Rather than take the usual taxi organised by the hotel, we decided on the underground and public buses – just to get a sense of the real way of life here.  We arrived quicker than we had the previous night and at a cost of only 20p each. Our ‘tourist’ taxi the previous night cost us £5 each.

We heard so many stories of people getting ripped off for the camels, it was a mission to get one at a reasonable price. After 20 mins of haggling, and having produced my out-of-date student card, we got our tickets and camel for E£200 (£20), the entrance fee to the pyramids alone costs E£100. Some guys in our hotel paid E£500 for just the camels the previous day – bafoons.  All saddled up we headed up the desert which took about a half hour to get to the pyramids. The camel was reasonably comfortable.

It was amazing to see them up close and to get a sense of the size and number of carved rocks it took to build these great monuments.  You will see on the third picture the indent in the side of the great pyramid Khafre where Napoleon blasted it trying to knock it down and and on the fourth, the granite frontage that had covered it at onetime – it must have been so beautiful. I took a close up of tip of the pyramid which shows the number and formation of the stones and how smooth it looks. When this face would have covered the whole pyramid, you can imagine how difficult it would have been to locate the actual and spoof entrances – an amazing feet of engineering.

CLASSIC FACT: Napoleon’s troops have long been blamed with blowing off the nose of the Sphinx in the 18th century, because it was an African nose and went against their belief that man descended from the fricans.

The local town and surrounding areas were steeped in poverty, it would bring a lump to your throat.  The whole place is filthy with graffiti markings on the base of the pyramids.  The locals, government officials, police, traders etc. are all milking the cash cow, but have no respect for the pyramids or the surrounding area, it’s a crying shame.  These monuments are truly inspirational and so beautiful you feel you want to kick somebody in the ass to get it sorted.  After all the years of construction, I can’t imagine what the Pharaohs would say now if they were to visit.  

This place is so worth a visit, it is indescribable unless you can see it with your own eyes.

UNESCO World Heritage Site #1

Their extraordinary shape, impeccable geometry and sheer bulk made you gaze in awe for hours.  Frank suggested we take in the show first before visiting the pyramids up close, as it would answers our never ending questions on ‘how they were built and why? in the form of a visual display.  It was brilliant – a bit too ‘Hollywood’ in some of the effects, but so interesting. It explained the importance of the Nile to both the pyramids and to the greater Egypt. It was difficult to take photos in the dark, so you’ll just have to come and see it yourself.

We are heading back today to spend another few hours walking around and, depending on the crowds and heat, visit the inside of at least one pyramid.  Each pyramid is constructed differently, so each tells its own story.  It’s been a long time since a tourist attraction has taken our breath away – we can’t wait to visit again today.

This morning we had a well earned lye in, had our usual complementary breakfast consisting of an egg, a few rolls, some Dairylea cheese and black tea – you get used to it!

Already today I’ve spent several hours trying to source and fix a problem with Windows Live Writer, the application I use to upload these posts, unfortunately with little success.  I downloaded another programme but it’s not nearly as user friendly.  We know how much you guys are enjoying our posts, so it’s frustrating when you write them and they won’t upload.  I will get to the route of the problem, so don’t panic just yet.

We’ve booked our flights to Mumbai, so to today we’ve got to book some accommodation, we fly out on Saturday at 04:30.

Me having breakfast this morning.  The other day I went to the barbers and this is how it ended up –  I look like a schoolboy from the 60s.  Trying to explain that I wanted a no.3 and not a shaved head was difficult – never mind, it will grow again. 

Once you’ve seen one tomb you’ve no need to visit 200 others.  We both think its a crying shame that all these artifacts were taken from the pyramids and are on show – grave robbers! – these people should have been left to rest.  Imagine Queen Elizabeth being exhumed in a 100 years for public display – I don’t think so!  It’s a gravy train.

I’m sure the pyramids tomorrow will be more interesting.

“Let’s address the drawbacks first.  The crowds on a Cairo footpath make Manhattan look like a ghost town.  You will be hounded by papyrus sellers at ever turn.  Your life will flash before your eyes each time you venture across a street.  And your snot will run black from the smog.  So blow your nose, crack a joke and learn to look through the dirt to see the city’s true colours”.

This is so accurate, but in a nice way.  We have been overwhelmed by the friendliness and attitude towards us and other tourists.  It is death defying trying to cross the streets, but when the police see that we are waiting for an opportune moment, they stop the traffic to let us cross.  Every 100 yards we are greeted with ‘hello, welcome to Egypt’ accompanied with a warm friendly smile.  The clapped out black and white cars are the taxis, a sight for sore eyes.

