We slept pretty well on the eleven-hour flight from Beijing to Cairo, so when we landed at 5:30am (10:30am Beijing time) we were surprisingly alert and ready to roll. It was an immediate culture change when we landed at Cairo’s brand new terminal, with several planes landing from Saudi Arabia and other Middle Eastern countries. Men were wearing traditional white costumes, and most women were in a full burka or at least a head scarf and conservative clothes covering every inch of skin. We ran to beat two arriving planes to the customs lines and breezed through the visa on arrival process, picked up our bags and hired a taxi to our first Starwood hotel in Egypt: Le Meridien Pyramids. The city is the colour of sand, with lots of garbage everywhere and little plant life. As we were turning a bend in the road, I nudged Jess and she looked up with an awed smile to see the pyramids looming ahead on the edge of the city.
We arrived at the Meridien before 7am, and so our room was understandably not yet available. We had breakfast at the lounge with a view on the pyramids and were quickly shown to our executive suite with a large terrace overlooking the pyramids. Talk about a hotel with a view! The room was very spacious but the furniture and décor need some updating. A new wing of the hotel is almost complete, and I believe they will renovate the old one once the new one is done.
Having been to Egypt about 5 years ago, I shared a few words of warning with Jess as we walked out of the hotel. First: 98% of Egyptians around tourist sites want to sell you something, or show you something and ask for a tip. For example, if someone points you in the direction of the washroom, they expect you to tip them. Unfortunately, it’s very difficult to meet the nice 2%, as all 100% appear nice and genuine for the first minute, and only then can you tell if you’ve been duped into something (98% of the time) or actually have met someone who wants nothing more than an interesting conversation (elusive 2%). Many touts mistake a polite “no thank you” or “hello” with “please follow me for 10 minutes trying to sell me a mini pyramid or convince me to visit your father’s ancestral perfume shop”. Cynic? No. Experienced? Yes!
Almost all Western tourists come to Egypt on some kind of bus tour. Most people think they are less likely to be screwed on these tours, but it’s not always the case. The tours have their own little scams, which are more clever than the average street tout, but also more costly. The bus will keep taking you to “carpet / perfume / papyrus museums” where high pressure salespeople make you feel bad about how rich you are and how starving their family is. On my first visit, I was on such a tour and our guide would flat-out lie to us about how far and expensive everything was, just so we would book additional activities through the tour agency, versus doing them at a fraction of the price on our own.
We dropped our bags, freshened up a bit and walked over to the Great Pyramids, only about 20 minutes away. One hundred offers for a taxi, papyrus, food, scented oils etc. later, we arrived at a dusty concrete hut where we bought our tickets. Security on the site is quite serious, with a search similar to an airport. The site was surprisingly calm and not nearly as busy as we’d feared.
The pyramids are HUGE. The largest one held the record for the tallest man-made structure for 3600 years! Building blocs were brought from far-away quarries, and stacked many stories high. There are thousands of pyramids around Egypt, but the pyramids in Giza are the tallest, best preserved and most famous. The same site is also blessed with the Sphinx, the large half-man, half-lion statue. One surprising fact about the pyramids is that the city has built right up to them, although law now prevents construction behind the pyramids, where the desert takes over the landscape. It’s therefore still possible to get a view of the pyramids with a desert background. We walked around the sites for a few hours, and it was surprisingly not too hot or sweaty compared to the humidity of China. We ducked most of the camel ride offers with a firm “no thank you” or “la shakran” in Arabic, which seemed to deter most touts, who were less feisty than usual due to Ramadan fasting.
Craving a non-dumpling, non-noodle meal, we ate lunch at Pizza Hut right across from the pyramids. Being Ramadan, we were the only ones in the place except for the very famous Fijian rugby team. They are by far the biggest stars in Fiji, equivalent to meeting David Beckham. We shook their hands and had a little chat about our recent visit to their country. After lunch, we walked around at random in non-touristy streets, where we exchanged smiles with the first genuinely nice Egyptians of the trip. The rest of the afternoon was spent by the beautiful hotel pool with pyramid view. That night, we had dinner at the tex-mex hotel restaurant, which was pretty good as far as tex-mex in Egypt goes.
