Egypt Part 1: Cairo. We landed in Cairo and easily found our tour guide at the airport. Thank goodness! He shuffled us quickly through immigration and into the car. Then, we headed for our hotel which was an hour away from the airport. Along the way, we saw extremely poor living conditions and buildings that should not still be standing. When they cut the freeway, they literally chopped off the back of apartment buildings and just left them standing. It looked like a war zone. We can’t really think of a nice word to call Cairo so we have been going with sh**hole. Along the way, there was a huge cemetery that dated back thousands of years. You know how much I love to explore cemeteries but I would not have entered this cemetery for a million dollars. There were people living in the cemetery and they called it the “City of the Dead”. There was also a “Garbage City” where the people who lived there collected all the garbage in Cairo and took it back to their ‘city’. Then, the women and children would sort through the garbage and recycle it. I think those two areas pretty much sum up the whole of Cairo. So, exploring on our own was not really an option because the city did not make you want to explore any further than necessary. Our hotel was luckily in a newer area of development called “Dreamland” (don’t let the name fool you). Upon entering the hotel, we had to go through a metal detector and put our bags through xray. Little did we know at the time that every place we went in all of Egypt, we would have to go through the same security. The metal detector salesman must live in a mansion. The airport had three different security checkpoints so you can imagine the nightmare of three TSA events every time we flew! Our first morning, we were headed to the pyramids! Every time we pack up to leave, we go through the checklist for the day. This day, we had: Fluids. Check. Snacks. Check. Hat. Check. Dead woman’s ashes. Check! Wait! What? My ex mother-in-law died last year. She loved all things Egyptian. My daughter asked me to spread some of her grandmother’s ashes at the pyramids so I had been carrying a small baggie of ashes around with me since August. Today was the day! When we arrived at the pyramids, we headed through the security check and my camera bag got pulled. The security woman said my camera lens was not approved so I needed another ticket. Our guide argued with her. I told him I would leave it in the car. The security woman said no. At that point, the guide pulled out some money and paid the bribe she wanted and she put it in her pocket. I can’t imagine how much money the guides must spend on bribes each day but it must be a lot. Walking up to the pyramids, you can’t imagine how big they are! To think that man built them thousands of years ago was hard to comprehend. We were allowed to climb up a few of the lower levels and walk across to the entrance. We did not go into the pyramid because the guide said there was nothing to see and it was not worth the extra money. As we walked on the pyramid, I spread the ashes on one of the stones and felt that Jackie would have been happy with the resting place. Around the main pyramids are other smaller pyramids and burial sites that belonged the family members of the pharaoh and the nobles. The other graves belonged to the workers who had died while building the pyramids. Bill and I had both been taught that slaves built the pyramids. However, in 2017, a set of ancient manuscripts had been discovered that clearly showed payment to the builders of the pyramids including wages, food and housing. The guide also explained that only very important people were allowed to be buried near the Pharaoh so no way slaves would have been given such an honor. After the pyramids, we made our way to the sphinx. I had always been told that the sphinx would be a disappointment because it was smaller than I would expect. I am not sure whose definition of ‘small’ included the sphinx but they are crazy! The sphinx was awesome and I think it was my favorite part of the day. On the way out of the pyramids, we dodged the camel rides and their poo piles and drove to an area of the city called the Coptic Christian area. We wanted to visit the Hanging Church which was a church built on top of two towers of a fortress. We then walked through a crypt where Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus hid from King Herod. Can’t find that in the United States! We finished the day with a trip to the Citadel which was a large fort with a couple of cool mosques and then to the Egyptian Museum to see some mummies. Of course, most of the Egyptian treasures are in the British Museum. Our guide said, “Oh, the British would have taken the pyramids, too….but they were too heavy!” For a very late lunch, we went to a tourist restaurant but we were pleasantly surprised with the food. The restaurant boasted an incredible view of the city but there was so much haze, we could not see anything. The guide said it was the Saharan dust which we found humorous since it is Saharan dust that saves us each year during hurricane season but was driving our sinuses nuts in Cairo. The most hilarious piece of information we received while in Cairo was that world leaders were flocking to the city which housed the City of the Dead, Garbage City and so much haze you could not see the city in broad daylight for the COP27 summit….the summit is a climate change summit….I’ll let you find the irony for yourself! For the tour flights within Egypt, I was not in charge of booking the flights. The flights were included in the tour so they were handled by the tour agency. Our guide announced that our flight was “a bit early” so they would pick us up at 3:30am to which I responded, “I think not!” The tour supervisor called me and we negotiated a 4:30am pickup which did not make me happy but at least it was an hour more sleep. So, not so bright but very early, we flew into Aswan to begin our Nile river cruise. Stay tuned for the next blog to get the details on the “relaxing” cruise! Ratings for Cairo: Overall: 4 Points of interest: 7 Ease of communication: 8 Ease of transportation: 10 with driver; it would be 0 without a driver Friendly people: 3 Food: 5 Cost of living: n/a due to tour we could not judge for ourselves Weather: 9 Bill’s favorite thing: insights from our guide about the Arab Spring events since he was there; the Pyramids Sally’s favorite thing: the Sphinx and surviving Cairo
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AuthorSally Miller Archives
May 2024
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