Cairo

We arrived in Cairo really looking forward to discovering a new place, we fully expectied it to be chaotic and totally different and it was.  Now I can say that I have been to many places that are different and made my way around and enjoyed the new experience but I can't say that of Cairo.  Every city has its problems with pollution, traffic and hustlers but Cairo I have to say is the worst one I have ever been to.  Every which way we turned, someone was looking for a 'Baksheesh' (tip) - they would ask you 'Where you from' then ask for a baksheesh, they would ask you 'Where you going', then a baksheesh, there wasnt a minutes peace and when we went for a walk down the street and politely refused to go into one guys shop, he called me a racist, when I tried to be friendly, he says he wont touch women!  So after that I had enough.  We were meant to stay 5 days in cairo and after 3 days we cut it short and changed our flights onto sharm-el-sheikh.  In saying that, it was no easy task to try and change these flights, In the hotel, the internet didnt work, so we decided to call, and after about 10 attempts to connect through an operator, we were told that 'international calls were broken!', we then tried to call the local office and they werent available because of ramadam.  To say that the hotel was like faulty towers is putting it nicely ;0)

In saying all of that we did go and see the Giza Pyramids, on the way back in the taxi - the taxi man convinced us to book him for a 5 hour trip the next day to go to even better pyramids, we were a bit sceptical but we agreed a price and true to his word, he was there the next morning (I was surprised but still expected him to rip us off and leave us in the desert!!).  Mahmoud was alright though, he brought us to a local place to get brekkie and after purchasing 4 felafels we were on our way.  Dale and I didnt have a clue where but we were going regardless.  The first pyramid he brought us to was quite a bit out of the city to a place called Dashur.  It was the best of all the pyramids I think, you got to climb up about a queater of the way up and then descend backwards into the pyramid.  this wasn't like about 20 steps down, it was a really long way into the centre of the pyramid and quite cramped crawling down but was worth it to be inside one.  There was two chambers, the first one showed the work from the inside and how they built it was class, then up into the second chamber that reminded me a lot of what its like inside newgrange on a bigger scale, there was no information but I assume it was a burial chamber.  Have to say it was well impressive.  We then hiked back out and we so out of breath we nearly put other tourists off going in.  The real plus about this pyramid too was there was about 10 tourists there compared to Giza which was thronged with people.  You could also see the black, red and bent pyramids.  We then went onto memphis which was more like a museum with loads of artefacts on show then lastly onto sakara pyramid and tombs.  I would highly recommend that tour in addition to Giza, Giza is fascinating because they are so big and the sphynx is fantastic but the other pyramids are less hurried and a lot less hassled!

Crazy Cairo - Toot toot - Baksheesh !

See I finished on a good note :0)  I'll add photos soon, just havent got the camera with me at the mo !