On day 2 in Cairo, we took a taxi to the main bus terminal completely on the other side of the city. Our visit happened to coincide with Eid, the end of Ramadan and one of the most important holidays on the Islamic calendar. Unlike the normal gridlock traffic of Cairo, we had the streets to ourselves! Even touts were on vacation. We bought our bus tickets to Alexandria and walked around the city for a bit. Cairo is, bar none, the city with the most ground pollution I’ve ever seen. The city is literally covered with trash everywhere, making Cairo a 16-million inhabitant garbage dump. There are few trash cans, and even when there are, few people use them.
We arrived on foot at the Egyptian Museum, which holds the largest number of ancient Egypt artefacts in the world. It was built in 1905 and has apparently never been renovated. It is extremely poorly organized, is not air conditioned and has visible leaks in the roof. There are very few signs indicating what treasures are rotting in front of your eyes. If there is a sign, it was written with a typewriter or by hand. At that point, I was grateful that colonial powers robbed Egypt of its most precious treasures, as they are much better looked after at the Louvre or British Museum. The museum does house the tomb treasures of King Tut, which were stunning in their grandeur and beauty, especially his famous burial mask of gold. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed to take any photos in the museum, and all cameras must be checked outside. Jess decided to see the pharaoh mummy collection for an extra $20, and I sat it out since I’d been five years ago. You can see their skin, hair, teeth, nails…everything perfectly intact and preserved in modern cases and with real explanations about each ruler.
We spent a few hours in the museum until closing time, and then took Cairo’s underrated subway a good part of the way home for only $0.15. It is modern and safe, yet very few tourists use it. We attracted quite a few curious stares, but non-threatening. A gentleman even offered us some assistance, promising, “I don’t want any money,” before asking us if we were interested in booking a tour with his agency. Not sure where he falls in the 98-2 breakdown; probably borderline good side.
We had another enjoyable swim and beer at the swim-up bar, then dinner at a nearby Egyptian restaurant. I had grilled pigeon, the local specialty, while Jess tried some kebabs. I finished the meal with a traditional “double apple” shisha, or tobacco water pipe. The server, who had been so nice with us during dinner, tried to screw us on the cheque, insisting we leave him a tip and claiming that the “service charge” line on the bill was actually a government tax (it is not). We left this otherwise great place with a sour taste in our mouths.
The next morning, we took the bus to Alexandria, Egypt’s second largest city, on the beautiful Mediterranean. At the bus stop, we noticed how everyone waiting just sat there, either doing absolutely nothing or just chatting with their family or friends. Had we been in Toronto, everyone would be playing on their phones, reading or working on their laptops. Once more, there were no other Western tourists on the comfy Egyptian bus. They prefer to pay 15x the price to be on the exact same buses sitting next to other tourists, instead. The bus trip was very pleasant and ahead of schedule. Alexandria is a major Arab tourist destination, but very few other tourists opt to visit.
We lucked out on finding Alexandria’s newest taxi to take us to the Sheraton Montazah, east of the city. Walking into the lobby was like entering a time capsule: no doubt a fancy place 40 years ago, but in dire need of updating today. The manager at the check-in desk was quite rude, and told me to “wait over there because room not ready”. I asked him if we could wait at the lounge instead, and he lectured me that I had not booked a club room. When I pulled out my Platinum card, his face and attitude changed immediately. He offered me a seat at his desk and within 2 minutes, we had keys to the Presidential Suite. The room was spectacular! Probably 2000 square feet in size, it boasted a 180 degree view of the Mediterranean Sea, a kitchenette, a dining room, 2 bathrooms and no less than 20 seats and couches (yes, we counted!). His impoliteness and crap service were not forgotten, but definitely forgiven.
