Chapter Four: Back to Cairo (Pen writing)
We really took it easy today as our driver was going to pick us up at 1.00 so that made going anywhere problematic. We sat out on the terrace, read books and had a final cup of coffee. We were only a little over an hour away from Cairo, all that distance on a boat for a one hour jet ride. We were greeted promptly by our tour representative who took us to our hotel, Pyramisa.
It has to be noted at this time, that whatever we said earlier about driving in Dubai absolutely pales into insignificance when talking about Cairo traffic. By the way, locals call Cairo- Karo, like the syrup. Itıs kinda funny. Traffic here wasnıt learned in any way. Where thereıs room for two lanes, they make 3. Traffic moves without warning between the lanes, horns blaring, and pedestrians walking across multi lane roads because they donıt like using the pedestrian underpasses. Itıs absolutely insane.
Our hotel is not new, but very adequate. I spent a fair amount of time unpacking as we were going to be here for several days. After that we had dinner and went to bed early.
December 5 – The Big Stuff (Pen writing)
This was the day. Our tour guide Faten, a lady, met us for our trip to: Memphis, Step Pyramid, the big 3 pyramids and of course, the Sphinx. We were really looking forward to this day. After our initial shock over the traffic – again – this will be an ongoing saga- we arrived at Memphis. Memphis, the former capital of Egypt, its heyday was during the old kingdom. We were taken to an outdoor museum where the remnants of statues from a variety of eras could be seen. We also saw a huge statue of Ramses II. That pharaoh was busy; heıs left statues and temples EVERYWHERE!
We also saw an alabaster sphinx and some lovely red granite statues. Memphis itself is this rather depressing little village of dirt road, remnants of temples everywhere and not a patch on its former glory. Itıs unfortunate because whenever they try to build something they strike another ancient artefact and have to stop. The old city was built from mud bricks so that is very susceptible to rain conditions and decay.
We then travelled about three kilometres to the Sequa. Keep that name in mind. From here we were driven up a hill where we were presented with the Step pyramid. Itıs entire complex was a temple construct which was similar to the ones we saw farther down the Nile from Luxor to Aswan. We also had a great view of the great pyramids from here. Now Sequa is the local name for the Sahara desert. The guides could have gone on all day, and I would have thought it was a name for a section of a larger desert.
On our way to the pyramid complex, we stopped at a schoolı. I use this term loosely as this is the term that our guide used. This school was located in an area renown in Egypt for their hand woven carpets. I wish Sally could have been with us as we watched young kids up to young adults work on looms weaving wool or silk carpets. It sure looked like a sweat factory to us. It took some doing but we managed to haggle the price down low enough to get a couple of small carpets to use as wall hangings. Now on to the pyramids.
The city of Cairo has grown up to the edge of the pyramid reserve. We expected this, but it is a bit of a change to go from crowded city to suddenly thereıs a bit of open space and this 16 storey pyramid staring you right in the face. The reserve has a myriad of tourism police, mounted on camels, which was rather neat. We were given our brief on the biggest pyramid, and the oldest, and then allowed to climb up the first levels of it, take photos, and enter it if we wished. The entrance to the burial chamber is more than 100 metres, straight up, so we didnıt take this particular opportunity for the Great Pyramid. From here we were taken up the drive about 350 metres to a hillside that overlooks pyramid valley and the other two Great Pyramids. In between beating off other tourists, Nubians and Egyptians trying to sell us junk we managed to take a photo or 500.
On our return back down the hill took us to the side of the second pyramid. This was the pyramid that we entered and climbed down a 35-metre passageway, which was only 4ı high so you had to stoop the whole way. We then entered a very small area where we could stand before ascending a 35-metre passageway to the burial chamber. This was a fairly large room, say 40ı x 40ı, but there was nothing there, no hieroglyphs or cartouches, just Belzoniıs signature on the wall. Then there was the return trip. The entire time it was incredibly hot, claustrophobic, and really hard on the thighs, but we did it. Whew!
Behind the great pyramid, a special building had been built to house the Sun Boat, discovered as recently at 1954. It was a complete teak boat which the pharaohs used to take themselves down the Nile in the afterlife. It was quite interesting and well worth the extra time. Now I though that the Sphinx was pretty far away from the pyramids, as a friend of mine from work, Sherine, said donıt walk, take a horse or camel. Well, it was only 350 metres and we drove anyway, but you get the idea, down to the Sphinx area. There she was, nestled at the foot of the hill from the pyramid weıd just entered.
