Cairo and Giza. January, 2015.
Cairo Airport 4AM
We arrived in Cairo SO EARLY, which meant that we didn’t get much sleep. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the owner of the guesthouse. He looked tired, and we thanked him for coming to collect us so early. We walked to the van, and…there was no driver. He got on his phone, and within a few minutes a little man came running up offering apologies. During our wait, the owner chatted with us about Egypt and our plans while we were there. He gave us options on tackling Giza and some ideas for Cairo. On our drive, it was sill dark, but he pointed out different buildings. Voluntarily, he started talking about the safety of Cairo. He told us that the media paints a picture of Egypt that is not true, and whatever impression we had about Egyptians were not true. We told him that we didn’t have any impressions about Egyptians as a people. I don’t think he believed us. He did clarify that any problems that Egypt has right now are issues between the government and the people, but had nothing to do with the tourists. He said we were very safe, and had nothing to worry about. If anything, this only put us on more alert.
The Pyramids at Sunrise.
We arrived at the guesthouse just before sunrise. The roof of the guesthouse had tables and chairs, and an unobstructed view of the pyramids, so we pulled up a couple of chairs to watch the sun rise. It was surreal. It was gorgeous. It was absolutely amazing.
Afterward, we went back downstairs and had breakfast. The breakfast was simple with bread, cheese, and drinks, but they offer to make omelets and falafels. Our room was not available, so we decided to take a tour of Giza to get us out and moving.
The Pyramid of Djoser
The guesthouse has a company they work with, and since we hadn’t done any research on this topic ourselves, we decided to go with it. Our guide picked us up as we were finishing breakfast. In the beginning, his accent was a little difficult to understand, but he said everything twice, which really helped. We started our tour in the Saqqara necropolis at the Imhotep museum and saw many tombs, paintings, and hieroglyphics. There were not many tourists at this location, which was really nice. After this, we drove to the next location, the step pyramid of Djoser- built by King Djoser (2667-2648 BC). Here, we saw the remnants of a large city center.
Egypt
There were a few men there with donkeys and camels to offer rides and photos. Our next stop was the bent pyramid at the royal necropolis of Dahshur. Our guide explained the different locations as grandpa, father and son. Grandfather built Saqqara, father built Dahshur, and son, the Great Pyramid.
Our final stop was the pyramids and sphinx. By now, we were exhausted. We basically had two hours of airplane sleep the night before, and had been going all day long. We fell asleep on the hour-drive to the Great pyramid, and woke up when we stopped for some fresh-squeezed juice, compliments of our guide. After this, we moved on the required papyrus experience. We watched the demonstration, and ended up buying a papyrus. We don’t usually buy things like this, but maybe it was because we were tired…I don’t know, but to be honest, I’m kind of glad we did.
The great pyramid.
When we arrived to the Great pyramid, we climbed up to take pictures, and realized how dangerous it is to be up there. We walked into some tombs where there was more pictures and hieroglyphics. We walked to a lookout point, where we could take pictures of all three pyramids together. Finally, we ended at the sphinx where we were told that his nose was destroyed by Muslim ruler, Muhammad Sa’im al-Dahr long before Napolean, and his cannon, ever arrived.
On our way back to the guesthouse, Javier realized he needed more money.
methods of transportation. ATM search.
The driver and guide took us to three different ATMs, until we finally found one that worked. This whole experience took us about another 45 minutes, and we were really thankful that they spent the extra time helping us out. When we arrived, we knew we couldn’t stay at the guesthouse because we would fall asleep, so once we checked in and freshened up, we met our guide back in the lobby where we walked us to a local restaurant for dinner. He walked us inside and waited for the waiter to come and take our order. At first we thought he was going to join us, since he didn’t just drop us off and say goodbye, but once we were ordered and settled, he said his goodbyes and left.
yummy.
Dinner was so incredibly good. Lots of hummus, kebabs, salad, pita, and pyramid-shaped rice. There is a light show every night at the pyramids, which can be watched from our roof, so we made it back home in time to watch the show. Somehow, I managed to stay awake, but when I looked over at Javier, he was nodding off. The show was actually quite informative. It gave the history of the pyramids: who built them, why, when, and how they were built, as well as specifications of each pyramid. I really enjoyed it and it is shown three times a night in Arabic, English and French.
kiss
We went to be really early, but still managed to sleep in. By the time we were done with breakfast, we didn’t have much time left. The only thing I really wanted to do was see the Nile River, and Javier didn’t have any preferences. We decided on the museum. They are currently building a new museum closer to the Great Pyramid as well as a tram that will connect all four locations. I can see why they are building a new museum…the current one is dated…like REALLY dated, like…long before I was born and hasn’t been updated since, kind of dated. But before we get to the museum, let’s talk about our car ride, shall we?? We asked the front desk to call a taxi for us. Our driver was a nice guy and gave us a couple of ideas for the day. We told him we just wanted to start with the museum, and if we had time, we would go somewhere else.
