The Great Pyramid

Wednesday 3 December 2008, Cairo, Egypt
There are over 100 pyramids in Egypt, and pyramids is what we are here for, so today we Saqqara and Giza. The Brothers Hostel had organised a personal guide for us to take us around including also being dragged into the obligatory sales. We first went to Saqqara where we actually went inside a pyramid. You first walk half way up the pyramid, then you walk (crawl) down what feels like a 45 degree angle down inside the pyramid into where the tombs were. The smell is intense of ammonia and by the 3rd tomb it becomes a little hard to breathe and you are longing to get out and get some fresh air. In Egypt everyone is your 'friend'. 'My friend, my friend, how much for this, how much for that'. Or they don't ask you, and give you something, then want the money for it. It the tombs it says that photography is not allowed, however, a guard will pull you aside and say 'its okay, I take photo for you', you are then bailed up and not allowed to leave until you have handed over enough money to get yourself out.

We were then taken to a carpet school where they have children making silk, wool and camel hair carpets by hand. The children learn their skill in conjunction with going to school. The government pays them and it is considered a scholarship of sorts to learn this trade at an early age. The finished works are then sold at astronomical prices to tourists who are told they are cheap. This is very similar to the process of getting a taxi in Thailand where you are taken to the obligatory gem shop where the cab driver gets a commission just for taking you there along the way. Anyway, the silk rug that we looked at was on special reduced to 54,000 Egyptian pounds to 36,000 Egyptian pounds .... around 18,000 AUD. Lucky it was on sale because then I considered it for a good half second rather than a quarter of a second. We then ended up at a papyrus store, which I did find interesting. They demonstrated to us the technique for stripping the papyrus reeds, what materials are used in fakes and looked at completed works. We ended up getting 2 works, but of course we got a very good deal from 'our friend'.

We then finally got to Giza, got on some horses organised by 'our friend' who gave us a 'vedy vedy good price' and went through the desert on horseback to the pyramids. It was amazing coming up over the dunes to the site of the pyramids. Our new 'friend' was actually was the brother of a friend of our friend. He wasn't too bad at getting us around on horseback as well as taking some pictures for us. Pete got trapped in the 'Welcome to Egypt' business being passed a softdrink on the way through the gate and being told it was part of the ticket, then they wouldn't let us go any further until he got paid his 5 egyptian pounds. Back to the pyramids - absolutely wonderful, huge and everything you expect them to be. Our friend took some great pictures of us on the horses which i'll upload asap.

Our long day finished with a trip to the train station for a 1st class sleeper cabin to Luxor. The train departs at 8:30pm from Giza, and normally gets in at 8am in Luxor even though its meant to arrive at 6am. The train is meant to be 1st class and I would say in Egypt it probably is, well at least you have horizontal bed. I couldn't sleep until about 3am when I was that exhausted the occasional levitating out of the bunk because of the bad train lines didn't seem to bother me anymore.