Back to the relaxed city of Cairo...and the cars

At the Giza ptyramids
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(Nicks story). I loved the pyramids when I was here in 2003 and they were just as amazing in 2007.

We only had a 2 hour trip around but saw them at the least busy time and with less salesmen bothering us.

We found the best hotel

The highlight was easily the two old camel men, who after getting Ronnie on to the camel (she wanted to ride), managed to trick me on to the other camel saying that they would take one photo...but when I was on, the camel got up and off we went.  They said we could pay them 'what we wanted' after ten minutes....but then refused the money saying it was not enough!!  They said they wanted 5 more....so I gave them a 'High 5', laughed and walked away...and they were laughing too (they did keep my original payment...but it was worth it).  The sales tricks in Egypt are very advanced and can be quite unnerving.  We later got a story of "feeding a grandfather", "two old men at the pyramid needed water", "his family were poor"....and this guy followed me for 5 minutes because he felt he was due money after 'letting' us take a picture of the Sphinx...and he didn't even work there!!!

A beautiful sales girl touching the top of the pyramid
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We did get a couple of photos of 'couples' in Egypt.  I thought that we were being clever taking them but I think that one of the men knew what I was doing!!  It is very, very strange to see couple in Cairo where the men are wearing the modern clothes and the women are covered from head to toe..and walk a few steps behind.  Even stranger is that the clothes shops in Cairo sell some of the skimpiest and sexiest womens clothing from any city in the world.....yet women cannot go out unless they are covered.

Just having a rest
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But the pyramids were amazing, the heat of the desert and the wind blowing the sand added to the atmosphere.

That night we got lost (we did have a map) looking around Downtown but loved exploring and eventually finding a top Chinese restaurant.  All in all, a good day!!

(Ronnie's story)

It was strange arriving back to Cairo after the relatively laid back atmosphere of St. Katherine's and Dahab. The bus dropped us off in the middle of a very busy intersection and we were welcomed back by hundreds of beeping horns, smog, dust and heat.

Good to see the men all dressed in modern clothes....and I think I now know the Egyptian for 'Go away"....(Look closely)
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But we were lucky though... (after our taxi driver got lost and drove us 20 minutes out of the way only to return to our original starting point) we arrived at a wonderful hotel.

The next day we spent the morning on the internet and then it was off to the pyramids. Our visit to the pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx was fantastic!We arrived towards the late afternoon so there were less people and the weather was good. I found a secluded, shady spot and just sat down but could not get my mind around how such extraordinary structures could have been built more than 4000 thousand years ago.

Even the camels have to prey 5 times a day.
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In memory of my grandmother, Geemie, (who over 50 years ago took a trip around the world and road a camel) I had a short ride on a camel amist the pyramids and the Sphinx...a definite WOW moment!

After leaving pyramids, in the evening we walked around the city (a rare opportunity in Africa). There were so many people out shopping that it was difficult to find space on the sidewalks and impossible to cross the street for all the cars. This was one of my favorite days on my travels so far.