Kholakat.net Dissociative Ramblings

We woke up early (around 4:30am) for the call to prayer and then again for some actual prayers a bit later on. Luckily I had been expecting it to a degree, so I wasn’t inclined to grab my laptop and run outside the room in my underwear, thinking that we were being evacuated or something! I went back to sleep again until buffet breakfast time.

We had an interesting selection of mounds of pastries as well as boiled eggs, some felafels and Egyptian cheeses. They even had some hibiscus tea (karkade). According to Nath the coffee wasn’t that good, but due to the jetlag, we were happy to take what we could get. Having said that, I don’t think our jetlag was that bad really  – maybe the acupressure therapy really worked!

We then met up with the rest of our tour in the lobby to go to our first stop – the pyramids! We piled out of the minibus, after braving more Cairo traffic chaos, and walked around taking many, many photos. Egypt experiences the khamseen around May – strong winds and dust storms. Lucky for us, we were able to experience this first hand on our first real day in Egypt. This meant that the pyramids were framed by a dusty background instead of a blue sky – luckily it also meant no hot weather. We couldn’t see the Sphinx from that location either (right in front of the largest pyramid Khufu), which surprised me.

A bunch of us had decided to go inside the large pyramid to the King’s chamber directly in the centre of the 140m high building. We climbed to the entrance (the one made by those who broke in), and walked down a lit corridor, feeling as if we were going down a path of some ride at Disneyland – like the Indiana Jones ride we went on in Hong Kong. Electric lights were fitted into little alcoves carved into the walls, with the corridor wavering down and around. We then climbed a low, narrow incline that crept up towards the Great Gallery. It was a little bit claustrophobic due to a slight reduction in air flow, and it was a bit warmer too. Once it opened up into the Great Gallery, with it’s high ceiling and ample walkways, I breathed a little easier. It was quite awe-inspiring to realise that we were actually inside a pyramid in Egypt! In some places I wasn’t sure that two way traffic would work, but apparently it d can! The other tourists coming the other way would just plough their way through, while we had to squeeze way over to the side to let them pass, but it worked out.

At the top of the Great Gallery we stooped through another little tunnel/walkway to get into the main chamber. There weren’t too many lights in there so it seemed quite dark. There was an empty granite sarcophagus which some tourists would climb into and lie down within. A little too creepy for me! I sat by the wall and used my mini fan to cool myself down with, while trying to appreciate the immensity of the structure, and the tonnes of rock that were over my head. The rock in the room was black so it felt a lot more subdued than the other parts we had just walked through. It was sometimes hard to imagine what it had been like for the ancient Egyptians, with the fluoro lights and tourists sitting against the walls.

The climb/walk down was a lot easier, especially since there was hardly anyone climbing up at the time. We then wandered around outside the pyramid, trying to avoid the people selling postcards, statues and other souvenirs. One of the guys followed me for a bit, asking me where I was from. I said ‘Not Egyptian’ in Egyptian arabic. He laughed at me, and started calling me ‘Hey, Not Egyptian..’ until Nath caught up with me. Then the guy said ‘You are a lucky man!’ Hahaha – he has gotten that a couple of times on this trip. Unfortunately he didn’t get any offers of camels though!

We then hopped back into the minibus and drove around to the panoramic viewing site where we could see all 3 main pyramids. We got many dusty pictures of them all, along with some camel pictures. Then we went to see the Sphinx nearby. From here we could see Pizza Hut across the road but that was to be expected I guess. We took a few photos in and around the complex by the Sphinx,  while trying to hide out of the dusty/sandy wind that was starting to whip about.

Next stop was the papyrus shop where we had someone show us how they made papyrus ‘paper’. He had a fresh piece of papyrus which he peeled, and then shaved off a slice from the inner piece. He then used a rolling pin to push out the water, before laying the strip between 2 pieces of carpet, and under a heavy weight. After some time, the papyrus is then removed and woven into the required sizes for the picture/writings. We wandered around for a while before deciding on a scene showing Nefertari preparing for the crowning of Ramses II. We were then taken to a restaurant named after the famous Abou Tarek, which is famous for its koshary. I wasn’t sure what to expect since the flavours sounded so simple (pasta, rice, lentils, chickpeas, onions, tomato sauce) but it was awesome! We poured this vinegary chilli sauce over the top of it and it was divine. I love the fried onion/shallot pieces that were scattered through – something I will definitely try back at home. The restaurant was located down a street where cars either came to die or be reborn! Some of the ‘mechanics’ were sitting outside their shops smoking sheesha and watching the world pass them by.

The Egyptian museum was next, and it was fantastic! To be able to walk by and touch an actual sarcophagus (translated as the ‘flesh eaters’) and stand in front of statues that were created thousands of years ago was just amazing. I tried not to touch too much, since I don’t want the artifacts to wear away either. We saw Tutankhamen’s treasures and his funeral mask. We also saw the mummy room where various important kings and queens were sealed away in their plastic coffins to sleep the aeons away. While walking around the museum, I saw a museum guard praying to Mecca on his prayer carpet, facing into a corner – shoes off and backside in the air. Now that’s dedication!

After such a long day we didn’t want to wander too far for dinner, so we thought we would try the restaurant at the top of the hotel. Sometimes you can see the outline of the pyramids from there, especially during the sound and light show. The service wasn’t too good – we had a surly waiter there all night – trying to charge us extra for all sorts of things (sitting inside? An extra 5 pounds… separate bills? More money….). We weren’t too impressed considering we were still trying to acclimatise to the country. Not an ideal end to a day that was filled with sensory overload, but I’m sure that the rest of the day overshadowed any negatives that the restaurant gave us.

