Pyramids of Giza- a fantastic impromptu diversion 10/27/18

Up at 7 although we went to be at 2am. Sleeping in isn't going to happen. We arrived at Cairo airport later than expected. I was a bit worried about going through immigration. We needed $25 USD each for a visa on arrival. Tanzania would only accept bills newer than 2012 with no blemishes so I had been trying to preserve our best bills over the last 4 weeks thinking they wouldn't be good enough. The guy at the counter didn't even look twice at the $50 I gave him. OK, my expectations of Egypt are taking another direction. The driver who picked us up at the airport drove like a fucking crazy person back to the hotel over the 20 min. So much that I buckled my seatbelt at 1:30am, so did Andy ... that crazy. We read that traffic was nuts around here, they don't drive in lanes. I couldn't look ahead of us so I just acted like everything was fine staring our the side window. Plus our friend Sam got run over in Egypt when he was a kid so, it's legit. A German Shepard let us know we had arrived at the Steigenberger Hotel at Tahrir Square at 2am. The guards checked the car for bombs (yes the revolution was less than 2 years ago, Tahrir square, no worries). The driver said jokingly, you don't have any bombs do you? Dude, don't say the "B" word around us. I just want to get to my room.

Breakfast was everything we could have hoped for. A fantastic buffet of everything. We got our fill (which was good because we didn't eat until dinner). We had no plans for the day. We found that the hotel offered a nice package and were able to leave by 9:30 for a pyramids tour from the hotel. The price was on par and it was last minute, so perfect. The doorman thought Andy was fucking Gerard Butler (again). OK this is getting out of control.

Sayeed, our driver, took us to the pyramids of Giza first, driving through Cairo along the Nile. Cairo has 23MM people. That's crazy. That's almost 6x the people that WORK in Manhattan. Every building was discolored/dirty from the no rain/sandstorms/dirt in the city, even the uber nice hotels. Needless to say there's litter along the Nile, and at the sights. There were lines of clothes hanging out of people's apartments over the balconies. Tall apartment building after mostly empty tall apartment building. Not sure why some were so vacant. The police have larger guns at the main tourist attractions at the entrance. On the street, they have their handguns in the back of their pants, Miami Vice style (as Andy put it). Everyone is constantly honking, just for no reason too. Sayeed was honking at no one when we were at the security line for the pyramids. Then he started yelling at the police (oh god don't tell at the police!). I guess that yelling was friendly talk because it ended well. I can't tell the difference. Sayeed showed Andy how to wear his scarf the Bedouin way on his head. Perfect, I dared him to walk through US immigration with it on. Challenge accepted.

The pyramids were ridiculous. The big famous real pyramids I learned about in 5th (I have no idea which grade) grade in textbooks that I never thoughts I'd ever see! They were gigantic!! The limestone rocks that the pyramids are built with are almost as tall as a person. We saw 9 pyramids total in Giza, 3 large ones (one was originally covered in marble for the son), the others were smaller for the 2nd wife and other kids. We didn't opt for any cheesy pics, but we did get talked into a carriage ride for the best views (sorry horse, we didn't know any better). If you ever go and want to be lazy, take the carriage ride, or just walk your ass to see the best views but make sure you have enough time on your tour. It was hard to believe we were actually seeing these structures. Amazing how many are still in relatively good shape considering it's been 4k years.

The one thing I wish I knew about Egypt before arriving wasn't that everyone wants to make a buck off you, but that if you tip, their strategy is to make you feel bad and/or beg/tell you to tip more. Dubai made me soft so I lowered my guard, plus I wasn't prepared. This is the only place I've been in the WORLD, where you tip and they tell you to give them more. It caught me so off guard, plus, I know it's how they work and I'm not pissed at them for it but I still hate it, when they would tell me to give them more, I'd be super annoyed. I've seriously never experienced this anywhere! We tip so well, don't put this show on. OK OK, at least I can expect it now. Thanks LP for missing that bit of info. They aren't trying to rip you off at least (well...). The carriage guy quoted me a different price. He called the guy I talked to and then apologized and charge me the original price. If we are on top of things and are still paying more, I can't imagine what the everyday sucker would end up paying. I've also been in Africa for 6 weeks now and it's wearing on me. This is why we travel internationally while we are young(er) and are saving the US for when we are old(er). My patience runs thinner each year.

So one of the 7 wonders of the world- check! We also saw the Sphinx which was just down the road from the pyramids. It was much smaller than I expected, but the feet were large. Very cool to see it in front of the pyramids. The day wasn't very hot, very mild for one of the last days in Oct.

Then was the fucking papyrus museum (another jade factory). It was cool to have the guy explain how papyrus paper is made, but that's about it. He challenged Andy to tear the stack of papyrus skin in half that he cut off the stalk and offered Andy an 1200 EP painting if he could do it. Well Andy did, the dude looked shocked, we didn't get the painting. We aren't buying, even the ones that glow in the dark. OK Sayeed, no more jade factories.

The next place we visited was Saqqara, where we saw pyramids for Teti and wives, but the real features were the tombs and hieroglyphics all around (this place was almost 5k years old!). I was waiting behind a tour guide to get tickets. A dude walked up behind us, the police asked us to step aside. The dude got right in front of me. WTF is this? You just have to push your way up Andy said. There's no line to push in front of! Yeah, definitely an another adjustment needed to my queue skills. The tombs were pretty cool. It was amazing that these walls and doors were still out in the open and people could touch them. We climbed down some stairs deep into the ground where there were several rooms with more hieroglyphics, some still had paint. The guide who was "included in the ticket" was showing us the last standing walls made out of mud. He was demonstrating how brittle the walls were by tearing some away with his stick! Please don't do that!!! (we thought). Jeez.

The final stop was Memphis. It is where the kings technically lived although they traveled every day to the Saqqara. We saw the large statue of Ramsees II there. It was originally found face down in a mud bed. So amazing how well it was preserved, especially for limestone. We were already out of time so we hurried out and back to the hotel to jump in the pool before it closed for the evening. Laziness took over (plus we drank a whole bottle of wine at the pool and hadn't eaten anything besides breakfast) so we ate at the hotel. We had some salad, meat, and more meat. It was really good. A successful day and no one got punched in the face. Hello Cairo, nice to meet you. I'll try to be more on my game tomorrow since it's Sunday and apparently the busiest day in this city (oh man).