We are really enjoying having to haggle for everything, we have it off to a tee.  In our hotel in the evenings we share stories of our haggling abilities and many are impressed how much we can haggle the taxi drivers – we have been able to get fares for half or more than others to standard destinations.  A typical fare is starts at E£15-20 but we always haggle to E£5 – that’s 50p for a 20min ride – I’m in heaven.  This place is truly amazing.

It is so beautiful is is almost indescribable – the height of the ceilings, the rooms, the wooden floors, the temperature – everything about this place we absolutely love and to top it all off the staff couldn’t be more friendly. 

It is always a good sign to see other travellers staying and from all walks of life.  Most evenings we chill out in the communal area, discuss the days events, surf the internet and drink black tea, can it get any better!

I hope the pictures below give you a sense of just how beautiful this building is.  Needless to say, we will be staying here throughout our stay in Cairo.  The hotel costs £10 per night inc. breakfast for the two of us – bargain.

We would also like to say thank you to those who have been commenting, we love opening up our email and reading the comments – and it keeps us motivated – keep it up!

You will have to bear with us for a while, we have some posts written but are unable to upload them.  They may be too large in file size due to the photos or it may be the dodgy internet connection. we will keep trying.

The drive itself wasn’t bad, apart from the driving which was was a little crazy, we met and chatted to some lovely people.  The fun stated when we arrived in Cairo at 12am.  The Egyptian population is approximately 80 million and 85% live in Cairo, so you can imagine the scene – it was manic, dark and a little scary.  We hailed a taxi and negotiated our fair to our pre-booked hotel (via the net), only to be told en route that our hotel recently had some trouble and that it had to close down  Not to worry, the driver knew a similar graded hotel at a great price.  Being tired and overwhelmed by it all we went along with it.  Several hotels later, which were all booked out, and having had a tour of the city in a clapped out Lada, we eventually got a room.  We ended up paying well over the odds for the taxi and hotel room.

We have since learned that this is one of the oldest tricks in the book for conning tourists, the taxi drivers work on a commission basis for guests they bring to a hotel, which tend to be pretty grotty.  It was the worst we’ve ever seen, to the point where we would not walk on the floors with bare feet and the decor was like a scene from ‘Life on Mars’.  We felt very uncomfortable and got very little sleep. 

We woke early, hastily packed and got the F out of there.  Not trusting the taxis, we worked out where we were on our guidebook map and walked our way to the hotel we should have stayed at.  Thankfully, it was exactly what we expected – clean, tidy and ever so helpful.  We plan on staying here for the rest of the week. 

Lesson learned.  More on Cairo later.

The hotel staff suggested not to sitting out in the midday sun.  Taking their advice, we got up at 7am and had breakfast at 8 and were on the beach for 9.  Back in our hotel now and plan to head out again at around 4 for few hours.  Sam is doing what she does best, sleeping!

So far so good.  The local staff here are fantastic, everything is relatively cheap, the weather is scorching but not unbearable once you get used to it, the Red Sea is to die for providing the many snorklers and divers (like us )  with an amazing underwater world right next to the beach.  We would highly recommend a holiday to the Red Sea, but somewhere a little quieter that Na’ama Bay, it is very busy. 

Tonight we are heading out for dinner with a Norwegian family we have become friendly with over the past few days, trots permitting.  Know locally as the Faro curse and a topic a great conversation here, we have not met anybody yet who has not had a bout.  Sam and I both have it at the minute as does the Norwegian couple.  The locals say its a result of not drinking enough water – my backside (pardon the pun) – we’ve drank enough water in the last 5 days than we have in the last 5 months.

Probably no more posts now until we head to Cairo, as there is not much more to report – over and out!

Our dives were at Fiddle Garden and Temple, two pretty standard and somewhat boring dives according to other divers we met in the dive club bar.  To us, they were a dream, the visibility was amazing, approximately 30m or so – you will see from the selection of photos below.

We set off at 8:40 and headed for ‘Hooligan’ our dive boat. When we descended, all the nerves drifted away, literally, it was breathtaking.  The photos don’t do it any justice – the colours and reefs were so beautiful. 

Many of the divers we met over the past few days have all said that Egypt is one of the best dive locations in the world and is why many have competed over 100 dives in the red sea alone. 

Now qualified, we can schedule a dive on any of Oonas’s five dive boats.  Having completed the course, we decided to have a day of rest and take it from there.  Its funny, we’ve been here four days and today was our first trip to the beach, apart from walk down with our scuba equipment. The touts were trying to sell us all sorts – being so white and thinking it was our first day

All the photos will be uploaded here once we find a half decent Internet connection.  Just in case, Sam is wearing the pink fins