Egypt, Cairo and the pyramids

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

With bellies full of breakfast and satchels full of water and snacks, we retrieved our passports and boarded our bus for the three hour journey to Cairo.
Wow! Here we are in Egypt. Enough said, right? Pyramids, sphinxes, mummies...we've all seen the pictures. OK, I'll give you the details anyway.

After passing through security and immigration, we were met by our Y'alla guide and our Egyptologist. We had to wait until all the other buses were loaded because we had to do the drive as part of a convoy, complete with an armed guard on each bus and jeeps full of guards and their AKs (AKA big scary looking gun). There were armed guards all over the streets as well.

Thus began "Mr. Toad's Wild Ride." Augie and I were in the back of the bus, so all we saw was the cars getting within inches of our bus, only to be chased away by the armed jeeps, sirens blaring, and the cars that almost crashed into the back of us every time we had to slam on our brakes.

Karen had one of our guides help her put on her seat belt. She tried to get Dave to wear his too, but he kept shaking his head no. Finally, I heard him tell her, "I'd rather be free to move in case someone starts shooting."

Jerry was in the front of the bus. Here's his accounting of the "bird's eye view" --
We were boarding the van when I noticed the Uzi type magazine sticking out of our armed guard's uniform. I was surprised because I didn't know we were going to have a armed escort. That was nothing compared to the E-Ticket ride we were in for.

We started off in a convoy with Police vehicles in front and back and soon after our guide had to use the bathroom so we stopped and lost the convoy. When we continued, we picked up new escorts who drove like mad to catch up. In and out of traffic, sirens blaring, missing cars and trucks by inches at high speeds. Cars were not paying too much attention to the police so the policemen in the back of the truck were yelling and flipping off everybody. Definitely a hairy ride!
post by Jerry

Our first stop was the local bazaar. We were not interested in shopping, but we went for the cultural experience. Since we were so early, most of the shops weren't open yet. Our next stop was the Cairo museum. It would normally take all day to see all the treasures on display here, but we only had about an hour and a half. So our guide took us to see the rarest and some of the oldest pieces. We also saw King Tut's exhibit. Shelli and the Hellmans paid the extra fee to go into the mummy exhibit. The rest of us had already seen it. It's pretty amazing to look upon the face of Ramses II, the pharaoh of Moses' time.

By this time, we were all getting pretty hungry, so we were taken to the hotel for our lunch. It was a buffet with a selection of Egyptian dishes and fabulous desserts (lot's of chocolate -- yummmmm!).

Then it was on to the pyramids! Remember when you were a kid on your way to Disneyland and you got that first glimpse of the Matterhorn in he distance? That's the feeling you get when you first see the pyramids. They are more massive than you ever imagined. When you walk up to the great Cheops pyramid, you are stunned to see how big each stone is, about four feet high. Imagine the manpower it took to build these!

While Augie made his walk around the great pyramid to do his geo caching, the rest of us rode the bus up to the hillside where you can take your pictures with all three pyramids. As soon as we stepped off the bus, we were swarmed by the many "helpful" Egyptians who want to be sure you get the best picture.

Before you can say, "I don't have any money", your head is wrapped in a turban, and he's wearing your hat and grinning like a Cheshire Cat for the cameras. Then he follows you around the rest of the time asking for money. "Where's your money, lady?" I kept telling him that my husband had all the money. Finally, I went and stood by Dave. The guy bugged him from then on. Sorry, Dave!

Someone said we should take a picture with just us gals and our guides and body guard. We all wrapped our arms around each other, Karen next to the body guard. "I was shocked when I put my arm around him and felt something long and hard," she told us later. Get your mind out of the gutter, it was his machine pistol!

Before leaving this area, Shelli and I had to have our pictures taken on a camel with the pyramids in the background. This is required, isn't it? These camels aren't quite as ugly as the Turkish camels, Shelli even tried to kiss hers. Dave warned her that that's how the Sphinx lost its nose!

There were only four of us with machismo enough to brave the claustrophobia and go inside the second largest pyramid -- Shelli, Joanne, Karen and I. We pretended we were archaeologists discovering a new tomb as we hunched over almost in half and headed down the steep ramp into the pyramid. We finally reached an opening big enough to stand up, only to find another ramp leading up again. The opening was just as tiny as the first, but now we're going up hill. I heard Shelli exclaim, "Imagine, we're in the center of a pyramid!"

Finally, damp from the heat and feeling the thinning air, we arrived at a cathedral-like opening which held the sarcophagus. By now the air was feeling really thin and hot, so we headed right back out again. The air never felt so good when we finally emerged back into the light.

Our last stop was the sphinx. We were to meet Augie there at 3:00 and it was 3:15 by the time we arrived. We had to leave by 3:30 in order to get back to Alexandria in time to catch the boat, so that didn't leave us much time. Augie said when he arrived at 3:00, there was no one there. But by 3:10, a gazillion buses had arrived and dumped their passengers. The place was crawling with tourists and hawakers, but we did manage to get in a few pictures.

We were supposed to be back on board by 8:00 and we didn't arrive until 8:10. We went straight to the dining room for dinner and found we were the only ones there. The other buses were even later than we were. We found out later that one had broken down. Despite all the show of security, we came blasting back alone, without convoy, and only our personal bodygard to protect us from the bumpy road.