Appeared from the lift and proceeded to noise the place up with their whoops and the like as they gathered around the tour guide. Selfies and chatter took place for the next twenty minutes upsetting the ambience of the cafe and disturbing my own inner peace that I have just managed to acquire after two weeks in Egypt.
They’re definitely not self conscious and certainly don’t seem to have any decorum… But they are a strange species that you could study for years. They are very dangerous creatures and should certainly not be underestimated. As you know they like to shoot first and ask questions later.
Five star hotel at Cairo Airport. I had an epiphany at two o’clock this morning. I’d tried to go to sleep early because I was just exhausted. I found my earplugs, stuck them in and the next thing I know it’s 1 am.
I’m thinking to myself as I hear the noise coming from the street below that there has to be a better way . I decide to leave the next morning which is one day earlier than planned and then I can spend the night in Cairo and recharge the batteries.
This hotel Le Méridien is rather expensive, it’s just under the $300 mark, however I can walk to the terminal tomorrow and the room is quiet and I need a little bit of TLC before I move on to my next country which is Jordan. This is the expensive leg of the trip. All the hotels should be good on this leg, and in fact I think all the budget stuff has been done.
The bus trip here took four hours and that was a bit of an adventure. As in China they like to play really loud movies as soon as your arse hits the seat, thankfully I had my earplugs handy from last night and they seemed to do a pretty good job. The woman next to me was not impressed and asked someone to talk to the driver and he turned out down. The movie seemed to have the same depth as A Fast and Furious movie, so shite.
Shortly afterwards as we approached midday the old dear next to me dug out her Koran and started to have a chat to the big man upstairs. It’s funny you know on the planes they tell everyone to pray from their seat and of course she did the same. Mind you I’ve noticed in certain parts of Cairo there are prayer mats set up in certain places were I guess you can get your thing on and bang a gong.
So I’m now sitting in the sports bar having been fed and I’m also on my second glass of red wine so I should hopefully sleep to night, however my nose is currently decided to stop working so it might not have been a good idea to have had two glasses of red as I’ve not had a drink for months. But you only live once and I may as well indulge while I can.
I’m checking out a day early, I just can’t face staying here one day more. I’ve not really done or seen anything but I just can’t cope with the noise, the pollution and I just want a good night’s sleep. I’ve booked into an airport hotel which is costing a small fortune but if rather do that too escape the misery that is Alexandria.
Maybe if I had come here at the beginning of the trip I might have been a bit more sympathetic, but Egypt wears you down if you travel the way I have. I guess if you are on a private tour and you only get to meet and see the things you are supposed to your view might be somewhat different but I’ve never really enjoyed sanitised travel. At least the way I do it I can see warts and all however at times it becomes all too much as it has on this trip.I’ll no doubt look back on this fondly when the wounds have healed.
The two other countries that I’ve felt the same way about are Burma and India, both have some amazing places but because of what feels like exploitation by locals, the journey for me was spoiled.
My suggestion for Egypt if you are only interested in the ancient history of the Pharaoh’s then I suggest two days in Cairo to see the museum and Pyramids, go to Luxor and Aswan to see the wonders that they have left behind. These are all doable by yourself, no need for a tour guide unless you want one and you’ll save a fortune. Many times said tour guides were using Google to get much of the information that they would then dramatise, save your self the money and buy a sim card at the airport.
The other thing to note about the tour guide is that you only have them for a short time and so they tend to rush you through some of these wonders which is something I could not abide.
On the surface Alexandria looks quite nice when you see the pictures of the esplanade and a new area called the Corniche but don’t be fooled. I arrived yesterday and wish I could leave today, Egypt has broken me. Well I think it was more Cairo, however the constant hassling you get on a daily basis takes away from what might be a great experience. There are more and more subtle ways they use to lull you into submission to take what they are offering.
If I do return it will only be to see Abu Simbel and maybe Luxor as there is so much to see there that you could spend weeks.
