Travel – Egypt – Days 1, 2

Next day: Egypt – Day 3

I was going to publish only one entry at the end of my entire trip, as a recording of my memories/observations throughout my entire visit in Egypt. However, it’s day 4 and my brain is already running out of space for everything I would like to remember. So, I need to start writing things down on a daily basis while on the road. Expect a series of almost daily entries, similar to those of my Mexico-Belize-Guatemala trip. You’ve been warned. Or, you can just ignore my posts for the next couple of weeks 🙂

The setting for this first entry is ideal. I am on a 5-story floating hotel on the river Nile. The sun is setting and after 4h of standing at sundeck, observing the slowly moving and changing landscape, I decided to grab a table and start writing. But more about the Nile cruise on the post for day 4.

It was a last-minute decision to come to Egypt. After having resigned from Microsoft, I wanted to travel. My dream continues to be a motorcycle trip in South America. I found organized groups and some great options online for a 2-3 week Patagonia trip. Unfortunately, given the very last-minute nature of my decision, the timing just didn’t work out. I also considered a trip to South Africa, Mozambique, and then Maldives but, at the end, I ruled that out for various reasons.

So, I opted for another civilization-exploring trip to match my month-long trip to Peru in 2001 to explore the Incas civilization and the ~3-week trip to explore the Mayan civilization in 2008. This time around, it’s going to be the Egyptian civilization. Added bonus, Egypt is close to Greece so I can quickly visit my family afterwards.

Day 1 (Feb 9, 2019)

The first observation in Cairo was about how people drive here. It reminded me of my time in New Delhi. They drive so very close to each other I can extend my hand outside the window to steer the other car. They form 5 or 6 columns of cars in a 3-lane road. There are no rules on who has priority.

Anyway… I am not the one driving. That’s Sami, my driver for the next couple of days and for all my airport-hotel transportations while in Cairo. Sami… proud father of 4 daughters, ranging from 21y to 4y old. He showed me photos and videos of all of them. He’s awesome.

Second observation… people smile! They smile a lot. Dina, Sami, and everyone we meet. Dina translated a saying for me… “Don’t forget the Egyptian smile beside the river Nile”. I love it! BTW… Dina is the tour operator who organized my entire trip at the very last minute and also my tour guide for my first two days in Cairo.

Third observation… it appears as if the buildings all around me are half-finished, damaged by some natural disaster, or destructed because of war. There is no paint outside. There are missing bricks. No windows have been installed and, in some cases, there is no provision for windows… just bricks all around. In some cases, the bricks from entire floors are missing. Only the concrete columns are in place. The metropolitan area of Cairo is about 30M people. Can you imagine a landscape of buildings which appear to be unfinished for so many people?

Well, it turns out that tax evasion is the reason the buildings are left unfinished. Apparently, you don’t pay property taxes, or something like that, if you don’t complete the construction. Dina assures me that people still live in those buildings even if they look like active construction sites. Wow!

Ok… main attraction for the day… the Great Pyramids of Gaza. I was so impressed. Dani told me so many stories about how they were created, the intrigues, the ancient Egyptian culture. The structures are just  breathtakingly awesome and they were built about 4,500 years ago!!!

I opted to climb inside the Great Pyramid of Knufu/Cheops, the only remaining of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, all the way up the King’s chamber. I was effectively climbing into a structure that consist of 2.3 million stones, each of which weighs 2.7 tonnes. I was surrounded by rocks weight a total of 5.9 million tonnes. Like many others, I went in. It was very very narrow and humid.

(Image source: Wikipedia)

Dina let me go alone. She tells me to NOT talk to the people who would be waiting for me outside. I didn’t listen and I got scammed. The first guy who approaches me asks me where I come from. I say, “originally from Greece but now…”. He interrupts me and starts saying few Greek words. Then he says that we are friends and then he wants to give me a gift. I refuse but he insists. He unwraps it and puts it on my head. I continue to refuse but the present is on my head. He still says that he doesn’t want any money but now I am the one who is insisting that I should pay for it. I try to give him some Egyptian currency but he prefers euros. I told him that I only had a 10 euros note and that it was too much. That’s really no problem for him. He picks some postcards from his bag and adds them to the “transaction”. At this point, there are more people who have approached me and the situation is getting confusing. I know that I am being scammed as I give the 10 euro note but it all happened so fast. The guy has already disappeared and is replaced by another new friend of mine who is trying to correct the thing I have on my head. Apparently, I am not wearing it properly. He wants to give me a present as well since we are such good pals now that he’s taken care of my head attire. I take his present and start moving away. He follows me. When he realizes that I have no intention of giving him money, he asks for the present back. Welcome to Egypt! I’ve been in the USA for far too long. I need to re-discover my street-smarts fast in order to survive.

Lunch is worth mentioning as well. It was one of those tourist places that guides take you but it was good. Middle-eastern cousine. What’s not to like 🙂

We also visited Memphis, the old capital of Egypt, and Saqqara where we saw the oldest stone building in the world.

Great first day!

Day 2 (Feb 10, 2019)

Egyptian Museum day. This place is huge. Dina did a great job at taking me through the most important artifacts, explaining the relevant history along the way. The museum is definitely worth visiting.

After lunch, we visited the old Cairo, focusing on the community of religion. The Coptic Hanging Church was interesting. We visited the synagogue just around the corner, and one of the caves that the Holy family stayed as they fled from the Romans. We finished the day at the Mosque of Amr ibn al-As. Very impressive. The view of Cairo from there is great.

At night, Dina took me to a dinner-cruise over the Nile but it felt more like one of those tourist traps. Not worth repeating.

During days 1 and 2, Dina also took me to various shops to see how various artifacts were made: cotton, scents, and papyrus paintings. It’s my personality such that I felt obliged to buy stuff, with the exception of the papyrus shop. I am now a proud owner of an expensive gabaliya that I would probably never wear again and $150-worth of scents that I have to carry around. I took a mental note and I started telling the guides from that point forward to not take me to such places as part of the tour.

Next day: Egypt – Day 3