The hotel itself was located between a mosque and a nightclub. An interesting juxtaposition, like so much of Cairo actually. Donkeys pulling carts down major roads, while jostling for space with trucks, taxis, overfilled minibuses and minivans, and the common commuter. The trucks remind me a little of India with their red trays decorated with floral flourishes and swirls. We drove past some trucks that had ‘Jumbo’ written on their tray, except for the rogue one that had ‘Jumpo’ on theirs. LOL! Oh, and there are metal detectors at the entrance of nearly every single hotel, cruise ship and tourist attraction. That was quite a surprise too.

May 2nd/3rd 2009
Day 1 – Intrepid Egypt Experience Tour
–> Flying through our first anniversary

The countdown had finally ended! With our out-of-office messages on, bills all paid, and farewells to mum and the dogs, Nath and I headed to the airport to start our huge adventure. We caught a Virgin Blue flight from Brisbane to Sydney, to meet up with our international Etihad flight. Due to their interline agreement, our bags were supposed to be checked through, all the way to Cairo. Unfortunately the check-in agent at our counter did not remember that they could do that – I think she was fairly new. She told us to go to the international terminal instead. Oops! She eventually called her supervisor who was able to talk her through it. Nath and I were very carefully checking the bag tags to make sure the final destination was indeed CAI for Cairo – it had to go through 3 different flights, 2 airlines, within roughly 20 hours – which is pretty much what we had to do, but at least we had access to inflight entertainment!

Once we were at SYD airport, we checked in and made our way through customs. Both Nath and I got a special pat-down after the security checkpoint. I think it was a quiet night for them. Didn’t really get a chance to do any duty free shopping but that was ok cause we were able to get our GST refund for some other items we had purchased in the past 30 days. There was another passenger who turned up at the GST refund counter with bags of designer clothing. On the one hand, lucky girl! On the other hand, it would be annoying to have to carry all those bags onto the plane, and try to find them all again at the end of a loooong flight!

On our way

The flight from Sydney to Abu Dhabi took around 14 hours. The service was pretty friendly and the other passengers weren’t too pushy. Nath found the power outlet underneath the seats so he was a happy boy. The headphones were noise-cancelling as well so that made it an enjoyable flight. I started to get excited once we were preparing for descent into Abu Dhabi. We had passed many sand dunes, and were greeted by a scene almost from Tatooine. Tan coloured, mushroom shaped satellite buildings were surrounded by planes of all sizes. We walked past a thermal imager, put in place to try and identify cases of swine flu. We spent a couple of hours recharging at a coffee shop there, being re-caffeinated and trying to understand the arabic announcements. When our Abu Dhabi/Cairo flight was ready, the boarding gate announced that ladies were first. It worked for the first 10 ladies or so, but by the time I got there, some men had already lined up and were going through.

Once on board, we settled in for the 4 hour flight. It was an Etihad flight so we used the in-flight entertainment as much as possible. I could hear people speaking some Egyptian words like ‘Shukran’ (thank you), and I could see other passengers with their dark eyes, traditional style outfits and some even with henna-ed hands around me. I started to get even more excited about our destination. Then we were finally in Cairo, walking through with the massses to the customs checkpoint. On the way there, we had to fill out some other form regarding our first night accommodation place and our health status. All the locals were just bypassing and ignoring it but the foreigners (like us) were looking at it and asking questions. This meant we were one of the last to get to the customs area and purchase our visas. We went to see one guy, with our USD all ready to go. We also wanted to change our AUD at the same time since we couldn’t do it in Australia. He then took us to another counter who proceeded to give us our visas and Egyptian money just out of the AUD we had. They did not want to change our USD (it was a $100 bill), and didn’t explain it to us – just gave us our stuff and then closed up shop. At that time our rep from Intrepid found us and helped us with the customs forms. We went through, grabbed our suitcases (breathing a sigh of relief that they had arrived safe and sound) and wove through the waiting taxi drivers as we headed towards our minibus. Mohamed from Intrepid was there and he gave us more info on the tour as we drove through heavy traffic on the way to the first hotel. We found out later that there had been a riot in town regarding the slaughtered pigs (in reaction to the swine flu). Cars, trucks and buses were everywhere, crossing lanes, creating new ones, all with a sense of organised chaos. Little did I know that this was normal for traffic for Cairo! Meanwhile pedestrians would wander through the traffic whenever there was a person-sized gap available. Cairo seemed like a sprawling, faded yellow metropolis – filled with honking horns, wailing minarets and the constant drone of cars and people. A lot of the women were wearing head scarves of all different colours – all coordinated with the outfits they were wearing. Quite a few of them wore long denim skirts.

Our hotel was the Gawharet El Ahram in Giza. After freshening up in the room for a bit (and checking to make sure that nothing had leaked in our luggage), we went downstairs to meet up with the other tour members – all from Sydney, Australia. We had a mix of couples and singles, with a total of 10 people, including us. The others were still out. We were introduced to Walid who would be our tour guide for the next 11 days or so, and we then were taken to a nearby restaurant called ‘Felfela’s’ for our introduction to Egyptian food.

Dinner at Felfela's

On the way there, we saw our first view of the pyramids, behind the light of the traffic and buildings. How exciting! It was so strange to see them loom up behind some commonplace buildings, but awe-inspiring all the same. We each picked a meat type and then proceeded to watch the plates of food roll in. The ’salad’ course consisted of various vegetables, pickles, dips etc put into the middle of the table. By the time we got around to trying everything, we had hardly any room left for the main grilled meats dish, or dessert! However, we did what we could since we wanted to make the most of it all.

After dinner, it was back to the hotel to crash. Our room had a nice view of a concrete wall and air conditioning units. It was the home of some pigeons too. The window didn’t quite close properly so we tried to prepare ourselves mentally for the early wake up call to prayer the next morning.