GUEST POST

After hearing about the Sweet "free camel ride, but you gotta pay to get off the camel" Deal from our supervisor Bob, we decided to head out to see the pyramids ourselves and stay clear of them nasty spitting animals. As the bus zipped along closer to the sandy desert, we could see the peaks of the taller pyramids through the bluish gray smog (this was back in the leaded gasoline days of the late '70's) out the left windows and the Nile river on the other side. We too, were given a bag lunch that had food in it but we just didn't know what it really was upon seeing it and couldn't read what it was. We drank what seemed to be a warm peach or pear like pulpy drink and tossed the rest. We sauntered towards that Sphinx without a nose and marveled at the enormity of Cheops behind it. realizing that we might "accidently find" some "abu ablie" (they said it was hashish but it was opium, as we discovered some four hours after taking one small bubbly hit and we had finally floated back down from the ceiling and they keypunch keyboards being butter-but that is another story for another time) further away from the main attractions, we set our sights on the smaller pyramid. We walked until we came upon a bald headed man in a white robe sitting in a chair a few hundred feet from the base of the smaller (only 9-10 stories) pyramid. He was sitting next to a sign that read, "It is forbidden to climb the pyramid". Well, we asked the man if there was any way he could maybe let us climb it just this once. He said, "No. It is forbidden to climb", in very nice English with a cool accent. He emphasized his statement with a wave of his hand toward the sign, not unlike what Vanna White might do when vowels are lit on the big board. Just then Frank lit up a Marlboro with his Saratoga engraved Zippo lighter. The Pyramid guard saw this and stood up quickly, saying, "But...if you have a Zippo lighter and a pack of American cigarettes, I will turn around and I shall not notice if you climb the pyramid or not, but it is still forbidden". OK then. Frank made his offering to the sandman and we proceeded to the base of the obolisque.

Evidently, these things were tombs of the slaves that tended to the Pharohs. Their jobs were to keep them alive at all cost. Because when the Pharoah dies they just bury his slaves ALIVE in these smaller pyramids. That was because the pharaoh needed slaves in the next life of course (that's what I heard anyways) Anyhow, we get to the base and find that the blocks are about six feet high and the ledge is about one foot or one Cubit maybe. So we reached up, pulled ourselves up to the ledge and being VERY careful to lean in and not look down, we made it to the top. It took us 45 minutes to scale it. The top was not a peak, it was four square blocks. I stood on one end and had my picture taken with the big one, Cheops/Giza off in the distance. It must have been a mile away, yet its peak was still higher than my head. Coming down was a whole lot scarier than going up, but we made it. As we headed over to the sandman to thank him, he took a peek at us then quickly stood up, turned his head away from us, waved his hands vilolently and shouted, "It is forbidden to climb". So we got the hint and headed for our next stop, the Cairo museum that King Tut's stuff was in. Upon arriving we were told that the King and most of his stuff was out on tour in America. Just our luck, we come to Egypt and he goes to America. All in all it was a very memorable day.