Advertisement
Published: August 12th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Hi Everyone,
Well it's been a while since I last added and entry and I definitely have good reason to now. We decided at the last minute to go to Egypt for 10 days, and we got a really good deal including flights and accommodation so we were happy. The catch of course being that it's Summer and by 12:00 noon it's 46 degrees celsius. But, with a pool at the hotel and air-conditioning, we were able to survive it. I'm going to do a few entries on Egypt, as we saw so much, and one entry wouldn't do it justice.
First, we flew into Cairo. You really have to go there to understand what it's like. We got a cab to the airport and that was one of our funniest experiences. There's no speed limit, no lanes and people are constantly pushing each other on their bumper bars, and tooting. Tooting can mean hi, bye, go, stop, I'm indicating and pretty much anything. The tooting is constant. I've never seen so many combi's (you'd love it Jamie). People have the side door open constantly. Then there are people standing on the back of utes, donkey and cart carrying
a range of things from people to furniture, and the funniest was a couple on a motorbike with the woman at the back balancing a baby on her knee, and the man driving was also balancing a baby on his knee. I wish we'd been able to get a picture of that one. No-one wears helmets, there are no traffic police or ticket inspectors. And after all that, it works. Yes, everyones cars have scrapes and dents in them, but there aren't major accidents and everyone's happy. And crossing the road? That's like taking your life in your hands the first time, but we got used to it. And when we were back in London, crossing the road had never been so easy. We did see one accident when we were there. I think it was a taxi trying to avoid a pedestrian and crashed into the barrier. No-one seemed very fazed and everything just went back to normal in a few seconds. You have to see it to believe it. It was great!
So, on our first day we went to the Pyramids. Oh, and from our hotel room we could see the pyramids - that was really
cool! We had our first lesson in haggling with the donkey and cart boys. I had handed money over but was still holding onto it when we said we weren't going to do it, and there was a 'no no no no no' from all four of them and immediately, the price halved........we really enjoyed haggling. Pretty much whatever you're offered only pay half of it and you're doing okay. As soon as you say no and go to walk away they will agree to the price. The only thing that became annoying after a while was the tipping. It got to the point where children would help you to get off a boat or a taxi, or women handing out toilet paper, wanted a tip. We just had to say we didn't have any money, but sometimes they're very very persistant. I was happy to give a tip when I wanted to, but it did get a bit much after a while. I think that some people there only survive on tips, but you end up paying double if you tip all the time and you can't give tips to everyone. There were also guys in the temples that
would show you a couple of things and take your picture and then want a tip. You just have to say no as soon as you see them.
The pyramids were amazing and really have to be seen to be believed as well. There is a theory that the Sphinx close by was a lion and when you see it I think they're right. Egyptian sculptures are in proportion and that head of the Sphinx isn't. Also, the body is that of a lion and you can see who the head could have been sculpted from a lion's head. We'll never know I guess. We also picked up a papyrus (it's a plant they use to make paper by cutting the stems into strips and criss-crossing over each other and pressing for a month or two to dry out into paper), with a hand painted Egyptian scene on it. It was only £3.50 I think. I can't wait to frame it and put it up in the room.
Hope you're all well.
Love Danielle.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.242s; Tpl: 0.01s; cc: 8; qc: 45; dbt: 0.0489s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb