I never wrote anything, even an e-mail, while I was in Egypt, so this is all retrospective. I was too busy reading the guidebooks that my hosts had provided me with, or falling in love with Rafael Nadal thanks to my friend’s father’s television obsession.

I liked Cairo very much, though, and in many ways I thought it was a good precursor to going to India, sort of like training wheels. I compensated for my friend's predilection for five-star hotels -- it's true that they are very affordable by dollar standards -- by spending a day roaming madly from mosque to mosque and taking lots of photographs in true tourist fashion.

While I was there I wrote an e-mail to my sister where the only thing I noted was that Egypt was a more restrictive society for women than India. I’m thinking about that again and I’m not quite decided yet. Yes, it is a Muslim society and there’s the preoccupation with appropriate clothing, but on the other hand there is not as much crime. And you have to think a lot about appropriate clothing in India also. And there doesn't seem to be as much crime against women there.

I liked very much feeling of being in such a historical place that was not European and being able to see monuments that pertained to all the different kingdoms – the pharaohs, the Turks, the Ottomans. And I think they do a very good job actually of preserving their monuments. They have the two-tier fee system for Egyptians and tourists, which a lot of people complain about, but it actually looks like they use the money for their monuments. Except maybe the museum could do with better labeling, thought personally I found it quite restful to be able to wander about and look at things and not have to read anything.

I loved the tomb carvings in Saqqara – they were so specific. There was one scene of a farmer chewing food to feed to a sick calf. And there were lots of reliefs of fish, which, if you knew about fish, I’m sure you could identify. Though I was cross that the old American man who was with us kept asking the guide if he could take pictures after she repeatedly said it wasn’t allowed – as if maybe he could grease her palm and take a photograph, because isn’t that how all Third World countries work?

And then of course it was great to see all the things you expect to see – pyramids and palm trees and oases and sphinxes and belly dancers. Especially belly dancers.