Cairo

Day 1 & 2 of Tour

30th & 31st May 2010

After leaving home at 6am and taking a 5-hour flight (with a pretty decent breakfast on board) we arrived into Cairo's International Airport around 4pm local time. We were met at the airport by a representative of our tour company, GoBus, who was transferring us and 5 or so others to our hotel.The transfer was a pretty scary experience as we learnt what Cairo traffic was all about. There are no lanes, cars duck and weave without indicating, and horns are used non-stop. The guy who met us at the airport explained that there are many different horn signals, which can be easily differentiated by the length and tone of the horn.

We made it through the crazy downtown traffic after about an hour and checked into our hotel; Hotel Zayed, in a quiet and peaceful residential area. The tour group had arranged an optional 'Cairo by Night' tour that evening so we only had an hour or so to make our way to the nearby service station to pick up some bottled water (the tap water in Egypt is apparently a big no no) and sandwiches.

When back at the hotel we met up with most of the group that we'd been spending the next 9 days with, and our tour guide for the trip, MoMo (Short for Mohammed. Because 95% of the Arab population is named Mohammed, by calling him MoMo reduces confusion apparently!). There were 15 others doing the night tour, which was all of us except 2 who were not arriving into Cairo until later that night. We all jumped on the mini bus and got acquainted with each other. It was a pretty good mix of people, there was a couple from Melbourne, Nick and Rachael, a Kiwi couple, Nikki and Bryn, 2 Aussie girls, Charmaine and Lauren, American mother and daughter, Barbara and Carrie, an American and Aussie pair of girls, Kate and Carly, An Aussie girl travelling solo, Maddy, and four American friends, Jory, Jamil, Chris and Kelsey.

The night tour was pretty cool; we got taken around Cairo (the traffic was not quite as chaotic as it was in the afternoon) and saw some of the pretty sights. My favourite stop of the evening was at the Muhammad Ali Mosque, which is located inside the Salahdin Citadel (Castle). We also had a stop at a little juice stall, but they only sold sugar cane juice - a favourite of the locals. I didn't enjoy the juice too much, I thought it tasted like sand with water and sugar, but Dan liked it. Our final stop was for a late dinner at a local café. It didn't look at all hygienic, but we were told that the food was pretty good. They sold pastry dishes - either sweet or savory - that were either folded over and cooked, or baked like a pizza. Dan and I had the folded variety, I tried a vegetables and mozzarella (No meat - safer option), while Dan tried an egg and fried onion one. It was pretty yummy. After dinner it was back on the bus to the hotel. We all said our goodnights and it was off to bed around 11pm.

Day 2 of the tour was actually the first day of scheduled activities. We all met for breakfast in the hotel restaurant. I was super impressed with the spread that was put on; LOADS of different types of bread, hams and cheeses, falafel (Seriously, the BEST I've ever eaten), mini hotdogs, scrambled and hard-boiled eggs, a bean type dish and even some delicious rice pudding. There was also the boring cereal and yoghurt options but who could resist all the other good stuff.

Straight after breakfast we had a pre-tour meeting, which pretty much just outlined what to expect, where we were going, what we were doing, money that needed to be paid etc etc. We also got to meet the last 2 people joining us for the week; friends Kiwi Amy, and Aussie Michael. The Aussies definitely outnumbered the Kiwis, and we made sure the 3 of them knew it! It also gave us another chance to get to know our tour guide MoMo, who was a fully qualified Egyptologist (Required if you want to be a tour guide in Egypt) which required 4 years of University studies, and is just as prestigious as being a Doctor.We had all now become part of MoMo's 'family' and he had become our 'Daddy'. This was the theme for the week.

After the meeting we set out together to the Egyptian Museum in Downtown Cairo. We had a brief chat outside about things to see inside, before we all deposited our cameras into a box (No photos were allowed inside sadly). MoMo took us through the entire museum, stopping to talk about the important pieces. We had some free time at the end to check the rest of the massive museum out. Dan and I stopped to check out the Tutankhamen section out. This was home to the famous gold burial mask, and 2 of his 3 solid gold coffins. I cannot to begin to describe how well preserved it was - hardly a scratch on it. This area was let down by a group of annoying, old Japanese tourists who obviously didn't see anyone else in the small room, and proceeded to bump, crash and push their way through to the front of every piece of work. We also checked out the mummified animal section. Massive crocodile, fish dogs, cats etc, all mummified. It was pretty creepy and gross, but also interesting. We didn't bother paying the additional fee to look at Royal Mummies, which were in a separate exhibition.

