Stop the traffic...its time to pray on the road

Two Wonders of the World....me and the Pyramids
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Day 50

Arrived in Cairo shortly after 8am, I was a little disorientated as the train stopped in Giza rather than the Cairo central station that I was expecting. I made my way to the metro station in Giza. Along the way, I was asked if I wanted help on a number of occasions but I had heard that help here generally meant paid help as the 'helpers' would want backsheesh (tips) for their assistance (even when their assistance was no help whatsoever).

Entrance to the Pyramid and Entrance to Disappointment
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I found a hostel, the Sara Hostel, where the receptionist was rather over-enthusiatic about selling their tours. No thanks, no more guided tours for me on these travels.

However, the receptionist did say that if I returned to Giza station then a taxi to the Pyramids should only cost about 10 Egyptian pounds. Outside Giza train station, I refused the offers of the taxi drivers near to the station and opted to hail a taxi from a nearby street.

I had heard from a traveller I met in Amman that often it could take about 5 attempts to find a taxi that will use their meter. However, this taxi driver was more than happy to use his meter. He was also more than happy to take me on the scenic route as the trip cost me 20 Egyptian pounds.

A 'Sphinx'ter says what?
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As we were closing in on the Pyramids, the taxi stopped to take on another 'passenger'. The 'passenger' turned out to be a tout who was trying to sell me camel rides and all sorts. After lots on 'la shukran' (no thankyou) on my part, the tout got out of the taxi a few hundred metres later.

The pyramids were massive and certainly much bigger than expected. At the ticket office, I purchased a ticket for the site together with an expensive ticket to go inside the biggest pyramid of Khufu. I rushed to this pyramid as the guy said that it would be closing shortly. I really did not know what to expect in the pyramid.

The sphinx is not hard, he's just a big pussy cat
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Inside there was only one way to go and that was up. The first half of the way up was very uncomfortable as I had to crouch down to clamber up the walkway and every now and again someone coming the other way would have to squeeze past.

The second half of the way up was not that bad but the temperature was definitely rising in the place. At the top of the walkway, I had to crouch again before entering a room and having a massive feeling of anti-climax.

At the top, there was a dark cube room that was barely lit. I could not see out of the room and there was no heiroglyphics on the walls and the only thing in the room was an empty stone casket which also had no markings on.

Not sure this pyramid brickwork is thousands of years old
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Some people were trying to get their moneys worth out of the place by having some semi-religious experience by touching and rubbing the walls with both their hands. I then let my eyes adjust to the darkness of the room but there was still nothing else to see. The only thing to do was get warmer and warmer and think about the unpleasantness of the journey to go down and get out of the place.

Outside of the pyramids, there was a constant bombardment of locals selling donkey rides, camel rides, postcards, trinkets, books, rubbish, photograph takers and 'helpful' people. Actually, these people were not that bad as they did take la shukran for an answer and then no longer bother me.

Burqas but no burqa shops in the bazaar in Khan al-Khalili
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I then went down to the Sphinx which was rather small as compared to the pyramids. But what it lacked in size, it made up for in terms of tourist numbers as there were stupid amounts of people congregated next to it.

The Sphinx and the pyramids were amazing but I was thinking, 'How on earth could a civilisation design and construct such marvellous creations thousands of years ago and now be a country where you can not safely drink the tap water?'

In the afternoon, I had the chance to practise playing chicken with the cars on the streets of Cairo. I had been warned by various travellers about the dangers of trying to cross the road in Cairo. However, I found their tales to be a little exaggerated as I did not need to use locals as human shields when crossing the road or anything. It was just a question a picking a time and gap to go and then not messing about.

About to go in one end and out the other of Al Azhar Mosque
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There was time in the afternoon to visit the Egyptian 'no cameras allowed' Museum. Surprisingly, there was not a tout in sight outside the museum selling books of pictures of the museum exhibits. In the museum, there was lots of statues, coffins and all sorts on display but the standout parts by a long, long way were the Mummy Museum and Tutankhamun's collection.

In the mummy museum, there were mummies of loads of dead pharoahs - unsurprisingly they all looked worse for wear but some more than others. As for the Tutankhamun collection, I am glad that I saved that til the end of my museum tour as it was phonomenal. The caskets that he was buried in and the famous mask were absolutely incredible.

We need to pray just to make it today.....preferably in the street stopping traffic
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Later that evening, I had a wander around the streets of Cairo and got lost in the process. The place seemed charming enough but the only bit that stands out was when I found an area where all the shops just sold lights, lamps and light fittings. It was enlightening.

Day 51

Woke up feeling not all enthusiastic about doing anything sightseeing but I managed to find the energy to visit the Islamic part of Cairo and I am really glad that I did. I did not need my guidebook to tell me when I entered the Islamic part. In all the Arab countries that I have been to, I have now become used to the sounds of prayer calls from the mosques. However, here they were played decibel levels that would induce hearing loss.

Lots of geezers live in the Cairo suburb of Giza
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I liked this part of Cairo - it was nice and cleaner than I expected. I stumbled upon the bazaar of Khan al-Khallili. As usual for these Arab bazaars, lots of junk was being sold. It was busy and after a while, I was anxious to get out of the place but the exit seemed a long way off. Near to the exit, I started bumping into more tourists and souvenirs stalls started to appear. The 'la shukran' was in full effect and was effective too.

There was a mosque towards the end of the bazaar which was impressive looking so I thought that I would see if it was as impressive looking on the inside so I took off my shoes and ventured in. The place was packed as a 'service' was going on and a guy was giving a sermon from the steps near the front. The more I walked into the mosque, the more acutely uncomfortable I felt (particularly with my shorts on as I could see nobody else baring their legs in the place).

Leave the cameras at home kids......its the Egyptian Museum
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I carried on walking towards the exit at the other side of the mosque. Earlier in my blog, I have written that Arabic is not a nice sounding language. Whilst listening to the guy's sermon, he may have been saying that Allah is love but because of the way Arabic sounds, it sounded more like he was having a rant. The mosque was very beautiful inside but I was very glad when I was outside of it.

As I was walking out of the Islamic area, I noticed that people everywhere were now praying - in their shops, on the streets and most bizarre of all, some people had put their prayer matts in the road and were stopping traffic. Very bizarre indeed.

Not a crocodile in sight on the banks of the Nile
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Time was pressing on and so I headed back to the hostel and to a taxi to the airport. On the drive to the airport, Cairo looked really beautiful and I realised that I had not even come close to scratching the surface of it.

As for Cairo airport, they have security checks before you are able to enter the checking in area. This is a good thing in order to keep out any touts but not a good thing when the security guards are a set of jokers. They would close queues randomly when people got to the front and then tell them to go to another queue. Two minutes later, the closed queue would open up again. The jokers also struggled with the concept of e-tickets as well.

It was time to leave the jokers behind and head for Cyprus.