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| Our bags: Nice, neat and not very dusty... |
We were tired... very tired...
...and *so* ready to go check into our hotel.
The airport was hot...
and outside was even hotter...
but we were here! We'd made it on the African continent!
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As our resting place was one hour away, the guides took the opportunity (at 3:50 AM in the morning), to instruct us on a few important concepts that we absolutely needed to know before driving across the Nile river by night. So...
Lesson #1:
The difference between the West Bank and the East Bank
The difference between the West Bank and the East Bank
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Source: Wikipedia
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According to ancient Egyptian tradition, the first part of life was spent living above the ground, and the second part of life was spent living below ground (upside-down to us).
The ancient Egyptians separated their cities into two sections:
- The West (where the sun sets), would be the city of the dead (hence, the pyramids).
- The East (where the sun rises), would be the city of the living
Hotel #1: The Grand Pyramids Hotel, Cairo Egypt
At 4:10 AM in the morning, we pulled up to our first hotel on our journey. As the day was far spent, our guide informed us that we could sleep in until 10:00 AM. Little did we realize that that would be the latest we'd sleep in the entire trip!
Cairo is *dusty*. Seriously, seriously dusty. Especially at 4:10 AM in the morning.
We woke up a few hours and I took a few pictures of where we stayed.
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We ate breakfast a little later than everyone, and then our guide suggested that the hotel was the best place to exchange money. So, we did... :)
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The ticket in the central picture was my passageway into the largest pyramid in Egypt, also known as the Pyramid of Cheops (or Khufu). Khufu was the king's Egyptian name, where as Cheops was what the Greeks called him.
NOTE: It costs 100 L.E. (Egyptian Pounds) to go into the Great Pyramid (roughly about $16 USD). I noticed the student discount available on the side board, and mentioned it to the ticket seller. He gave me half off! :) After sharing it with the others, our entire group ended up with a 50% discount! :)So... If you ever go to Egypt as a student, remember, bring your student ID.
Lesson #2:
The Pyramids of Giza
The tour bus pulled up as close as it could to the Pyramids. In my vivid imagination I thought that our tour would have rented dune buggies to take us to these wonders of the ancient world.
Even within the safety of the well-air-conditioned tour bus, the heat on the outside already seemed oppressive. As the bus pulled to a stop, everyone stood to one side of the bus, and gazed at the Pyramids less than 500 meters away.
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| The Great Pyramid of Cheops (Khufu) from the tour bus window. |
Before we headed out, our guide Bob cautioned us to be careful of the sellers. He warned us to ignore them and to not buy anything, as we would see much better things later.
As we looked outside the bus, a crowd of hawkers and sellers gathered around the entryways and the windows, eagerly attempting to show their wares.
I stepped out somewhere in the middle of the group, trying to stay away from the sellers, and having evaded the first waves of vendors. Others were not so lucky.
"Halo! Sir! Halo!", they would call.
If we so much as looked in their direction, they would offer us gifts.
"Gift!", they'd call, pushing Egyptian souvenirs into our reluctant hands, "Gift for you! Where are you from? Korea?"
"I'm from Canada," I told them, trying to be friendly, and realizing a little too late that that was not a good idea.
"OH! Canada! Canada Dry! Never Die!"
"No, thank you," I replied, walking on.
Every person that stopped to talk to them was confronted with a very "in your face" salesman.
As the vendors separated our group, I noticed that a few of my fellow students managed to get into the line to get into the Great Pyramid.
One of the them yelled to one of the salespeople below: "Hey!! That's my hat!"
The salesperson waved back, "I'll give it back to you when you return from the pyramid!"
I'd brought a large straw hat for the trip, and I pulled it low over my head and crouched a little, endeavoring to get a few shots of the scenery before heading into the Great Pyramid itself...
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I looked up and saw two men heading toward me. Then suddenly, someone grabbed my straw hat from behind, pulled it off my head, and the first two tried to wrap an Egyptian scarf around my head!
"What!! Hey! What are you doing!? Get this off me!"
They were insistent, though and they almost succeeded in getting it completely on my head.
"It looks better on you!" they said.
Thankfully, the string holding my hat was caught on my neck, and I was able to twist out of the Egyptian scarf and grab my hat back.
"No! Thank you! I'm not buying anything here!"
I took off at a slight run and made it to the entrance.
I was shaken, and realized as I looked back, that almost everyone in our tour group was being subjected to the same type of selling. They'd seen us get off the bus, and barring that, they knew that we were definitely tourists... Talk about a tourist trap...
I grabbed the strings of my straw hat and pulled it down securely, wary of anyone else approaching. This was *not* the best way to start the Old Testament Tour. I also shut down and held my Nikon 5100 DSLR close to me. It was far too valuable to get taken by the vendors.
Inside the Great Pyramid:
The passage way into the Great Pyramid was narrow enough that only two people could go in side-by-side, and at times, there was only space for one person on the ladders.
The path led us in a straight, sloped course upward, and eventually we had to climb ladders set at almost 35 degree angles because of the area we were in.
We reached the "mummy chamber" at about 15 minutes into the pyramid. It took that long not because of the distance necessarily, but because of the people in line. There was quite a few people trying to get in.
The "mummy chamber" was empty. There was a solid stone sarcophagus place, but there was no sarcophagus (basically because the mummy was now in the Egyptian museum).
All told though, it was a pretty spacious chamber, about as large as 18 by 30 feet. There was only the smallest of air-holes though... (about 3 inches by 2 inches wide), as this place was not meant to hold living people.
There were lights here, that had been wired from the outside, and video-surveillance too, as we were forbidden to take any pictures.
Back Outside:
We deftly avoided the hawkers, (although I tried taking note what I should buy eventually from the souvenir shops) and returned to the bus.
Our next stop was the picture-taking spot a little further down.
These are some pictures that I took along the way:
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 I was getting a little heckled by the sellers anyways, but our guide promised us that these camel rides were safe. (Typically, the people would offer the camel-rides for very cheap, bring you out into the desert, and then charge you to bring you back) So... for $5 USD, plus an unexpected tip to the boy who brought us, we got to ride camels!
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There are different periods in Egyptian History. One period that I thought was significant was the "A" period. This was the period when they thought that the king (Pharaoh) was a god.
In this period, there are no hieroglyphs at all! See, hieroglyphs are supposed to give the dead kings directions on where to go in the afterlife. Since the king was well-known by many to be a god, it was assumed that he would know where to go.
From here, we drove toward the sphinx
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Hi David, I'll be arriving in Cairo tomorrow in the evening. It's good to know about your experiences, so I can try to avoid being robbed as well. What a shame! Anyway, the place is beautiful and worth seeing, eh? Looking forward to your other pictures ;)
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