Cairo & The Pyramids of Giza

An amazing day...finally made it to Cairo. Flying over the Sinai Peninsula was quite surreal. There is a photo of the Suez Canal. The water was stunningly blue amid the dun colour of the vast desert.

On arrival, we negotiated a taxi to the hotel. No mean feat. In the car (battered for reasons later learned), it was about a 45 minute drive to our hotel. The architecture is polar opposite to Macau - people live in buildings that have been unfinished (for decades, it seems!). There is no colour, likely due to the sand and dirt that would blow in. Everything is a dun colour

To my surprise, our hotel was bathed in the shadows of the Pyramids of Giza. Security is a major theme here. The hotel has a security scanner before you can enter, though it appears like something that was bought from a second-hand store as a used model many many years before. After a hot shower, we fired up the walking shoes and hiked to the pyramids. Simply amazing, and definitely on our bucket list. I absolutely had to touch what I could to soak it in, and we clambered up some where we were allowed. We hiked the entire site, and fended off the hundreds of offers for horse and buggy or camel rides (literally hundreds, and they do not like “no” for an answer). I felt sorry for these poor animals, especially the tough little horses. They slide down the paved roads on their way for another load of lazy tourists! They look like they’d get shot if they fell. They camels were a lot tougher, but it is all such a gimmick. ‘Specially when we learned many are imported from Australia!

We ended the hike with The Sphinx, and as you can see, Paul put on his enigmatic face to contemplate the riddle! It is the stuff of legends, and I guess the same is true when you meet someone famous, or see the Mona Lisa for the first time. You think: I thought it would be bigger... 😜, but it is sensational.

We are just settling into a local meal in restaurant. Think El Jannah chicken,and lamb kofta kebab. It is the first week of Ramadan, so the days are quieter,and the evenings are busy, as the people out to eat! We are bemused by a huge intersection below us. There is no belly-dancing during Ramadan, but this was entertainment enough. It is a case of anything goes, and the traffic lights seem to be there just for the pretty colours.

Our view at dinner is the Pyramids, and amazing traffic!Read more