Saturday, May 29, 2010

Cairo

ok so below is a photo of the pool from the hotel, this photo was taken from our balcony...

and here is one of Ewen's shirts after they came back from been washed, i suppose this is why they can justify charging so much for their laundry service! i think one load here cost more than every other load we've had done combined.

and here are two photos i took from our hotel, one before dinner and one after, from our table at dinner we could see one of the pyramids, it was surreal!

we went on a full day tour of Cairo our second day here, we got picked up at 9am and headed straight for the pyramids, after our guide gave us a run down of the history of the pyramids we went inside one of them, it was very narrow and the roof was very low, you had to walk doubled over, and the first part was steeply down hill and the second part steeply uphill. we actually saw one guy give up after the downhill bit when he realised he would have to go uphill, seemed a bit crazy seen as you had to pay extra to go in. it was interesting, but i expected more. the room you ended up in was basically just a large box... apparently there used to be carvings and paintings on the walls but the British stole those long ago, so we will get to see those when we go to the British museum.
After coming out of the pyramids we were given free time to take photos.

next up was a stop at the panoramic view over all of the pyramids, we had told our guide that we wanted to ride camels and she said this was the best and cheapest(ish) place to do it. we she helped us haggle for a good price and time and off we went on a 20 minute ride. our guide originally suggested a 40 minute ride but we opted for a short one, and I'm glad we did. while it was definitely an experience and it was fun it was also very uncomfortable and i felt sorry for the camels, mine seemed to have a piece of rope tied to one of its nostrils... poor little guy! and he looked about 1000 years old!





after this we went to a papryus workshop, which is where they make paper from papyrus plants (we were given a demonstration) it takes 10 days to make one piece!! then they paint the pieces of paper and you can buy the paintings. we ended up buying three... one large, one medium and one small painting.
next was a stop at a perfume factory, where they make perfumes purely by squeezing the petals of flowers, apparently no other ingredients are added. we ended up buying a gift pack of a few different types of perfumes, my favourite is one that smells like orange lollies!! at the moment though we're not too sure what to do because our hotel has just informed us you cannot send perfume in the post. we're going to look into this once we get to Turkey though, otherwise I'll have to carry a rather large box around in my backpack for the next 7 months which will be VERY annoying!
next we went to the Memphis museum, which is an open air museum where a lot of artifacts are on display. Ewen went to the toilet here and a woman standing out the front (doing nothing) asked him for money when he came out. people here are constantly trying to get money out of tourists. its much worse than Vietnam or Cambodia. We're pretty good at just saying no and walking away now though, we have mastered the art of been rude basically.


after this we went to Sukkura, where there were step pyramids and an embalming chamber. when me and Ewen tried to go in we were asked for our tickets by a guy, we showed him and he told us our tickets were fake. we explained our tour guide had got them for us and he demanded we take him to our guide, we did, although we were very confused. he got into a bit of a shouting match with our guide and driver and our guide ended up snatching back the tickets and telling us it was fine and to go in.
we explored this area fairly quickly because we wanted to find out what the hell had happened before. turned out the guy wanted more money and thought he would be be able to con it out of us or our tour guide. luckily our guide was very strong willed and wouldn't give in. basically it was just another scam, oh also, when we were walking into the embalming chamber a guy asked for our tickets again (a different guy this time) then started to give us a tour, we told him we didnt want a tour and he said something about it been locked then pulled keys from his pocket. we told him we had no money and he walked away. we still have no idea what he was trying to tell us he had keys to.. it was very strange!

last stop of the day was a carpet factory, which was interesting to learn how they make the rugs, although this particular factory used child labour and the rugs we liked were $4000 each!!! we declined buying souvenirs from here!!
we went to the Indian restaurant at our hotel for tea as apparently its the best in Cairo, it was delicious but Ewen got sick half way through our meal so we left early, the meal cost of the equivalent of four meals in Vietnam!!!
our last day in Cairo we slept in, i went for a swim and had a sunbake and then we watched movies in the afternoon. ewen was still sick so he stayed in bed recovering all day.

6 comments:

julie(mum) said...

you are going to have a wall of amazing photos when you get back.
How good are your photos from the shirts to the pyramids to the camels.
loved reading about your day. Cant believe you have learnt to be rude. And I feel sorry for the camels to.
Hope Ewen is feeling better. The hotel looked wonderful, the pryamids amazing. Here from you in Turkey.

Mumbo said...

NO HATS in that scorching sun!!!
Fabulous photos again,great reading about what you have seen. Sounds like you have 2 b very firm with all these scroungers about. Camels are happy looking things arent they. Look forward to next instalment.

Doug'z! said...

those pyramids look amazing.
the photos are so cool!!!!! i cannot believe you are at all these incredible places!!! it seems unreal.
that camels face seriously looked distorted! haha
all the same here piety pie, i am heading off to an exam lecture today, hope you have a good day doing whatever amazing thing you have planned!
:D
XX

Leah said...

Awesome pics guys! Love reading up on what you've been up to each week. I've been emailing Elaine updates and showing nan the photos when I see her.

Mark P said...

Again Pete great commentary and wonderful photos. You and Ewen should send some of this stuff to travel magazines and get paid! Enjoy Turkey.

Riki said...

Great pics Piet! You should keep the bowtie from Ewens shirts, I might start folding all Garys shirts like that, but first I'd have to start actually folding his shirts...haha. The camel ride looked awesome, they are so wierd looking. Hope you are eating plenty of chips in Turkey, it would be just like Sunday night dinner at Mums.haha. Miss you lots. xox