After the allocated time we all regrouped outside the museum before jumping back on our mini bus. We had about a 45-minute journey to the other side of Cairo for our afternoon's activities - The Pyramids!!! Just before we entered the site, the bus stopped and MoMo declared he had a surprise for his family. Lunch! Yummy! Somewhere he had picked up Egypt's take on pot noodles, a dish called Koshari. It consists of rice, pasta, onion, tomato, lentils and chick peas, all mixed in together. It was absolutely delicious.

After lunch we headed up to the pyramids. The first one we saw was the biggie - The Great Pyramid. MoMo talked about the why, when, who, how's of it all, as well as some stats about the size and weight of it all.I can't remember it exactly, but I do remember him saying if they took all the stones out of the pyramid they would have enough to build a wall, 2m high and 2m thick the entire way around France. We climbed around on it and took all the required photos before jumping back on the mini bus for the short ride around the back to the 2nd pyramid.

This pyramid we had paid a little extra so we could enter the central burial chamber. In order to reach it we had to walk on a rickety little path sloping downwards. Sounds easy, but it was only about 1.4m high. Even I had to bend over to try to crawl my way through. Once we'd got down, we had to travel the same distance up a tunnel upwards until we reached the centre of the pyramid. It is just an empty room now (except for the security police in there who told us some info then demanded tips from us). We all found it a little hard to breathe in there (complete lack of oxygen) so we made the hunchbacked journey back to daylight.

Back on the minibus again to head to the third pyramid. We didn't stop at this one though; we travelled a little further on to a spot where all 3 pyramids could be viewed at the same time. We all took the funny photos that are necessary when visiting such attractions, and a few group shots before we decided that it was time to ride a camel. MoMo had organised some camels for those who wanted to take part. About 12 of us decided to brave it. We picked the littlest kid that led us over to his camels where I was instructed to throw my leg over, hold on and lean back. I didn't listen to the lean back part, so when the camel stood up I almost went straight over its head. Luckily the kid's dad was standing nearby and grabbed hold of me and kept me on the camel. I got roped onto the back of Dan's camel and our 6, maybe 7, year old boy led us out into the desert. My camel was called Charlie Brown, and he was pretty friendly. He liked wandering over to all the other camels, which meant that my legs got squashed. It was a nice slow pace, and we only travelled about 50m. Dan and I were the slowest of the group because the little kid dragging us along spent more time picking his nose than walking. When we got to the turnaround spot the kid took our camera and took our photo for us (After wiping his snotty fingers all over the screen), before we turned around and slowly headed back up. Some of the others in our group were quite game and untied themselves from the camel convoy, and some even got their camels up to a trot like speed. Dan and I just moped along at the back while our kid continued to pick a winner.

After the camels we were back on the minibus, which took us down to Mr. Sphinx (only about 400m away). We got told a bit more info, and then spent only about 10 minutes taking photos because by now the heat was getting quite unbearable and we were all getting tired. After using the loo and grabbing a drink it was back on the bus to leave the pyramid complex.

We were taken to a papyrus factory/store place where we were shown how they make the papyrus paper from the plants. Quite an interesting process, which involves mallets, water and weaving. We were also given a cup of hibiscus tea. It was lovely and cold and refreshing, but it needed lots of sugar to make it drinkable. Many purchased some papyrus pictures - they had beautiful Egyptian art on them - but we decided that we had enough stuff to send home, and that we would just enjoy it in the store.

It was now late afternoon, so we headed back to the hotel. Although we'd checked out in the morning, the tour company kept 2 rooms for us to freshen up in. We were very grateful of this. We all showered the sand and sweat off us before heading downstairs to the hotel restaurant for an included dinner. The food was amazing - a spread of chicken, meatballs, rice, salad, soup. We were so hungry though we would've eaten anything that they put in front of us!!

After our dinner we all collected our bags, said goodbye to Zayed Hotel and headed for the Giza train station. This evening we were taking a 12-hour, overnight train to Aswan, in the South of Egypt.For once Dan and I were sensible and had prepared for the trip by buying lots of water and snacks. Others in the group weren't as sensible and just bought beer. They ended up having quite a big night in the train's "Club Car" (A bar that doesn't serve alcohol) before getting some sleep in the early hours of the morning. It wasn't the most comfortable of sleeps in the chairs, but I managed a few hours without getting a stiff neck, and it was great to wake up without a hangover - not too many others could say the same!