the last day of thailand and first of egypt

the last day of thailand i found myself in ayutthaya at about 6 am.. i wanted to explore one more town before i got stuck in bangkok for the rest of the day.. i got off the train and wandered down the road to avoid the tuk tuk men... i couldnt figure out which was the map went because the way it was layed out between the tracks and the river said that top of the map was south... which really wouldnt surprise me in the longrun.. i asked someone to help me ... and magically jesse became my tourguide for the day.. i just wanted a ride to the post office... and after we got there and he tried to explain in his very limited english taht it was saturday so it was closed.. he took me to a temple instead.. i didnt really ask..but he took over my little pathetic tourist map adn decided that i wanted to see every temple listed.. i really had nothing else to do so i went along... learning how to pray in every single way with bows and offerings and burning of inncense.. i stopped counting at the ninth budda.. what worried me a little was this town wasnt very big.. adn we werent going in a methotical order at all... after about an hour.. i think i knew my way around better than him.. he stopped to ask teh locals a bunch of times how to get to places.. and i eventually explained somehow that i wanted to see the ruins..thats all i wanted to see! so then we went to 4 or 5 ruins...and i told him i was done with my tour.. gave him .. mm 5 bucks.. and then caught the boat across the river for 10 cents that i couldnt figure out how to get around before. when i got back to bangkok on the lovely 2 hour 3rd class bus ride... i had to find the bus to get to the mall where i was gonna hang out for the rest of the time.. i started chattin it up with one of the tuk tuk dudes.. he offered me a ride for 100 baht and i told him he was crazy... and he said fine how much.. i said less than 7 baht because thats what the bus costs..and so he siad ok free if i stop at two tailors.. i wasnt in a hurry..and hadnt had my proper required tuk tuk ride yet so i went with it.. i enjoyed messing with the tailors too being a pro thai barterer after 2+ weeks in thailand... so i eventually got to the mall where i ate myself through my remaining money.. or tried.. i had a smoothie.. some cupcakish thing, "pizza bread" and anything else i could find that suited my fancy.. i found a forever 21 and got really excited... it was HUGE. i got lost for about 10 mins in it.. it was so much nicer than ours at home and a bit more expensive too... surely i wasnt about to spend over 20 bucks on a dress or shirt! so i tried to eat some more and headed to the airport to camp it out until my 1 am flight to cairo.

i arrived in the lovely city of cairo at 5:30.. where my dude picked me up like he was supposed to .. so far so good.. and then halfway through our ride to the hotel he says.. o i gotta pick someone else up.. the driver will get you to the hotel.. youll be fine right? i siad i think soo... and we pull off the side of the freeway and he gets out adn joins the other 6 people standing there.. the traffic was CRAZY. the craziest ive ever seen.. but apparently it works so they dont care.. theres cars going both directions like in bali..and horns going off every half second.. and the standard 7 cars across 3-4 lanes of traffic.. but theres also people runnign across teh street and highway. some wearing their long hejabs that cover their body... man a car coulda easily ran over the tail of the scarf if not her and whipped her back.. so i was thrown into a whole completely new culture shock. i got to the hotel and did all my laundry since it was still only 7 in the morning... i figured there couldtn be too muhc going on..and then i thought about the traffic and realized that was 6 am traffic.. not even teh day traffic! crazy.. i eventually whipped up the courage to wander down the road to find an atm.. the hotel people were the most clueless people in the world.. and told me that theres nothing in walking distance..and i look out the window and see the huge ass pyramids and decide theres got to be an atm near them.. i can see the tour buses lined up! so i venture down the road.. which although it wasnt so long at all, the whole ordeal took 2 hours between getting dragged in the perfumary and convincing a man that i didnt want a camel to sleep with him. i also got invited to someones wedding.. and starred at more in 2 hours than i have been starred at in my whole life.. i got back to the hotel and had to just sit there and recollect my life.. it was hectic out there! eventually i got hungry and realized i needed to brave it out again.. so i asked the desk man where to get egyptian food and he told me that he didnt have any at the hotel... i didnt want to eat at the hotel anyway.. so i walked down the road the other way.. i got some little sandwiches that were like philly cheese steaks and a pizzaish stuffed pita wiht some spicy beef? o and some fresh delicious mango juice. things in egypt were a bit more than asia.. bummer.. at least a good transition before europe! after i got back to the hotel adn found out that i was switchign rooms.. packed up all my laundry that was hanging all over the room, went downstairs, and then the bellman said o no this girl is moving into your room... so i went back up... unloaded and sally from perth moved in and hung up her laundry with me.. she had just finished the tour i was about to start.. so i talked to her for a bit..and decided i couldnt sit inside no matter how bad it was out there.. she said she did the camel ride behind teh pyramids and it was good.. so i took her opinion and walked down the dodgy street again to where the "stables" were right before the pyramids. soo i bartered my way down 100 egyptian pounds.. like 20 bucks for my ride. the cost to get into the pyramids and teh pathetic tip i left my guy left the whole thing being around 30 bucks stilll. bah.. so i got onto my camel..and halfway down the trek my "guide" said he was riding it too.. probably one of the most uncomfortable things ive ever done in my life... rode out into the desert with a scary egyptian man almost rubbing up on me.. i made it very clear that i was already married and my husband was sick back in the hotel. i dont think he understood why i was so uncomfortable all but holding onto the camels tail to stay upright without having to touch him.. BUT! i got my pictures! the best part of the trip was wehn my camel turned into a tuk-tuk.. and took me to the local perfumary and "papyrus museum".. just like the tailors and visitor centers.. aye yaye! a new country... a new shop... after getting suckered into some perfume on my first adventure down the road.. i realize that i got a decent deal.. and i really had more perfume than i could need for life.. so when my camel ditched me becuase i tipped him so badly.. i had to find my way back.. it was about to get dark.. and i could tell i was pretty close but i didnt want to risk wandering around cairo anymore... so i took the "trustworthy" cab man.. he wanted to charge me 10 us dollars for my ride.. i got it down to five.. adn then was mad becuase i went 2 blocks... what a rip off! uhh. but i was safe and happy to be back in one piece to meet my tour group! thank god for the tour group!