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Published: January 20th 2007
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Me, Sashi, Pyramids
Sash got better at the Egyptian pose as the trip went on.. Finally I arrive in Egypt! The first hurdle was getting a Visa, which turned out to be the easiet process ever...give this guy behind the bank counter $5US and he gives you a visa (what looks like a postage stamp) no questions asked! He didn't even check my passport. Security at a maximum.
I met my first 'Mohamed' on the plane, and I had a feeling I would meet a few more in Egypt...I had also met a few fellow Geckos travellers on the aircraft so after initially deciding to taxi myself to my hotel and be at one with the city, I decided to take the comfortable option of crashing their pre-booked transfer on an bus complete with tour guide! I'm glad I did this as later on when Sashi arrived I discovered just how ripped off you can get by a taxi driver when you first arrive into Cairo...
King Hotel was our humble abode in Cairo (Dokki) and it came complete with hot water during certain hours and free porrige!! I befriended a girl from Perth (not uncommon in Egypt) called Nicola, who through Sashi's inability to read a note written by me, later on became
Happy to be in Egypt
The balcony from King Hotel, Cairo "Wilda". So Wilda and I spent the day exploring our hotel's area and discovering that we'd arrived during a religious festival in which all food places were closed. Welcome to Cairo indeed!
Following the word of the Lonely Planet we went to Islamic Cairo which is abuzz with markets, mosques, cafes and restaurants. We drank mint tea at the most popular place to have it, at El Fishawy cafe. This was truely wicked just sitting in the middle of a bazzare, sipping on mint tea, with Egyptians smoking sheesha's (water tobacco pipe) and coincidentally two other gecko tourists next to us! Visiting Fishawy's is a must-do for those of you visiting Cairo.
Sashi arrived later that day and so we all went on a massive quest to find food for dinner. Following Wilda's trusty Lonely Planet we taxied it to a suggested eating place, which after getting help locating it from a man in a nightgown sitting on a street corner...turned out to be a block of flats... hmmm not quite the "downtown" we expected. A short taxi ride elsewhere brought us to a place where we had our first shawarma (like a kebab) and possibly the worst
Islamic Cairo
The two restaurants competing for our company of the trip!!
The following day Sash, Wilda and I did the Cairo Egyptian Museum. I have three words to say: Tutankhamun's death mask. We've all seen it on postcards, tv etc, but seriously, it takes your breath away when you see it. And it's just in this little glass box (Charlotte thinks how heavy can that solid gold mask be really?). As amazing as the entire museum was, you are ever reminded that you're in a poor country as the majority of artefacts are scattered across the museum floor without any protection or correct labelling. Perhaps the Egyptians are thinking "hey, if this Pharoah's tomb lasted for thousands of years buried under sand...what's a few more years out in the open on this floor.."
Lunch that day was a funny experience. Deciding between two restaurants turned into a shouting match between the two restaurant owners. The decision was made for one because the retaurant guy ("casanova") offered us free chips, soft drinks and also wouldn't let go of my arm. The loser was obviously a little cut and throughout our lunch this argument in arabic between the guys took place:
(rough translation from my excellent knowledge of
Me, our new found friend and Sashi
This guy was a regular casanova and persuaded us into choosing his restaurant Arabic)
loser guy: "oi your table is encroaching on my restaurant space" (referring to our table)
casanova: "so what if it is...i have more customers than you"
loser guy: "move it"
casanova: "no." *evil glare*
loser guy: *moves a table over to ours and pushes it up against our table. Seats some new customers at this table who are trying to say they'd rather sit somewhere else*
an awkwardly close lunch follows...
It was amusing all the same!
The tour group! After Sashi and I had secretly hoped that the Americans roaming around our hotel were not in our tour group....we rock up to the meeting to spot them sitting at our table. As we are holding in our laughter we discover they that are actually Canadian! Phew! (Sorry Americans). Turns out our group consists of 8 Canadians and 8 Australians...I can see some good times ahead.
Here's the breakdown of the members:
"The Canadian family"--three sisters, a brother and his friend and the mom of the family. Justine and Antony (siblings) are both models living in NY, which is pretty crazy seeing as they were the most down to earth people you could meet.
Wilda (aka Nicola) and I
Having mint tea at the popular cafe 'El Fishawy' The boys (Antony and Ross) end up being our entertainment on the trip, they are honestly the craziest most fun guys Sashi and I have met and we had a blast!!
"The Canadian couple"--Ted and Christine, who had been travelling for more than two years straight...
"Dinki Di and his girl"--Brett and Wanita, Aussie couple, Brett being possibly the funniest Aussie on planet earth.
"Dad and daughter"--Klara (aka Clarice) and Chris, these two provided much entertainment to us and all locals we met..
"The quiet ones"--Vanessa and Joe (both Aussie), actually not that quiet...just in comparison to the rest of us!
"The Aussie girls"--Sashi and I of course
"The tour leader"--Mohamed (surprise surprise), who became Momo, Mo etc..
New Years Eve! New Years we were free to do what we wanted, but loving our group already we all decided to band together and go to the Pyramid's hotel for festivities and fun.
This place was complete with an 8 meal course, flashing disco lights, free party gear and a terrible belly dancer.
Want to know where all the girls were at countdown?? In...the....bathroom. That's right, we missed countdown! For some unknown
Me infront of the Cairo Egptian museum
Amazing!! but unfortunately no cameras were allowed inside reason we were completely unaware it was close to midnight (having too much fun/alcohol) and decided to go for a group toilet trip. Then we're all standing in the bathroom chatting and the lights go out..."stupid Egyptian electricity" we curse. *cough* Leaving the bathroom we realise that might have been the stroke of midnight...not to worry though, we re-created our own countdown with the whole group and they all agreed it was much better!!
The Pyramids! What else does one do on the first day of the new year but pay a visit to the last remaining wonder of the ancient world?? So that's what we did, visited THE PYRAMIDS!! I can only liken it to seeing the Eiffel tower for the first time, it's truely amazing. I did not expect to be that taken aback at the beauty and the sheer size of them. And they were all built for a dead person!!
There are 3 pyramids at Giza. We went inside the second largest pyramid (Khafre Pyramid) which is the best preserved pyramid. It even has some of the outer smooth stone casing which originally covered all of the pyramids. Going inside involved crouching
Mohamed our tour leader
Listenting to S.O.A.P "this is how we party"...(yes i have that song on my ipod) down a narrow tunnel for a fair distance. Do not do this if you are claustrophobic. What a bizzare experience it was. You arrive in this room (in the middle of the pyramid) and all there is is the name of the discoverer carved into the wall "Giovanni Belzonis". Bet he was stoked when he made the discovery. I'm happy to say that I found a bit of loose limestone inside the pyramid which satisfied my need for discovery. Sashi found some gum.
Outisde the pyramids there are a bunch of Egyptians that try and sell you tacky souvenirs. The Canadian boys took a different approach to turning the sellers down. Instead they pulled out business cards that they had collected during their last few days in Cairo and convinced the sellers that they themselves were sellers of exotic perfume and had a shop in central Cairo. Sashi and I are meanwhile on the floor bursting with laughter as these poor Egyptians take the boy's business cards and show true interest in buying their perfumes. At this point, I knew it was going to be an interesting trip...
UP NEXT...Alexandria!!
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Paul
non-member comment
Wow, Egypt looks like an awesome place, and it looks like ur making the most of it. Keep enjoying urself and ill second what andrew said, keep us posted!