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Published: July 16th 2014
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Me from above the pyramids.
The one on the left is the Great Pyramid, Khufu. Flights in and out of Cairo are dirt cheap right now, given the recent political situations there, so I decided to stop over there for a couple of days on my way from Kenya to Spain. I noticed in baggage claim that everyone else on my plane had connecting flights and that I was the only tourist coming out of the airport. There was only one other room filled in my hotel and the number of people at the pyramids could be counted in the tens rather than in the hundreds or thousands. The downside of this is that anyone in the tourist industry was desperate for my money, and I attracted quite a bit of attention. Regardless, this is the perfect time to visit Cairo. Everything has stabilized and Sisi, the new president is very popular. It will take years for the tourism to fully recover, but in the upcoming months you can capitalize on cheap hotels and having the city to yourself.
I stayed at the wonderful
Guardian Guest House, which is adjacent to the pyramids and sphinx. Aside from the stunning views (see photos), the benefit of staying in this part of the city is easy access to the
pyramids and the guarantee that any protests, etc. wouldn't interfere with seeing them. The drawback is that there isn't much to do there; though, there likely wasn't much going on downtown either, since it was during Ramadan. I spent only 30 dollars a night for a nice room with hot water, a comfortable bed, and a spectacular view of the pyramids. The roof of the building has a wonderful patio that you can watch the nightly 'sound and light' show from (and save ten dollars). They had an expensive airport service that I succumbed to since I didn't know what to expect and didn't want to deal with the line of taxis in front of the airport. It was 25 dollars, but for a 45-minute trip through massive Cairo.
I felt pretty good when I arrived, so I ventured out into the 107 degree (in the shade) heat to walk around the Pyramids and Sphinx complex. The entrance fee was reasonable -- 11 dollars -- but it was much more ($30) to actually enter one of the pyramids, so I skipped that. There are dozens of touts and scammers by the entrance trying to show where things are, often
asking for your ticket and acting like officials. It's very annoying and I'm not sure why they aren't banned from the site. At least the touts selling rides on camels and horses are offering a service, but they're annoyingly persistent as well. Camel? No. Horse? No. Carriage? No. Why not? I don't want one. Maybe later? Definitely not. No no, I give you good price. I don't care.
It took about two hours to walk around the whole area and since there were so few people there, I felt like I had the whole complex to myself.
The hotel has a tourist service, so Mohammed (the spitting image of Gus Fring, if you get the reference) arranged a tour for me to visit the Egyptian Museum, the mosque of Mohammed Ali (not THAT one), Old Cairo, Coptic Cairo, and a papyrus shop. It was a steep 85 dollars that I didn't really need to spend, but the guide was excellent and it included all entry fees, etc. Besides, it would be easier to navigate the city and use the metro when the city has its usual number of tourists.
I'll write more later, but if you're thinking
of going, go before the crowds come back!
There are many more photos below.
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Ahmed Mohamed
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Great tour in Cairo
First of all nice photos:) and thanks for showing the people that there are no security threats in Egypt nowadays. I'm looking forward to your next article about your stay at Egypt.