At 5 a.m. this morning, I was awoken by the loud speakers far off in Cairo blaring the call to prayer (in Arabic of course). This happens 5 times a day in Egypt. It wasn't all that loud, just something different in the morning that I wasn't used to hearing in Canada. Failing to fall back asleep, I got up and wandered around the hotel grounds. After that I went into the lobby and met two guys around the same age as me who work the check-in desk through the night (Hany and Mohammed) and struck up a conversation with them. They had a lot of questions about Canada and wanted to know about the universities and jobs that are available back home. It turns out that most Egyptians (especially younger people) have a great desire to leave Egypt. They are very upset with the government and the lack of opportunities available to them. (kinda reminds me of home!!) Egypt is more or less a third world country that is almost completely dependant on tourism dollars. They were nice guys and I learned a lot about life in general in modern day Egypt.
We had breakfast and boarded our private bus at around 8 a.m. We met our Egyptian tour guide for the nine days. His name was Amadeus (his real name was Mohammed), and headed off to the Cairo Museum. I just kind of wandered about because Grant, Vicki and I had been there the previous day so we could see everything. We spent about an hour there compared to about 4 hours when we went on our own.
After that was finished, we drove to the pyramds. What an ordeal this was to be!! As soon as we get off the bus we are mobbed by Egyptian men and boys who want to sell us postcards, trinkets, or rides on camels. And they are absolutely relentless. Amadeus told us before we arrived, that the best way to avoid them is to just ignore them. Don't say a word to them and no eye contact, or they won't stop bothering you. Even when I followed his advice, there were a few who just wouldn't give up. After getting used to that, it wasn't really that bad. Richard, who was from California, is the type who loves to talk to people, so it was impossible for him to escape some of these people. It was funny to watch as one guy wanted him to get on his camel for a picture. He just wouldn't give up. He put a scarf headpiece on him and managed to convince him to get
on it. I took a picture of this and went on my way, but apparently the guy wouldn't let Rich off the camel, so he had to jump off.
To see more pictures of the pyramids, click on the photo below.
It was surprising to see the amount of local people there, just sitting around having lunch, music playing, kids playing soccer, etc. Just like going to a park with the family back at home. There was one young couple with children who wanted to have their kids pose with Vicki and myself, so they could get a picture. (but I think it was mostly Vicki they wanted in the picture, being a young, pretty, light skinned foreigner).
We spent about an hour or so there. We went part way up the pyramid of Khufu to the entrance which was closed at the time, walked over to the Sphinx nearby and had a group photo taken for us (the picture on the very first page). We also toured a small temple that stood next to the Sphinx.
To see more pictures of the Sphinx, click on the photo below.
After we left the pyramids, we drove out to the outskirts of Cairo to a small plantation type area where we had a nice Egyptian style lunch. The food was very good (especially the falafel, which I tried for the first time).
Later on at around 8 p.m., we drove to a train station in Cairo to take an overnight train to Aswan, in the south part of the country about 900 kilometers away. There was a clear sky and a bright full moon, so we could see a lot of the scenery as we travelled by train. The room Grant and I had was small but comfortable.
