Day 2: PYRAMIDS, PYRAMIDS, PYRAMIDS

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I set my alarm to wake me up at 6:30AM so I would have time to shower and eat breakfast before our bus left at 7:30AM. Unfortunately the alarm didn't work and I ended waking at 7:15AM and quickly getting dressing and rushing to reception. I settled my bill with hotel reception and dropped off my luggage in the one room they had arranged to store our luggage. Everyone gathered at reception including 2 people who had arrived the previous night. So we were a full 20 people now.

We left at 7:30AM for the pyramids. There are 4 pyramids that we would visit that day. The steppe pyramid and than the 3 great pyramids at Giza. The cost of entry was 160 Egyptian pounds and you pay that in cash to the tour leader. He was flexible thought so some people just owed him later on. He kept track of everything so we would know how much we would have to pay. Also for convenience sake the bus had water you could buy for 3 for 10 Egyptian pounds. For every day except for the last day it was over 40 degrees Celsius.

The first stop was the steppe pyramid which is exactly as it sounds. It looks like a series of steps going up to a point. Looking at it you can see how the designed evolved into the later pyramids. Like all the other pyramids it is a burial chamber for one of the Egyptian pharaohs. We couldn't climb onto this pyramid but we could get fairly close. We were early and no one else there yet but I think it had to do with the tourism collapse in Egypt. Any case we had the place to our selves and we did our best to dodge the sellers. It was amusing because some of the people there put wraps around our heads to take pictures and than requested Bakshsheesh (tips). Some of ladies got marriage proposals from the sellers which involved thousands of camels.

After that stop it was time to go to Giza for the Great Pyramids. Giza is in greater Cairo and is the part on the west bank of the Nile. Giza has actually expanded out to almost the boundaries of the pyramids themselves. Decades ago the pyramids were well out into the desert away from the city but now you drive through Giza until you reach the pyramids. There are 3 pyramids at Giza and they rotate between them so one year you can climb one pyramid and next year the next and etc. All 3 pyramids are large and impressive. Zizo told us some facts about the pyramids and said the blocks if placed in a row could go 2/3 away around the equator. 2.3 million tons of blocks are used for their construction and I didn't realize that the construction was done by free labour and slave labour was not used. The sheer size of the construction took decades to finish and each one was a burial chamber for one pharaoh.

Zizo took care of the tickets and we went to the first pyramid. We were able to climb up this one. Not that far up but still we were walking up a building that has existed long before Christ walk the Earth. It was a humbling feeling when I was up there and I was glad I made this my trip to Africa. We next went up to an overlook point that allowed us a good view of all 3 pyramids. It was a good spot to get some selfies with the pyramids and everyone got into it for that signature picture with the pyramids. One memorable picture was Gary who put on an onesie that covered his entire body in an all backs outfit from New Zealand team. This outfit made things a bit tricky later on. This spot is where most of the group went camel riding. I opted out of it because it too hot. Zizo arranged the camels with people he knew. This is much safer because if you just choose a camel tender you may get ripped off as they could demand more money when you are on top of the camel and won't let you off. The cost to ride the camels was 40 Egyptian pounds.

The few of us who were not riding camels made our way down to the 3rd pyramid. I was bit behind everyone and when I got closer I noticed Gary was talking to some security officials. As it turns out the security officials had some objections to the outfit Gary had taken pictures with. They believed it was some kind of advertisement. Gary calmly explained to them it was just for himself and he was not advertising anything. He did politely offer to delete the pictures in questions to defuse the situation.

Back to the tour. The 3rd pyramid is one you can go through a tunnel to the burial chamber for another 40 Egyptian pounds. I opted out again because there is really nothing to it beyond saying you were in one of the pyramids. After the pyramids we went next to the Sphinx. When you get closer you do notice that it is missing part of the face and the headdress. There are a number of theories of what happened to it but most Egyptologist think soldiers from long ago were using it for target practice. The sphinx is not as large as I thought it would be especially compared to the pyramids but it is still an impressive monument. By this point we were fairly sunburnt and I will learn later on that the sun was so strong that it penetrates the shirts you are wearing so we had some weird sun burns on us.

After the sphinx we went to lunch and I was really looking forward to it as I was starving from lack of breakfast. Lunch was falafel with fillings and chicken. It was a large meal and I couldn't finish it but I was glad to be full. Next on our schedule was a perfumery. The perfumery has the bases for all the expensive perfumes for the major companies. The perfumery owner told us about how perfumes were made and invited us to name a perfume and he got the bottle that was the base. He was quite knowledgeable and there was not a perfume that we could name that he did not have a bottle for. The bottles sold for 28 British pounds each and after a few of us bought some we left for the hotel. We got our luggage and than paid for our optional. The 3 major optionals that were available were A Nubian village dinner, Abu Simbel visit and a hot air balloon ride over Luxor. I was planning to skip the hot air balloon ride but after talking it over with people on the bus I opted to join it because it is apparently an incredible view and is quite affordable at 75 British pounds.

Now it was time for our first bus ride. 6 hours to Hurghada which is a red sea resort. The drive was fairly uneventful with one stop for a bathroom and food break. It was around 9PM when we reached our resort Festival Le Jardin. We went to dinner immediately and it was buffet. It was not the greatest quality but we could eat as much as we wanted and the best thing about this resort is that we got wrist bands that gave us free drinks for our entire stay. After dinner we got our rooms and I met my roommate for the tour. Luke who I had met last night. Since it was a stranger situation I assured him I was clean and quiet person. For the record, for the duration of the tour Luke was a good roommate, no snoring and was clean. You can't really ask for more. After settling in everyone gathered at the bar where we got free drinks. To make room for our group we gathered chairs and tables against one wall. It was our first relaxing moment where we could break the ice with everyone present. We all drank beers and cocktails late into the evening. I think the final group left around 4AM. I opted out at 2AM as it had been a very busy day. Our tour leader Zizo told us that it is mostly Russian and Polish who stay at this resort and I will have to say there were a lot of very attractive women there.

Before I end this blog entry. We had a strange incident that night at the bar. A woman who covered her face kept tapping on the window behind us and gesturing to us. She did that for hours and after we saw her face we could see she was an older Caucasian woman. We thought she was drunk but it went on for so long that the hotel management came over and explained to us that she was mentally disturbed person who had been there for several days now and would be leaving tomorrow. They just locked her in the dining room so that she would not disturb the other guests. We left her alone after that and did our best to ignore her persistent tapping. Tomorrow we had the morning off to relax before heading to Luxor.

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Photos

Disturbed Woman
This lady behind the glass bothered us for most of the night but we left her alone once the staff explained to us her mental issues. Also pictured are Kate and Ollie

Standing on the Pyramids
Carey, Gary and Ashleigh standing on the pyramids

Standing on the Pyramids
Laura, Kait, Erin

Gary in the Infamous black suit
he almost got arrested for this one