The 48 hours since leaving Sharm El-Sheikh were certainly not the best that we have had and left us cursing all things and people Egyptian for a while. The chain of events goes like this:

• The cab driver from Sharm wanted slightly over the odds, but an acceptable amount for his fare, but then proceeded to drop us (clearly intentionally) at the wrong bus station 2 miles short of where we needed to be.
• We found another cab who successfully short changed us and sped off before we could do anything about it.
• The guy on the counter of the bus station tried to charge us E100 for a E65 ticket, so on principle we told him to stick it and went next door.
• Presumably also on principle the same guy (we are convinced) swiped a carrier bag from us and suddenly lost all ability to speak English.
• The next bus company did not rip us off for a ticket, but seemed to think that we had eaten at Claridges when trying to charge us for a packet of crisps en route.
• The same bus company (clearly in cahoots with the cab drivers) tried to drop us off 25km from downtown Cairo. If not for a friendly local (seemingly a rare breed!), they nearly succeeded in leaving us high and dry.
• On arriving at the right bus station and taking a cab the driver tried to charge us double the going rate and followed us down the street ranting when all he got was a reasonable wadge of notes and a mouthful of abuse.

If you overlook a cock-up with the booking (not what we needed after that day!), it was good to arrive at our hostel knowing that we had a nice, recommended and reputable driver booked for the next days driving around the pyramid sights. The guy was held up in our minds as the saviour of our faith in Egyptian humanity, but then he proceeded to play a major role in us being overcharged for the hire of 2 horses around the sights at Giza!

Having travelled for the last five months around Asia all of the above are nothing unusual. What is strange is that we both seem to have simply had enough of needing to keep your guard up ALL THE TIME and our minds and spirits are no longer in the mood for haggling for everything to the extent that these things actually got to us. We were particularly cross with ourselves that with an unprecedented lack of pre-reading and letting our guards down we allowed ourselves to be stitched up - we are seasoned travellers now after all! What were we thinking?!

After deciding not to irrationally write off everything Egyptian we did have a good day pyramid and sphinx spotting and it was good fun to see the pyramids of Giza on horseback away from the huge tour groups. For the first time this trip, however, we did both conclude that seeing these particular major sights in the flesh did not really live up to the hype or reward you with much more than you would get from pictures or a TV documentary. The main attractions at Giza are far from being in the middle of nowhere. Flanked by the industrial areas of Cairo the pyramids are unbelievably crowded, surrounded by hawkers and strewn with litter. On top of this even the tourist police are out to rip you off - offering to take pictures of you and then demanding "baksheesh" (tips) in return. The official workers collecting your tickets seem to want (but got none from us!) baksheesh for letting you in (with your official ticket!) and also the security guards in the tomb for nothing at all (or for not shooting you maybe?!). We are well used to people trying to coax you into their shop or restaurant but here, in order to demand baksheesh for handing you one sheet of toilet paper, they even try and tempt you into the official toilets!

We both preferred the pyramid sights at Saqqara and Dahshur slightly further out of Cairo than the main draw at Giza, where things were less crowded and entrance fees more realistic. One other reason that the pyramids do not excite as much as you may imagine is that they have been stripped bare inside and out. Centuries ago the outer coverings were plundered to build mosques and all of the internal discoveries, including the sections of walls with hieroglyphics on, have been carefully removed and rehoused in the Egyptian Museum. This leaves only the outer views to enjoy. Despite all the negatives it was good to have seen them first hand. The size of the stones and how they were shifted 1,200km from Aswan is impossible to comprehend, as is the feat of engineering to build a perfect pyramid shape nearly 150m high by hand over 5,000 years ago.

If you are ever in Egypt and in the Cairo area, then you cannot pass up seeing the only surviving ancient wonder of the world first hand. Otherwise, we would recommend you look up a good Michael Palin-type episode on the subject and stay on your sofa, with a glass of wine in hand!

Before heading to catch our over night train we also spent a day wandering around the Islamic area and the back street bazaars. This left us concluding that Cairo is not much to write home about beyond the Egyptian museum and pyramids and it is with no sadness that we head off to Aswan for a few days.