magnuna is arabic for crazy, which is a good word to know after the 20th tout comes at you at the pyramids. Actually, the touts are not as bad as I thought they would be, and once you say no, they generally go off. I'd like to think it's because my Arabic is stunning, but it might also have to do with the fact that my traveling bud is a translator and tells them we're locals, ok that she's a localfrom 2 countries over, and they see the impossibility of scamming us out of our priceless Egyptian punds, well except for the guy who may, possibly, have charged us a little more than he should have (inshallah) for the papyrus. But at least I didn't pay double of the glass mugs...snicker snicker. The pyramids are certainly a sight, and after a climb to the inside top of one, the prize was three tired looking men who would NOT sing and dance for us, no matter how many times I asked. I did, however, see the king's tomb, but declined to lie in the sarcophagus...the pix are hopefully forthcoming, and yes, the turban on my head is homemade, so you can just forget about making all those jokes...am rather bruised from a horse ride, but luckily we made it through the sandstorm that has already crushed one of the pyramids, and thretens to do the same to the White House...perhaps the heat has gotten to me. Saw a performance of the Whirling Dervishes last night, and if you think of a bunch of ten year olds trying to make themselved dizzy from spinning around and around, but with colorful costumes and a little taller, you get an idea of the situation. Great music as well! And it was all free, which we cannot figure out why, but they could easily charge for it all. Went shopping in the souk, and one of my hosts here knows many of the shop owners, which made the whole experience very easy as bargaining was eradicated. It felt so weird that I ran into an unknown shop and immediately got the usual dirty look from the shop owner when I countered his price with something in the realm of $2. Hey, gotta start somewhere. He didn;t go for it, and I had to get him off the phone to actually pay for anything. Talk about getting them to leave you alone. Also knocked down a few masks in another shop before not buying anything as I couldn't figure out how to tell if it really WAS an Egyptian mask or not, but alas, escaped the souk unscathed and feeling successful with the purchases. All is well, no one fell off the horses this afternoon and there were no reincarnations of Tut or Nefertiti, so I think I'll venture back out into the city again tomorrow. Until the next updat, magnuna magnuna, alelelelele, and I'll see you on the other side of the desert.
Sheikh Kenly
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