Egypt: Day 1

Egypt memoirs: Day 1

We arrived in our hotel at around 3 pm. We already knew we would be staying in Giza, close to the pyramids, but we did not realize the hotel was practically at the foot of those large structures. From the hotel, you walk up hill about 300ft, pay for the entrance to the "park" and then 5 minutes later you are inside the pyramid. Paul and I dropped our stuff and decided to go check it out. On the way, we were barraged by a hordes of locals offering their services from taxies, and tour guides t0 rides on camels. They all wanted to give you a "good price" which is a vague term there. Our guide, whom we accidentally picked up, took us through the back way to the Second pyramid entrance. We walked through ruins of the worker's dwellings, looking into deep wells, walking through open roofed old rooms and into closed to public and therefore barred tombs. Several times some local guys with camels walked right by us. It was so fun to see those tall graceful animals.

The entrance to Second pyramid was smaller than I would imagine and located on the ground level. Once you go in, you have to practically double over to pass through the tunnel leading downward. I am still really surprise how Paul managed to make it in. The walk downward follows by a small straight hallway which leads you into another tunnel going back up, deeper into the pyramid. At the end, there was a burial chamber, with the stone sarcophagus still resting there, though, of course, missing all the other relics. It feels so strange to be somewhere so ancient. Thousand of years ago someone might have stood in the very spot you were standing in.

The first pyramid was closed for the day, so we just took pictures of it. Then we walked by the sphinx, visited a local shop where we watched them make papyrus and bought some rather expensive souvenirs (as we found out later). What we've learned from day one was that you either have to bargain like you've never had to before, or say "no" about a thousand times and then some.

The sun was going down and it was time to go home when we ran into a man we met earlier that morning. He volunteered to walk us home through Mena village which is located right outside the pyramid's gate. That's where our first adventure started. We walked through the street watching people sitting outside their brick homes, some selling different merchandize, some just observing the surroundings. Some kids were riding donkeys through the streets, others- just waved at us with huge innocent smiles, saying familiar "hello", some were trying to sell us post cards or other trinkets. Waahid invited us for a drink in his house, which we hesitantly excepted. We met his wife and kids, and some of his family who were extremely friendly, but we left shortly because we did not want to walk home after dark. This last part of our first day was a bit unnerving, but ended up being the highlight of the day.