Part 66: Even Toed Ungulates Galore March 30-31, 2013

On March 30 I was again off to the Sofia Airport and about 8 hours later with a stop in Vienna I got off the plane in Cairo!    I had arrived to start my Contiki tour of Egypt and the Nile.  I chose an organized tour because I wanted to not die and Contiki organizes tours for people aged 18-35, so I wouldn’t end up on a bus full of retirees calling me “sweetie.”

I was picked up at the airport by someone from the tour company.  I bought my visa from the exchange bank (which was a little odd) and stood in passport line that didn’t seem to move.  Once I got through, I picked up my bags and met R from Australia, a fellow traveler.  We were driven through Cairo traffic to the Victoria Hotel.  Cairo is very brown due to the fact that it is in the desert and subjected to dust storms.  Also, there is old stuff everywhere.     

At the hotel I met my roommate K from Canada.  We then had a meeting with SA, our tour guide who explained the trip, safety things (which mostly boiled down to “ladies find a husband for the next week.”), and extra excursions.  We then all walked to a nearby restaurant for dinner.  It was a busy place that was sort of like fast food Arabic style. 

The next morning we passed Tahir Square (mostly empty at the time) and went to the Egyptian Museum.   It has over 120,000 Egyptian artifacts and has more than outgrown its building.  SA gave us a tour of some of the highlights including a statue of Ramses, painted figures of a husband and wife, and a giant sarcophagus.  SA was great.  He was so knowledgeable about history and what all the symbols carved on the objects meant.   

 

Once we were let loose in the museum, we sent upstairs to look at the treasure from King Tut’s tomb.  The amount of things in that were crammed into that small space is unbelievable.  The highlight, of course, is his golden mask. 

I also paid the extra money to visit the mummy rooms.  I saw a lot of Ramses in that room.  Some had hair and some even had garlic cloves in their eyes. 

From the museum, we started driving out to the edge of town.  We passed the construction site of the new museum.  There is one statue that is so large, it was moved to the site first and the building is being built around it.  However, we were not there to see the new museum.  We were there to see the pyramids.  I, like most people, didn’t realize that the pyramids are like a Cairo suburb.  They are definitely not in the middle of nowhere, despite what the pictures look like. 

The pyramids are impressive.  It’s hard to describe them in words.  Due to a slight lapse in current pyramid security, we were able to climb up one.  We then went on to form our camel caravan.  My camel herder person was about 10 years old.  We began our trek out into the desert to see the pyramids from a different angle.  Once there, our camel people were going to take our pictures.  This is where I was at a disadvantage.  Since mine was 10 and short, you can’t really see the pyramids behind me at all.  Oh well.  C'est la vie!

We took some additional pictures from a wall where you can do such perspective tricks as holding the pyramids in your hand and jumping over them. 

After that, I paid the extra cash (again) to go inside the pyramid.  It’s not that exciting, but it’s the idea of it.  When am I ever going to get to do that again?  The tunnel inside was very short and sloping and leads to one large chamber, though you can see some other tunnels branching off on your way there.  You’re also not supposed to take pictures inside, but no one stopped us when we did. 

Next we drove over to the Sphinx.  To enter, you pass through some sort of workshop that I think was used for mummification, but I don’t really remember at this point since I have been so lazy about updating my blog.  At the sphinx, I tried to take a picture of me kissing it, but it didn’t really work out. 

After the sphinx, we went to dinner at a really nice restaurant not far from there.  The food came on giant trays that everyone could eat off of and it was all really good. 

From there we went on to the train station.  We were taking the overnight train to Aswan.  The train station was bleak and the tarins we saw going through before ours arrived were not encouraging.  However, when ours pulled up, it wasn’t bad.  Also, just so you’re aware, the train station has wifi.  Nowhere has wifi.  We made this discovery rather late which led to all of us standing in the hallway of the train with our wireless devices pressed to the window trying to send off an email before the train left the station.  We found our compartment and were served dinner (which we’d been advised not to eat certain parts of).  We then had a party late into the night in the club car. It was fun and SA wrote my name for me in hieroglyphics. 

The next morning we arrived in Aswan and let’s just say, I’ve looked better.  24 hours in the same clothes that went through the desert on a camel and then slept on a train does not lead to a very pretty picture.  Luckily, everyone else was in that same picture.