Giza and Cairo - Egypt redeemed?
Trip Start
Apr 10, 2006
1
8
47
Trip End
Jul 24, 2006
Giza,
Egypt
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Having been woken at 4.30am and departed the train 30 minutes later, I was ready for my last site seeing tour of Egypt to include; The Egyptian Museum, The Pyramids, The Sphinx and if my guides had their way all manner of places to goad me into losing my money
Cairo redeemed itself a little today, I saw Cairo in a better light than that of a dilapidated shanty town; I saw nicer shops, tree lined avenues, restaurants and hotels, and the boats along the River Nile especially when lit at night were quite beautiful. However, I realised today I had been wrong about my very first impression of Cairo being 'Suspicion', people weren't looking at me with suspicion they were eying me up as a target for financial gain. Everywhere I went today, even in my 5 star hotel, the niceties 'have a wonderful stay', 'can I help you?', 'please come back and see us again', the smiles and the laughter, were all totally designed to extract money from my wallet. I have no problem in tipping, but for a service and a service done well, but for barging in and pushing a trolley 3 yards to the airport check in desk - give me a break!
I have met some wonderful peoples in my travels, people who have been genuinely interested in my welfare and happiness in their country - they have been sincere in their gestures.
Cairo Museum
The smiles and gesticulations of Egypt were not sincere they were part of the act, to ease open the purse. Whist I can't blame them, they have little to live on and obviously the better the actor or cleverer the tactic the more money they will earn, but I can't help feeling that the overall tourism strategy for Egypt is flawed. Yes they have some amazing and unique sites, but if the whole experience is not well catered for then people won't come back in a hurry - there is enough for people to come back for, year after year, but without the genuine sincerity, I wouldn't.So apart from the main attractions, I was also offered a unique insight into how paper was first made. This consisted of a two minute demo followed by 30 minutes of sales tactics urging me to buy historical Egyptian scenes printed on Papyrus - I did relent and bought a few souvenirs. But I declined the offer to see how authentic Egyptian perfume was made, or how the Egyptians wove the greatest carpets in the world. I also declined a trip to the bazaar - a market is a market the world over, and I have little use for anything from a market on a world trip and no room in my ruck sack for worthless trinkets.
I have never been a museum kind of person. Don't get me wrong, I think they are fabulous and essential places and a necessity in modern times. But I personally get bored too quickly. So the trip to the Cairo museum wasn't that exciting for me. It is a spectacular museum however, notwithstanding the building is a bit dowdy, the 52,000 (I think that is how many they have) exhibits are stunning.
Camel Riding
The ground floor is made up of all the large heavy stuff; statues and sarcophaguses whilst the smaller bits; jewels, mummies, tools, etc are on the first floor. Some of the big stuff is good to see because of it's age or the stories behind it, but probably the biggest pull has to be the Tutankhamen exhibits, from his burial chambers to his jewellery - one of the least impressive Pharaohs but the single biggest find of artefacts.Now the Pyramids are something else. Everyone in the world has to see these, there size and magnitude are incredible and I was one of the fortunate 100 ones (they only allow 100 tickets for each showing) to actually crawl through the passages to the inner burial chamber.
You enter from the side of the pyramid about 20 feet up, then head straight for some 50 yards, then crawl through a small tunnel then up and inwards for about 300 yards (very steep climb). You then crawl through another tunnel and into the chamber which still has the sarcophagus in it. Incredible! So now in the heart of the pyramid about 80 feet up I guess. As I as clambering up the last leg some asshole coming down muttered about what a 'rip off' it was to just come and see an empty room; go back to your mummy and suck your thumb cos your a spoilt brat that hasn't a clue what he's looking at; this is incredible design, bold architecture, precision engineering, craftsmanship, history, romance, human nostalgia, ingenuity, and 101 other expletives rolled into one - The cost was 100 Egyptian Pounds - you'd be a fool not to take teh opportunity to stand in the heart of such a magnificant peice of human construction.
There are a lot of Pyramids in Egypt but these are the grandest.
Family of Pyramids
The little ones were for the wives and mothers. The biggest took 30 years to build but they only worked on it for three months of the year - during the floods as it needed 120,000 people and since the population was only 500,000 at the time, they couldn't work on it during planting and harvesting time.The capital at the time (Memphis) was 25km away. Cairo (22 million people) is now right up to the Pyramids.
Of course you have to see the Pyramids but Luxor was still better in my opinion - far more to see and incredible temples and tombs.
The sphinx is a short distance from the Pyramids. It is actually in an area where they quarried for the Pyramid blocks. When they had finished quarrying the Egyptians were left with a lump of unused rock sticking out of the quarry so instead of having this unsightly lump they carved a sphinx out of it. When Napoleon camped in Giza his men used the nose of the Sphinx as target practice - they were obviously quite good shots as the nose is no more!
I found out today how I kept getting to the front of queues and limited hastle at checkpoints - my tour has been organised through NTS (National Tourist Service) which is owned by the former chief of police! So I am sorry if you were one of those I pushed in front of - it helps to have connections!!
I knew when I left home I would lose my wallet or credit cards, so I arranged to split my cards and put them in different places. So imagine how I felt when I realised 2 hours after the event that I had left my Debit Card in the cash point when getting some cash out - what a bloody pratt! Yes I knew something like this would happen, but only a few days into my trip - It's fatigue, old age or just stupidity; take your pick!
I had lunch on a river boat called the Blue Nile, which was very pleasant, but I think was the cause of my next sleepless night.
The next day was going to be a free day, so I decided to switch Hotels to the Meridian at Giza.
Maridian Hotel
What a fabulous choice. I could not fault this hotel, it was impeccable in every way, from beautiful lobby, to large well fitted luxurious bedrooms. Attention to detail was everywhere and the food and staff were exceptional. I had a fabulous room overlooking the Pyramids, and with a big comfy bed, large bathroom, internet connection, fabulous pool, gym, sauna and 4 restaurants I was set up for a great night and day.Now, since starting my trip I hadn't yet had a nights sleep; 3.00am into London, Flight to Cairo, 5.00am start to Alexandria, Sleeper train to Luxor, Sleeper train to Giza, so I was really looking forward, in fact in need of a decent full nights sleep. 2.00am huge stomach cramps, and a dash for the toilet saw the start of a night of Deli Belly - great. Needless to say I slept in, and eventually woke to an overcast day, which put paid to much sunbathing by the pool.
I am knackered and I'm not sure when my next decent sleep will be - 3 connecting flights to Harare, and then on Horse safari.... I'm too old for this!
Bye for now Egypt - I say for now, because in spite of my negativeness there are some great things to see, and I would come back and see them again sometime.