According to our guide sheıs over 300 tonne of a single carved block of limestone. Reg reckons, and the restı as sheıs a huge beastie. To the left is the embalming room, which was used to then transport the pharaoh straight to the pyramid. The sphinx is there to guard the tombs from robbers. Another fact that we didnıt know is that the Nile was diverted to just in front of the Sphinx to facilitate the embalming of the pharaohs. You can see the canal, but the Nile is pretty far away these days. It was all very impressive, beautiful and overwhelming in that theyıve just been thereı for so long.
After
the big trip, the stop at the Egyptian cotton factory was a bit of a comedown
to reality. They sold 1500 thread, 840 thread, 440 thread and 300 thread
sheets. All of them were far more expensive (although cheap for what they were)
than we were prepared to spend. I did end up with a shirt, but that was all. We
bailed on the trip to the markets as we had had enough markets to last quite
awhile. We got back to our hotel in the late afternoon to talk about the day
and grab dinner. Before that we decided to walk about the hotel area to see if
we could find a local café or restaurant, which would undoubtedly be cheaper
than the hotel. We didnıt find any (apparently theyıre mostly across the Nile)
but we did find a Laundry and a grocery store where we bought some soft drink.
It was quite nice walking the neighbourhood and getting the drift of how the
locals live.
Mosques (Pen writing)
Today we were taken to the mosque/foot of Sal Al Din or Saladin. This tour today was to review the Turkish history of Egypt. We saw two mosques, both very different, but Saladinıs mosque was absolutely beautiful. It had 10 domes, which were highly decorated with cedar and gold inlay. Both mosques are museums today, but they were in original nick, despite the passage of time.
From the mosques we ended up at the markets (canıt get away from them) where we did pick up a couple of items and ended up having coffee and a shishka (water pipe) with our guide before heading off to the Cairo museum. Reg is really digging the water pipes.
It is difficult to describe the Cairo museum. Itıs a very large building built by a Frenchman Marriott. Itıs very old fashioned and you can actually touch many items. The three rooms that we focused on were Tutenkamenıs tomb, middle kingdom jewellery and new kingdom jewellery. This was recommended to us by our guide as a means of seeing the development of the artistry of the gold and other work. Itıs difficult to describe our entry into the Tutenkamenıs area. Cabinet upon cabinet had gold jewellery, both solid and leaf, turquoise, lapis lazuli, amethysts, precious stones of all types had been made into intricate pieces of jewellery for men and women. The detailed artwork was impressive for 5,000 years ago, let alone today. Then we were in front of the death mask. It was 20 kilograms of solid gold. What may not be generally known is that there were 3 masks, culminating in the best known one. The mummy had gold finger covers, gold toe covers, gold sandals, and gold everywhere. This is for a pharaoh who only ruled for a few years. What did the Ramses tombs have, especially Ramses II who was in his 90s when he died. You canıt imagine what the tombs of the long reigning kings must have contained. On our leaving we were taken to other items of historical merit. Itıs really too much to go into here, as we had already decided that we were going back the next day with a guidebook to really hit the museum. Unfortunately cameras are not allowed, so we also needed the book to show what we saw.
From the museum we said goodbye to our guide and returned to our hotel. A shop/tour operator had approached us near our hotel for further tours. We had discussed with other tourists the concept of going up to Alexandria, the Greek and Roman base of Egypt for centuries. We were offered a good price for that trip, so we will go up on Saturday. It will end up being a full day trip, but thatıs ok. We also discussed going to Coptic Cairo and back to the museum for Thursday. Thatıs what we decided to do.
Thursday – Coptic Cairo (Pen writing)
Sherine told us about the church complex that is located in a central spot in Cairo. Christian here, means Coptic and if you think Greek Orthodox I donıt think youıd be too far off. We met our driver Fahad and took off through the traffic. Reg has a lot of tape just recording the jams, the moves through the lines of traffic, the absolute chaos.
The first Church we saw was St Maryıs Catacombs where the holy family hid out during their flight to Egypt. We were unable to take photos, but it looks lovely today, nice marble floor, columns, but I imagine in their time it was a muddy, sandy hide out. Christians have revered this site since antiquity, so we felt that this was the genuine site. The next church was St George the Roman, which was right next-door in this Christian complex. It was a huge church dedicated to St George of the dragon killer fame. It had a huge dome and many Christian relics located in it. Again, we were unable to take photos, but it was truly beautiful. Our next stop was the Jewish synagogue. If you think youıre in the minority in a Muslim country by being Christian, try being Jewish. Again it was very old and very lovely, complete with lovely inlaid decorative walls. Finally we stopped at the hanging churchı. Itıs an orthodox church where the deacon took us through the meaning of the church, what the icons meant, and also showed us through the Perspex floor section, that we were actually suspended 15 metres above ground level. The church was supported between two Roman towers. Part of the deaconıs explanation pointed out the wooden doors in the floors and spy holes where the Christians could spot trouble coming and escape out into the desert. Relics kept on site included some bones from St George, of the dragon fame, and several other orthodox saints. This was really a special time for us this morning and it will give us much to think about after all the input of this trip. (No cameras allowed inside unfortunately.)
