Pyramids, papyrus, and proposals

We met with our tour group last night. There are two others doing our tour, a couple from Singapore. There are three others women doing 'Essential Egypt' which is the same as our tour without the last few days on the Sinai Peninsula. Our tour guide/Egypologist's name is Victor, he gave us a brief rundown of our tour and all of the additional costs/optional activities - and he gave the expected warning of local customs/expectations (mainly for the women of the group... so everyone bar one), nothing out of the ordinary. *Warning on the information sheet: "Toilets: Take toilet paper and a big breath" haha.

We started the first day of our tour by visiting the first place that comes to mind when you think of Egypt - the dining hall at the Indiana. Utterly disgusting. Then we made our way to Giza (Jodie, read: 'GEEEEZA') for the pyramids! We started at the Khufu's Great Pyramid which was incredible! It was fantastic to finally see it after reading so much about it and only imagining what it would be like. Photos really don't do it justice, it's enormous and just breathtaking. The girls and I were freaking out and nudging eachother every few minutes saying "oh my god we're in Egypt!!", the entire experience was just surreal. Everyone in the group was loving it and taking loads of photos, I felt a bitter pang when I realised I couldn't use my lenses. Ow.

There weren't as many people at the site as I had expected, but there were a lot of touts, especially children. Also there were no female touts. They were all armed with identical stock, trying to sell miniature souvenir pyramids, rolls of postcards, Arabic head dresses, scarabs, papyrus and other such junk - and they'll do anything to strike up conversation. I noticed they usually opt for "America?? English? English?". If you don't buy then they try to give it to you for free - although I've been warned of a common scam where they'll come back and demand payment for the 'gift'. It wouldn't surprise me if the majority of their sales were out of pity, or an attempt to be rid of them. I know I came close to it, but it's only day one - I don't want to start the junk collecting just yet.

We saw Khufu's Second Pyramid after the Great Pyramid - this is the one that is commonly photographed with the Sphinx in front of it, and it appears to be the bigger of the two pyramids but it isn't... it's still huge. Entry to the Giza site was 50LE (or 25LE for students which is roughly $5AU), and entry to the second pyramid is 25LE (15LE students/$3AU). We had to check our cameras in upon entry (but I took my camera phone in anyway). Jodie and Leonie pulled out once they approached the entry haha. There was one way of entering the burial chamber and it was a single walkway with people walking both in and out, it was very narrow, and very steep. As soon as you walk into the corridor the air just feels thick, and it's really stuffy. The corridor wasn't wide enough for two flows of people (exiting/entering) so when someone approached you, you both had to twist to the side to get past. Climbing down was more difficult than getting out, it seemed that my head was resting on my knees the entire way and when I'd raise it I'd skim the ceiling. After a couple of minutes I got into King Khufu's burial chamber. Before entering we were advised to not spend too much time in there but without realising it I was in there for about 15 minutes or so, I probably inhaled ancient spores that will end modern civilisation... but I got to climb into a pyramid!! I found it difficult to turn my back on it all, I guess it puts you in a reflective sort of state when you think about all the history of the room, and all of the people who have seen it and how I might not ever see inside it again. I probably stood there for the 15 minutes being philosophical before I realised that my clothes were getting damp and I was running short of breath. I'm not sure how to explain what it was like inside, it wasn't exactly hot... it was dense? Fanning yourself does nothing and the air tasted like breathing someone elses warm breath. It was an incredible experience though, I loved it.

After the pyramids we made our way to the Sphinx. Reading about its measurements and seeing photos are one thing, but actually seeing it with the pyramids in view really make it look tiny. It's really not as grand as I had imagined but it was still very cool. There were a lot of people taking the kissy photo, and yes I was one. I tried to do it for Leon but I ruined it (sorrryyyy haha). It was shortly after the silly photo-taking that I was approached by a young man accompanied by two young boys (brothers? sons?). I had no idea what was going on but he asked to take my photo, then another with the boys and another with him... at first I thought it was some way of distracting me while the boys robbed me but nothing happened (I checked). Then he asked me for my number and to be his "wife for life"!! After declining and saying I had to go I felt pretty guilty for immediately thinking that they wanted to rob me. Either way it was a very strange experience... and my chapstick did go missing today...

