The Ramseys Do Egypt

We've arrived and we're the only independent travellers on the flight. The rest are Egyptian or part of a tour. Amazing. In all the countries we've visited, that's a first. So, we are the only potential business for the taxi industry in the airport. We brush off all the offers for "limousine" service and exit the terminal. Nicola is very disappointed that we can't negotiate a price anywhere near that suggested was reasonable by our "Lonely Planet" tour guide. Whatever. We'd paid over 60$U.S. to get to JFK in New York. We can afford the equivalent of 14$C to get to our hotel in Cairo.  Taxi drivers in the developing world scare me. For many, the condition of their vehicle or the road has little bearing as to the speed they drive. The same is true for our driver today. On the freeway into town, he accelerates until a physical obstacle impedes his progress, like traffic, a sharp corner or road maintenance. Otherwise, it's pedal to th

Suzi with Malaysian friend We meet our guide for the next two days downstairs at 8:30. Her name is Suzy. I don't want to sound sexist, but I'm greatly relieved. After our experience with the misogynist pig of a salesman from the previous day, I could use a break. The hotel arranged for Suzy to tour us around Cairo and environs and she's great. Just wha what the doctor ordered.  Suzy's probably in her early thirties, generally attractive, speaks English well, wears a hijab, jeans, a waist length leather jacket and runners. She introduces us to t he driver who's about my age and wears dress pants, loafers, a red sweater; very professional looking. He holds the door to his small, four door Toyota so we can get into the backseat. Suzy rides shotgun.  Unlike the previous day, congestion doesn't slow our drive  all the way to the Egyptian Museum located at one end of Tahrir Square. I'm surprised that this could have been the centre of riots in 2

Step Pyramid On our second day with Suzy, we are joined by two Malaysian youngsters, a brother and sister, both of Indian descent and fluent in English Instead of the car, today we all pile into a van. On the drive out of town, we follow a canal with fields on both sides. Suzy tells us that the kids around here don't go to school and so the government has put them to work making carpets at "carpet school". She says lots of carpets are for sale in the area however we don't see any shops.  Our first destination is Saqqara. We pass from the lush green vegetation of irrigated land by the Nile to the utter desolation of the Sahara. I could detect absolutely no vegetation, just sand and rock  and dust brown for as far as the eye can see. And there, rising above us, is  the Step Pyramid built by the Pharaoh, Djoser, whose statue we'd seen in the museum the previous day.  One cannot prepare for either the immensity or the weirdness of it. What would pr

Breakfast at the guesthouse We did not have a good sleep last night. The beds were hard, the room was  cold, and loud music could be heard from the street until 3:00 a.m. Fearing illness, we decide to move to a different hotel tonight however breakfast is fabulous experience on the terrace of the hotel with its fantastic view of the pyramids I did not feel that we were able to absorb the beauty of the pyramids the previous day. So, we make the two minute walk to the ticket office where we're immediately accosted by a guy who says he's an official. He shows us his card and the badge on his shirt. We stop just short of telling him to "fuck off" before he leaves us alone.  Sphinx looking toward town We pass the sphinx and admire its beauty. No pictures are necessary as we took lots the previous day. We are confronted by a guy offering us a ride in his horse-driven carriage. He points to a ridge where he can take us with an excellent view of all the pyra

Breakfast is served in our fabulous hotel room with the fabulous view of the Nile River and the Khufu and Khafra pyramids in the distance. The view compares favourably with the one we enjoyed eating dinner at a rooftop restaurant with a terrific view of the Taj Mahal in the distance. We walk along the river and across the bridge to a coffee place on the river. The cafe was part of a larger restaurant/discotheque and very modern with white Mies van der Rohe style chairs and tables and no view of the river. We sit next to a couple of ladies in full burka, one lady stylishly dressed in brown who answers two different iPhones that are constantly ringing. The other has sun glasses smashed inside her head dress so that they hung in place above her nose.   Now I wouldn't have thought any more about these ladies except that they ordered food and I'd never   considered the difficulty they would have eating. Basically, the veil must be lifted for every bite. That can't be f

On the way to Abu Simbel We wake at 4:15 this morning for the drive to Abu Simbel. I had a restless night with a cold and am definitely running on fumes. The driver and a guy from the tour agency arrive at 4:35 in a newish car which is not always a given in these countries. After a trip to the ATM and a quick exchange of money, we begin the three hour journey through the desert. Nothing but sand for as far as the eye can see and the road rarely veers from a straight course. Surprisingly, I don’t sleep even though there’s nothing to see and I feel perfectly comfortable with our driver. I’m jealous of the open-mouthed woman sleeping beside me. Abu Simbel - Entrance to Ramses II Temple We get out of the car at a rest-stop in the middle of nowhere. Sand for as far as the eye can see. Four tour buses have also stopped and they’re filled with only Chinese tourists. Nicola waits in line for 20 minutes to use the toilet while I go around the back of the building to pee in the s