Once we arrived, we came into the Cairo terminal wondering where to get our Egyptian Visas (they said we could get them there for $15/pp). I looked up and a representative from the Marriott had a sign with Ken's name on it. Wow. Fancy treatment! He assisted us with getting the Visas and took us through border control. Piece of cake! He walked us through the airport and to the shuttle headed to the hotel. This was our first glimpse of Cairo. Our first observation was the crazy driving... we thought Israelis were all over the road. In Egypt they don't even have lanes! The road was about 3 or 4 car widths wide and people were just weaving in and out as they pleased. Our hotel was about 20 minutes away so we had enough time to adjust to the driving. Egypt looked pretty dirty, there were no stop signs or traffic signals, and we were going at least 100mph on the freeway as we dodged other cars. What are we in for?
We arrived at the hotel and were more than surprised at the level of service and accommodations we reserved. It seemed really nice from the website, but we were skeptical that it would actually be like the pictures. Apparently we stayed at a 5 star Golf resort. We were traveling in jeans and sweatshirts and felt a little sheepish when we checked in. The room was fabulous. I started wishing we could have made reservations for longer, but our rewards points were all used up. After getting situated we went for a walk out by the golf course and ended up at "the beach and wave pool area". It looked like a lot of fun so we ran back to our room to grab our swimsuits. It took us about 20 minutes to wind our way back through the hotel, past the indoor pools, beauty spa, shops, restaurants, etc. By the time we arrived back at the wave pool it had been shut off :-( Bummer. We talked to the life guard and he said something about turning it on in 30 minutes. So we just laid out on the "beach" for a while. The beach was a medium sized area with sand brought in... we weren't anywhere near a sea or river. The sun was out and it was a nice 80 degrees. After half an hour Ken started to get in the water... brrr it felt like the Pacific Ocean! However, we had just asked the lifeguard to turn on the waves so we were committed to getting in at least for a bit. Ken didn't stay in for long but we got some pictures. I went in for a bit too, but didn't last long either. We had to be out in the lobby for our Nile dinner cruise by 4:30 so we didn't have a lot of time.
We signed up for a dinner cruise through the hotel concierge. We had the expectation that it would be something similar to what we did in Turkey on that river cruise (which was really casual). We were a little embarrassed when we showed up on a really fancy boat in jeans and sweatshirts. Oops. The drive through the city was very eye-opening... as in keep your eyes open because the driver couldn't possibly see everything that is going on and he might need a couple back seat drivers. Downtown Cairo... wow... glad I wasn't at the wheel. Anyway, back to the cruise, there was a salad bar with 12 different kinds of salad, and we could order one of three entrees: beef, chicken or salmon. Since we were a little wary of stomach issues we went pretty light on dinner. We had hoped to be able to walk around the boat and enjoy cruising the Nile, but I think the intent was for us to stay in the dining area for the majority of the cruise. They had a dancing Dervish (twirling man with a skirt - he made me dizzy!), a belly dancer, and a couple of musicians and vocalists. It was all interesting and somewhat entertaining. Towards the middle of the cruise we did go outside and try to enjoy the view. The Nile has huge buildings on either side for as far as the eye could see. There were 20 other "cruise boats" on the river with us. I think it would have been nicer if the sun set about an hour later and we could have had a better view of the Nile (although it did seem quite brown the next day). Overall it was a fun time but we were exhausted and ready to get back to the hotel.
Saturday we had reserved a personal tour guide and couldn't have had a better day. He picked us up in the lobby at 9am and we headed towards the Egyptian Museum. Mohammed (our guide) is an Egyptologist, so we was very knowledgeable and knew exactly what to highlight in the museum. I think we could have stayed there for another hour our so. The museum highlighted everything found in King Tut's tomb (I think he said this was the only Egyptian King's tomb that was found fully in tact and hadn't been raided). We also went into the mummy museum... which is kind of gross. These people have been dead for 4,000 years, preserved and now on display. I don't think they thought people would be walking by and gawking at them long after they were gone. You could see their fingernails and teeth, as well as the general bone structure which was still wrapped up. One of the mummy's was believed to be the Egyptian King who was drowned in the Red Sea after chasing the Israelites during the Exodus. The process of mummification sounded disgusting. I'm okay with cremation. Anyway, there was much to see in the museum and we thoroughly enjoyed it. After the museum we went to a Papyrus making shop where they showed us how they used to make paper. Interesting demonstration and of course there is always the option to buy something :-)
On to the pyramids. Wow what a sight! 3 million stones in one pyramid. They said it took 100,000 people to build them (our guide thought it was more like 20,000 - either way it was a lot). Apparently they only built the pyramids during the flood season (Jun-Aug) when they were able to float the stones down the Nile from the quarry. Each of the 3 pyramids was dedicated to one of 3 kings and intended as a burial place for that king. We spent a good two hours here as well and got a lot of great pictures. Then on to the Sphinx. Another amazing site. Right outside the Sphinx was the Mummification Temple (after a King would die they would be brought to the temple near the pyramid to mummify him).
The rest of the afternoon was spent at a perfumery and carpet making school. At the perfumery we observed a demonstration on how they blow the glass bottles for the perfume and smelled different scents. It was interesting. We did find a scent we liked but with only backpacks we were not willing to risk not being able to get it through customs at the airport. The carpet making school was really fascinating to me, I could have watched them work much longer than we did. For some of the poorer children in Cairo this is their chance to learn a skill, make a little money and get an education. The owner of the school teaches them how to weave carpets in the morning and pays for them to go to a local primary school in the afternoon. It was very interesting.
In the evening we went back to the pyramids to watch the sound and light show. It reminded me of Star Trek with that booming narrative voice (must have been created in the 70's). The pyramids were spectacular at night. It was amazing to sit there and think about what we were looking at - one of the 7 wonders of the world. Amazing. It was a full day, and we were definitely ready for bed when we arrived back at the hotel around 9pm last night.
We had a fabulous trip. I really can't believe how smoothly everything went, from the time we arrived to the time we got back to TLV. It was a whirlwind weekend, but definitely worth it. Glad we were able to make it there.
