Triangley things

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Coolies so after a pretty long flight from London, arrived in Cairo Sunday night to a city that is as big and as busy as I imagined.

First stop was the Egyptian Museum. The pieces on antiquity are laid out in some chronological order, but things are generally pretty shambolic inside and I kept going in circles, retracing my steps to make sure nothing was missed. I am still amazed that these artefacts have lasted for two, three, four thousand years but of all the items on display, perversely it was the mummified humans and animals that most fascinated me.

After the museum I had to take a stroll to the Nile. The stories of the Nile Delta and its importance to Egyptian cultivation (and hence its civilization as a whole) always interested me in school (hey at least I learnt a thing or two in Mr Drummond’s geography classes although most the time I just fell asleep …).

A bit about Cairo traffic - I one word its mental! I though Marrakech was bad but at least there was some logic there and it prevented traffic jams. Cairo, on the other hand, is one big traffic jam, no one follows the traffic signals, 5 cars squeeze along a road fit for 3 cars, crossing the road is an adventure on its own and drive with one hand on the horn and beep it when they want to.

That night I went on a cruise along the Nile that also involved a buffet dinner and belly dancing and other performances. The food, what I could get to, was pretty tasty (there were lots of ‘aunties’ and ‘uncles’ on board and Kel, you will understand what I mean when I say they hoarded the food!!!).

First performance was an Arabic singer followed by a belly dancer and then a twirly spinny man. I avoided dancing with the belly dancer but got roped into wearing the twirly man’s ‘skirt’. I was the only one that could spin properly in the outfit but sadly that meant I spun around so much that when I stopped I was like a drunkard, could not stand upright and it took ages for my head to stop spinning much to everyone else’s amusement (I don’t know how the spinny man kept this going for a solid 15 minutes!).

Early start the next morning, a quick walk around the city and even at 8am the traffic was crazy.

Because the city is so hectic, its hard to pinpoint any specific appeal to the city. Whereas the hustle of Marrakech is its attraction, Cairo is to full on, has too many cars and is a little too dirty, but get out of that madness and …

THE PYRAMIDS!!!

Seriously I was welling up a little when I got my first sight of the pyramids. Yeah I know, I am one big wus but my god, such a cool thing to finally see possibly the most amazing structures in the world.

The three pyramids at Giza are a mere 20 minute drive out of the city. Great Pyramid of Khufu (Cheops); Pyramid of Khafre (Chephren) and the Pyramid of Menkaure (Mycerinus).

Giza is also home to 4,000 year old Sphinx, the one with the broken Michael Jackson nose. Poor little thing (thought blown off by board troops, either by rotten French or English).

Sure it was tourist central (mostly Spaniards, Germans, Frenchies and I-talians with only a few poms, yanks or skips), crowded with beggars and plenty of scammers (yep I fell for one) - hell even the so called ‘Tourist Police’ are in on the act!

There is even a Pizza Hut/KFC directly opposite the Sphinx, but again this has to put aside and forgotten about (boo to any tourists that eat there) and instead just concentrate on the wonderful ancient structures.

After Giza it was of to The Saqqara Necropolis home to the Step Pyramid of Djoser (around 4,500 years old); the Pyramid of Teti I; the Tomb of Mereruka; the Tomb of Kagemni and the Mereruka Tomb as well as the , Titi Pyramid, Kagemnj Tomb and the cool (literally) tour of the Museum of Imhotep and Jean-Philippe Lauer (the French discovery of the tombs and a man that devoted 75 years of his life to the area).

The museum featured the oldest complete royal mummy known - yep that’s a dead person, thousands of years old, freaky!

As opposed to my time at Giza, this time I actually went inside the tombs. To be honest I initially didn’t want to do this as I think it’s wrong to intrude on what were important burial sites to the Ancient Egyptians, but then my nasty tourist side took over : -) I’m sure we never got more than one or two chambers into the tombs and were nowhere near the exact burial spots anyhow.

Anyhow, the walls in the tombs were all decorated with hieroglyphics and without the aid of a guide to help decipher, I had fun making my own interpretations.

My driver then took me to one of the many papyrus ‘schools’ which effectively are just tourist shops. I was dreading this (again another lesson learnt in Marrakech) but once inside there is no option but to purchase a few items. Ignoring the fact that I have no need or desire to own a piece of ‘original’ ‘hand made’ (yeah right) papyrus art pieces, I purchased just two little items (pleading poverty - not a total lie) and quickly made my exit.

Last stop was the Ramses ‘museum’ which consisted of a large lime stone statute of Ramses/Ramsis II of dubious originality but remarkably preserved if it is (sheesh I am a jaded and sceptical tourist).

The museum also featured numerous other pieces including a small sphinx, several statues that were half destroyed (mostly decapitated) and one item labelled ‘Box with Lid’ a rather obvious description that brings to mind the stupid as hell bylines on Channel 7 news (sorry Rick and Susanna).

Requesting that we not stop off at the ‘rug school’ and what would have been another tourist scam that I could ill afford it was back to my hostel and then out for a much needed dinner as I’d barely eaten all day.

Despite annoyed and falling for a few scams and the day costing me around 50 pounds, this was somewhat balanced by the dead cheap hostel (4 pounds a night) and my cheap dinner consisting of pizza, coffee, water and yummy fresh mango juice that cost less than 3 pounds.

Cairo is pretty cheap like that, labour is obviously cheap and in abundance as there are people everywhere ‘working’ but not really doing much. There are military/cops all over the place (kinda scary, especially when they carry machine guns), traffic cops at most intersections (sure they help with traffic but then why not just use the traffic lights which continually flash orange), street vendors everywhere and all number of locals standing around not doing much but always ready to pounce when they see a job (helping cars park, offering directions etc … all in exchange for a tip of course!).

For the rest of my time I mostly just spent my days walking around the city, trying not to get run over, eating cheaply and visiting a few sites including a few mosques such as the Sultan Hassan mosque, not really my cup of tea but I suppose it has to be done.

Had a great time in Cairo (and thanks to my super Gran who gave me a lovely Xmas present which paid for my flights) and glad that I can say I’ve seen the Pyramids. Maybe one day I will return and do the Valley of Kings, Luxor and other parts of Egypt outside of Cairo.

Now on my way to Brussels to gorge myself on Belgian Beers (mmmm Leffe) and Belgian chocolates … does life get any better.

Next update in a couple of days …

PS - for the Mallies crew, congrats to Nicky Jeffs who gave birth to baby Ruby Leigh Padfield on 7 March at a healthy 9lb 11oz. In Nicky’s words ( Hi Nick : -) ) she “truly beautiful” and I don’t doubt her but look forward to the photographic evidence.

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Comments

[Kelly U]

Can I make a gag about Giza=Geezer?