Our driver was a pleasant, laconic bloke by the name of Mohammed. The main thing I remember about him is the story he told us about respect. A rich Indian tourist in his car was being very rude and making unreasonable demands and when Mohammed explained that he had to treat him with respect the Indian guy basically said "shut up, I pay you money, now drive!" Mohammed dumped him out of the car. His employers supported his actions 100%. This kind of summed up a lot of our experiences in Egypt. You could pay people to do stuff for you, and they would, to an extent. You couldn't really complain about their service, even if what they did for you wasn't really what you'd expected or asked for. They would do whatever they did well, and generously, and it was better all round to smile, nod and enjoy the ride.
The stables were interesting. Any animal-lovers would find a lot to complain about there. Actually, one conversation I had with a former stable owner demonstrated how differently affluent westerners can see these things. The story went like this: He thought that many Brits were unfairly demanding and unforgiving. He'd been sending this group of Brits out on horseback and camel-back tours for a day or two, had built up a good rapport and everything was really friendly and going well. The third day some stable-boys were supposed to take round some horses to their hotel but he couldn't personally oversee things. Some crossed wires meant that the stable boys took the horses in poor condition, the bad horses, not the ones marked out for this tourist group (So he claimed. I can certainly see him sending the crap horses on a sure thing and using the good horses for new custom, but anyway) The Brits were furious, swearing black and blue that they'd write up his stable as a terrible place and him a terrible person. What he couldn't understand was why they wouldn't be placated. He'd give them the use of the good horses, apologised profusely for the mistake, even offered them refunds. Those Brits! He cried. Totally unfair. I couldn't bring myself to try and explain where he'd gone wrong.
Anyway, Hozumi's camel was very good-natured, while mine was a foaming-at-the-mouth, choking-on-its-own-tongue, eye-rolling, angry motherfucker with a shaven head and attitude.
Happy
Oo-er!
And we're up.
You can actually see the Great Pyramid in the background there, behind the wall.
There was almost no-one else out on the plateau, and only when we started to near the pyramids did we see any other tourists. Our guide remarked on this a few times "Look, no tourists!" "See! no tourists!" so I'm pretty sure that wasn't usual. Our guide was another interesting character, missing a thumb on his left hand and nearly all the function of his right side, he loved horses, hated camels and rode like he was born to it.
The only other dude out there. He tried to sell us fizzy drinks later.
This was where the tour deviated from what we'd asked for. He told us the Great Pyramid was closed. Why? "The government" he shrugs. This unnecessary lie soured the whole tour slightly, as I hadn't yet learned my lesson about nodding, smiling and going with the flow. Later on when I explained my grievance to the stable boss, at first he said "but the Great Pyramid is just the same as Menkaure's pyramid but more expensive. You didn't want to go there!" Er, yes, we did. "No really, it's just the same, only bigger." Even so. "But there are limited tickets each day" I know. "OK, OK, you can go back in, I'll get you the tickets. You want that?" Eh, no, not really, after 3 hours in the sun bouncing around on camels we're knackered and need a lie down, but thank you for the offer.
We have so many pictures of this area it's not funny. That's not going to stop me posting an excess of them here though.
The Pyramid of Khafre. No touching! Oops.
The Great Pyramid or pyramid of Khufu. We didn't get any closer than this.
The pyramid of Menkaure. Very spartan and simple inside, the steep narrow tunnel leading to the exact centre the main interest.
Moar photos!
The best picture of all was when we borrowed this dude's donkey.
Actually, Hozumi was in more danger from the rabid beast I was riding than I was. I was quite worried it would take a chunk out of her leg at some point.
The Sphinx is a lot longer than I thought it was, and looks directly onto Cairo city proper. Taking us out the long way round the plateau was a very clever bit of mood-setting.
Kushari lunch in the car, onward to Saqqara. The museum there was dedicated to Imhotep, the builder. Some interesting titbits there like how early builders couldn't design columns. Crazy hot walking around.
Note how all the fake columns are actually joined together or to walls.
Taking pictures in the tombs is apparently forbidden. One guy caught us and tried to extort some baksheesh to let it go.
The pyramid itself was under heavy repair. The tunnels beneath it and the maze of tunnels beneath the tombs strictly off-limits, unfortunately. The deep shaft down to those tunnels is something I really should have taken a picture of.
Back to the stables, we dozed, played a bit of Hive. As evening rolled around we got on our horses and round around the Giza necropolis fence. Cantering hurts your balls, galloping takes your breath away. Horses are great.
Kofta dinner and the very cheesy 'Queen's English' narration of the evening light show. Our promised vantage point turned out to be the rather low stable roof, from which we couldn't see or hear much at all, but it didn't look like we were missing anything to be honest.
A fine day out and we were both absolutely shattered. The stable owner and another guy shared the car back to central Cairo with us and they had quite an animated discussion about the revolution, but more of that in the next blog.
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