I like the idea of this blog recording my travels, but last night, as I sat on the bus heading home from work, I realised that there was a weakness to this plan. Recording trips I have gone on after starting the blog is well and good, but what about the awesome trips I’ve already had? Therefore I have decided to start a new series – Trips Wot I Have Had in the Past Wot Were Ace, or Ginger Globetrotting.
Rina has a talent for picking exceptional birthday gifts. Recent efforts have included a trip to New York and an ipad. A few years ago she decided to act on a conversation we had about things we have always wanted to do. For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to see the Pyramids. I had heard the stories – that the photo we have all seen of the Sphinx and pyramids is taken from MacDonalds’ car park (untrue, it’s KFC), and that it is crowded and polluted – but it remained a major ambition of mine.
We travelled through Egypt in late November. My birthday is on the 25th. We landed in Cairo and went to our hotel on the 24th. The hotel was nice – clean, modern and large. It was on a busy road (although from what I seen, all the roads were busy). Rina had arranged for a couple of tours for our stay. The first was a day trip that included the pyramids and the Egyptian museum. The other would see us take a sleeper train to Aswan to catch a Nile cruise to Luxor. All in all an awesome trip.
Cairo
What can I say about Cairo that hasn’t been said a million times before…? It’s massive, and FULL of people. I have never seen as many people anywhere, ever. The traffic is insane. There are traffic lights, but they are totally pointless and ignored. Crossing the street is like running an insane gauntlet and requires a “Last Crusade” type leap of faith. The Khan el Khalili souk is a shopper’s paradise, but the worst place on earth if you are that shopper’s reluctant other half, but….
Forget what you have heard, know or think about the Pyramids. They are bigger, more awesome (literally) and breathtaking than you can imagine. It doesn’t matter how many Discovery Channel shows you have watched or National Geographic article you have read – NOTHING will prepare you for seeing them in the flesh. I am getting goosebumps just thinking about this experience and it was 3 years ago.
The Windsor Hotel (where Michael Palin stayed on his attempt at 80 day circumnavigation, and more recently Pilkington slimmed in An Idiot Abroad) is really fun. We didn’t stay here, but should I return I definitely will. We were here pretty much daily for the bar. It is an old colonial officers’ club and walking into the bar you could be forgiven for thinking you might bump into Carter and Carnarvon or even Quatermain himself. I have very fond memories of this place.
The Egyptian Museum was an interesting place. It felt a bit like we were on a conveyor belt being shuffled past the artifacts the British Museum didn’t want. The Egyptians are touchy about that, I can tell you. It was OK. There was some cool stuff there, but Tutankhamen himself is on display in the Valley of the Kings.
Nile Cruise
The Nile Cruise was amazing. Like the Pyramids, nothing prepares you for the scale of the temples dotted along the river. Luxor was a particular highlight. The cruise itself was little more than a means of getting between the sites. Clean and comfortable, but the stars of the trip were the outings.
So that’s the Egypt trip. Would I go back…? If you asked me on the day I returned to London I would almost certainly have said no. Today…..
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