Holiday Story 2002: 23.03 — Sakkara, Memphis, Pyramid, Spinx
I slept well, though little, but that is something normal. Avonia however didn’t sleep so well which is actually normal too because there was a lot of noise in our room from the elevator, or rather the 3 elevators with their backs to our wall, which was going up and down and up and down and up and down. The only thing that helped was opening the window which let the elevator noise fade away behind the entire noise of the traffic on the nile.
When we got up and ready in the morning and went down, we asked the receptionist if we could get another room, again with a view of the nile, and this time it is plain wonderful. The room was actually for somebody else which is why we have complimentary fruits now. Good. All this brought on a little discussion though. This is the Intercontinental, a five star hotel chain, known for good service and a high standard. This is Egypt, not too known for high standards or amazing service, not meaning hospitality here or in a really bad way. But what should you expect of such a hotel then? When we first came into our room we had only one blanket and asked for another one. If it would not have come, then I wondered if I should just say that we are in Egypt and relax or feel a bit annoyed that this is not working at the Interconti. What kind of standard do you expect a standard to be? Interesting thought that is.
On to our excursion though. We were booked to be taken to Saqqare and Memphis, no the one in the US, it is not that big a trip this time, at 0800 but at 0815 still nobody was there and once again we wondered. Interconti booking a tour at American Express in Egypt. They came 3 minutes later and we headed to another pickup location where some more people got into the small bus. Our guide was very nice and I must say that we had a very pleasant trip with him.
Our other guests were interesting also. 3 were from the US but one of the was doing consulting work in Thailand. All three were here for a textile conference and the two that are still in the US were asked to talk there about their field of expertise, both being professors and teaching at a University in the US. One of them has his expertise in Textile marketing and technology and they both also do consulting work. They just did the tour as a side thing before the conference starts this evening.
Saqqara, the graves of several of the kings in egypt from a long time ago, was actually very nice and interesting. The first grave we went into was explained to us to be something special and we agree. We are not even sure if they did not temper with the paintings in the
place because some things just didn’t fit. Our guide explained that middle class people had a rough wig while high class people had straight one on the pictures. Yes the king that was buried there was pictures on one wall with a rough kind of wig. Also on two other walls where he was supposed to be shown from two sides, he had a rough beard on one side and a straight one on the other. Strange indeed. But it was fun to see whats on the wall and you could really see it there which is nice.
Next we went into the grave of King TITI which was a wonderful experience because the entrance is just 125 centimeters high which means you needed to almost crawl in. The air was surprisingly good in there, partly because of few people going in and there were some nice hieroglyphs on the wall. The cool part was though that you really felt like an explorer going in there and out again. At the same time you were wondering how the people that dug all that up worked there for days and days. They must have become powerful athletes, at least judging from how my legs feel from crouching through there.
When we came to Memphis we were a bit disappointed, There is a big figure of a king, like 11 meters high and 70 tons in weight, but other than that it is a gathering of stone, made to ask for an entrance fee.
But by that time we really knew something. WE DON’T WANT NO STINKING POSTCARDS!
This is really annoying. Whereever you go they will try to sell you postcards and by now they should know that most if not all tourist trips go to Sakkara and then to Memphis. Still, at Memphis they are also trying to sell you cards as if you wouldn’t have bought some by now. Our guide was kind enough though to tell us how much to spend for those cards because on your own you would have no idea that the 10 cars they are selling cost nothing more than 0.8 EUR in that bundle.
Ah well, we moved back to a hotel and drank something there to get ready for our trip to the pyramids and the spynx. After some dealy due to figuring out who goes on which bus for tours in which language, we finally departed with the same tour guide as our morning tour. He said sorry for any repetitions that would take place during the tour and to a from whereever we went we had lots of them. By now I know that only 5% of egypt is on fertile land and that this is getting less and less by the year. There are 67 Million people living in Egypt and almost 15 million of those live in greater cairo. I know where several empassies are, the “most expensive” sporting club, the main police station, the new road that guides you a bit around the traffic and I really know by now that any signs on the road or next to the road are totally meaningless. The meanest looking gets over the crossing first.
When we arrived at the pyramids I had to admit that it is impressive, very impressive. The biggest one is made of 2.3 million stones with a weight of 2–3 tons on average. A scientist seems to have calculated that if you took all those stones and built a wall around france with them, then that wall would be 2 meters high and one meter thick. Remember though that 100.000 works build 30 years on that one, with 4 months work per year. The 4 months was done because during that time the nile was flooding their land and they could not work anyway which is why they would work for the king. The 30 years were split up into 10 years of preparing stones and getting them there and 20 years building the damn thing.
