Golden Book Traveler

Walking like an Egyptian12/16/2010

I arrived in Cairo, Egypt on a mid-June afternoon excited to see the last original Wonder of the World, The Pyramids of Giza.

Summers in Egypt are unbelievably hot, especially when you are inside the unforgiving Sahara Desert! However, come rain or shine, I was determined to get a glimpse of the Great Pyramids myself. Little did I know, that would be about 2 hours after my plane landed.

I took a 2 hour flight from Istanbul to Cairo. My plan was to get to Johannesburg in time to catch a glimpse of the World Cup. I would spend 3 days in Cairo then be jet set for my 9 hour flight to South Africa.

First things first, get to The Pyramids!

The one thing I’ll always remember about Cairo is the absurd amount of traffic, EVERYWHERE! 20 million people with cars trying to get from point A to point B makes for one disastrous experience.

People yelling, blasting car hours 24/7, and locals slipping through any cracks available is an accurate description of Cairo traffic. It took me about 5 minutes to brave the traffic and cross from one side of the street to the other, reaching my hostel with a sense of relief.

At the hostel, the employees convinced me that there is no better time than NOW to go see The Pyramids of Giza. I barely had time to set my bags down before I was whisked away to the Sahara Desert.

After a 45 minute drive through that infamous Cairo traffic, I arrived at my destination. My guide brought me to a local who offered the experience of arriving at The Giza Pyramids in style, via camel!

Prices in Cairo are unreasonably expensive. Egypt is a really poor country, but the locals take advantage of tourists more than any place I’ve been to.

Everything has a price and that camel wasn’t cheap. I was able to negotiate a price of about $60 for a two hour ride + the price to see pyramids + paying off all the guides = about $150 to see The Pyramids.

I hopped on Mickey Mouse’s back (the name of my camel) and off I went into the desert to visit The Pyramids. Mickey Mouse was a very smart and stable camel throughout the trip. Whenever he got off path, the guide made a clicking noise with his teeth.

Here is one of my favorite videos taken from my 7 month trip. The view was incredible!

In the video you can see I wore shorts, a t-shirt, and sandals that day. Probably the worst attire I could choose for camel riding. My guide warned me that the next day I would, “Walk like an Egyptian”.

I paid no attention to his comment as I was too busy engulfing my mind and body into the pyramid experience. Throughout the journey, my guide offered to take pictures of myself with the pyramids in the background.

I have to admit, that 9 year old boy might be a better photographer then I’ll ever be.

Here are some of my favorites.

I got so close to the pyramids that I could reach out and touch them. That’s exactly what I did! I felt that old 3,000 BC rock, expecting it to crumble in my hands yet remaining solid as ever.

My guide took it a step further by asking me to take a few steps forward on the pyramid! I did not know the legalities of this, but I figured he must. I climbed to about the 5th level before the Egyptian Police started blowing their whistles.

This is about as high as I got.

As the police on camels closed in on me, I made my way down as if I did nothing wrong. They started exchanging verbal barbs with my guide. However, they were smiling, and asking how I was whenever they spoke to me.

Watching that 9 year old kid out maneuver those old police men was quite a sight to see. He explained to me later that what they really wanted was a payout for my negligence.

Shortly after my brush with jail, we started making our way back from The Pyramids. I began to feel every bump and movement of the camel in between the sides of my legs the entire way back.

I felt relieved more than anything when we finally made it back to base camp. Sun burnt, tired, and chaffed on the inside of my legs, I was due for much needed rest.

That was when I began walking like an Egyptian! In fact I walked like an Egyptian for the next week!

My leg muscles hurt with every movement and I had scabs as big as a hamburger patties from that ride on Micky Mouse.

I had such a great experience at The Pyramids of Giza that I didn’t mind the pain much. In fact I would have dared you to ask why I was walking so funny. For that I would say something along the lines of ,” Glad you asked. I just got done visiting The Last Wonder of the World on a camel”.