Answer: One night in Addis, Mehr couldn't sleep, so she rolled over and poked my shoulder and asked "Hey, do you want to go to Egypt?". A sleepy me almost instantly replied "Yeah, I really do." And two days later our flight was booked to Cairo!
And now we're here! We arrived at the absurd hour of 2:30am (why do African flights only fly in the worst hours of the night?!) to Cairo after a one hour layover in Khartoum, during which no one is allowed off the plane because Sudan lets almost no nationalities into the country, including Canadians. Boring...
We had planned to take it easy our first day, knowing we wouldn't be in bed before 4am, but the allure of exploring was too tempting and by lunch time we found ourselves on the way to Giza to see the Pyramids. Our afternoon on the pyramid tour was a bit of a triathlon. The three components being camel riding, Sahara trekking and climbing in and out of the pyramid tombs. No joke. And our tour guides were strict on time. Twelve minutes for pyramids, seven minutes for Sphinx, ten minutes for mountain lookout, twenty minutes to climb into Dashour, etc. It was positively race-like.
Our first stop on our pyramid bonanza was Giza and the Great Pyramids. Some people said they are overhyped. I disagree. They are massive, they are amazing and they are wonders of the world.
We did a two hour tour of the three main Pyramids and the Sphinx taking in the sights from our camel rides. Yes, I was on a camel. It sort of unfolded before I could really think things through and by the time I realized maybe I'm not cut out for camel travel I was already awkwardly astride Michael Jackson, Egypt's most foul-tempered camel who fought with the guide and driver at every turn and gave me savage glares leaving no doubt in my mind that he was out to bite me at the first opportunity.
That being said, camel is still one of the best ways to get around Giza, since the Pyramids are quite far apart and the sand makes for hard going. The small windows spent on our feet were struggling against the sand dunes of the Sahara to get up closer to the pyramids. Note: I am not a graceful person, and I am even less graceful getting on and off of camels.
We also checked out Saqqara, the site of the first pyramid in Egypt, and Dashour (which I think is in old Memphis), where we were allowed to descend into the actual pyramid into the former tomb rooms of the Pharaohs! Awesome. I am also now aware that I get claustrophobic when I go underground, so one descent was enough for me. Mehr went into two pyramids and was none the worse for wear. The hieroglyphics and paintings were still impressively intact and so detailed.
The last stops of the day involved massive meat and shish kebab platters with oodles of tahini and baba ghanouj on the side, traditional papyrus art galleries and essential oil perfumeries. Interesting in their own way, but not exactly wonders of the ancient world!
1 comment:
Freaking Awesome - did you eat camel or drink the milk yet? I hear its good for teeth...
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