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Sunday 16th January Relaxing, jobs and seeing more of the city… Monday 17th January On Monday, we went to try and sort out our Sudanese visa. It cost 100 dollars each so we needed to sort out some hard US currency before we got them. After trying a number of exchanges with no luck, we convinced Barclays Bank to change us some Egyptian pounds for 400 dollars. We weren't going to budge until we had the money! We hope that HSBC will help us out when it opens again on Sunday. A morning at the Sudanese embassy involved going back and forth to different departments, until all the forms were filled in, money handed over and checks made to ensure that we got two months rather than the usual one. We were told to come back at 1 o clock to pick them up and it was amazing that we actually got them by 2.30pm! In the afternoon we went to the citadel to watch a free Sufi Dancing performance. It was incredible and kept us gob-smacked the whole way. The music was fantastic and how those guys kept spinning for so long we don't know. Tuesday 18th January Slight glitch with the Sudanese visa - we realised that the dates didn't quite add up and so we spent Tuesday morning convincing the guy at the desk of this and getting him to make the relevant amendments. Ooof! At least that's done now and we should be able to get into Sudan and Ethiopia with no problems. Wednesday 19th January Cairo just isn't what we had expected. On the face of it, it's just like any other modern city we've been to. Of course, it is a bit more manic, especially with the crazy driving where lanes seem to be non-existent and everyday manoeuvres here would give you a driving ban in Europe. We are gradually getting used to the dodging and the side stepping of the traffic as we try to reach the other side of the road. Everybody honks their horn, but nobody pays any attention because everybody does it... all the time! Little alleyways branch off the main streets leading to coffee and tea houses, where you'll find old and young male Egyptians smoking 'sheeshas' and contemplating the world. The streets seem to be more male dominated because women are still expected to stay at home. Only during the current festival of Eid, have we seen family groups out on the streets till late in the evening. In Downtown Cairo (where we're staying) there's always someone to offer direction, generally unasked and often with an ulterior motive... oh and 'baksheesh'! Along with this constant attention, senses are being constantly assaulted by smells, sights and sounds. Brightly lit shops, falafel and koshary bars are often swarming with locals, particularly school children, making streets lively even in the early hours of the morning. The city does have its old parts which are more how we would expect Cairo to be. Islamic and Coptic Cairo are made up of much narrower, busier and dirtier streets where you find yourself competing for space with fellow shoppers, market stalls, hawkers, sheep and chickens. As a stranger it's impossible to find your way around without getting lost, even with the Lonely Planet firmly gripped in your hand. Everywhere you go you hear people shouting out 'welcome to Egypt' or little children asking for 'baksheesh', wanting the money rather than any food that you offer them. The city's mosques seem to offer an escape from the hustle and bustle of the busy streets. Once inside, they are tranquil retreats from the outside world. Again, you'll find a mainly male population taking time out from their 'busy' day, sitting down talking, reading the Koran or the latest sports pages, or instead having a snooze. Our personal haven (women aren't given such free range in the mosques) is the Dahab Hotel, where the roof top communal space has become our lounge. We can sit and read in the sun, high above the bustle below and in the evening, sit around, drinking and chatting until the small hours. We know we're burning the candle at both ends, but it sure beats being asleep by 7 o clock and then being rudely awoken by the alarm at 5 the next morning! However, this will all come to an end on Monday, as we'll be leaving to pick up the coast road and head down south. Thursday 20th January We finally managed to do some proper sight seeing on Thursday. We took a taxi with Chris, a crazy Australian guy from Perth and Flip who we've caught up again here in Cairo. The taxi took us to the three main pyramid sites near the city. The first being Saqqara which is famous for its Step Pyramid. This pyramid, at 7000 years old, is the oldest in the area so a fitting start to the day. There are also some tombs at the site with some amazing paintings and hieroglyphics. Next up was Dahshour where there are two pyramids. The first they built is called the Bent Pyramid due to the fact they started building it at about 54 degrees but it started to collapse so they finished it off at a more sensible angle of 43 degrees. The second is the Red Pyramid where they learnt lessons from the earlier Bent Pyramid and built it at a constant 43 degrees. We were able to go inside this one. It was quite a claustrophobic experience. You had to climb up outside of the pyramid before descending on all fours down a steep tunnel into the tombs at its heart. It's not ventilated so the lack of oxygen starts to make you feel light headed and strange. We eventually emerged again a bit wobbling on our feet but glad for the experience. It was now lunchtime and tummies were grumbling. So before visiting the Giza pyramid we all piled into a cheap Koshary joint (Koshary: a big bowl of rice, noodles, chick peas, lentils and spicy sauce) and polished off the huge bowls of food. Biking seems to have increased our appetite somewhat! There are three large pyramids and six baby ones and of course there's the Sphinx. Obviously, this is the most popular and so was teaming with coaches and hordes of tour groups. There were even a few ladies who were dressed in short skirts and high heels. Maybe they'd come to the wrong event! The first thing you visit is the famous Sphinx, carved from the natural bedrock. It's a remarkable sight but as the English playwright, Alan Bennett once noted: 'seeing the Sphinx is like meeting a TV personality in the flesh - always smaller than had been imagined'. There is a continuous stream of men and boys trying to sell you model sphinx, pyramids or a ride on a horse or a camel all at greatly inflated prices. When Kate agreed that the offered price was ok for the Sphinx itself, the young boy she was in negotiations with got a bit confused and walked off. The sheer scale of the Giza site is impressive but, unlike somewhere like Petra, there's no way to escape the crowds and enjoy any of it on your own. All in all, it was a brilliant day spent with great company. As we arrived back in town, we were hit by the crowds out celebrating Eid, the great feast marking the time of the Haj (the pilgrimage to Mecca). The celebrating carries on for a number of days and we're in the midst of it. It also means that many places; especially governmental offices and banks, are closed until next week. It seems to be the done thing, if you can afford it, to slaughter a sheep for the festival. And so, the city has been full of live sheep, goats and cows, fresh animal skins and various other parts of the sheep's anatomy. Young boys have been seen carrying fresh sheep or cow heads on their shoulders, and the cars and buildings have been decorated with bloody handprints. We even saw a guy the other day riding off, rather unbalanced, with a live sheep sat quite comfortably in the front basket of his bicycle. Poor thing, he didn't realise that he was going to be dinner that night! In the evening we went out for dinner and a beer with Flip, Gael and Romain (the two 'froggies' (!!) and Kristy (an aussie from Sydney). The latter three were leaving Friday morning so we wanted to say goodbye. The streets were so incredibly crowded, it was like New Year's Eve in London except without the alcohol. We then finished the evening with a bottle of araq and a few beers sitting on the roof terrace. it was another nice night amongst like-minded people. Friday 21st January Okay, so we're still in Cairo, but who can blame us - we've done nearly three quarters of the distance and there are so many jobs to do and so many things to see. We think the hotel staff are getting used to us pottering about with the bikes and cleaning the tent. Despite this being supposedly a rest period, we've been really busy over the last few days, staying up late, drinking and chatting and then getting up early the next morning to do jobs. It's lucky that we'd been able to get all our dealings with officials done earlier in the week otherwise Eid would have caused us a few problems and it was great to be able to visit the Egyptian Museum, the different pyramids and the Sufi Dancers whilst we were here. Monday morning we'll be saying farewell to Cairo and setting off up the coast road and head down south. See you in Aswan! Paul and Kate x
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Challoner's, Fasiledes, Amersham, Buckinghamshire