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We arrived in Cairo on Tuesday and were very glad to get to our room at 3.15am. We had an early start the next morning to check out the Cairo Museum and the city. The guide knew the area well and was able to take us straight to the treasure of King Tutankhamen and all the pretty gold. We saw a mummy and even saw preserved animals such as crocodiles, goats and dogs.
We went to Mohammad Ali’s Monetary which was huge space with beautiful lights and stair cases, the view from outside was spectacular and so exciting to see the pyramids for the first time. It was such an eye opener driving around the city, the pyramids were much closer to the centre of Cairo than I imagined. We saw some crazy things like 4 people on a scooter carrying plywood, camels wondering, donkeys pulling carts, buildings of rubble, pickup trucks with rubble and a sleeping man on the top of it and traffic honking horns every second. It didn’t matter how tired we were there was no way I was sleeping with so much to see.
We meet our group and our guide Walled who was to stay
with us the whole journey he dubbed us the family so everywhere we went to stay together he would shout FAMILEEEEE!
The next day was exciting we couldn’t believe we were going to see the Great Pyramids of Giza AMAZING! They were big (massive) and Dale says they were made of stone! We went inside the second pyramid which was a 10 min trip down a long tunnel it was squashy and we couldn’t stand up straight so we were hunched over most of the way down. It was so hot and stuffy and at the end there was a small room with a tomb in it. We had a quick look but couldn’t stay down for long. I was amazed to learn that 2.5 million lime stone bricks were used weighing in excises of 6 million tons were used in the construction of the largest pyramid, its absolutely incredible.
I never realised that the Sphinx was so close to the pyramids although not as big as I imagined but with the pyramids as the back drop it looked very powerful.
That night we were scheduled to get on the sleeper night train for our journey to Luxor but before
our train left Cairo we had a chance to go to Saqqara and view the world’s oldest pyramid dating back to 27BC, it wasn’t as big as the Great Pyramids and was under reconstruction.
We were so happy to get off the sleeper train, which wasn’t too bad, but so excited to arrive at our 5 star hotel (luxurious). The hotel was positioned right on the Nile so we had beautiful views from our rooms. That day we went on a short outing to the Temple of Karnak, I absorbed all the history as we strolled around the ancient temple. The hieroglyphics were still intact on all the gigantic columns and Walled gave as a small explanation of what it all meant. That afternoon some of the famileee chilled out by the pool side and worked on our tans. The evening was beautiful we sat of one of the balconies looking over the Nile and watched the sunset; I think we all felt privileged to be there.
One of the most amazing adventures of the whole trip was waking up at 4.10am for our hot air balloon ride over Luxor. Effortlessly the balloon took off and we were gliding over
the Nile the views were spectacular I couldn’t imagine the beauty of Egypt. On either side of the Nile was an oasis with green plants then beyond that it was mountainous, on the other side tucked under a sea of sandy mountains, almost hidden from view was the Valley of the Kings and Queens. All of this while watching the sunrise. We gave the locals a wakeup call they will never forget as we glided so close we could see inside, which wasn’t hard because they didn’t have roofs. The houses were so small made of mud and brick but yet almost every house had satellite.
After the balloon ride we went to look at the Valley of the Kings and Queens, we got to go into some of the temples. Inside the walls were covered with hieroglyphics they were painted bright colours we wish we could understand what they meant. The Valley of the Queens was similar to the Valley of the Kings but not as crowed so we could walk straight into the tombs. On the way back to the Hotel we stopped at Queen Hatshepsut Temple which was also interesting.
That night we had a horrible 17
hour bus ride to Dahab on the red sea, so so so glad to get off the bus 17 hours later and have four days of relaxation. We went snorkelling in the blue hole went out for tea with the famileee in Dahab town every night. Ate delicious meals of fresh seafood and relaxed by the pool and seaside swimming and watching random camels stroll past. What a LIFE!!
Arriving back in Cairo our trip coming to an end we managed to do some shopping at a perfumery and the markets opposite our hotel. We also managed to make a trip to the famous Cairo markets under the protection of a police man carrying a machine gun (ha nice).
We have had a trip of a life time we had such a great fun famileee to travel with, seen the most amazing sights and we are very sad to be going back to reality.
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