Day 125: Second Day in Cairo — Pyramids and Sphinx in Giza
Margaret’s instagram post summed up the day: “Wouldn’t be a trip around the world without this pic. Boom.”
We left the hotel around 8:30am, making the 20 min drive to Giza. For some reason I assumed the pyramids were way out in the middle of the desert. Turns out Giza is essentially a nearby suburb of Cairo, one of the biggest cities in the world.
As we approached the pyramids we drove by the construction site for the new Grand Egyptian Museum which, when it opens in 2020 will replace the 100+ year old museum in Cairo that we toured yesterday. The new building is absolutely massive. When it opens it will be the largest museum in the world by all measures and will display about 250,000 pieces. Incredible.
Needless to say, the Pyramids are stunning.
Turns out we aren’t the only ones who thought to visit them today. They are a full-on tourist magnet. (See below for my rant on inconsiderate tourists.) But our veteran guide Abeer had a clear plan for the morning:
1. Beat the crowds inside the Great Pyramid
2. Get the panoramic photo
3. Do the camel ride
4. See the Khufu boat exhibit
5. Get a pic with the Sphinx
6. Have lunch
7. Go shopping
Abeer brought us to the line to go inside and left us with a word of caution: it’s a narrow path, if you are claustrophobic you may not like it.
We thought, ok, it’s probably like the paths in the Cartagena fort which were tight and not our favorite but not a huge deal.
We walked about 50 feet in the tunnel and then you get to a ladder / ramp / railing path that goes about 60 degrees up for about 150 feet. Full size adults have to crab crawl up (and down) to see Khufu’s tomb at the top.
Margaret, Jim, James and I all hit the breaks. But Willa and Grammie were both game. They headed up while we waited on the 50 foot path. Proud of Willa. And amazed by Llewellyn!
When we got back out and met up with Abeer we gave her a quiz:
We told her that 2 of the 6 of us did the claustrophobic climb… who was it? First she guessed James. Nope. Then me. Nope. Then Jim. Nope. She was shocked to hear that Grammie and Willa were the only brave ones.
We got back in the van and moved further away from the pyramids for the full panoramic shot (posted above). Here are a couple others from the same shoot:
We were going to skip the camel ride but Willa and James were keen so Margaret and (once again) Grammie stepped up to take them. Llewellyn getting a lot of MVP votes today.
I stayed back with Jim and Abeer. Abeer told us how fierce she — especially as a woman — has to be with the Bedouin camel guys and trinket sellers. They all know her and she definitely doesn’t get pushed around.
After the photo shoot and camel ride we got back in the van and went around back of the Great Pyramid to the Giza Solar boat museum where a 4800 year old riverboat of the Pharaoh Khufu has been reconstructed. Super cool.
We were basically the only ones there. This felt like a hidden gem compared to the other side of the pyramid.
Last stop on the property was the Sphinx. Massive and impressive — the largest statue from one piece of rock in the world. The viewing area is off to the side so it’s hard to get the classic shot of the Sphinx with the pyramids in back. Jim was wandering around with his camera getting shots from the back of the Sphinx looking out to the local neighborhood. Excited to see those.
Back in the van again for a quick drive to lunch at 139 Lounge and Terrace at Marriott Mena House hotel.
Lunch Positives: Food was good and they served beer.
Lunch Negatives: Abeer once again read the English menu to us like we were four. Also the hotel was preparing for a big Indian wedding that night and had brought in high backed couches for the patio that were blocking the view of the pyramids!
Funniest / most embarrassing moment: we sit down and start considering drink orders. Then out of nowhere James says, “Hey Abeer, do you want… a beer?”
Note he said this to a Muslim fasting for Ramadan.
After lunch Abeer took us by a sprawling store that selling jewelry, art, statues, replica mummy masks, etc. Abeer said this was the real deal store — approved by A&K and apparently the US Embassy.
In the first 2 minutes the main sales guy (who I assume is also the shop owner) repeated multiple times that he just wants to let us be, doesn’t want to push anything. Clearly he was trying to distance himself from all the other Bedouin guys slinging Chinese made trinkets.
But once he saw that Llewellyn was interested in a ring and Margaret was considering a lapis scarab he just couldn’t help himself. I loved watching it. He probably comes from several generations of gold salesmen. Genetically wired to get your wallet out of your pocket. Dude could taste the cash and was closing hard.
In the end Llewellyn bought a ring — but it was the less expensive option of a couple she was looking at. And Margaret passed on the overpriced dung beetle to the owner’s chagrin.
Margaret wasn’t going to be denied entirely. We bought a few little ones from the hotel gift shop when we got home.
That was when we said our goodbyes to Abeer.
By that point we were pretty beat. We went straight to the bar for another (Egyptian) Stella and just sorta vegged out and looked at our phones while the kids played nearby.
We then repeated yesterday’s early evening routine: pool, shower, room service, kid bedtime.
Meanwhile, Grammie and BeePaw took advantage of the A&K offer of a few hours of transportation tonight. They drove around a few neighborhoods we hadn’t yet seen and then went for a glass of wine at The Four Seasons.
But they weren’t alone!
Mohammed, our super-nice-but-tries-too-hard A&K host not only went with them, but he walked them into the Four Seasons, up to the bar and then waited for them to be done. Jim and Llewellyn thought it was a little annoying but we all got a good laugh out of it afterwards.
It was a successful and memorable day seeing a few bucket list tourist attractions.
A rant about inconsiderate tourists:
After 125 days of travel we’ve seen our share of idiotic tourists. Two experiences recently that blew my mind:
At the end of Petra By Night The Treasury was lit up by one big spotlight. It was a beautiful sight — all 750 attendees were trying to get a picture of the building. But a small handful of tourists thought it would be just amazing if they stood in front of the spotlight and got their own individual picture with their face and torso all lit up. Of course that put a massive shadow across the Treasury so the other 749 people couldn’t get a good picture.
Then today we were waiting in line to go inside the Great Pyramid. There were maybe 30 people in front of us, many of whom were in two large tours: a group Indians and a bunch of 20-something American millennials.
The line was moving slowly and we soon realized that neither group was actually going inside the pyramid. They were just using the steps to take pictures, holding up everyone else who wanted to go in. I wanted to say something and then thankfully Abeer took charge, yelling at the Instragramers from the ground level and finding a guide to push them along.
This is becoming a regular and frustrating scene as we travel: tourists go into this selfish zone where they ignore every other human around them and focus solely on themselves and all of the likes they’ll get on their instagram post. So annoying.
