Egypt - Arrival, Cairo & The Pyramids


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Africa » Egypt » Lower Egypt » Cairo
October 13th 2012
Published: November 3rd 2012
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Egypt - Cairo October 13 and 14th

When we had decided to visit Jordan and Egypt we had decided that we would go the route of two different tour companies and we were far from disappointed. Actually both of the companies, their guides, drivers, office staff and meet and greet people far exceeded any of our expectations. Two tall blonde women travelling in these countries, we kind of stuck out, and we were treated with respect and welcomed with warmth, great hospitality and service. Would go back in a heartbeat and would strongly recommend visiting these countries and these companies and doing some individual research when making choices. We found the companies through research of different Tourism Boards and various sites that have posted reviews for these countries. We read lots of travel books and nailed down just what and where we wanted to go on this trip and were flexible with what we could really fit in for the time frame we had. We also referred to the travel blogs on this travel blog site on a regular basis to see and hear what was happening and not rely totally on news media. We also registered with our consulate and received emails on current affairs and information and if any natural disasters or otherwise took place, they would know where we were staying and where to find us. This was easily done online. We Aced this trip with everything we fit in. Would recommend lots of small cash denominations for tips. Would go back to both of these countries in a heartbeat and what lovely people we met.

Saturday - Cairo
As we left Jordan, we weren’t sure what to expect in Egypt and were far from disappointed. Our flight took just over an hour and we turned our clocks back by an hour. Now we are nine hours ahead of home. We are met in the line up to clear passports and one of the airport employees offered his assistance and went and paid for our visas for us so we didn’t have to get out of line. Impressed, again! Our guide and tour manager, Abdul, met us in the next few minutes and took our passports and walked with us through immigration and to our luggage. What incredible service and again am sure impressed. It is late evening and we are staying at a resort out near the pyramids so the ride was fairly calm actually and 45 minutes away...We drove through some incredibly poor neighbourhoods and had an insightful conversation with Abdul and the driver about their country. Very helpful people at the hotel which use to be a royal hunting lodge. Very impressed with our driver and guides and the top notch treatment and accommodation. The air is very heavy with smog and I know when we're visiting a city of over 25million people there is going to be some culture shock in store and there was. Very difficult to not be overwhelmed with the struggles that people are having.

Sunday - Cairo
We are in for a busy day and have breakfast in the hotel which has a view of one of the pyramids. Are we really here??? Beautiful and again the service is incredible. We are finished by 8:00 a.m. so head out on our tour of Cairo.

We met Rehab, our guide who is working on her PHD. The term guide is very generalized and these people are highly educated individuals with so much information. We start with the Pyramids first thing in the morning. Sian took the opportunity to go inside one of the pyramids. Me...not going there!!! We also took a horse and carriage trip around the pyramid area and took some pictures. Very nice driver and I was quite interested in the care of the horse and tip both him and the horse. He took pictures of us with the pyramids and in the carriage. Really sweet. We had some free time and walked around the pyramid area...They are so magnificent and it is so hard to comprehend how they were built.

It was getting hot and it was still early. We learned on our own the skill of some of the people who try and take pictures of you even when you say no and that you don’t want to pay for anything…for example taking a picture of you with their camel...lol...when they have your camera in their hands we found ourselves paying to rescue the camera. So much for us on our free time. We were told by our guides to not make conversation and ignore people who came up to us. We found this really difficult as it seems so rude to do this...really really hard to do. After the camera incident I found myself making way less conversation and avoiding eye contact in certain situations. These people are just trying to make a living. No thanks, repeated calmy was the way to go. Just had to look past some things otherwise my heart would melt more than it was and our pocketbook would not ever be big enough to take care of all the problems, but we contributed what we could.

We left a lot of money behind in those first few days in tips. We left the impressive pyramids and the Sphinx behind and headed to Coptic Cairo to visit the Hanging Church and Ben Ezra Synagogue. We had lunch at a restaurant on the Nile…here I avoided a lot of the food as the salads and deserts were not cooled in any way and a lot of flies were in the restaurant. Have to use a lot of common sense and pay attention to what we are eating and drinking here. We have too much planned and wanting to see to take time out to be sick. We made a few stops for shopping. One was at a shop that had some jewellry we were interested in. I opted to purchase some silver rings and a cartouge necklace for gifts and was able to watch them make the rings as they added the hieroglyphics using our names. Loved them and they were very inexpensive. We turned down the rug demonstration stop as we had already been to one in Turkey. We did however stop at a Papyrus shop with a very talented salesperson. We had not intended to purchase anything but we left with a few gifts.

We headed for the Egyptian Museum. We were surprised at the number of exhibits and found it so overwhelming as so much to see. Absolutely incredible exhibits. Need at least a day here or more to cover this. We could use a lot more time here. We paid the extra and went into the mummie exhibit which was so fascinating. They are building a new museum out by the pyramids.

After eleven hours of touring we opted out to skip the bizarre in the dark and head back to our hotel. We got caught up in a traffic jam that was quite fascinating and entertaining in itself. Our driver was very talented and obviously driven here for years. A five lane highway became an eight lane highway however no one was in line. It was an incredibly entertaining drive back to our hotel. There were scooters with several people on them, donkey carts, and all of a sudden a person would just walk by the car. Never seen anything like it. I guess the rules if there are any, are just guidelines. Once back we had a drink, skipped dinner and packed up. What an incredible day. Early morning coming our way. Tomorrow we are heading to Luxor and a Cruise on the Nile.


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