Cairo

In 2009 I was working in northern NSW, and looking for a way to escape from the daily grind. I'd been fortunate enough to do a bit of international travel since leaving school, but it had always been visiting family or friends. I was feeling like spreading my wings, and the 2006 series "Planet Earth" had opened my eyes to some of the amazing natural wonders in Egypt. Combined with the historical marvels, I was very excited to visit. I hadn't done any independent travel yet, so I signed up to a group tour with a company called Intrepid. The itinerary included a trip down the Nile (obviously) and then a detour into the Sahara to check out the otherworldy White Desert.

The first step for any Australian travelling to Egypt was to obtain a visa. This required me to mail my passport to the Egyptian embassy in Sydney, and then cross my fingers that it eventually came back. Being a single young man, I had typically left this too late, so there was also some time pressure. Thankfully my passport returned to me a few weeks before I was due to leave, so I was in business.

I arrived in Cairo a day before the Intrepid tour started, so I had arranged to book into the same budget hotel. I then used the extra of the time to go exploring. The location was perfect, situated on the metro line just north-east of the CBD, a stones throw from the Al-fath Mosque. I set off on foot, and decided to continue right past the nearby Orabi metro station, wanting to see the city from street-level. That was until I actually needed to cross the first street. Then I experienced the unique behaviour of Egyptian traffic, and I wasn't so keen anymore.

Firstly, the sheer number of vehicles on the road acted like a tsunami of metal that filled the entire space between both kerbs. Cars weaved left and right in an incomprehensible traffic pattern, applying a constant siren of horns as a substitute for indicators. I waited at the traffic lights so that I could cross the road, but the opportunity never came. That's not because the lights never changed, but because the traffic never obeyed it. The tsunami of metal just continued endlessly.

Eventually, an Egyptian woman with small children arrived at the kerb, and stepped out into the oncoming wave with barely a sideways glance. In honesty, not looking at the oncoming death-trap might have been the only way to muster the courage to cross the road! I clenched my teeth as I watched the family disappear into the melee, hoping desperately that they would reappear on the opposite kerb. Thankfully they did, so I waited until the next family appeared so that I could hide in their bow wave, and shadow them across the road. I continued to use this procedure for my entire trip, never gaining the courage to cross the road without my unwitting human shields.

After three death-defying road crossings, I gave up and retreated into the Nasser metro station. From there I travelled below the city to the Sadat station, which allowed me to resurface adjacent to the famous Egyptian Museum.

The Egyptian Museum is the oldest archaeological museum in the Middle East, housing over 170,000 artefacts. Built in 1902, it has the largest collection of Pharaonic antiquities in the world. The Museum’s exhibits span the Pre-Dynastic Period until the Graeco-Roman Era (c. 5500 BC - AD 364), including treasures from the tomb of Tutankhamun. At the time, it also contained a number of mummies of kings and other royal family members of the New Kingdom. In 2021, these mummies were transferred to a specialised museum in a ceremony dubbed The Pharaohs' Golden Parade. I didn't know what I was looking at, but it was still awe-inspiring to be witnessing artefacts that have survived up to 7,000 years, and countless wars.

After a few hours wandering around the magnificent exhibits, I emerged back into the beautifully manicured gardens that surround the museum. I had somehow managed to avoid the sea of touts and taxi drivers on my way into the museum, but I wasn't so fortunate on my way out. They worked their trade well, and before long I had signed up to a private city tour with one of the taxi drivers. To be fair, the price was reasonable, and he dutifully delivered me to the typical tourist highlights of Cairo. These included the 700 year old aqueduct system and the UNESCO World Heritage listed Citadel of Saladin. On the way back to the museum my driver insisted that we needed to stop at a bizarre to buy "genuine" trinkets, including papyrus scrolls that were "definitely not copies made with banana leaf". I politely wandered around the market, being harrassed by hawkers, until I realised that I might never be allowed to leave until I'd bought something. I picked out some papyrus scrolls representing scenes from the ancient Book of the Dead, and secured my freedom. By the time the "tour" was over, I had almost grown accustomed to the chaotic traffic and constant honking...or I had been rendered tone deaf, which was just as likely.

The official Intrepid Tour began the following morning, with a meet and greet in the hotel lobby. Our group had about a dozen people, made up of Aussies, Americans, South Africans and Brits, and our guide was an experienced local named Ghandi (no joke). Ironically, our first stop for the day was back to the Egyptian Museum, but this was followed up by the highly anticipated visit to the Giza Plateau.
You can see the outline of the pyramids from downtown Cairo, but it wasn't until our minivan was almost there that I realised the sprawling city had just about swallowed the iconic site. Despite the disappointing encroachment of the urban jungle, and the KFC near the feet of the Sphinx, the 4,500-year-old monuments did not disappoint! The Great Pyramid of Khufu is almost 140m tall, and required 6 million tonnes of limestone blocks to be quarried, carved, shipped and installed. It was the world's tallest man-made structure for more than 3,800 years, and is the only surviving Wonder of the Ancient World. It was an awe-inspiring place, and we wandered around for a few hours, trying our best to capture the epic scale on camera.

We rounded out the day with a sensational meal of fresh falafel for next to nothing, then boarded our overnight train. This particular tour was designed for people who were short on two things: time and cash. The overnight train would save us a night in a hotel, and deposit us at the other end of the Nile....inshallah...Read more