The Adventures of Corey and Sarah

Two Days In Crazy Cairo

Our second day started early as we were being picked up from our hostel at 6am to be taken to the Taba border crossing into Egypt!
We got through with no worries and we found that it was a great help getting through all the road blocks because we were Australians. We found out later that Egyptians love Aussies. For some reason they get us mixed up with Canadians. Canada apparently don't want anything to do with the war in Iraq and for some reason they think we're Canadians. I don't know how or why but it worked for us while we were there!

Travelling through the Sinai Desert was amazing. It was such a clear day and and you could really imagine the Israelites wandering around there.
We went through some amazing high, rocky mountains when we first crossed the boarder and then the landscape flattened out and turned into sandy desert.
We got to the other side of the peninsula in good time as our driver did 140km/hr the whole way! We feared for our lives a couple of times! Everyone drives like that in Egypt as we were to find out in Cairo...


Wednesday morning we caught the bus to Eilat where we booked into our hostel. We stayed at the same hostel when we went to Jordan. It was a great hostel and although there were some terrible comments left on its website from other travellers who had stayed there but we didn't experience anything like what they said, the exact opposite really.
We spent wednesday walking around the markets and waterfront stalls and as usual, had shawarma for lunch. So good!
After lunch we went for a swim. The sea here is the Gulf of Aqaba or Gulf of Eilat (same thing, but two towns share it). The water is so nice here but apparently isn't anywhere near as beautiful as it used to be because of all the boats and other activities in the water that damage the area. Imagine what it would have been like in ancient times!



We arrived in the city at about 1pm and it was chaos! It took so long to get to the other side. The roads were crazy. People don't use lanes or indicators - just horns! It was very funny.

We visited the famous Egyptian Museum first.
Everything in it, except only 1 or 2 artifacts, are original. It was amazing. We saw so much stuff and because we were the only people on the tour, we had our own personal tour guide!
We saw all of Tutankhamun's treasures and coffins. Very cool.
We even saw the mummy of Rammses II - the father of Moses' adopted mother! He was looking old, the years have not been good to him!

From the museum we then travelled to a couple of bazaars that are supposed to be legit.
That night, we saw a sound and light show at the pyramids/sphinx which was very good. Got some great photos. At the show, it makes a storey out of all the things that happened there and what the sphinx has seen over the years and how the pyramids were made and a few other historical facts. It was money well spent.

We then went out for dinner and went back to our 4 star hotel! It was a very nice change from the backpacker hostels!



Day 2 of our Egyptian tour we went straight to the pyramids. We had great weather for it so visibiltiy was good. There is a lot of smog there and can be difficult to see if the weather is not cooperative.
They are so huge! We never thought they would be that big. You think in photos that they are but nothing prepares you for the real thing. We couldn't believe we were there!
We got some great photos and we even went for a camel ride which was a highlight!
We also went down into the burial chamber of the middle pyramid which was crazy!
When you're there, all the Egyptians are trying to rip you off by standing in the way of your photos and then asking for money because you took a photo of them! It's very funny.







The Sphinx and the pyramids are all at the same location so we did all the sites at the same time.
The Sphinx has some amazing stories about it. It was nearly lost forever but they saved it at the last minute as it was being buried by sand.

After here we went to the Old City and visited famous sites - the most notable being the supposed spot where Pharoh's daughter found baby Moses in the basket in the river. We found it hard to believe because there is no water near this spot, but this was over 4000 years ago - I suppose you cant really know.


From here we drove to the bazaar and that is exactly what it was! Everyone is trying to sell you something and rip you off! They almost physically force you into their stall! We didn't buy anything here except a couple of mini pyramids and even then they tried to give us dodgy money but we were onto them!
At that point, it was time to go home.
We had a great time and it was by far the strangest place we've been yet. Completely different to any other country but it was great to get back to Israel. We feel so much more comfortable and at home here. We are very glad and feel very blessed for having gone.

This coming thursday we leave our home on kibbutz and head back to Tel Aviv to begin the main reason for coming to Israel - the Walk Through The Bible tour!

Keep checking for updates on our adventures in Israel...

Labels: Cairo, Egypt

posted by Corey and Sarah @ 9:36 pm