A hot, dry, dusty, tourist swamped set of pyramids awaited us at Giza today. Our day started pretty badly with Djalma's mood getting ever fouler the further from our hotel we walked. Unfortunately for both of us, on the rare occasion he is bad tempered I do nothing but make it worse, while when I am in a strop he gets me out of it in a snap. So I made it worse and we walked from our hostel to the bus stop via an ATM in near silence, which suited me just fine because by then I had started feeling pretty damn grumpy too.
We arrived at the bus stop, with our money belts freshly lined with Egyptian bounds (it is pounds but no-one here pronounces 'p' correctly) where Djalma was promptly befriended by a local who I'm sure was at least tuppence short of a pound but seemed friendly enough. He and Djalma chatted while I sulked in the minuscule shade of a traffic sign, we waited for what seemed like all eternity in the heat, but eventually got a bus, the first of three, to take us to the Pyramids. En route our recent marriage cropped up in their conversation and D's new friend said that he hoped to see us with babies the next time we come to Cairo and that should it be a boy we could stay in his house for three days and if it were a girl, one. What a bloody cheek, I could not find it in myself to laugh, the best I could do was nod while thinking what's so bloody great about boys anyway, a load of pain in the bum, annoying, grumpy asses. Our third and final minibus pulled up and we got out, to be taken over to a man, with a shop, who tried to sell us a tour round the pyramids despite D's new friend having told us that everything was free, for everybody because it was Friday (a big fat porky pie, entrance was only free for Egyptians and camel rides etc. were, of course, still extortionately priced). I was getting crosser by the minute, the longer we hung around talking to people who were trying to fleece us the worse I got, I didn't want to waste any more time asking people questions who wouldn't tell us the truth anyway. So we left the shop and tried to find the entrance dodging pellets of camel poo and lakes of squelchy horse shit all warming up nicely in the hot morning sun.
 |
| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
We got out tickets, some of the price offset by our shiny new student cards, and followed the stream of other tourists into the complex. Apparently it wasn't as crowded as it usually is but the place was crawling with people, it was quite funny to see the mix of tourists from all over the world; the American backpackers, looking very authentic till they opened their mouths 'just scooch over there a bit, yeeeeaaahhhhh that's real good', the Japanese, ladies under sun umbrellas and the young men freshly dressed in what the Arabian locals wore 2000 years ago and the coachloads of tourists of all nationalities who basically look the same. All of us sharing the same space as countless camel and horse ride/tour touts, postcard boys '10 postcards for one dollar', the fizzy pop and water men and plenty of others hawking round T-shirts, Saudi head dresses and crap souvenirs, under the midday sun. It was possibly the thing we wanted to do least, tourism on a hot day, which was quite a shame really the Pyramids are the last surviving marvel of the Ancient wonders of the World and all we wanted to do was take enough pictures for the entrance fee to be worth it and get the hell out. Don't get me wrong – the pyramids were impressive because of their size, age and the precision they had been made with but essentially all they are is big 3D triangles plonked in a bit of sand right next to the big dirty satellite city of Giza.
 |
| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
After being hassled by the umpteenth time by calls from various different people, all selling something, one man had to take the brunt of our frustration; he called out 'Hello! Hello mister! Italy? Spain? Argentina?' and so on until 'Hey mister! Where are you from?' I whispered Uranus (an awful joke I know, but the hassle just wasn't funny any more) not expecting Djalma to repeat it out loud which is what he did and that was it, we laughed uncontrollably for a good long time, poor guy!
 |
| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
Anyway, with the very big box of the Pyramids finally ticked and our energy waning we headed out of the tourist enclosure to get the bus back to Down town. After a very long time waiting for just one of the many buses which are supposed to pass by, we got one to Giza Square and from there the metro back to town. On the bus there were two guys working together, the driver and a man who shouted out the final destination to anyone we passed who looked like they might be waiting to go somewhere. The guys were raucous but fun, trying to keep the noise down when I fell asleep.
 |
| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
We had lunch back at the Felfella place before heading back to hostel for some sleep. I tried to work on photos but couldn't be arsed it was just too hot. So I lay on the bed covered with a wet scarf and slept. Djalma left and went to book train tickets to Luxor, I slept some more. He came back after the football game and slept while I lay on the bed listening to music, still covered with a wet scarf and enjoying the sensation of feeling cool. We eventually left the hostel at 9pm for a relatively expensive mediocre dinner in a too loud café. We walked around town, got an amazing mango sorbet and smoked a sheesha, relaxing at a table in the street watching the world go by, listening to the sounds of the city before heading back well after midnight for yet more sleep.
 |
| From Cairo, Mother of all Cities, Egypt |
No comments:
Post a Comment