We were fascinated with the camels and their owners. The short camel rides were $10. Most people wanted on camels just to take pictures with them on a camel. If they saw you taking a picture of them or their camel from the side lines, they requested to be paid $5. Picture taking had to be quick not to be noticed. Thus, my fast picture taking was free!
Charity and I didn't take camel rides. We didn't want on the stinky, uncomfortable, high camel. The group had been warned to be cautious with the camel rides as many tourists were taken advantage of - especially women. The tourist would be taken behind the pyramid and threatened not to be returned unless they paid a large sum - for example, $100. The camel rides were paid for in advance so the cost would be $110.
Everywhere we went, the people spoke English so language was never a problem. The vendors in Egypt were very aggressive - much like we assume the money changers were like at the temple steps in Jerusalem.
Egypt is where the Christ child was taken to escape death when children under two were killed.
Regarding the vendors, we were told to be very cautious - unless you wanted to buy something, don't make eye contact, don't touch an item, don't even look at anything. The vendors would try to put things in your hand and then tell you how much you owed them.
We used our U.S. dollar everywhere we went. The tour guides recommended that we take the vendors prices, cut them in half, cut them in half again, and then start to negotiate to get the item at that price. I bought one item for $3 that was initially offered at $15 but I had to walk away before the price started to decrease to what was a reasonable amount.
We saw many tourists purchase souvenirs just to get rid of the vendors. It wasn't a pleasant experience to try to negotiate with them so I only bought one item - otherwise, I would have liked to have purchased more. It just didn't seem like it was worth the hassle.
The Sphinx was very close to the pyramids. The Spinx is a figure of an imaginary creature having the head of a man or an animal and the body of a lion. It was not as large as I had expected it to be but still amazing that it was created.
Mt. Zion is where the rich people lived in Jesus' day.
Mt. Zion is the place of the Last Supper (above).
Mt. Zion is where Caiaphas' house was located (above).
The gold dome building is the Church of the Dome.
This is what Jerusalem is like today. The ancient city of Jerusalem was within the stone wall so you can see that Jerusalem is much larger today - this is way outside the old city wall. The population today is approximately 750k which is the largest city in Israel. Tel Aviv has a 400k population. Jerusalem is a cultural center. The total population of Israel is 7.5 million people.
It was a beautiful morning as the ship arrived at the port.
We had dinner on this river boat. It was getting dark as we arrived and we were rushed for time so I only got this one picture of the boat on the Nile River. You can see how polluted the water is - it looks black and has sludge on top of the water that seems almost stagnate.
We were told to only eat food that was cooked - no salad or fresh fruit unless we peeled it ourselves. Only a few of us tried dessert, I didn't get sick but did wonder if the others were just more cautious than me.
We were fascinated with the camels and their owners. The short camel rides were $10. Most people wanted on camels just to take pictures with them on a camel. If they saw you taking a picture of them or their camel from the side lines, they requested to be paid $5. Picture taking had to be quick not to be noticed. Thus, my fast picture taking was free!
Egypt is where the Christ child was taken to escape death when children under two were killed.
This is a store we were taken to in Egypt where we could buy souvenirs. Since souvenirs are defined as "inexpensive," Charity and I didn't find these items to be typical souvenirs. These items were very, very expensive - some hundreds of dollars and even over $1k.
We took pictures instead of purchasing.
Pictures say much more than words so I won't include any commentary with these pictures except to tell you that many buildings are not completed since no property tax is due until after completion.
This is one of many beautiful centerpieces made totally out of fruits / vegetables. I thought this watermelon with the swan was great and the vegetable flowers were done quite well.
