July 31-August 2: Cairo, Egypt

We arrived at the train station (named Ramses, of course) and decided to avoid all the rigmarole of lying taxi drivers and confusing tourist information employees by calling our hotel, African House Hostel, directly and asking them how much a taxi should cost: about 10 pounds, no more than 15, as it was only a 15 minute walk. Of course the taxi driver wanted an outrageous 40 pounds, but we eventually got it down to 15. He said he knew the place, but after being in the car for about 10 minutes, I grew skeptical. He also tried to say that we owed him 20 pounds each, but we weren’t having that, and he didn’t push us. We arrived at a place called Canada Hostel. Our driver’s English suddenly worsened. He then took us to Africa Hotel. We called our hotel and told them what was going on…they told us we were close enough and that the guy was up to something shady, and recommended that we just walk the rest of the way. We paid the driver the 15 pounds we agreed on and he left in a happy mood…very strange.

The hostel was wonderful. The staff was extremely helpful, which we found to be very rare in Egypt. They were super friendly and played a couple games of chess with Jeff. They also had two beautiful, soft cats who loved cuddling. We’ll attach pictures of those guys.


One of the kitties at the hotel


The hotel arranged a private car for us to take us around to all of the pyramids in the Cairo area: Saqqara, Dahshur, and Giza. We saw the step pyramid of Djoser (the oldest pyramid; it’s under restoration), the bent pyramid (so called because construction began at too steep of an angle, so half way through they changed it to a shallower angle), the first true pyramid (I think it’s called the red pyramid), and then all of the 9 pyramids at Giza (which includes the famous Great Pyramid). We went inside the first true pyramid, and boy was it small! The entrance is about a quarter of the way up the façade of the pyramid. From there, we had to squat-crawl through a slanted shaft about 4 feet tall for about 100 meters! Very tough on the quads. The rest of the chambers were small and empty, with nothing on the walls. There was a terrible stench that burned and made it difficult to breath. It was cool to see the interior, but we quickly got out of there.

We were told that the entire area of the Giza pyramids is about 9 square kilometers so, in order to see everything, you either must trudge through the hot sand, or get a camel- or horse-back tour. There were several tour options, but we chose the one that visited all 9 of the pyramids and included a ride up to a mountain where we would have fantastic views of the whole site. We haggled the price down from completely outrageous to ridiculously expensive. We got one horse and one camel because we heard that camels are extremely uncomfortable, but we still wanted to try riding one. We set off with our guide, with Jeff on the camel, and me on the horse. We didn’t make it too far from the tour office until Jeff’s shorts chaffed his thighs so badly because of the movement of the camel and he had to switch with the guide, who had a horse. We continued on into the sand, and ventured up to a place to take some staged photos (our guide got pretty grouchy when Jeff said he wanted to take some photos other than the ones where you hold the top of the pyramid…). Turns out that place was the “mountain” with the incredible vistas. I decided to try the camel at that point, so Jeff got on the horse I had been riding, and the guide got back on his “guide horse.” When you are on a camel, they feel much taller than they look, and they are much bouncier than you would think, resulting in probably the most uncomfortable creature on the planet to ride. We pressed on, stopping a various unrecognizable piles of rubble that our guide suggested we take pictures of. While viewing one of these piles, Jeff’s horse spooked, bolted, and threw him off! Luckily, Jeff was alright, but he could have very easily smacking his head on one of the thousands of rocks in the sand. Our guide apologized, but refused to give up his totally calm “guide horse” and made Jeff get back on the same one that threw him (which I had earlier and I can safely say that that horse is not fit for people who don’t know how to ride!).

We stopped at a place to view the sphinx, took a couple photos with things in the way, and our guide asked if we were done….done, as in with the whole tour. We had approached none of the pyramids nor the sphinx. We dismounted and walked to see the sphinx up close, so we could at least see one of the things we paid to see. On our way, I came across a 7 year old boy selling bottles of water. I asked how much, and he said 25 pounds! That’s $5! In the words of my dad, “What a cheap screw!” I told him that was outrageous and that I’d give him 5 pounds. He tried to haggle me a bit more, but he finally agreed to 1 euro ($1.30). Anyway, the view next to the sphinx is very cool as you get the full effect of how large the pyramids are just behind it. There are three main pyramids, and 6 small ones which were built for the children of the pharaoh. There is also a burial ground for all of the workers who built the pyramids (who were surprisingly not slaves…they were normal Egyptian farmers in the off season) just to the side of the sphinx.

On our short ride back to the camel office, our guide had the nerve to ask Jeff if he was going to tip him. Jeff said he supposed so, and can you guess the guide’s next question? “How much?” Jeff told the truth (we had discussed it earlier, due to how much of a rip off the tour was), 20 pounds, and the guide asked for 50! We weren’t under the impression that tips were negotiable.

The following day, we went to the Egyptian Museum. This museum houses everything that had been in the tombs and the pyramids, which includes wall paintings, carvings, sarcophagi, any tomb treasures, and mummies! The museum also has countless other statues and objects from temples and ancient Egyptian daily life. The two highlights of the museum are the mummy room and the King Tut wing. I believe there were 12 mummies in the mummy room, which only includes royalty, like Ramses II and Queen Hatshepsut. The King Tut wing was absolutely amazing! His tomb is the smallest in the Valley of the Kings, yet it was crammed full of treasure and useful things for his afterlife. Everything is crafted with such detail, color and beauty. There is a separate room which displays his three interior coffins, his famous funerary mask (absolutely stunning), and loads of intricately designed jewelry. The museum is incredible and a must-visit!

Later that evening we caught our red-eye flight down to Johannesburg to begin our safaris!


The Nile


The sphinx




The pyramids at Giza


The first true pyramid