. So Jackie like panicks and puts her hands over her head and starts running away while saying "NO, I don't want any!" The guy was just like, "Don't run.....why you scared lady?" It was soooo funny and we always do reenactments of Jackie running away from the man with the postcards:)

Later that evening we went sailing in a "faluka" (which is like a big sailboat) on the Nile River. We went in time so could catch the sunset and it was one of the most amazing sights I have ever seen. It was just so relaxing too, and heck, I was on the NILE RIVER!! I got some really good pictures from the faluka.