I saw King Tut's underwear

It's Wednesday evening, and I've passed the "tipping point" or our vacation. One of the things a well-intentioned friend had warned me about was to expect some "culture shock." That really hasn't been the case for this vacation, except for some mild annoyance when I have to say "No, thank you, but I really don't care for a burro ride to market" for the fifteenth time.

Another thing I hate: bargaining. I'd sooner come away with no souvenirs than haggle for them. It seems I inevitably feel either that I'm taking advantage of the vendor, or being taken advantage of. Most of the cases of the former are in actuality likely the latter. Yet there's plenty of humor to be found. A typical (and real) conversation follows:

Dad: How much for the instrument?
Egyptian: Twenty pounds. (There are about 5 Egyptian pounds per dollar)
Dad: Let's see, that would be about four dollars. I could give you two dollars.
Egyptian: Deal. In pounds, that's about 15 pounds.
Jonathan, laughing: No, Dad, give him 10.

Other highlights of the trip:

• The Egyptian Museum in Cairo. The "treasures" of the museum include the burial mask, sarcophagi, and Afterlife supplies of the young King Tut. His linen underwear was also on display, hence this post's title.
• A train ride from Cairo to Aswan on a Soviet-era "first class" train. A 10-watt bulb lit my sleeper cabin, a musty smell permeated the room, and the decor seemed to be straight from the 50's. Definitely an experience to remember.
• The pyramids at Giza. At this point I would say something like, "You can't appreciate how big they are until you stand beside them," but I've heard that line so many times that it's past cliche. They are nearly 1/3 the height of the World Trade Center, and supposedly Napoleon calculated that they contain enough stone to build a three-foot wall around the perimeter of France.
• A "felucca" (small boat) ride on the Nile. Amazing gold-to-red sunsets over this great river's western bank.
• Is "EuroTrash" a politically correct term? Just wondering. Anyway, lunch on the cruise ship was a frenzy of French-speaking mayhem. We later dined with two British couples which was much more enjoyable. Another fun fact: If you were to drop the Great Pyramid at Giza onto the Eiffel Tower, the latter would be smashed flat. As would the Louvre.
• Mom has asked a couple of our guides why the different groups in Iraq (Shiite, Sunni) can't get along as well as the Muslims and Coptic Christians who peacefully coinhabit Egypt. Feeling a bit like I was in the middle of a Flannery O'Conner story, I told her the guides probably didn't have a good answer for that.
• Visiting the "High Dam" across the Nile. The first dam was built around 100 years ago (flooding the ancient Temple of Philae which was later painstakingly moved), and the High Dam completed ~30 years ago. These dams forever altered the flow of the Nile, eliminating harmful excessive flooding, but also preventing naturally fertilizing silt from reaching the farmlands of lower Egypt. The lake created behind the High Dam also displaced many Nubians. (I'm sure they all agreed to this project, knowing they'd be well-compensated for exchanging their personal property for a gigantic electricity-generating project.) The High Dam supposedly contains 17 times the amount of material as the Great Pyramid at Giza.

We sail tomorrow for Luxor. Signing off for now...(Imagine a picture of the Sphinx at the top of this entry. It wouldn't upload properly from this internet/smoking lounge's computer.)