yesterday we went to the pyramids. we decided to sleep in the desert next to them. so we set off early afternoon, sleeping bags and water in tow. when we got there we found that the pyramids had closed at three for ramadan, but we figured that you can't really close the pyramids, right? i mean, there is an entire desert surrounding them, and Egypt couldn't possibly have fenced it all. so, we took off walking, dodging over-zealous offers for camels and taxis as we went. we followed the wall through several small villages next to the pyramids.



Apparently the foreign tourists never make it quite that far from the beaten path and we were almost instantly surrounded by hoardes of small children chanting "hello!" and seeing just how close they could come to the alien foreigners without being caught. we followed the wall to the sphinx where we were told, yet again, that it was closed but for a minor sum of money (more than what we spend everyday on our hotel and food) they could take us out to the desert for one whole hour! We declined again, this time somewhat more forcefully and continued on our way. the wall eventually turned into an open gate and seeing no police around we turned in and continued on our merry way. the gate, as it turns out, was the entrance to an islamic cemetary. we wandered through it looking for cracks in the wall or various other shortcomings. the high point of our cemetary visit found us hoisting a dead tree against the wall to climb over it. eventually we decided that we didnt want to be responsible for accidentally breaking open a grave with our tree and that the wall really did have to end at some point and left the graveyard. some time and another village later we found ourselves in what looked to be some sort of dump, complete with a dead horse. immediately following the dump we finally found ourselves in the desert, but there was still a wall. some more "helpful" souls told us that the desert was closed, but of course they would be happy to take us out into it with their camels for a mere bit of money. Jenny yelled at them and told them that the desert couldnt possibly be closed and to just leave us alone. and as they rode oh-so-slowly away from us laughing about the crazy foreigners in flip flops wandering into the desert alone we found our rabbit hole in the fence. and into the desert surrounding the pyramids we slipped. however, we were still a couple of miles from the actual pyramids. we set off into the desert in the dark telling the people we met along the way that we were there to see the stars. in retrospect, it was a ridiculous lie because in cairo you can only ever see ten or so stars at night, even in the desert. we finally settled on a tall bluff where we could see all seven pyramids and set up camp. we were just in time for our own private viewing of the light show at the pyramids.



so we slept there, alone in the desert with a perfect view of the pyramids.





our plan to wake up early enough to hide was foiled by the cold and wind of the early morning desert and when we finally got up at 8 we saw three camels on the horizon making their way to us. it turns out that it was 3 tourist police officers coming to see how we had gotten so far out in the desert 15 minutes after the pyramids opened and why we had sleeping bags with us. we played dumb and told them that we had paid a ridiculous sum of money to be taken into the desert on camels in time for the sunrise, which was terrible. we pretended only to speak english and laughed and petted their camels, all the while expecting to be arrested or fined for breaking the rules. eventually, the captain showed up, in his awesome sunglasses and asked us the same questions we had already answered. he asked for a "tip" but upon finding that we had no dollars and the equivalent of about $0.80 on us refused the tip as a joke and sent us on our way to hike to the pyramids.



and that is just what we did. we walked into the pyramid complex for free, took the obligatory pictures and marvelled at their hugeness and walked out the main entrance, no questions asked. well, they did of course ask us if we wanted a taxi or a lovely camel.

after a somewhat drawn out and terrible exodus from dahab we are on the move again. we decided that slinging booze to abusive expats in egypt was not what we had in mind for our trip, and we quit. however, our bosses "forgot" to pay us for an extra three days and left town. in the end we paid ourselves from the register and went swimming (which we had not had the energy to do even once while we were working). our last few days in town were what i might call... well, stupid. the oldest, ugliest, meanest dog in dahab decided that we owned it and wouldnt leave us. i have to admit that i really liked that dog. anytime anyone approached us it growled and barked and chased them away. and at night she slept outside our door to keep away any intruders. noone else in dahab liked her at all. so, i guess she really was ours.
our last night in dahab we were out with an australian named paul. i mentioned that i might shave my head for africa. he suggested that i do it that night. i got swept up in the excitement of it and now i have the shortest, craziest, most uneven hair of my life. if paul hadnt done such a terribly bad job of it i might look military. once the trauma wears off i might post pictures.
after i cut off my hair i really had to leave dahab. we knew way too many people there, and a lot of them really expected that we would stay permanently. so we took the 8 pm bus to cairo. sadly, our dog tried to follow us when we jumped in the back of a pick up and got hit by a car. we had tried to chase her away, but she just wouldnt go. our pickup didnt stop, but i assume that the dog died. and there you have it. dahab ended horribly and left us sad for days. we also had an 8 hour bus ride to really overthink our poor dog. but we made it to cairo around 4 am and somehow managed to get a hotel.
so that is the short version of our 3 week experiment in dahab. there were of course, highlights. for example, it is ramadan and we got to have our first ramadan breakfast prepared and cleaned up entierly by men. well, not entirely. we made lemonade but they hated it because there was too much lemon and not enough sugar. in any case, it was a big change from ramadan in jordan.
and though it was short and poorly written, thats all i have for now. tomorrow brings pyramids and the sudanese embassy for round 2. i can hardly wait.


Dahab, it doesnt really look like hell, does it?



Our poor doggy, may she rest in peace

so, since last time i wrote jen and i have made a somewhat crucial decision. while walking along the beach front we saw a help wanted sign. we walked in and inquired and were told to come back at 8. at 8 we showed up and were told very appologetically that the boss wasnt coming that night but they would call him to see when he would be in. the phone call wet something like "hey, there are 2 american girls here who want to work..... half hour? ok." and we were told to hang out for half an hour. when he got there he called us in his office and within 20 minutes said we couuld start that night or the next day. easy as that. basically , he is desperate for foreign workers who have a basic sense of how food service works. egyptian service is generally very poor and much of the clientelle here is foreign. so now we are his new bartender and waitress or any combination of the two. fastest i have gotten a job... ever. so now we can at least break even during our stay here and spend ramadan at the beach instead of travelling god knows where and pretending to fast. also living at the beach for free for a while just sounds good. the beginning of our job idea didnt come with the help wanted sign. it started with a local man who calls himself andy... he offered us job and then made us sit with him for way, way too many hours without telling us much about these "jobs". we figured that he was just trying to get us to spend time with him and got the other jobs instead.
so, for the next little while we will be calling dahab home. it is a pretty little backpacker resort town where we can swim in the mornings, in swimsuits (yes, real swimsuits with our arms and legs hanging out for everyone to see). and then when we get out of the ocean, the showers also run with salt water. i am hoping that all the sea water will turn us gorgeous like in blue lagoon. but i somehow doubt it very much. at the very least, it is the opposite of our lives in jordan and we can people watch all day.
work so far consists of long hours of nothing and boredom filled only with the constant thud of terrible trance music punctuated by the foreigners who live here coming in after work and want to know who the new girls are. they assure us that we will want to stay forevr, but i am positive we wont. even making good money couldnt keep me here forever. but our manager thinks we are lightning fast learners and i think we have this job as long as we want it. to tell the truth i would be very sad if he thought we were too slow to pick up bartending...
we have an egyptian phone number now. i think from america it is 011.20.165309642. do with it what you will.
since we have been here i cut my hair. actually we both did. we waded out knee deep in the ocean and cut it ourselves. everyone who saw us thought we were nuts. and in retrospect i cant really think of any good reason to cut hair in a place where you cant stand still except that we didnt want to bother with cleaning it all up.
oh, and since internet time is somewhat dear these days, thanks for putting up with my lack of using spell check.
and with that, i am off to work. i'll see you all in the funny papers.