Our next stop was back to the museum to try and view as much of the exhibit as we could. Weıd bought a book on the museum the day before and as it was set out according to the rooms, we thought we were on a roll. UNFORTUNATELY, that wasnıt the case, much had been moved around since the book was printed. Some rooms matched well, others did not. Anyway, we ploughed on and spent a good 3.5 hours in there revisiting Tutenkamenıs room, visiting all the mummies, plus the various other eras of statues, and wooden artefacts that have been found over time. By the time our driver picked us up at 4 we had had it. Fortunately we do have the book to review and remember all that we have seen. For the record, the Cairo museum is very much of the 50s era, wood and glass cabinets, dusty exhibits, signs that say donıt touch, but everyone does. A new one is being built out near the pyramids, but it wonıt be ready until 2009. I suppose the security of guards everywhere you look with AK47s is a bit of a deterrent.
We met up with our tour guide to discuss our trip to Alexandria. He is Egyptian and whenever we walk past his shop we must stop to have a drink. A lovely custom. Itıs difficult to accept this custom since everyone here expects to be paid for the smallest thing, but since weıre going on a tour with him, itıs ok. We stopped back at our hotel for our afternoon ice cream treat and to check on our booking for a Nile dinner cruise for Friday night, the first night of my conference.
We then walked outside to see if we could find a little restaurant or café where we could have dinner. I spotted a sign with the big M on it and wondered what it would be like to eat at an Egyptian McDonaldıs. Two Arabs heard us discuss it and gave us lovely directions right to it. What was it like? You enter the McDonalds at street level and enter the kidıs playground gym area, which is indoors. By going up a spiral staircase you end up at the main counter. Although the writing was Arabic, you could pick the meal by the picture. Reg was pretty interested in all the delivery drivers arriving to pick up their orders and charge off on their motorcycles to do home delivery. Even the walk along the back streets and lane ways just seeing what the locals do was an adventure with mud puddles, uneven footpaths, and traffic triple parked making walking a challenge to say the least.
Weıre now back in our hotel room, writing up this trip diary, reading and generally relaxing. Tomorrow is my conference as I said earlier and Iıll be checking in early Friday morning. Reg will be up to his own devices.
Friday Morning – The Conference (Pen writing)
Fortunately the conference was being held at the Sheraton, which was just cross the road from the Pyramisa. Of course, that meant that we had to cross the road, but being Friday (Sabbath day), we actually made it without too much trouble. After going through security we took the lift up to the 23rd floor. The conference was being held in one room. When I spoke to the secretary in charge she knew who I was, and did I have my paper with me. Huh? Apparently my paper had been accepted but I didnıt receive the email. I wasnıt able to get the readings or the CD, but during the course of the day, I did get a book of the readings to use as a writing support. I still have it. Because I had registered as a listener only, I didnıt bring any documents with me. I will need to get in touch with the organisers, deliver my paper and ensure that I get credit for a publication. Reg left the premises with a list of things to do while I stayed behind to attend the first dayıs session. This was a really technical conference, very heavy into medical and mathematical papers.
For me, it was hard going. When Reg returned at 4:00 we left. I will work on finalising the paper and publication on our return to Australia. Our day on Saturday was booked out to go up to Alexandria, see the library, an old fort and King Faroukıs palace.
Sherineıs last note told us to book a night cruse on the Pharaoh a dinner showboat that cruises up and down the Nile. It has a buffet dinner, belly dancer, whirling dervish, and modern singers for entertainment. It was a good night out, the dancer was accomplished, I had never seen a dervish, and so he was very interesting. During the course of the night I was asked by one of the headwaiters to sit down as I was trying to take a photo. We complained at the end of the evening on a survey form, and the next thing you know we had the head hostess, the waiter and a series of apologies. It was fair enough to ask me to sit down, but when they didnıt ask anyone else, Reg got miffed. The end result was we got an apology and extra dessert – a pretty good response, I reckon.
I didnıt mention that we walked from our hotel to the boat, which took about 40 minutes. The major part of that was to cross the road. One of the armed guards watched us as we tried to get across one section and he came out into the road and stopped traffic for us so we could get across. Yes, itıs that bad. On our return trip we crossed with a local, who smiled at our inexperience and helped us across.
