Cruise Recap, part 6: Port5 - Alexandria (Cairo), Egypt

Egypt was probably the port we were most excited about. I honestly never thought I would ever make it to Egypt in my lifetime, so the chance to stop here was very exciting. That’s the great thing about a cruise – it lets you stop for a day at a port that you may not otherwise have ever thought you’d ever vacation at! I can see myself making a specific vacation to go to Greece, but I’ve never had the desire to spend multiple days in Egpyt… so the cruise was the perfect excuse to go!

We woke up bright and early and met our group’s bus at 6:30am to head out to Cairo, a 2 hour drive away. It looked like most of the ship’s passengers were going on a tour because the number of buses heading out was outrageous. Cruise reviews mention you can do Egypt on your own by hiring a local taxi driver, but the best bet is to just stick with the cruise’s excursions. This way, there are no chances of being left behind (in case the 2 hour drive takes much longer). In addition, each bus has a private security guard with the group the entire time. And, because of the recent kidnapping, we even had a police convoy for part of the trip!

The drive over was pleasant and we saw lots and lots of desert. Unfortunately, we arrived on the last day of Ramadan so most stores were closed and driving through Alexandria and later Cairo was not as crazy as our guide promised it usually is.

Our first stop was the Great Pyramids of Giza. They are definitely a spectacular sight to behold. It was easy to marvel at the engineering work involved in building these structures since they are very tall (the tallest being about 50 stories high) and made of HUGE stones.

We opted to go into the 2nd pyramid (for a small fee) and made a beeline for it as soon as we were given free time to explore. We were warned the corridor you walk down into the pyramid is very narrow, crowded and hot. I was a bit worried since our guide tried vehemently to dissuade a few older passengers to not go down. She sure wasn’t kidding. As we waited at the entrance, the people coming out were soaked in sweat. The minute they exited, you can see them stand for a minute and take big, deep breaths to feed their bodies. Scott and I plunged in anyway. The path was indeed very narrow and steep and since the way in is also the way out, you were brushing up against the people climbing back out. It was very claustrophobic and I tried very hard to breathe evenly and not think about all the germs I was feeling by holding onto the handrail that was wet with sweat. Yes, I know, gross, but that really was how it was! After walking down one long flight of stairs at a 45 degree angle and then back up another, we made it to the inner chamber – a room with an empty sarcophagus on one end and nothing else. After catching our breaths for a moment, we decided to head back out since the heat inside was pretty unbearable. We weren’t allowed to bring a camera in with us so we couldn’t take pics, but apparently this guy snuck his in and here’s some photos if you want to see what inside looks like: http://www.delange.org/Khafre/EP3-3.htm. Unfortunately, we weren’t allowed into any other chamber room except for the first once.

Once outside, we were ushered over to the Great Sphinx. I was surprised the Sphinx was so close by to the Pyramids. The Sphinx has a man’s head on a lion’s body, and is said to guard the pyramids. The situation there was the same as at the Pyramids – hordes of tourists shuffling along, trying to get into the Sphinx. The crazy thing is there are no lines, just a mass of people all trying to get through the door. We shuffled along with the crowd for about 25 minute and then gave up because we had to get back to the bus in time. It was very disappointing to not go in.

All along the Pyramids and Sphinx were merchants trying to hawk their trinkets and camel drivers trying to get you to take pictures with their camels. The merchants were very insistent and took “no” as the opening for negotiations. Our guide told us it was best to avoid eye contact and to ignore them completely or else they’ll keep hounding you. Joe, one of our dining mates on the cruise, later told us how he got duped by the camel guys – they said it cost €5 (or some nominal fee) to get on the camel to take a picture. Once he was on though they wouldn’t let him off until he coughed up an additional €20.

After the visit to the Pyramid and Sphinx, we went to a local 5 star hotel for a buffet brunch. The hotel was very opulent, with huge chandeliers and gold and marble every where you looked. Our brunch was standard American food (so disappointing! I wanted to know what Egyptian food was!) so Scott had to order an Egyptian beer (Stella) to get a taste of Egypt.

After lunch we headed to the Egyptian Museum, the now-home to King Tut! The museum is where they house the permanent collection of the artifacts uncovered when they discovered King Tut’s tomb in the 1920’s. Unfortunately, they did not allow any cameras inside the museum so we could not take pics of what we saw. And even more unfortunately, their museum shop was TINY and had only books and postcards to buy. I was really hoping I could buy some souvenirs here and it frustrates me every time I think about how much money the museum could make if they sold more things in their shop. Maybe this is a business idea worth pursuing….

Anyway, the museum itself was also disappointing. The items on display were fascinating, but the labels had very little to explain what you were looking at. Our guide tried her best to give us background to the pieces we were looking at, but the museum was insanely crowded and noisy so most of the time, I could not hear a word she said. On top of that, it was very warm and stuff inside the un-airconditioned building.

After the museum, we were driven to a papyrus factory to get educated (read: pitched) on papyrus-making. We didn’t buy anything, and truthfully, most people looked worn out and ready to go home by that time.

The drive back to the ship was very quiet, and I wonder if other people felt the same sadness and disappointment in visiting Egypt that we did. Seeing the pyramids and the King Tut display was an amazing privilege, for sure, but it’s not a place I would heartily recommend to friends and family to visit. The hordes of people at each stop felt like Disneyland, except instead of lines, everyone was struggling to see the same thing at the same time while being hounded by aggressive sales-guys from all sides. We’ve been to crowded vacation spots before, but this seemed really bad to us because there was no order to the chaos. And, we don’t know why we were surprised since Egypt is a 3rd world country, but we were taken back on how unkept and run-down the city was. It didn’t look exactly like poverty since it wasn’t that people were sleeping on the streets, but the conditions of the buildings and the canal that ran through the city looked awful – there was trash everywhere. We’re hoping we didn’t like Cairo only because the cruise tour was bad because some of Scott’s coworkers loved this city.