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Published: April 18th 2006
30/03
Got into Cairo airport around 01.30 in the morning. No rooms at airport hotel, got in taxi and ended up in some random hotel somewhere in Cairo !!
30/03
Went to pyramids at Giza from the hotel. Weather was perfect and spent a couple of hours plodding about on 'Michael Jackson' the camel !! Very tired from getting in late on the flight, but it was quite relaxing seeing pyramids by camel...
31/03
Spent the night in the hostel I had booked. Went to check out a local market, but it was seriously shoddy and consisted of people selling belts and some sort of animal dung ! Bumped into an Egyptian whose cousin works at a papyrus shop down town. Chatted over tea for a while and went to look at the shop. Very nice papyrus, he showed me how it is made, with the plants soaked in water for sixty days, and woven into mat-like paper before the art is applied. Picked some out to buy and send home. He wanted LE950 for them, but after half an hour of me haggling and drinking all his tea I think he got worn out and let me have
them for LE450 !!
Later on went to a stables at Giza that breeds Arabian horses. Very nice horses, Bedouin guide took me up to Giza on horseback after 5 when all the tourists had gone home. Really eery seeing the pyramids when there is no one about. Very enjoyable, and even blagged a chunk of limestone from one of the pyramids !! Agreed to go back in a couple of days to visit Saqqara by horse.
01/04
Went on day trip to Alexandria, 150 miles north of Cairo on the Meditteranean. Very nice car by Egyptian standards, it even had a seatbelt !!
3 hours up and 3 hours back, so ended up being a long day. First stop was the old citadel, Quaitbay, a fortress at the tip of the harbour at Alexandria. Very impressive, but teeming with coachloads of Egyptian schoolchildren who would not leave me alone. Got tiresome fairly quickly ! Excellent views out over the Med and the harbour though. Then to Pompey's pillar, a massive column in the middle of a real slum area of town. Some good pink-granite Sphinx's there. Next, onto a catacombe. A deep, winding staircase leading to a
Horse riding to Giza
Almost looks like I know what I'm doing, (almost) !!myriad of burial chambers, filled with Japanese tourists !! Stopped for a meal after with Isam, the driver. First decent meal I had in Egypt !! Superb seafood, fresh from the Med. Lovely grilled fish, prawns, fried kalamari, mousakka and a soup with a whole crab, kalamari, mussels, and other strange looking things floating in it !
02/04
Best day of the trip yet !! Went back to the stables at Giza where I met up with the Bedouin guide again. Rode to the 7000 year old pyramids at Saqqara on horseback, 6 hours in total there and back. I had muscles aching I never knew existed after that one !! It was a long trip across the Sahara desert out to Saqqara. Got in plenty of galloping on the way. Crazy little Bedouin guy screams "Yallah !!" and the horses take off like a rocket !! Had to hang on tight, those Arabian horses are fucking fast !! Went home after Saqqara via the Bedouin village where we stopped for falafel and tea. Knackered after all that, but an incredible expereince to gallop across the Sahara !!
03/04
Went to the Egyptian museum. Incredible aray of artefacts,
Camel riding to Giza
Me and "Michael Jackson" the camel !! almost too much to take in in one go. Well worth the visit.
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Tom
non-member comment
If you forever look down, you'll never see stars
Photos look great bud. I am thinking of popping over to Egypt too I reckon at some point so will get some advice from you. Looks great. How about the pyramids and shit!! WOW is an understatement. Did they let you take a Pyramid home with you? I am following your trip closely mate and you are making us proud!! Well done.