“The world fears time, but time fears the pyramids.”
Arrival in Cairo
After a long flight (at least with a working entertainment unit) and 1 hour stopover in Dubai (does not getting off the airplane count as being to a country?) we arrived in Cairo at 5am local time. Following the crowds through the obligatory customs/visa/baggage collection we staggered out into the main reception area without seeing our tour guide. Contingencies started to slowly percolate in our befuddled minds and after wandering around for about 30 minutes I’ve never been so glad to hear a random man ask “Mr and Mrs Chandler?” What blessed words! Supposedly we missed a sign with our names when I decided to go to the other side of the arrival hall to the empty lines... so much for trying to save time.
Check-in at Hotel
Temperature was cool and didn’t rise too much throughout the day. Our private transfer to hotel was an interesting travelling experience. As our guide said, “the lines on the road are only there for the decoration – no one follows them.” From the rich side of town through ‘city of the dead’ there are as many people here in Cairo as in all of Australia. Managed to beat Captain Obvious in pointing out the pyramid, even after she mistook a cloud for the pyramids as we flew into the airport. Our hotel is not bad, but best of all our room has a view of the pyramid and air-conditioning set at 18.
Jet-lag Struggle
With nothing organised for the day (luckily) we just had to fight through till a reasonable hour before going to sleep. After a quick nap (since hardly any sleep on plane trip) we ventured forth for a wander without a map. Wasn’t very successful... So paid for internet access at hotel, found out where some food was and headed in that direction. Which brings me to a new feature of this blog:
MOST DANGEROUS MOMENTS OF TRIP
1. Crossing 8 lanes of busy Cairo traffic without lights
Haven’t seen any lights at all here, and proper pedestrian crossings are even more dangerous. With Mum (new name for her – Captain Slow) and I taking separate paths we both crossed safely, had tea/lunch/breakfast/brunch (who knows...) and got back to hotel. After mum throwing a teenage tantrum (“I don’t want to wake up – let me stay in bed”) and myself playing a PvZ marathon to stay awake we had a quick tea in hotel restaurant and crashed.
Off to the Pyramids
New day arrived at 4am with a call to prayer (now that’s commitment) and breakfast while being serenaded by what looked like a sheikh playing of all things a bagpipe loudly it was a crazy start to the Egypt experience. Picked up by our personal driver and tour guide (felt extremely rich, but by end of day had conflicting feelings...) we headed to the Giza Pyramids and the Sphinx. Incredible!
Unfortunately today is a public holiday for Egyptians so we moved through reasonably quickly to avoid what our tour guide (or Egyptologist he kept reminding us) would be a huge number of people. But it was still amazing. And our guide was full of information – was nice we didn’t have to share him with 30 other people on a bus.
Sakkara and Memphis
We then headed to older parts of Egypt history – with step pyramids and so much historical information that I won’t bore you with. Insert next superlative here...
Climbed down into a pyramid which was fun and a bit of a squeeze. And since we’re rich Westerners we were taken to places selling papyrus, carpets and cotton and shown the process and then ‘expected’ to buy something. Bit awkward culturally but we did say no at one place... On our way back to the hotel we listened to our guide (who would be an extremely well educated man here) pontificate about the problems caused by Israel to the Egyptians. Also how the Egyptian government has stuffed up their country (corruption, same President for 20+ years) but at least they now have freedom to share their opinions – not that it achieves anything!
Light and Sound Show Spectacular
After tea we were picked up and taken to the Light and Sound Show at the Pyramids. Arrived luckily for the English version (with 4 productions a night it could have been interesting if we got the Russian one). My camera didn’t like taking photos at night (or if it does I couldn’t find the right option) but the pyramids looked great lit up. The story and some of effects are starting to show their age of about 20 years I think but still one of those experiences that have to be done when in Egypt.
Week Ahead
Tues, 6th of April Cairo (museum)
Wed, 7th of April Cairo to Luxor (begin Cruise)
Thurs, 8th of April Cruise cont. (Valley of Kings)
Fri, 9th of April Cruise cont. (Edfu/Kom Ombo)
Sat, 10th of April Cruise arrive in Aswan
Sun, 11th of April Fly to Sharm el-Sheikh via Cairo
Mon, 12th of April Free day in Sharm el-Sheikh (Red Sea)
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