12/22-23/2011
The flight went well. All those days of travel at home paid off and Air France Business Class was sweet.
A long layover in LA allowed me to get some work done before rushing to the LAX Marriott and checking my work laptop, charger, phone, etc. until I return. Good idea, eh?
Flew to Paris in style, hung out in the Air France Lounge and boarded for Cairo.
I lost a day in travel since I am now 12 hours ahead of PST. Landed Cairo at 7:00 p.m. on the 23rd. Let the adventure begin.
Getting off a plane in a foreign country is always difficult but you would think I would be good at it by now. Run off plane, grab Visa before the customs lines are too long, stand in a long line anyway, nod like an idiot to questions, pass through, collect luggage get assaulted by 100 taxi drivers - done.
Since I wasn't able to book the hostel from Paris I was just going to show up, it always (almost) works. I used three taxi driver pimps against each other and settled on $70LE ~$11.50USD to the hostel. Unfortunately my phone web page with the address did not save and I didn't have an address. Now it's almost 9:30 and I haven't really slept since leaving the US. Taxi pimp, of course, has a great hotel downtown for $30. No deal made but we agreed I would look at it. At least it would get me downtown Cairo. Pimp puts me in a cab and the driver speaks no English. Away we go through some fun, demolition derby type driving.
Pimp calls hotel, hotel calls driver, driver gives me the phone, I nod more like an idiot (oops they can't see me), we agree on $130LE, phone back to driver for directions, three direction stops for lost driver, arrive hotel...piece of cake. Except: pimp after I agrees to our price wrote $20USD on the "official" taxi ticket. Driver thinks he is getting $20, I think he is getting $11.50 and after a lost in translation conversation I give up to my first scam and give him the $20.
The hotel is on the 11th floor of a several year old but not finished building. In fact the hotel is the only business in the building of 14 or so floors. I squeeze myself into the elevator with my pack and BFF taxi driver to see my room. The room is small but clean, has a view and most of all it has somewhat of a shower. Good enough.
My poker face must not have been good since nobody there remembered talking to me about a $130LE price and it is now $200LE. After a few minutes of haggle I pay the $200LE or $34US (great haggler,eh) and am off to my room.
I dropped my bags, grabbed a sweater and went to check out the neighborhood. It turned out my hotel was in Islamic Cairo which probably explains the lack of other tall, white, wandering tourists. It was a bustling market with piles of sweaters, shoes or anything else on carts or in piles on the ground. It was by now 11:00 and I wandered around until 12:30a.m. and then found my way back to the hotel. I had negotiated a driver to take me to the Saqqara and Giza pyramids at 9:00 as part of a possible package deal with the hotel.
The deal ~$450USD was to get me:
A driver for both sets of pyramids
One train ticket to Aswan (12 hours)
Aswan pickup, Hotel & Tour.
Tour to Abu Simbel
One night on a Felucca (sailboat) to Luxor
Luxor East & West tours & Hotels
Return train to Cairo W/city tour.
Transfer to airport.
I checked a few comparable tours online and paid for the package to save me the efforts of booking trains, finding hotels. I would rather go it on my own hut time is critical and it is Christmas Worst case it is an expensive lesson learned...
8:30 sharp my bread and jam breakfast was served in the lobby by 9:00 I was in the car with Romel who even bought me coffee...taxi driver is out and Romel is my new best friend.
Saqqara step pyramids are he first stop and they were excellent. These were the prototypes for the great pyramids at around 2700BC. They are surrounded by Egyptian, Roman and Persian tombs. Very few tourists due to the unrest which is good and bad. Good for photographs without sunburned tourists but bad for not being the target for every "tour guide" wanting baksheesh. Baksheesh is a tip wanted for everything from pointing you in the right direction or following you around explaining what my tour book already has in greater detail.
The good use of baksheesh seeking tour guides is everyone leaves you alone if you are with one. So I was led or followed by a good guide and he also allowed me to take photos in the tombs which is not normally allowed. He even stood by while I played tourist and had my picture taken on a camel for $2. I couldn't resist, such a tourist.
After using my new found Arabic laa shokran (no thank you) 18-20 times I made it back to my driver for the short trip to Giza and the great pyramids.
Romel tried to take me shopping at the perfume factory, childrens rug making school, papyrus museum and anywhere else a family member worked. Not my first rodeo, Romel, on to Giza.
Giza was what I had expected, a tourist trap centered around the crazy amazing pyramids. the great pyramid is 756' and each side was within 2" of the others.
The Giza area has nine pyramids, the Sphinx and various tombs. I have many pictures from Giza.
Romel did get his way a bit on this one and I agreed to talk to one of his friends or relatives about using a horse or camel to tour the area. I had heard pro & con. The pro that sold me on my $70 two hour camel tour around the pyramids is the other touts that now outnumber the tourists would leave me alone. Two hours and a sore butt later I had experienced the pyramids and had some great (and fun) pictures.
A Cairo tour with Romel back to the hotel finished his part of my day. My walking tour around the Nile, museum, Tahrir square and a 12 hour 10:25 p.m. train ride to Aswan rounds out the long day.