Has been a mad few days! Left Johannesburg for Cairo on Saturday night. First international flight - long. Egypt Air's flight attendants are all male, with an unusual manner of service - very entertaining though! Juice spilt on a Chinese passenger resulted in laughter (from both Vincent & I & the attendant) and very little sympathy. All I can say, is be thankful it wasn't coffee!
Have discovered that international travel involves a LOT of waiting.
Cairo: ancient, magnificent. The most amazing place I've ever seen (not to discredit Egypt, but I have the feeling I'll be saying this quite often over the course of this year). Ended up in quite a swanky hotel for the day, which was included in our ticket price. Had a guided tour through the city, courtesy of our cab driver, Muhammed, on our way to visit the Giza pyrimads, which were, quite simply put, absolutely mindblowing. Seeing the structures for the first time, rising above the crumbling skyline of Cairo was quite an emotional experience. After having seen so many images of the pyramids throughout my life, it was rather overwhelming toacknowledge that the pyramids actually exist.
A "bollywood star" (or so Vincent and I chose to dub him), Zha, and his girlfriend, Zain, accompanied us on our epic voyage. Group photography and friendly banter followed. Upon arrival we were harangued by camel and horse owners alike with promises of rides into the desert from where one might view all nine pyramids and the Sphinx in all their glory. Granted, it may have been an awesome photo opportunity, but we were much more keen to walk it. The heckling was incessant! Every guy we walked past wanted to offer us the same ride or sell us souvenirs, and were not prepared to be put down lightly. Vincent met a "friendly" fellow who kindly offered to take our picture, bestowing us with props which were proposed to be presents. Turns out it almost cost us 200 Egyptian pounds (which he sneakily managed to swipe from us) - little skelem!
All in all, absolutely epic day. Well worth every penny. Thanks Egypt, Muhammed, Vincent, Zha and Zain xxx
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