Next came my favourite time of day - lunch. Before lunch we visited a papyrus shop where we were given demos and shown cheap banana leaf imitations (seriously can not tell the difference). I bought some custom made papyrus bookmarks, I always lose bookmarks in half-read books so it probably won't get used... but when I DO see it I can think of the time the short man asked me to be his wife fo' life. So yes, lunch... definitely needed after the horrid Indiana crap. There was a loud rooster in the cafe and I hoped it'd be served with our food... who puts a rooster in a cafe?? Anyway we started on traditional Egyptian bread (eesh baladi?) with a selection of dips like hommus and baba ganoush. Next came pickled veggies, felafel balls, beet/potato salad, then chicken and lamb kebab (wasn't the rooster unfortunately). Dessert was like a rice custard... without the rice so it was thick and gooey. It wasn't too bad but the texture was kind of gross.

After lunch we made our way to the Egyptian museum. It wasn't that far from where we were but the traffic was just ridiculous. It was the middle of the day but Victor said it is always like this. Think Sydney peakhour, three times as bad and all day, all night... it never. stops. We took the opportunity to have a siesta in the van, but eventually woke up to that sweet sound of Cairo horn beeping. It got depressing to see the minibuses crammed with people like sardines against the backdrop of dilapidated apartment blocks and unfinished buildings, Egypt isn't really the most attractive place. I still get a chill down my spine when pedestrians dodge through the traffic to cross the road.

ANYWAY we finally arrived at the museum behind schedule. Victor gave us a tour of the place and did the usual spiel on the more interesting stuff, so predominantly New Kingdom Egypt. We were then given around 40 minutes to roam. This sucked because I could have spent all day in there and since we were running late due to the traffic we couldn't spend more time in there. The place is HUGE, and they're actually building another national museum which is going to be bigger so they can put all of the artifacts on display (there are massive storage cases full of stuff that can't fit into displays. The museum is literally bursting at its seams). With such limited time I bee-lined for the stuff I knew. I was a little disappointed with the Akhenaten and Hatshepsut displays, they were my favourite pharaohs and their sections were quite small. Got to check out Ramses II's displays which was cool. It was awesome to finally see the real bits and pieces of history that I'd seen photographed in all of the books. As expected Tutankhamun's collection was great. The jewels in his area were beautiful and so well preserved. The colours on his burial mask were so vibrant, it's strange to think exactly how old it is yet it's in great condition. His sarcophagus and casings looked pristine and the detail was fantastic. Victor made a comment this afternoon about Tut's mask and how the sale of it could clear Egypt's debts, but it won't ever happen... it's crazy. I'm still a little disappointed that I couldn't have stayed longer, I guess that's one of the downfalls of seeing Egypt on a tour.

Something no one should experience? Egyptian trains. Our 'first class' train from Cairo to Aswan was over 2.5 hours (or what seemed like 10 hours) late but it allowed us to gain some insight into the lives of the poorer Egyptians. Trains would arrive crammed... I'm talking people clutching onto other people and doors jammed open because carriages are so full that they can't close. When the trains did stop, people would force their way in... over other passengers and even through windows (with TINY openings... see the photo). It was so depressing to see and a reminder the Egypt really is a third world country.

I'm writing from our train cabin. All the girls are asleep and I refuse to nap because with every stop that our 14 hour trip makes, the more the people in the halls build up. Unlike the poorer trains which I previously described, the first-class ones have allocated seats (which is what we have) but you can also purchase general entry in which case you lay wherever there is room, and from what I can see it includes the floors in the hallways and inside occupied carriages (under the feet of ticketed passengers). I'd take a photo but I'm too young to die!! We have no door to our cabin so we've used Jodie's suitcase as a roadblock to prevent people from coming in, and Trudi and I are resting our legs on it to block it off that much more. It's reinforced by 5 more suitcases... no one is infiltrating our cabin, damnit!


So yeah, huge day. I guess I can check off a couple of entries from my Bucket list.

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