26/01/19 My night flight to Cairo was great as the plane was empty (we all had at least 2 seats to ourselves) and the food was delicious. We landed at 5.40am with 10 degrees and Basim, the tour driver picked me up and drove me to the hotel.
He wanted to buy a bottle of Vodka for a friend and needed my passport to get the duty free price. Thanks to that, he negociated that my room would be accessible straight away at 7am when we arrived (check-in is usually around 2pm). Very nice of him! So I could have a shower, sleep a little and chill before the group meeting in the evening.
I spotted the pyramids on the way, I am very excited to see them tomorrow. You learn about pharaons and Egyptian history at school and in documentaries but there is nothing like seeing them for real!
The city was already very busy early morning. It was a little foggy, probably due to the pollution. The buildings are all in shades of bricks and there are many big advertisement signs on the way.
25 million people live in Cairo, 80 to 85% Muslims and the rest are Christians according to Basim.
As the hotel recommended me to buy a local sim card at the gift shop next door, I met Aladdin, the shop owner who sells decorated papyrus and souvenirs. He kindly offered me to come back for tea if I had time to spend in the afternoon.
I met Mo, our tour guide for the next 9 days and half of the group, 14 people in their early 20’s. Mo briefed us on the itinerary and our first activity was a dinner cruise on the Nile. It started a bit weird as a dj was playing old songs like we were all retirees. But later on, a belly dancer, multiple musicians and a male dancer gave us an entertaining show.
I met my roommate Nicole at 10pm, as she came into to room with a member of the hotel staff who weirdly waited for a tip silently inside after he dropped Nicole’s suitcase. I was already in my pyjamas as I didn’t expect anyone and we both felt awkward but the guy didn’t say anything just stood there without moving until Nicole asked if he was waiting for a tip, then he made a yes sign with his head so she gave him something to get rid of him.
Mo explained to us that it is common to pay tips for service in Egypt, and we both get that, but the attitude of that guy was so weird.
27/01/19 We drove to Sakkara to visit the Step Pyramid then Gizeh for the 3 most famous pyramids. The 3 found in Gizeh are popular but there are more than a hundred in Egypt.
A pharaoh is an Egyptian king. There have been kings for 3000 years in Egypt. The Greeks conquered Egypt in 300BC so there were no more pharaohs after that.
Pharaohs ruled in dynasties, meaning in big families. There were 30 dynasties in Egypt before the Greek Alexander the Great took over.
Imo Hotep is the architect who designed the Sakkara pyramid. There are 110 pyramids in Egypt, but the ones in Gizeh are the most popular: the Pyramid of Kheops (the biggest), Kephren (medium) and Mecrynos (the smallest) for the granddad, father and son.
Pyramids are a tomb for the body of a dead king and temples are for their soul as the Egyptians believed that both get separated when we die. Human life is short, afterlife, if you are good, is much longer, maybe you can live forever in the afterlife if you are a good king.
Pyramid blocks weight from 2 to 200 tons each. Kheops one is made of 2 500 000 blocks, 3 rooms, 137m high and is dated from 2500 BC.
A layer of 9m surrounding the pyramid has been used to build a dam in Cairo to prevent flooding and generate hydroelectric power.
Our tour only included to walk around the pyramids but you could spend extra money to get access inside. I bought the extra ticket but the main pyramid was a little disappointing to me, as we climbed up via the gallery to an empty room and there were no hieroglyphs on the walls. It was still quite impressive.
A group of Egyptian travellers asked to take pictures of me with their kids, they were very nice.
Later we stopped by the famous Sphynx which is half lion half human, 76m long and 22m high. His missing beard is held at the British museum and Egyptians suggest that his missing nose was taken by terrorists.
I learned a bit more about the process of mummification, done on humans but also animals. Organs were removed and mummified separately from the body.
The mummy of kings were placed in sarcophagus and sometimes into multiple layers of sarcophagus, like Tutankhamun who was in 7 layers of coffin.
After an Egyptian lunch we stopped by a perfumery shop where we had the opportunity to buy natural oils or essences. They also make most popular perfumes from all natural ingredients without adding any alcohol to them, so you can keep the bottle open the perfume does not evaporate. Big fashion brands buy or create these pure fragrances and add alcohol to sell them (at very expensive price). I could not resist buying a bottle of my favourite, a Versace fragrance. I hope it keeps its promises and that I only need one drop each time.
The shop owner offered us traditional mint tea and hibiscus tea.
In the evening we started to drive towards Luxor, a 9h journey. We had our own armed security guard and were escorted by police. We were all surprised but the tour guide explained to us that it is not organised by the travel agency, but by the government. The travel agency needs to notify the government of our itinerary and they decide where and when we need the security escort.
The temperature dropped at 8 degrees at night, while we had more than 20 degrees during the day. I didn’t expect so much difference, it sounds like I will use my winter clothes here too.
