day 406 – christina desperately wanted to see the pyramids, but i was hold off for better weather. we had hoped to go today, but it was overcast and very hazy. we agreed to give it two more days and if the weather wasn’t clear, we’d go anyway.
instead, we headed to the embassy district. we wanted to know what to do regarding visas for other african countries. we also needed to figure out if christina could get an iraq visa.
so we went to the embassy district but everything was closed. we went to the south korean embassy to check the opening times, but it turns out that the embassy marked on the map as south korea is actually north korea. lol … wouldn’t want to walk into there by accident!!
we also found a korean restaurant (south korean) nearby, but since we weren’t hungry, we didn’t go in.
christina and i returned to the hotel and relaxed for a while. in the evening we went on a nile dinner cruise. it was very touristy and they worked it so that the buffet was only open for a short while (towards the end) most of the time we watched dancers (belly dancing and sufi dancers). it was a bit dull and there was a huge rush for the buffet when it opened. after the meal we stood on the top deck and enjoyed the view of the nile.
day 407 – another hazy day, so no pyramids. instead we returned to the embassy district. this time everything was open. we went into the libyan embassy (only to be told that it takes a month to get a visa) and we went to the iraq embassy (which wasn’t an embassy at all).
then we found the south korean embassy and the guy there told us that koreans are not permitted to enter iraq at all. i was quite rude to him, so he wouldn’t speak to me after that. he only spoke directly to christina lol … i didn’t care though. however he did tell her that sometimes koreans cross the border because the border officials don’t always know (or care) that koreans are not supposed to cross. it was a risk, of course, that we weren’t prepared to take.
after a long day of stomping around embassies, we were tired and gave up. we headed back to the hotel, i did computer updates all night, and got some sleep.
day 408 – in the morning the weather was fantastic, so we immediately jumped into a taxi and headed for the pyramids.
making the most of the blue sky, christina and i walked around the sphinx and the two biggest pyramids. she went for the short tour inside and i elected to wait outside. it’s hard to write about what we did, aside from walk around and enjoy the atmosphere. i took lots of photos and we bought a few souvenirs.
it was quite hot out there, so we headed back into the city and went to the korean restaurant which we had found on the first day. i had kimchi jiggae (awesome) and a beer.
in the evening i met an egyptian guy in the hotel. we shared some noodles and talked. then i checked email and went to bed.
day 409 – decision time.
we had three choices – west, north or south. west meant libya, north was europe and south meant sudan (then on towards south africa).
west was out of the question – we didn’t want to wait a month for the libya visa and then (possibly) not be able to enter algeria. south meant being in south africa during the world cup (definitely not!) … so the only logical option was north.
we had breakfast and put in some laundry. after that we went into the main part of town to check travel agents and flight prices. christina and i had decided to fly back to turkey and head into europe from there. we checked airlines and prices, then returned to the hotel to have lunch and think about it all. after lunch we bought two tickets to istanbul.
we bought some souvenirs for family and friends and walked back to the hotel. i also decided to pack some stuff to send home in the mail and it was then that i noticed my tripod had broken a leg. damn!! so i put it with the other stuff to ship home and see if i can fix later.
day 410 – we walked into town to do some stuff before flying to turkey. we photocopied our passports and posted the box of souvenirs and junk. i returned to the computer store and talked with the owner, then went to a small falafel shop for lunch.
i spent the afternoon doing very little …
