Playing in the Sand

Hello everyone. Yesterday I went and visited the Pyramids of Giza, Saqqura and Memphis. We hired a personal driver to drive us around to all these places for the day. It only cost us 250 egyptian pounds, which is $50 (split between me and Alex, so only $25 for a personal driver all day in an airconditioned car). Things sure are cheap here. Our driver was great, not only did he drive us to different places, but he'd point out things along the drive and tell us the history of them. He also helped us find everything we needed to have a great day.

Our day began by being dropped off at a camel/horse stall to rent camels to take us to the pyramids. They were asking 480 for the entire three hour trip, but I talked him down to 420 (which is only 70 euros and that included our tickets into the pyramids and sphnix and personal guides). I've become quite good at haggling with everyone so I get really great deals on taxi rides and souvenirs. The trick is to state a price you're willing to pay, which is 10 pounds ($2), lower then what you are really willing to pay, if they don't agree with your price you start walking away and ignoring them until they yell the price you asked. But the haggling doesn't end there. When you turn around and ask them if they agree to your price, they will state they didn't mean it and state a price 20 pounds higher then your asking price, then its necessary for you to add the 10 pounds to your price so they feel like they beat you at haggling (I use this method with taxis all the time and I can talk down a 65 pound asking price to 20 pounds, yeah I'm that good). They day was the perfect temperature for the trek, but the sun was so bright it was almost blinding without sunglasses on. I imagine its like that everyday in the dessert. The pyramids were amazing and our guide explained how they were built and tons of other interesting facts. I ended up climbing the middle pyramid (even though its not allowed) and went about 12 levels up which was about 72 feet high, before descending to trek off to see the Sphinx. By the time we finished seeing everything by butt was killing me from the camel ride, but I wouldn't have missed that experience for anything (I named my camel Lorenzio, he was super cute).

We left the Giza pyramids and our driver took us to a perfumery shop that showed us how the glasses are blown and let us sample all there scents and explained how each one treats differents things (aromatherapy). Then we were driven to a papyrus museum to be shown how papyrus was made and we ended buying our own legit papyrus pieces of art. From there we headed to Saqqara to see the step pyramid and some other tombs. Here we were actually able to go into the pyramids, climb through the tunnels and different chambers and look at the hieroglyphics and drawings. We weren't suppose to take pictures, but our guide let us take some for a small 'fee/tip'. Upon Leaving Saqqara, we headed to Memphis which was mildly disappointing. What had once been a major hub in Egypt was now nothing but a few statues and lots of stalls selling souvenirs. Our driver then drove us to a restaurant to get something to eat. They brought out a pita bread type thing that is cooked in a wood stove and many types of dips to dip it in. They were all delicious and by the time our food (chicken and beef kebabs) arrived we were full (but still able to finish most of it). The restaurant was great! We sat outside but under a tent and a band was playing Egyptian music and you could watch the bread being made in the wood stoves. It was a very charming atmosphere. After lunch we returned to our hostel.

When we returned to the hostel we were planning on resting, but we soon got chatting with the people who run/own this hostel and ended up joining them to a hookah cafe to smoke and play dominos (I was taught a new way to play dominoes and I'll make sure to teach you all too). After returning to the hostel we played some egyptian card games with them and taught them some American ones, before turning in for the night.

I'll post some pictures and tell you about today later. Tomorrow we're talking about going to the Suez Canal and in the evening we catch an overnight train to Aswan. TTYL. LoveYa.