What does one do when in Egypt? The Pyramids! No grass was going to grow under our feet, on our first full day in Cairo we set out for the last remaining ancient wonder of the World. There was a taxi driver who apparently waited outside the hotel for fares. There are really two kinds of taxis in Cairo, these black, beaten down Fiats that have no seat-belts in back and windows that can't shut and you have to negotiate the price. The Fiats do have meters, but they look they haven't ever really worked. The are also sleeker, white taxis that are metered. You can, however, negotiate with them as well. This particular driver, who told us his name was Sayed, drove one of the crappy Fiats. Our first ride in Cairo wasn't going to be an exercise in safety.
We negotiated a price of 50 pounds with Sayed (which would turn out to be pretty good). During the 45-minute journey to Giza, Sayed stopped at a couple of spots, namely a bridge overlooking the Nile, to let us take photos. A word on traffic in Egypt: Absolute insanity. Traffic laws are obviously just a suggestion in Egypt. I lived in China for over four months, and it could get pretty nuts over there too, but nothing rivaled Egyptian drivers. They would perform maneuvers that in the States would probably lead to an automatic revocation of one's license. The shear number of cars was unbelievable as well. Again, lived in China, never have I seen so many cars. The city was obviously planned without pedestrians in mind. Oh sure, there were some sidewalks, but crossing the street, that was something else. We would see people calmly dodging high-speed traffic like it was just another part of the day. To me, it looked like a high-stakes game of Frogger. People attempting to cross busy boulevards with seemingly total disregard for personal safety was a common sight for us during our stay in Egypt.
Sayed dropped us off close to the entrance to the Pyramids. Before we even got out of the taxi someone stuck his head in the window wanting to give us a camel ride. We must have been at the right place then. That and the large groups of white tourists with bush hats and cameras dangling from their necks tipped us off.
Getting into the Pyramid/Sphinx area proved something of a challenge. You have to purchase tickets at a window, where a guy slides the tickets under the window to you. Well, some old coot with about two teeth in his head who claimed he was a "government tour guide" immediately grabbed our tickets and told us to follow him. Excuse me old dude, but, no thanks. I tried taking the tickets from but he got pissed and said "Listen to me, I am government tour guide, you follow me, understand"?! Great.
Of course, the security personnel were of no help. You had to pass through a metal detector, and they just let this old idiot slide right through, even without a ticket. As we were walking towards the entrance I was trying to think of ways to shake this shyster. I finally said to him that there must be some sort of misunderstanding, we didn't want or need a tour guide, but just wanted to walk around ourselves. I whispered to Dad "for Christ's sake, GIVE him something" Dad offered him some coinage, but he balked at that, so I gave him a five-pound note. Giving up essentially one-dollar worth having our tickets given back to us and not having this toothless-Arab following us around. Old bastard.
That was not to be our last encounter with Egyptian guys wanting our money. Not by a long shot. We saw the Sphinx first, which is separated from the Pyramids by a high gate. Of course, some idiot kept on trying to offer us camel rides, despite my consistent refusal of "no thanks" in Arabic. After the Sphinx and walking up the road to the Pyramids Luke decided he would like to sit on a camel, not ride, but sit. Some guy came up to Dad, who was slightly ahead of me, soliciting camel rides. I was thinking to myself: "don't do it dad, don't do it".
He did. He mentioned maybe later we would be interested in some camel entertainment. Bad idea. Tune in later to find out why (this post is already too long)
No comments:
Post a Comment