A Day Of Pyramids and More!
Where to begin, where to begin!
So our day of excursions was incredible today. We started by traveling to the Great Pyramids of Giza! Seeing the pyramids in the daylight is a whole other experience. My mother says that in the daylight they look taller and much more rugged. I am sure she is not describing my father but is in fact talking about the seventh wonder of the world the Pyramids of Giza!
We arrived to the Pyramids, bought our tickets to go actually go inside the second pyramid and left our cameras on the bus. We left our cameras on the bus because you are not allowed to take pictures inside the pyramid. I don’t really believe this is to preserve such a historic monument but more because if people saw photos of inside they would not make the crazy miner like climb down into the burial chamber. However it was a once in life time thing and we all climbed down and then up and then back down and then back up and out. We saw the sarcophagus in the middle part of the climb!
Outside we walked around, took lots of photos, climbed the outside of the pyramids. The official tourist police even helped us climb in areas that we restricted, for a small fee. Gotta love when you bribe the police for good pictures! The Sphinx was cool and will have to do a little more research on the power of the Sphinx.
We headed off to Memphis to see the statues of Ramess and then we went to see the oldest pyramids at Sakkara. We also have become much better hagglers and my mom and Aunt Mary can now dismiss a determined vendor in Arabic. Halas, La Shukran Momma O!
In the evening we went to see Beit al-Harrai House, an 18th-century mansion. We listened to the musicians warm up their autoharps before the concert. We were shown a “secret” door from a compartment in a wall. This lead to a great evening view on the roof top. We also saw a lathe but aren’t sure what century it was from.
We ended with Dinner at Johnny Carrinos on the banks of the Nile. For all you Kuwait readers the Egyptian version of Johnny’s has bread just as good!
We are not sure about internet access the next couple of days as tomorrow night we are boarding our sleeper train to Aswan and then on our Wednesday our heading onto our Nile Cruise for three days! We will keep you posted when we can!
Ladies from Egypt saying goodnight to all!
Kuwait City, KUWAIT
Christine Oastler is a freelance travel writer, teacher and artist, currently living in Mahboula, Kuwait. Born and raised in Kingston, Ontario, Canada, Christine obtained her Bachelor of Arts at Trent University and her Bachelor of Education from Queen’s University. Currently traveling around the Middle East she finds herself riding the odd camel and embracing a new culture!