Of Pyramids and Men

Today we went to the Pyramids at Giza!
It was rather anticlimactic, to be honest. You're driving down the highway and all of a sudden...BAM! Pyramids! It doesn't make any sense! I suppose I always imagined that you have to trek through the desert to the pyramids, but there they are literally next to homes and cafes.
So we traipsed around the desert a bit and batted off touts like flies. A word of advice for those looking to travel to the pyramids: don't worry about being nice. I've been surprised by how genuinely nice most Egyptians are--they really get an unfair rap as far as global stereotypes go--but the touts and the pyramids are enough to drive a girl insane. They have all kinds of clever tricks to sucker you into paying them for various goods, services and exploitations. They insist that they are employees of the government and that their jobs are to provide tours; they tell you that they're getting married soon and don't want tips, but perhaps a bit of help toward their wedding...? They promise a camel ride for only 10 egyptian pounds (about $1.80) until they get you out to the desert...then demand 50 pounds to return.
The pyramids were quite interesting though. We entered the Great Pyramid (Cheops) and climbed up to the Great Chamber. We had to go in shifts because no cameras were allowed and I wasn't about to leave my camera with the guards there, so Janis and Hillary climbed first while I waited outside. When it was my turn to enter, I climbed straight up and sat around the Great Chamber for a few minutes in thought. When I decided to leave, I noticed a purse on the wall by the exit. You have to stoop to exit, so I stooped and noticed two pairs of feet atop each other moving around the passageway. I totally caught a couple having a quickie in the pyramid.

We stayed around Giza until the evening and paid extra to see the Pyramids Sound and Light Spectacular. We met up with a traveler along the way, a crunchy writer from New York on a quest to find his bliss, and the four of us stayed for the show. It was the silliest thing I have ever attended. With the Sphinx as narrator, you learn random bits and pieces of Egyptian history through a very dated light show set to soaring orchestral music. The Sphinx is voiced by a man who must have been trained as a Shakespearean performer. He offered a very truncated and skewed history of the great Egyptian dynasties, suggesting that the pyramids were built by devout, eager volunteers and not Jewish slaves. Words cannot do justice to the silliness of this spectacular. It was very reminiscent of the Wizard of Oz.

Now a bit on Egyptian men. In the last two and a half days I have been told (always uninvited, of course) by countless Egyptian men that I am too much to handle and men around the world will not want to marry me. This is because I negotiate prices and am outgoing and friendly. The Egyptian guide who took us through passport control warned the Egypt-side driver about me; he was worried that I would "start a revolution" and convince all of the women in our group not to get on the bus. A tour guide who let us sit on his air conditioned bus at the pyramids today told me that men will not marry me because I talk too much. Luckily, I don't think that my love life will suffer terribly if it lacks Egyptian men.