Day 2 - Egypt

What an amazing day! We had a nice breakfast at the hotel and met a couple of people on the tour. Then we all got on the bus to meet our very jovial tour leader Sam - he's great always smiling and always joking. Then it was off to brave the traffic and make our way to the nearby pyramids. We got ferried between the pyrmaid sites on the tour bus and the first time we got out we got hassled out of 40 Egyptian pounts - not too bad really and now I've got a bee in my bonnet about it so I'm not letting that happen again - it's ggood though really, all part of the experience. As an example of how cheeky these guys are our tour leader has a code for when he gets asked to recommend things and he seriously thinks a good deal, as opposed to when he recommends them just to get rid of the guy. A guy came and asked if we wanted to buy a headscarf for 5 Egyptian pounds, later that day we got offered exactly the same headscarf for 100 Egyptian pounds!

Me at the pyramids!

So they pyramids - well what to say - it was amazing actually being there, actually seeing the sphinx - a very early memory of mine is watching Asterix and Cleopatra and seeing the sphinx in that.

Wow the sphinx in person.

Before seeing the sphinx went inside the second pyramid. That was amazing - you have to walk bent in half (literally) down steps, then you get to stand and walk upright for a bit, then hunch over again and walk up to get to the inner chamber, the king's chamber. The heat inside was amazing, really really dense heat and a real lack of air - we were totally puffing by the end and just from lack of oxygen, not from lack of fitness!

Cheesy pic (idea stolen from Andrew and Grace) of Darren holding the pyramid we went inside.

So going into the pyramid was a really cool experience. Next coolest was camel riding - we made a last minute decision to get a camel ride from one pyramid to another, and it was great but a little scary - our camel kept trying to bite one of the other camels and our camel guide almost got into a fist fight with one of the other guides!

On our camel.

Anyway next stop was the Papyrus museum where we splashed out (even though Darren did an amazing job haggling) on a beautiful papyrus with a wedding scene on it. It is beautiful. It was 620 Egyptian pounds and we got it down to 500 plus a 210 papyrus thrown in free! We compared the deal we got around the group and I think we managed to get the best deal. Also of note was they provided us with hybiscus juice and it may just be because I was really thirsty but I loved it!

Next we stopped in at supermarket on the way to Sakkara - this was the second necropolis of the day (Giza and the great pyramids being the first). Here is the step pyramid and a myriad of tombs. From here we could also see the best bent pyramid and the red pyramid (the first proper pyramid). There was also a beautiful columned building and coronation hall. The amazing this here was the peacefulness - it was possible to be all by yourself without seeing another tourist - and it was so serene and beautiful. Of course just round the corner there were tons of people!

Darren in front of the step pyramid.

Now's a good time to say we've met tons of really nice people - everyone on the tour seems lovely some we'll hopefully stay in contact with after the tour. A nice South African couple, and lots of Australians, two other kiwi couples. It's great!

Then after Sakkara we went to a resort to relax - the was a pool and a shower and I just changed my clothes and spent the rest of the time with Darren socialising. We had a fairly authentic tea, amazing bread (but I generally love bread anyway) salads, stews, rice, yum! Now we're at the train station waiting for our overnight train that may be up to two hours late. Fingers crossed it's not!

:)
Mindy