We had mixed grill meats for lunch by the sea. Jess decided to catch up on blogging on our balcony with a view, while I threw on my bathing suit and went for a long swim in the boiling hot water. I tested out my super cheap and excellent goggles purchased in China, and there was a lot of garbage but little sea life to be observed. I spotted a small octopus living in a Coke can, and called over a family of Asians who were snorkelling nearby. They appreciated my (free) friendliness and we had a long chat. The family of Japanese origin has been living in Cairo for over a year for the World Bank, and used to live in Washington and Cote d’Ivoire before that. The father asked me if we had plans for dinner, and invited us to join the family to a good fish restaurant across town. I quickly accepted, and invited them to our room for drinks beforehand.
Getting to their restaurant was supposed to take 20 minutes, but we had not considered the Eid factor, where every Muslim in town heads for the waterfront to hang out and celebrate all night. It took almost three hours crawling in a cab to cross 12km! Fortunately, dinner was excellent. We ordered about 7 fish for the 5 of us, along with wine and salads.
When we exited the restaurant, the alcohol-free but merry crowd had multiplied. The streets were packed with revellers in their spiffiest outfits. We tried in vain to find a taxi, so one option remained to make it back to our hotel: a horse-drawn carriage! We became the stars of the show—a Japanese family and two “Americans” crammed into a horse-drawn carriage during the biggest Muslim festival of the year. Here we were with three unveiled women, wearing “revealing” Western clothing (arms and lower legs were exposed) and people of such foreign look…it was beyond comprehension.
We received friendly waves, open stares, laughter, people shouting out “Welcome to Egypt!” and a few middle fingers, too. It was a fascinating ride. I doubt that many non-Muslims get the chance to see this type of celebration, so we felt privileged to get this glimpse into Egyptian culture. Our trusty steed forced its way through the never-ending crowds and cars, but every landmark we hit along route felt like we were not making any progress. At around 1:30am, when all our backs and legs were in spasm from the cramped seating arrangements, came “Are we half-way yet?” inquired the 13-year-old. “No, only about 3/8ths” replied her father, in a comical Japanese banker fashion. Note to self: don’t stray from your neighbourhood during Eid. We went to sleep around 3am, much later than we had planned.
We had a very short night, as we had to wake up early the next day to go diving. Alexandria is not a well-known dive spot compared to famous Sharm El-Sheikh, but it does have lots of historical artefacts and wrecks very near its coasts. The dive shop had a nice website, and inspired confidence. However, our experience was very disappointing. Here is the review I posted on tripadvisor:
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Safety standards are a joke
My wife and I are certified divers and were lured in by the prospect of diving with historical artefacts. This dive shop is conveniently located near the Citadel in Alexandria, and the actual shop and grounds themselves are quite new, albeit filled with trash like the rest of the city. They should have definitely invested in new dive equipment instead of 4 flat-screen TVs, however.
Unless you have your own stuff and are able to look after your own safety, do not dive with this shop. The equipment is old and defective. The first two regulators they offered had leaks in them, and the bottle they set me up on had less than 150 bars, vs. 200+ for all other divers. When I pointed this out, they cussed me out in Arabic. The fins and wetsuits are shredded apart. Once on the boat, the dive master helped me gear up and told me I was good to go. There was yet another leak in my BCD and I lost 10 bars of pressure in 60 seconds. I pointed this out and again was treated like an idiot. However, the dive master offered me his BCD, which was much nicer and newer than the rental stuff.
No discussion about buddy check or any other safety procedures. Good thing I did a little check myself as I found out that he had not turned on the air! Once in the water, the driver kept moving the boat around, with a spinning propeller dangerously close to the divers in the water. We had an interesting dive, however: mostly archaeological artefacts like columns and headless sphinxes. The dive sites are very shallow, max depth of 7-8 meters. The dive master indicated to surface after about 30 minutes, with well over 100 bars left. I was puzzled but quickly found out that we would not be swapping bottles for the second dive, so it’s really two mini dives worth one dive rather than 2 full dives as they claimed when we paid.
