Egypt

It was a 5:30am arrival in Cairo. Half asleep, I stumbled through the airport to find out if I could get outside and go see the pyramids on the 15 hour layover. Turns out I could…so I did!

I have to admit, in the end I was stoked I didn’t get on that original flight. It was much better flying through Egypt and visiting the pyramids, even if I did lose a few days in South Africa.

I have to give Egypt Air some credit too. They were a fantastic airline to fly on. When we arrived at the airport I found out that they were going to give me a hotel room with free buffet meals all day long for the long layover. Score!

 

Before leaving the airport I bought an Egypt visa and arranged a tour to go all over the city for the day. Of course when I signed up for the tour they conveniently ‘forgot to mention’ that I had to pay to get in to see all the places I wanted to visit and all I had actually signed up for was a driver. Why there were two of them in the car, I am still not sure. The guys taking me around were nice enough and after 11 hours with them I feel like I made out even though it was more expensive than I was originally told.

 

They picked me up from the hotel after I checked in and had a buffet breakfast. We headed off towards Saqqara first which are some of the oldest pyramids. I checked out the museum first and then went to the pyramids and other ruins. I found out quickly, that if you are on a tour then the locals wont really harass you, but if you walk though alone….beware. Everyone wants to be your ‘guide’ and then wants a tip and they all want to sell you stuff and charge money for pictures, etc and it's all pretty annoying. One of the guys came along with me to help fend them off.

 

At the Saqqara, the driver walked along with me. He said it had been a long time since he had been there. He was studying tourism. We couldn’t get into the pyramid or too close to it but we did go into another area where no one seemed to go. It was a sweet building with amazing hieroglyphics on the wall. They were even colorful. I think we might have been walking around someone’s tomb. I am not really sure, but it was one of the highlights of the day.

 

I was really enjoying Egypt and everyone I met, but I have to say I was very disgusted by all the trash and air pollution in the city. Many of the buildings were a yellowish-brownish color that matched the earth and they just looked dirty. There were brick buildings too, but nothing really looked or felt clean. The canals were full of trash and the sky was a light shade of gray rather than blue. (As the wind picked up later in the day it did seem to clear up a bit and the visibility became reasonable.)

One of the many piles of trash. It looked like landfills scattered all over the city.

Our next stop was at a papyrus paper shop. They showed me the plant and how they pressed it to make the paper. It’s a really fascinating process. I didn’t want to buy anything, but of course they pressure you into it. Because I kept saying no (because I really didn’t have any money) the price kept dropping. After the price lowered a little more, I ended up walking away with an Egyptian calendar.
 

Finally we made it to the Pyramids of Giza. We met with more people in a dodgy building first. It was a totally sketching weird situation where some new guy who I had never met introduced himself while he slid the door shut. My drivers didn’t really tell me what I was doing. He then started to offer me his tour and said how for $80 USD I could ride around the pyramids and for more I could go to some hills to see them. At this point I told him no and said that I had two legs and two feet that could take me there, but this man was persistent. He just didn’t realize how cheap I am and that I really didn’t bring enough money with me. Eventually he dropped it down to $40 USD for a camel ride with an English speaking guide. Egyptians are very persistent and wanted every dollar in my pocket. Once again, I gave in and that’s how I ended up riding a camel through the Pyramids of Giza.

The tour was totally worth it. I met my camel - what a goofy creature. Camels are not quite like horses, they are way more noisy and awkward. I was loving it. We went in the back way, riding over some hills and then the pyramids popped out right in front of us. My guide was really sweet and we talked about all kinds of stuff. Clearly this was not his first trip, as he knew exactly what photos to take and where. Since it was my first day at the pyramids I thought there was a fair amount of tourists there. Wrong. He said tourism was down and I was only seeing a small fraction of the people who were usually visiting the pyramids.

 

 

Even though you are not supposed to touch the pyramids my guide said I could climb on them and even do cartwheels. It was sweet!
 

I took a ton of pics and then our last stop on the camel was at the Sphinx. Even though it's still a large structure, it seems dwarfed next to the pyramids.

The last stop for the day was the Egyptian Museum that contained many of the artifacts found in the tombs of past dead kings. This museum was incredible. It was the best museum I have ever been in! There was so much detail in everything they made. It was beautiful. I was blow away by the fact that humans really haven't changed much. I am not a big jewelry wearer, but there were necklaces and bracelets that were 2,000 years old that I would wear today. Since it was the end of the day I only had a couple hours there. It was not long enough to get though half of it.
 

The airline hooked us all up with a hotel and buffets for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Somehow I was still able to make it for breakfast and dinner. The food was amazing and is one more reason to come back and visit.

 

Chelsea and I on the flight to Jo'Berg. She was flying in from Germany and we just happened to be a couple rows apart. I met Chelsea in Antarctica and the last time we saw each other was four years ago in Laos. Crazy small world.