I’m staying not far from long crescent coast line which just happens to be the heart of the city and so the traffic can be intense and guess what at night time there are horns a plenty and the cries of people shouting at each other, absolutely no decorum. But the smell of exhaust fumes is by far the worst. I’ll need a new pair of lungs after I leave here.
When I arrived yesterday I went for a walk along the esplanade after grabbing a couple of kebabs, mind you this time they were not good and so I ended up giving most of it to my new furry friend that appeared after a few short minutes. At least he seemed to enjoy it.
On the breakwater side there are huge concrete blocks which are not interlocked and so there are alleyways between where rather large rats roam feeding on the detritus that the locals throw away and I think if one of the cats had a fight the rats look quite capable of winning. The trouble is that most of the rubbish is just that…..mostly plastic from takeaway and empty water bottles and meanwhile the local bin man who patrols this area has an empty cart because all the shit is elsewhere. Just as in China I’ve seen so many people throwing their rubbish on the ground without a second thought. I look forward to the day when I’m watching the news and I see these giant rats ripping the locals apart and casting their bones into the sea.
I found my earplugs and came back to the hotel to try and catch up on sleep, I’m dog tired. I got up at about 3:30 pm and thought I’d better eat so I went to a restaurant across the road and ordered this rather large chicken breast and then proceeded to remove all the skin but it was still tasty. I never eat the skin of a chicken. This cost around $10 Aud and was definitely better than the street food I had the other day.
Counting the hours till I’m on the plane, to get away from this mental part of the world.
A change of scenery today as I went to the Islamic Art Museum to get a different history than that of ancient Egypt. It was cold today too and so I went and had coffee first before getting an Uber into the museum. I’m enjoying the Uber option because the haggling had been taken out of the equation. The drive into the city was frantic as always and I’m looking forward to leaving tomorrow. I hope Alexandria is better than here. Cairo is way too chaotic, polluted and noisy and I’ll be very glad to see the back of it. I doubt that I’ll return to Egypt, even though I never got to Abu Simbel earlier in the trip, but then again I might change my mind if I’m in the vicinity.
So I’ll go outside an buy something to eat and then come back and pack and get ready for my bus trip to Alexandria in the morn.
The noise on the second night was not as bad, however the dogs that fight in the middle of the night didn’t get the message to shut the fuck up. I did manage to sleep I guess even although it was shattered several times.
I went to the Pyramids and they are really quite amazing. I’m so glad that I took the option to go inside the Khufu Pyramid because it finally gives you perspective on the physical size of these structures. We were all like ants crawling up this massive passage till we got to the burial chamber. The chamber is rectangular and the precision of the stones, these huge chunks of granite, is incredible. Everything is square, everything is bang on 90 degrees, there are no errors and yet we are told that they built these with no more than brute force and simple tools and equipment. I keep on thinking of the movie the Fifth Element where it’s the intergalactic Egyptians that built these things.
You enter via the robbers passage, and these guys were also amazing because they chiselled there way through several metres of granite just to get to the main passage leading to the burial chamber.
As I write this I’m sitting on the roof top and I can see two of the three pyramids and I can also see it crawling with little black ants, well that what all the tourists look like and then you can get an idea of the size of them. The more I look at them the more impressive they seem to be. The downside to all of this are the folk that harass you to take a camel ride or buy some shitty trinket.
One of the things I have really been aware of on this journey is how pathetic and shallow most of the tourists are because they are more concerned with how the selfie will look than actually taking the time to look at what is in front of their fucking eyes. Several times on this trip I have just stood on front of something and scanned it looking at the details before me and looking for some quirky hieroglyph along the way. Today’s world is rather sad when we can’t even consider the time and effort put in by the artisans of the past and to appreciate what they have achieved and left behind for all of us to see. I have never seen artwork as monumental as I have seen in Egypt. And yet for many people here it’s a few likes on Facebook or Instagram…..
