Back to dusty Giza, and I was getting unsettled by plans to go to Coptic Cairo -- I was definitely not interested in churches or anything modern for that matter, so I decided to play it neutral and went instead to the Giza Zoo in the El-Dokki precinct of Giza. First I meet my friend Amr at his papyrus shop and oblige him by buying three fine pieces -- he "give me good price" after two Moroccan ladies (his friends) tell him to stop being such a tightwad. When I named Rabat, Casablanca and Marrakesh as places I'd heard of in Morocco, they were supremely impressed. Nobody had heard of Rabat, they told me.
I stood on the curb and waited to see if I could angle public transport to the zoo. I was told it would be an hour's walk, but a ten minute drive. I angled for a micro bus, shouting ZOO. At least fifteen would pass me by without a word before one stopped and I was dragged into the seat next to the driver's. There were no words -- he just took my money and in ten minutes, I was at the zoo's gates. A beautiful zoo inside, I tipped off a zoo worker to play with two lion cubs, watched pelicans and crocodilians before heading back to beat a 1PM curfew for lunch. Amazingly, everyone had lunch at a McDonald's in a musty mall across the road from our hotel.
In the evening, we went to the sound and light show at the pyramids, though the
rain meant we couldn't sit up close, but rather at one of those covered cafes where you had to order drinks if you wanted a place to sit. So we did. The show was magnificently produced, but only the lights. The cheesy Sphinx narrator (briefly engaging for being projected with a real face), the crusty, cliched script, woeful acoustics and Roshan Seth-style diction meant that I was only there to take open-aperture photos of Pink Floyd concert style Giza pyramids and briefly gawk as Cheops flipped from purple to green and back in a few seconds.
We were taken to a restaurant called Felfela for a traditional meal after we ambled out from the sound and light. It was much like the first day, though the chicken was fabulous and Nancy, a Lebanese pop sensation, was a nice touch to our first almost totally useless day in Egypt. I went to bed early.
I stood on the curb and waited to see if I could angle public transport to the zoo. I was told it would be an hour's walk, but a ten minute drive. I angled for a micro bus, shouting ZOO. At least fifteen would pass me by without a word before one stopped and I was dragged into the seat next to the driver's. There were no words -- he just took my money and in ten minutes, I was at the zoo's gates. A beautiful zoo inside, I tipped off a zoo worker to play with two lion cubs, watched pelicans and crocodilians before heading back to beat a 1PM curfew for lunch. Amazingly, everyone had lunch at a McDonald's in a musty mall across the road from our hotel.
In the evening, we went to the sound and light show at the pyramids, though the
rain meant we couldn't sit up close, but rather at one of those covered cafes where you had to order drinks if you wanted a place to sit. So we did. The show was magnificently produced, but only the lights. The cheesy Sphinx narrator (briefly engaging for being projected with a real face), the crusty, cliched script, woeful acoustics and Roshan Seth-style diction meant that I was only there to take open-aperture photos of Pink Floyd concert style Giza pyramids and briefly gawk as Cheops flipped from purple to green and back in a few seconds.We were taken to a restaurant called Felfela for a traditional meal after we ambled out from the sound and light. It was much like the first day, though the chicken was fabulous and Nancy, a Lebanese pop sensation, was a nice touch to our first almost totally useless day in Egypt. I went to bed early.
No comments:
Post a Comment