I went into another pyramid, the second one, there and it was a lot longer to crawl and a lot worse air. On top of that it was a lot more boring inside as ou tourguide already said. He told us that for taking pictures inside you would need to pay a camera fee of 10 egyptian pounds and then you would crawl in come there and actually not see anything worth taking a picture off. He was right. Instead he told us to give him our cameras when we went in so he could sell them. ;)
From there we went to the Spinx which is less impressive than I had thought I have to say but then again it seems to only take another 50 years and the Sphinx will be gone, just because of the sand storms and the tourists. I would actually say mostly tourists because close to the Sphinx, from where you takes pictures the floor is littered with cigarette rests which seems to be an awful shame for such a monumental piece of achitecture. People are really throwing their cigarettes on the floor inside a temple made for mumifying kings. /me shakes his head.
Next was a papyrus factory which I remember from from time back at a visit to Luxor; these places are all alike. But before I forget, in the morning we were also at a carpet school… And no it is no child labor because they also get schooling for free and only work 4 hours a day. Interesting concepts these are.
When we finally got home, emm… to the hotel I mean, we were finished. Avonia fell asleept right away and I wasn’t totally awake writing and reading either but had a nice time sittingg on our balcony overlooking the nile and the 3 sheraton hotels on the other side alone. We then went on to eat another time in our hotel and I mostly took the fresh chicken, sliced up with some spicy sauce, onions, tomators and peppers with some nice bread. Together with a local bottle of Sakara gold (that would be beer for those who do not know) it was tasty.
After another walk along the nile and several “No Thanks” we made it back to the mother ship we went to sleep and this time really for nine hours, safe and sound like little puppies dreaming up wonderful castles in the skies.
The morning of the 24th was an easier one to get out of bed because we actually slepts a few hours. After breakfast we headed to the egyptian museum and on our way was given directions by some egyptian whom I actually thought just wanted to be nice. After 30 seconds he suddenly was there again and the usual sentence came: “Where are you from?” That’s a cue people! If you are ever in Egypt then you can be 99.9999999% sure that whoever asks you that wants to sell you something. This guy was a bit more intelligent though. He said he is studying arts and english and has a friend in Stuttgart (must be something about the ease of pronouncing that name why all Egyptians have a brother or friend there). He didn’t want to sell us anything but he asked us to come to his gallery so he could give us his business card to give to friends in germany … yeah right ;)
Eventually we found the museum though and even made it across a six lane street to get there, without traffic lights or any other help as always. Getting in the museum was easy and we got one camera ticket for my digicam keeping Avonia’s camera in the backpack. Then came the always to find metal detectors plus an x-ray machine. Ahhh… they are looking for bombs. Nice. So I put all my stuff in the backpack, put it on the conveyer belt of the x-ray machine and we went through the metal detector. What happened then brings a smile on my face everytime I think about it. With our bag in the middle of the machine the guard at the monitors shouts “Two cameras”, our bag comes out, is grabbed away to a desk and we are asked to show our camera tickets. All cameras coming in need a ticket, no matter what. I took out my one ticket and showed them the digicam and then there were some other people at that desk making trouble, Avonia came around, grabed the bag and pulled me away … she lived in Turkey for too long.
The museum was great though and there is lots of things to see, maybe even too much and too much of the same things. But we were both amazed at the wealth of stuff that was there. For more, go there yourself, as I am not going to write it here, there was just too much of stuff in there. One thing though, you will need to pay extra for going into the mummy part which is nice as you see real mummies and how they look and things but I am not sure if it is really worth it. Then again, if I would not have gone in I would probably regret it now.
Back at the hotel, we met the friendly business card guy again on the way, we ordered something to eat, burgers, as most people do in room service probably. When we had them we could not decide which one was the 140 and which the 200 gram one though. Ah well, there can be worth things and they were both big enough or too big even, which makes us presume they were the 200 gram ones, both of them.
A bit of hanging around at the lobby, the cab (always fun), the airport (walking between terminals as the cab driver had no clue where the one was to hurghada), the plane (I always tend to like the food) and a hotel shuttle brought us to a warm greating with my parents and my brother and his girlfriend. Welcome to another 7 days of sun, sun, beach, sun and sun. The view from our hotel room rocks.