Crazy Cairo

We are still in Cairo. Well I say in Cairo, our campsite, rumoured to be the only campsite close to Cairo is 10 k out of town, in Giza. It is a lovely little refuge, a sanctury away from the hustle and bustle and extreme craziness of every day Cairo life. However, it is a pain to get to. We like to leave the car at the camp and make our own way into town. Via taxi was proving to be a bit of a dent in the budget so Alex and myself have been experimenting with public transport. In the last few days we have joined the locals on mini buses, tuc tucs, VW camper vans converted into Mini buses and metro trains. The first day it was great fun getting involved with it all, but now the novelty has worn off it is becoming a bit of a hassle! There is major road improvements taking place around the area of town we are staying and it plays havoc with the traffic. It took us two hours to get home from Downtown the other night. We finally got back to camp to find we were locked out! Needless to say a random wondering man who let us in (who I had not seen before and who I have not seen since) was not best pleased with us.

We have been trying to make the most of our time in Cairo, but on a budget. We visited the Dashur pyramids instead of the Giza Pyramids. Going inside a pyramid is very strange. Definately not for the claustrophobic! We had to climb an almost vertical ladder 65 feet down through a tunnel into the centre of the pyramid. The Dashur pyramid site was great. You need your own transport to get there so there were very few tourists. There are two pyramids there. The red Pyramid which is open to the public to enter and is extremely well preserved. Also the Bent Pyramid which as its name suggests, is rather an odd shape. This one is not very well preserved but still worth a look.

We have also been to Coptic Cairo which is also known as Old Cairo. This area predates Islam and has a number of churches. Most famous the Hanging church which is still used today as the Christian and more specifically Greek Orthodox centre of Worship in Cairo.

visited the Egyptian museum. Full of anciet Egyptian relics apparently there is so much to see there that even if you allowed 1 minute for each exhibit then you would be there for 9 months. This is according to the Lonely Planet. As it was we amused ourselves for 2 hours or so, but as we are not really museumy people this was more than enough for us. What frustrates me the most and has done throughout this trip. Is the lack of information at museums. I went into theEgyptian museum, yes to admire the relics and artefacts but I would have found it far more interesting had there been a little bit more information about the history of them. There is a number of rooms dedicated to Tutunkarmun which is fantastic but there is no information bout who he was!

We are currently waiting on the arrival of some car documents from the UK to our campsite. It is taking longer than expected, hence why we are still in Cairo. Hopefully the mail will arrive soon and then we can get back on the road!