The Nile
We passed over the Nile River a couple times, and were stuck in pretty bad traffic. We slowly made our way to the museum, passed by Tahrir Square, and saw many tanks on the streets surrounded with barbed wire. We probably saw at least 7 of them, and of course, the museum is right in the middle of everything. Right next to the museum is the Mubarak government building that was burned during the uprising. Let’s just say, neither of us were feeling too safe at this point. For some reason, our driver was chatting with us about the safety of Egypt.
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tanks
He too was stressing how the media makes Egypt look like a dangerous place, but it couldn’t be farther from the truth! “There’s nothing to worry about here, you’re perfectly safe,” he says as we stop for traffic, and notice a line of cars waiting to enter a parking lot, while a soldier holds one of those long mirrors to check under the car for bombs. Oh yes, we are perfectly safe. We had read that you are not supposed to talk to Egyptians about their political situation, but since they keep bringing it up, I had a few questions I wanted to ask.
This is how the short conversation went:
ME: “If it’s so safe here, why are there tanks on the street?”
DRIVER: “Everything is fine. There are no problems.”
ME: “But, usually countries don’t put tanks on the street if everything is fine.”
DRIVER: “They are there to help you. Like if you are lost, they can give you directions.”
ME: “Oh, like a tourist information center!”
DRIVER: “Yes!”
JAVIER: “Stop.”
And that was the end of that.
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities
The traffic was so bad, that we ended up getting out of the taxi, agreeing on a meeting place and time, crossed the street and walked between two “tourist information centers” to finally arrive at our destination. They don’t allow cameras inside, so we had to turn around and walk back to check Javier’s camera. The camera storage is two guys who put your camera in a cubby hole and give you the corresponding number. It’s supposedly a free service, but if you actually want to get your camera back in one piece, it is advisable to give a tip, otherwise it’s a gamble. Javier was so irritated by this point, we decided to take that gamble.
The museum of Egypt.
The inside of the museum looks like a storage warehouse. There is so much stuff. It is overwhelming. Many things are not even labeled. There was a small section of the museum completely dedicated to King Tut. Here, they had some of his coffins, and burial artifacts. By far, the most interesting part was King Tut’s burial mask. It was just one of those things that is really impressive to see up close.
By the time we left the museum, we didn’t have much time or energy. Our driver took us to the Saladin Citadel, the medieval Islamic fortification.
The great Mosque of Muhammad Ali Pasha
We went inside the mosque and walked the grounds. The citadel is on top of a hill. We were able to see Cairo sprawled out below us. What we noticed was that everything was the same color. The city is very generic in its color scheme, and nothing really stands out. With all the dust and dirt, it was difficult to make out the details of people and cars below, and the entire city looked beige and lifeless. It was a really strange sight to see, almost apocalyptic.
The next morning at breakfast, we met a young, very friendly, and energetic fellow, Roman. Roman was traveling by himself, originally from the Ukraine, and currently lives in NY.
Roman, our Ukrainian friend.
He is quite possibly the friendliest person I have ever met. He was SO EXCITED to be in Egypt. His zeal for life is amazing, and was a great reminder of how truly lucky and blessed we are, not just to be traveling, but to live where we do, and have the opportunities that we have. It was truly humbling just to listen to him. He has no idea the impression he made. We all chatted for a bit during breakfast. When we told him we needed to leave, he told us to wait a moment and ran upstairs to his room. Roman is a spray-paint street artist in NY. He does those futuristic spray-paint pictures that are usually set to crazy rock music while they do their performance. He ran out of his room with a few paintings. He asked us to each pick one and take it as a gift. We did. This was one of the most meaningful gifts we have received, and we were very happy to have had the opportunity to meet Roman.
Cairo
We were picked up by the same driver who took us, and another couple, to the airport. Normally, I would omit the whole airport portion of the show unless there is something remarkable, and let me tell you, this one takes the cake. Cairo has the worst airport we have come across, so far. There is one entrance for EVERYONE. Before entering the airport, you have to have your bags x-rayed. I totally understand the need for this, but ONE entry point? Are you kidding? Of course, there is no order. Even the guards were arguing among themselves. There is an area roped off, which is just a large space for everyone to crowd and bottleneck into the airport. There were about 5-7 “lines” that branched out of this doorway. Everyone was pushing and cutting. It was horrible. It took us about 45 minutes just to get into the airport.
Bye Pyramids of Giza.
At one point, Javier was having difficulty pushing our luggage forward because people were not allowing enough space. Finally, I stepped in front of our luggage and to the side just to keep others from moving forward and cutting us off. This man behind me kept running into my legs trying to make me move so he could cut in front. Javier saw what was happening and quickly put an end to it. Once inside the building, there were many more stops and security checkpoints. The airport itself was not a pleasant place to be, and we were so happy to finally be out of there and on our way to Sharm El Sheikh.
To see more pictures of Egypt, click HERE.