The second dive location was near a downed WWII British plane, which is pretty cool, but the visibility was less than one meter. I couldn’t even see my bright yellow fins.
Also, one of the divers was brand new, never dived before. They pretty much geared her up and pushed her in the water. Good thing the dives were very shallow, but still not acceptable.
Conclusion: unless you know what you’re doing and you either have your own equipment or are reckless, don’t dive with Alexandra Dive.
***
After our dive, we lunched at an excellent seafood restaurant nearby, and took a taxi to the train station to purchase our return ticket to Cairo. We felt lazy that night, so we had a pizza at the hotel restaurant, followed by a short evening walk to digest.
On our last morning in Alexandria, we had a good workout in the gym and a quick lunch by the sea. When our train arrived, a train employee aggressively grabbed our luggage from our hands, loaded them on the train and extended his hand. I knew where this was going but tried to protect my wealth by giving him my train ticket. He looked at me like he wanted to rip my head off and said “tips”. I gave him 5 pounds and he was clearly not satisfied. Afraid he would throw our luggage back on the platform or give us more trouble, I unwillingly gave him another 5 and he took off looking pissed off. The rest of the train trip was uneventful.
In Cairo, when our taxi driver started taking tiny alleys, Jessica started sweating bullets, thinking we were heading for trouble. Fortunately, he was simply trying to avoid traffic and we reached Le Meridien Heliopolis, near the airport. We checked into our crappy room and went to the bar to enjoy Happy Hour. We had a very long conversation with an interesting American who has traveled the world all his life for business. At almost 70, he has no plan to retire and still enjoys flying from continent to continent every week. His wife joins him occasionally, if the destination suits her. We had dinner by the pool, where we tried fried veal brains. It was pretty mushy, pretty much the texture and taste that I was expecting. Jess took a taste but was not impressed.
On our final morning in Egypt, we had a rushed buffet breakfast at the hotel and took the 8am shuttle to the airport. Like the rest of the city, even the airport is full of con artists and touts. They pretend to work for the airport or the airline, ask you where you’re going and point you in the right (or wrong) direction and ask for tips. Or they help you with your bags and expect several dollars for a moment of work. We held on to our bags tightly and managed to get on board without further incidents. Along with Jakarta, Cairo was the only city we were excited to leave.
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approaching the pyramids!
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hotel suite
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can you see the flying carpet?
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self portrait upon arrival
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mega building blocks
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before the Great Pyramid
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camel ride?
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Great Pyramid, meet Great Man
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second biggest and smallest pyramids
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can you spot Oli?
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Monsieur Sphinx
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Jess, meet the Sphinx
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just the two of us
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Pyramid of Khafre with remaining limestone polish on the tip
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the Sphinx, forever missing a nose thanks to Napoleon
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walk like an Egyptian
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desert!
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camel ride?
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from 2560 BC
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view from the Pizza Hut!
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exploring a non-touristy area of Giza
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out and about in Giza
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I vote this gas station the best view in the world
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Egyptian museum, the only photo we were allowed to take!
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view from our room balcony!
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roast pigeons and pyramid view
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waiting for the bus to Alexandria
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more garbage
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another Cairo garbage scene
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bus stop for Super Jet to Alexandria
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living/dining room
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first impressions of our Presidential Suite: awesome!
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public beaches are packed
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private Meridien beach
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love the view!
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king of the beach
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bedroom, two prayer mats included
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Pharaoh Oli
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hotel bathroom
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Alexandria sunset from our balcony
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well-deserved seafood feast on Eid
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our Japanese friends grin and bear it in the carriage
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our horse barrels through traffic
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kids hitch a ride on a car through Eid traffic
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Alexandria bay and citadel
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Oli about to gear up on the dive boat
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family out celebrating Eid…the mother lifts her face veil for each bite
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post-diving sea food lunch
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typical Alexandrian street scene
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Jess in her comparatively scandalous clothes
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young Muslim women go for a swim in the latest burka fashion
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