TOURIST TAT

You'd reckon in a place like Egypt, there would be tourist tat everywhere you looked. There sure is! Although in this case, I'd call it Tourist Tut. Couldn't resist buying one of these!

To go with all the other el cheapo bric a brac I buy to remind me of my travels. It has to be cheap and tatty, that's my only rule.

Today we visited the old original Egyptian Museum conveniently located across the street. A lot of the original stuff found in King Tut Ankh Amon's tomb is still here. A lot of other stuff has been relocated to the new Egyptian Museum that they have been building since 2001 out at Giza, from where it will overlook the Pyramids. It's costing billions. A giant statue of Ramses the 2nd has been moved out there also, and they had to shut half of Cairo down to move it apparently. You can see the forecourt of the old museum through the murk in this shot from our alleged Nile view hotel room. Pity we can't see the Nile most of the time either.

Or in daylight. It's the pink building.

The old museum is pretty tired and daggy, and very dimly lit, so it's hard to see what's in there, but it was still cool to see stuff made up to 4700 years ago.  King Tut's death mask is in the museum, and three of his burial suits made of gold and silver. The gold one weighs 110kg, making it pretty valuable on face value, but of course it's true value is incalculable. Hope they've got a good burglar alarm, there's a long history of grave robbing in this country! No photos are allowed in parts of the museum, especially the Tut display room. But I have a reasonable facsimile thereof in the first photo above, and it's value was very calculable. About $10 in fact. 

We are pretty well Egypted out, and look forward to leaving for home tomorrow morning. Not looking forward to sitting in the stocks again for 23 hours of misery to get there though. But even the recycled air on the plane will be a relief from the carcinogenic smog weve been breathing for days. Win some, lose some! 

Will finish the blog when I get home and access all of the best photos from the trip, most of which were taken by other people who knew wtf they were doing.  🖖 Live long and prosper!

PS: Here's a bit of late news.  The photo below shows the smog level in Cairo as we are about to head to the airport. The tower just to the right of the Ritz Carlton is barely visible.

Latest air quality index has Adelaide at 16, Sydney at 30, Cairo at 160. 🤮🤮🤮 and it's morning!! 

PPS: After going through dozens of airport security checks over the years, and quite a few on this trip, I finally got stopped at Cairo airport after the baggage xray. The guy reckoned he saw a handgun of all things. Had to open the bag, he tore the contents to bits, couldn't find anything, I had to send it through the x ray machine again, he still couldn't find anything, so he dismissed me imperiously. I had to repack my luggage on the floor, in my socks because the shoes had to come off too. Yes, I was annoyed but what can you do? Then I walked through the metal detector with coins in my pockets and wearing my watch, I didn't  trigger the alarm. This is the first time I have NOT sent the alarms into meltdown since I had my second knee replacement. Go figure!! Still unable to identify what the guy thought was a handgun. Some security! And while getting the passport stamped on the way out of Egypt, the guy in the booth was watching a movie on his phone while checking the passports. 🙄🙄