Today was our longest excursion to date–13-1/2 hours, about half of which was spent on the road coming or going between Port Said and Cairo.
The highway south from the port paralleled the Suez Canal for about 35 miles. We passed groves of date palms and mango trees bursting with ripe fruit. Vendors parked their donkey carts laden with fruit and vegetables at random spots along the shoulder of the highway. We passed many pickup trucks transporting families. Kids waved at the buses as our convoy passed by.
I say “convoy” because our buses traveled with police escort throughout our excursion. A plainclothes policeman sat in the front seat of the bus. When he stood up at one point, I noticed an Uzi holstered under his jacket.
Egypt’s economy depends heavily on tourism, and the country is taking extraordinary measures to ensure that tourists are kept safe.
We passed one beat up old pickup truck in which two women dressed in full abbayas and veils were sitting in the back, their legs on the tailgate. Each of the women cradled an AK-47 in her arms. It didn’t seem to concern our escort, though. I’m sure there was something I didn’t understand about the situation.
I never felt unsafe here, but I was very happy we had our escorts with us. I’m grateful to the Egyptian government for looking after us.
Cairo
Today was the 4th and final day of the ‘Eid al Adha, the feast celebrating the conclusion of the Hajj. Consequently, traffic in Cairo was almost unbelievably light. There was none of the gridlock I experienced when I was last here in 2008.
We first toured the Egyptian Museum. Much of the collection is being transferred to the new museum at the north end of the Pyramid complex at Giza. Our quick trip through the museum concentrated on the King Tut treasures, which take up most of the first (second) floor of the museum. Since I had been here before, I didn’t feel the need to pay for the extra ticket to go through the section with 22 royal mummies. Jane got to experience that this time.
While Jane was looking at human mummies, I walked through a room with animal mummies, ranging from a huge Nile crocodile to dogs and baboons.
The Egyptian Museum is very much an old-style museum, of myriad wood-framed display cases with dingy glass. You feel like the museum looks exactly like it did in the 1940s. But the treasures it house’s are incomparable. It’s almost impossible to believe that you’re looking at woven papyrus webbing in a folding bed that was made nearly 4,000 years ago.
Our group had lunch on The Pharoahs, a floating restaurant which boarded on the West Bank of the Nile. We ate a buffet lunch and were entertained by a belly dancer and a “whirling dervish” as we cruised down the Nile for an hour.
Giza and the Pyramids
No one can visit Cairo without going to the Pyramids! Giza, adjacent to Cairo, is a rather nondescript city, except that a large number of apartment buildings seemed to have rubble instead of rooftops.
Once one reaches the Pyramids historic area, the city immediately ceases, and there is nothing but sand to the west, south, and north. As with the Vehicle Assembly Building at Kennedy Space Center, it’s impossible to get a sense of scale for the hugeness of these edifices. It’s only when you get close and then see someone standing next to the first row of stones–which are chest high on full-grown men–that you realize how big they really are. Our bus wended its way to the parking area whilst dodging cars, donkey-pulled rickshaws, kids leading horses, and camels.
We climbed down off the bus and were immediately beset by friendly but extremely insistent young men. “Hello, madam! Where are you from? Stand here! Your husband can take a picture with the camel! No charge, free for you! Here, sir, sit on the camel!” (I refused.) Seconds later, before we knew what was happening, both of our hats were removed and the guys had wrapped ghutras on our heads and were taking our picture with my phone. Now, of course, it was going to cost us money to get our hats and cameras back. It was all good fun, but it was difficult to extricate ourselves from the situation.
We got some nice photos from the “panorama spot” at the west end.
Then we closed out our visit with a trip to the Sphinx. They always save it for last. However, because it’s on a somewhat smaller scale than the Pyramids, it’s a little bit of an anticlimax. At this visit, I noticed that the Sphinx has a tail curled up along its right side! I’ve never seen it in photos before.
Our convoy’s police escort stopped traffic on the way back to the ship from Cairo in order to get us back on board by 8:30, because the ship has to get in line for the Suez Canal transit tonight and tomorrow.
Complex choreography.
It was a whirlwind day. Of course we would have liked to spend more time exploring! But our guide “Ash” was fantastic, and she did a great job of making the most of every minute available.
Tomorrow we transit the Suez Canal. A sea day to relax!