Saturday (Pen Writing)
Today we had booked a tour with a local operator to take us up to Alexandria. We felt that this would give us the whole development of Egypt from the Old Kingdom up to the Romans. Alexandria is 250 kilometres from Cairo so we had to leave at 7am to arrive in a timely manner. Hassan is just starting on his tour business, but heıs located right next to our hotel, so every time we walked by, heıd ask us in for a soft drink. We started off on our trip and got caught in the traffic jam. Our route took us past the pyramids from a different angle. Our journey was interrupted by a stop for tea at a roadside stand, a stop at an animal park, and then finally Alexandria.
The new library is located on the coast drive, a beautiful building with a sharply sloped glass and aluminium front. I know I keep saying this, but crossing the road nearly ended up with Reg getting skittled, and that was with help. The museum section of the library was interesting for a lot of reasons, among them the audio aid that described all of the major pieces. What a good idea. I hope the new Cairo museum does the same in helping people understand all the pieces. Again crossing the road we linked arms with Hassan and managed to get across with no damage. I am really over this lack of traffic rules.
We then travelled to a Turkish fort built in the 1700s. It had been totally restored and of course, was very strategically located. Once we convinced the tourist police that we didnıt have any money, they left us alone to explore in peace. An interesting note was the inside of the fort had its own mosque, which was decorated in marble tiles.
Finally King Faroukıs palace, now situated in a public park was our last stop. Unfortunately they were working on it so we couldnıt go inside, but we got some great shots from the outside. The design of the building looks like it could have been built in Sydney in the 1800s if the corner stones were sandstone rather than the local rock.
Our trip back began at 3.30. Please notice, no lunch, the first time we didnıt back a sandwich from the breakfast buffet. On our journey we actually struck a very strong rainstorm. Hassan slowed right down and I nearly thought he was going to turn the car over to Reg as Reg instructed him on how to handle the car in the wet. How about that for not knowing about rain? We made it through the storm. Got back into Cairo and hit traffic! Slowed down to a crawl. Cars jammed together, each trying to fit itself into a space that a postage stamp wouldnıt fit. After several kilometres of this we reached the bottleneck. There was one old bus PUSHING another old bus at about one kilometre an hour. Once we got passed it the traffic improved and finally got back at 7pm. It was quite a long day. After a lengthy discussion with Hassan about measures that could be taken to improve his trip/business we picked up our last laundry run and returned to the hotel for beer, a burger and some relaxation. Tomorrow we leave for Thailand.
Sunday (Pen writing)
We had a very long sleep that night as the trip to Alexandria really took it out of us. After breakfast we started the exciting job of packing. We used my hard case to put all the goodies in it and put our clothes in Regıs bag plus the one we bought in Dubai. We amalgamated back down to three bags, although the Dubai one was rather full. We then checked out of the room and put our bags into storage. As it was our last day we decided to go for a walk and maybe visit the Cairo zoo. Yes, there we were, crossing traffic again. I suppose it should be noted that we didnıt see any other westerners walking around the place. We found what they were calling a local park and stopped for a soft drink. It was green, but not what Iıd call a well looked after park. I guess being a green place makes it qualify. After crossing another busy street (weıre getting better at this) we found the zoo. Our entry was something like 2 Egyptian pounds, but for Reg to have the video camera was going to be 20EP. We didnıt go in, even after he explained that he wouldnıt take any pictures – no go. We continued on our walk and it started to spit rain. I was concerned we were going to get drenched, but it was rather windy and the squall passed over with no damage. Essentially we were walking around the perimeter of the zoo, and through gaps in the fence we could spot a lot of bird displays, but no big animals. It was getting near lunchtime by now and we spotted a pizza hut and a Kentucky fried chicken across the road, but the road consisted of three lanes of traffic moving in each direction. We continued on, and hoped that we could find something on our side of the road. Then.the traffic came to a stop! We didnıt know why, but we took advantage of the pause in traffic to rush across. So, a Kentucky Fried chicken in Cairo, we donıt eat at them in Australia, but there you go. We had lunch, a loo break and then continued towards our hotel.
One of the places that we had read about was an art museum, which was very near our hotel. We actually managed to find it (more street crossings) and we went inside the grounds to se what the cost of entry was going to be. It ended up being 50EP each – too much for a casual visit, so after all of that walking, the two places we were going to ended up being too much money. We returned to our hotel to wait for our car.
The passage through Cairo airport was very smooth, in part to our tour guide who assisted us. Our wait was about an hour and a half, so we had an ice cream and a bit of time on the computer as it was a wifi centre. That helped the time pass. We managed to spot some shot glasses, but they were 30EP – a real rip off, so we didnıt get any. The flight itself was on a 737-300, which had plenty of leg room, movies of choice, reasonable airline food, but any overnight flight is a flight of attrition and we were VERY happy to be getting off in Dubai for an two hour stop over, and then after 5.5 hours, our getting off in Thailand for a few days.