Cairo - Monday, September 18
Had an early wake up call at 7 am and breakfast at 7:30. Met up with our group around 8 for the official meet and greet. There are 15 in total and they hail from various countries - Canada (Calgary), Belgium, Korea, Holland, England and Australia. Our tour guide for the day, an Egyptologist, arrived at 9 am and escorted us to our bus. We started off with the Egyptian Museum, which was located about a 15 minute drive from out hotel. The museum is massive and our three hour tour could hardly do it justice. The museum is almost like a small Cairo inside - loud, noisy and crazy. There are tour groups and leaders all over the place, each one trying to talk louder than the next and then rushing on to the next important piece of Egyptian history to try and get the best spot. Our guide was quite soft spoken so it was hard to hear him at times, so I pulled out my tour book and tried to follow along that way. By the time noon came, we were all hot (no air conditioning in the museum!) and tired and had an ancient Egypt overload! Fortunately the King Tut exhibits were air conditioned as were the royal mummy rooms, so that helped break up the morning a bit. J decided not to see the mummies as they cost as extra 100 EP ($20 CND) but I did and thought it was totally worth it. A lot still had their fingernails and hair attached and one female mummy was burried with her pet baboon! Don't have time to write about it now but they were very interesting. (approx 30 in all)
Stopped for lunch at some sort of barge restaurant, docked on the Nile. We had the option of the buffet or the menu, although all the meals cost the same. (25 EP/$5 CND) Decided on a "mixed grill" plate which had rice, kafta, chicken and some limp fries. Wasn't too bad, but a bit greasy.
The highlight of the trip came next - the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx! Arrived at the first pyramid around 1:30 pm along with a couple of other tour groups. I can hardly describe what it was like to finally be there. Very impressive up close and we have lots of pictures to prove that. I climbed around the huge rocks and had numerous pictures taken! (Geek alert : the largest pyramid is constructed from about 2.3 million limestone blocks, each weighing on average about 2.5 tonnes. The height was originally 146 m but it has since lost 9 m.)
Unfortunately J was not so impressed with the area as he seems to be a target for hecklers at every site that we go to. Some man tried to give him a "free" head scarf and then wanted something from Canada in return. He wasn't too impressed with the Canada flag pin that J gave him. J eventually walked away but then another man wanted him and a fellow traveler, Bruce, to put on their head scarves and have their pictures taken by these camels. J and Bruce were dragged off towards the camels, while I gleefully took pictures of them with their new friends. I left before things got worse, but the guys eventually had to pay the hecklers 10EP to get rid of them. We decided that J is way too nice to the locals and should stop shaking their hands and being friendly to them. I just say "NO" and they get my point. At each pyramid that we stopped at J was approached at least three more times. He'll learn soon enough.
At the second pyramid (Pyramid of Khafre) I decided to go down inside with two other girls in our tour. The biggest pyramid charges $30Cnd to go inside but this one only charged $4. You descend a steep ramp, hunched over so that your nose is almost touching your knees. There's people exiting the pyramid at the same time and the passage way is quite narrow. At the bottom it narrows out a bit and there is a flat section, before you start to ascend and go up another ramp to a large burial room. All that is left is the empty sarcophagus. The air is very musty and we all exited dripping with sweat. ( I think I read somewhere that each tourist leaves 1/2 cup sweat in the pyramids!)
After touring around the Giza plateau we went to a government approved papyrus shop and were shown how the papyrus sheets are made. They also showed us how to tell the difference between a fake banana leaf painting and one that is done on papyrus.
Arrived back at the hotel at 6 pm and had an hour to get ready before the bus picked us up and took us to the train station. We had checked out of our rooms that morning but had two day use rooms to use. The guys took one and the girls the other - we each had about 5 minutes to shower and get ready so it was quite chaotic.
The hour is done and we must head for lunch so will write more later.
(posted at 12 noon local time.)
J and Bruce with their new friends!
J can hardly contain his excitement!
This thing is huge!
Pattersons at the Pyramids!
Sphinx
Stopped for lunch at some sort of barge restaurant, docked on the Nile. We had the option of the buffet or the menu, although all the meals cost the same. (25 EP/$5 CND) Decided on a "mixed grill" plate which had rice, kafta, chicken and some limp fries. Wasn't too bad, but a bit greasy.
The highlight of the trip came next - the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx! Arrived at the first pyramid around 1:30 pm along with a couple of other tour groups. I can hardly describe what it was like to finally be there. Very impressive up close and we have lots of pictures to prove that. I climbed around the huge rocks and had numerous pictures taken! (Geek alert : the largest pyramid is constructed from about 2.3 million limestone blocks, each weighing on average about 2.5 tonnes. The height was originally 146 m but it has since lost 9 m.)
Unfortunately J was not so impressed with the area as he seems to be a target for hecklers at every site that we go to. Some man tried to give him a "free" head scarf and then wanted something from Canada in return. He wasn't too impressed with the Canada flag pin that J gave him. J eventually walked away but then another man wanted him and a fellow traveler, Bruce, to put on their head scarves and have their pictures taken by these camels. J and Bruce were dragged off towards the camels, while I gleefully took pictures of them with their new friends. I left before things got worse, but the guys eventually had to pay the hecklers 10EP to get rid of them. We decided that J is way too nice to the locals and should stop shaking their hands and being friendly to them. I just say "NO" and they get my point. At each pyramid that we stopped at J was approached at least three more times. He'll learn soon enough.
At the second pyramid (Pyramid of Khafre) I decided to go down inside with two other girls in our tour. The biggest pyramid charges $30Cnd to go inside but this one only charged $4. You descend a steep ramp, hunched over so that your nose is almost touching your knees. There's people exiting the pyramid at the same time and the passage way is quite narrow. At the bottom it narrows out a bit and there is a flat section, before you start to ascend and go up another ramp to a large burial room. All that is left is the empty sarcophagus. The air is very musty and we all exited dripping with sweat. ( I think I read somewhere that each tourist leaves 1/2 cup sweat in the pyramids!)
After touring around the Giza plateau we went to a government approved papyrus shop and were shown how the papyrus sheets are made. They also showed us how to tell the difference between a fake banana leaf painting and one that is done on papyrus.
Arrived back at the hotel at 6 pm and had an hour to get ready before the bus picked us up and took us to the train station. We had checked out of our rooms that morning but had two day use rooms to use. The guys took one and the girls the other - we each had about 5 minutes to shower and get ready so it was quite chaotic.
The hour is done and we must head for lunch so will write more later.
(posted at 12 noon local time.)
J and Bruce with their new friends!
J can hardly contain his excitement!
This thing is huge!
Pattersons at the Pyramids!
Sphinx
posted by The Patterson Pair at 4:50 AM
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