Musings on Egypt – Cairo

Cairo has 20 million inhabitants, of which half seemed to be on the roads at all times. The other half are all trying to sell you something. Egyptians in general have a fantastic ability to spot a tourist at 100 paces, though that’s not hard in January when most of them look rather pasty. The conversations usually went one of two ways…
Egyptian: “Where are you from?”
Us: “England”
Egyptian: “Ah. Tally ho!” (in perfect upper class English accent)
OR
Egyptian: “Where are you from?”
Us: “England”
Egyptian: “Ah. Lovely jubbly!” (in perfect Del boy accent)
Goodness knows what impression they have of us from watching Only Fools and Horses and To the Manor Born. Though one of them did try to insist we were Australian (apologies to the Aussie contingent).

Ah, the Pyramids and the Sphinx. Magnificent, despite looking like they were still working on them in some cases. In the UK there would be a timed booking system, guided tours, a restaurant and they probably would have carved out a bit more of the tombs to make it less of a health and safety hazard. Fortunately it was a little more chaotic. The ticket office was a small hut with a couple of women looking suspiciously at everyone, getting into the pyramid involved bending double and belting down a small corridor before anyone came the other way and the guide was a crazy guy in the tomb encouraging you to fall head first into the sarcophagus.

Of course, we took the obligatory camel ride over the dunes. My only observations are that it’s a lot higher up than a horse (obvious you may think but it’s a long way down), it’s about as comfortable as riding a horse (ie. not very the next morning) and camels stink! You then realise that the odd smell on all the Egyptian money is now rather familiar - camel.

The Egyptian Museum is definitely worth visiting. The trick appear to be to wander round on your own and then listen in on the various guides explaining the important bits. The Tutankhamun treasure room is spectacular and strangely free of gun toting guards, unlike everywhere else. Maybe they’re counting on the curse to deter thieves. However I think it was the rooms full of royal Mummies that was most interesting (or should that be macabre?). I quite enjoyed watching people read the description of one that read “…and you can see that King Whoever the 3rd bears a close resemblance to his son King Whoever the 4th” and then seeing everyone step back a few paces to compare the two. There was a resemblance in that they both looked like they’d been dead a few thousand years.

Anyone who has been to Cairo may wonder why I haven’t yet mentioned the traffic. Well that deserves a post all of it’s own. Next up, Sharm El Sheik and driving lessons Egyptian style! More pics at http://stuartpreston.net/photos/Egypt2007/