Day 17 - Best day ever - (7/4/2009)

So yesterday morning I paid 120 Egyptian pounds which was like 21 U.S. dollars or so for a private driver to a few main areas outside of Cairo. Later that day the manager of my hotel said there will be another couple joining me and asked if that would be ok. I said ya no problem so he cut my price in half so j only paid 60 Egyptian pounds. And so this morning I woke up had a simple but wonderful breakfast and met the other two who would be joining me on this journey. Their names were Ronni and Val. Ok so Ronni looked up what we paid for and found out that people pay quite a few hundred bucks for a tour lime the one we had for only like 10USD. omg I can't even begin to explain how awesome we ha it today. So first of all we had a driver the whole time who would wait for us at each stop. He drove us to saqqara where the very fort pyramid ever built is (the step pyramid), ancient Memphis and finally to the pyramids. So we had to pay the entrance fee but the what we saved in having this driver was just amazing. Now after two stops, an ancient graveyard and the sackara pyramid we were getting hungry so he brought us to a friend of his. (this was prolly planned case later they sold us a camel ride) well we arrived at the frieds houseD saw his horses the we had lunch, for free. After lunch our new host explained the layout of the pyramids and was trying to sell us a guided horse or camel tour. In the end we decided to take the camel tour around the pyramids. It was 190 pounds and the host let us pay him when we got back, he actually had a good vibe about him overall. Now the camel ride tonthe pyramids... This part was sketch cause we enters the whole area in a back way and every security officer that approached us.... Our guide would hand his a little cash and we would be on our way. It was pretty badass cause there was NO ONE else out there. No one at all just Ronny, Val, me and out two kid guide. We got a panoramic shot of the three main pyramids the we rode right up to the base of the pyramids I climbed up several feet and had my picture taken. Actually we all took a lot of pictures. It was incredable.so far we've been riding around fir an hour and a half and now we head down to the sphinx. This is where all the tourist were. We get off our camels and visit the sphinx the head back to the house and to our driver. There was some money issues that was kind of annoying but not worth mentioning cause overall all three of us were so happy we did this. I must say it was quite the deal. After this it was like 4pm and we went back to the hotel. I mentioned I'm thinking of taking the oasis trip with my hot and mentioned what I knew. We three talked about the possible trip and try decided to try and make it also. We decided to have dinner together later that day so we'd talk about it then and see how things will work out. Before dinner our driver took my to Islamic Cairo, just a quick drive through so I could take some pictures. We got back to the hotel and 30 min later around 6:15pm Ronny, Val and I went out to eat. We decided to go on the oasis trip, and together make our way to Luxor to spend a night or two there then we'd part our ways since I was heading to Sinai and theybwere heading more south. After dinner we head to a bar for a couple drinks and sheesha. We each had three beers but the waiter tried to say we each had four... Long story short I got out of my seat and argued wkththe waiter till be dropped the price. We didn't tip. We got back to the hotel and tried to purchase three tickets to luxur but the sight was trippin out. So we'll do that tomorrow. All in all, today I made a couple good friends, got an unheard of deal for touring the outskirts of cairo, climbed a pyramid, paid of the police, rode a camel, took some great pictures of Islamic Cairo, smoked sheesha, drunkenly foughtt a waiter, and now about to go to bed. Tomorrow I sleep in and later Ronny, Val and I head to Coptic Cairo. Egypt is amazing. I love of so much I just wish I could have writtinf about my day a letter better. Hopefully you still get the feeling of how amazing today was. ash I love it.
K.
Goodnight :)

Day 17 - Best day ever - (7/4/2009)

Cairo, Egypt