I’m ready to leave Cairo although I have one more day to go of going somewhere. Cairo is way too busy for me. The traffic and the noise and the air quality is all bad. I took a taxi into town today and that was just too much, having to haggle with the driver when I couldn’t be bothered. On the way back I got an Uber and it was so much better, slightly more expensive but way less hassle.
I’ve been dreading coming to Cairo because it’s a noisy place to be. I’m not sure where you can stay and have peace and quiet. I made a brave choice or maybe a stupid choice of coming to stay at Giza near the Pyramids. They entrance to the Pyramids is only a five minute walk from my guest house and when I arrived the area was bustling with touts and tourists and so there is a bit of chaos, however its now 9pm and the noise coming from either an nightclub or restaurant is deafening and it doesn’t sound like it’s going to stop any time soon. This is shite to say the least and I’m not sure I’m going to last four nights here. I knew that finding a quiet place to sleep was going to be a challenge but right now I can feel the fuckin’ music, not just hear it.
Tomorrow I’ll go to the Pyramids and then I’ll have to seriously consider moving because four days of having to listen to loud shite music is not my idea of fun.
And of course let’s not forget the motor bikes and the shouting and the beeping of horns…. Oh and I forgot to mention the barking dogs and screaming locals..
What is so difficult about finding your seat on a plane? This is only a small plane, there are seats either side clearly marked ABCDEF and yet for some reason trying to look at your boarding pass and then to the corresponding seat number seems to take an awful amount of brain power. I don’t think it’s possible to dumb this down any more than it already is.
Why do we have to live with these frustrating bastards for fucks sake?
Luxor is an amazing place and you need to come here to see the wonderful temples and tombs, however I was not prepared for the number of annoying touts that are everywhere.
As soon as you walk out of the sanctuary of your hotel you are bombarded with calls from taxi drivers and the others with horse and carriage. If you acknowledge them they will follow you and harass you for quite a while and rather than tell them to fuck off I choose to ignore them and then they will go through a few different languages before giving up.
There’s a lovely esplanade along the Nile and this is where you run the gauntlet of everyone touting for business. This happens in a few ways, some will say ” Hi its Ahmed from the kitchen, how are you? Where are you going?” Ahmed has never seen a kitchen in his life.
This technique is repeated and modified by both men and women, it’s only the occupation that changes, oh and maybe the name.
The ones that I’ve found really disturbing are the horse and carriage drivers that try to coerce you to jump aboard. When I gave them the rubber ear he told me that he knew what I wanted and that I would really enjoy it. Very fuckin’ creepy. Then he told me he could make my banana hard or if I want I can get a hard banana, I wish they wouldn’t give so many choices. Some of these guys just go a bit too far and if I was built like a brick shit house then they would end up in the Nile. It’s just fucking weird.
I went for a coffee the other night and another Ahmed sat beside me and started talking to me. When I went to leave he said “Don’t worry my friend I have paid for your coffee” I told him “I don’t think so” I went up to pay for it and the owner charged me 40 Egp, I gave him a 50Egp and he gave me 10 change ( 50 cents) and then my friend Ahmed asked me for money, I handed him the 10Egp and then he asked for more. I said “I have no more change” so he says “you can get change over there” I told him to “Fuck Off” This wears you down and takes away some of the enjoyment of travelling through here. I am really fed up with these folk and the trouble is that when someone just wants to help you, your first reaction is to ignore them or tell them to go away.
However there is so much to see here that when all is said and done, it’s a place that you must come to if you have the opportunity.
The biggest temple in Egypt and it is impressive. Us mere mortals look like ants against the massive columns holding this structure in place. And it’s one of the most important temples also.
Many of the columns still have colour on them although they have sustained a lot of damage over the thousand of years it has stood here. Each column matches the next. The dimensions at a glance look identical and I find the engineering behind this place mind blowing.
There are a few huge reliefs that depict battles and the consequences of loss, it’s brilliant and if you have the opportunity to get here then you must.
