Day 241 – Cairo
Today we went on a full day tour of the Pyramids of Giza, Memphis (ancient capital of Egypt) and Saqqara (Step Pyramids and Tombs) with the Cairo based Citico Travel. The tour included a guide/driver and excluded entrance tickets. The tour price was 1,250 EGP / $107.59 AUD for four people.
Please note; that Citico Travel had originally quoted us 700 EGP / $60.24 AUD for this tour. But when we went back to confirm and pay they said, the original quote was for a standard 5 seater car, which would not be big enough as the tour guide would not fit. So they increased their price for a 6 person vehicle. We didn’t mind too much at the time due to issues with our accommodation. However, in the end the tour guide and driver was the same person, and we only had a 5 seater Citroen Xsara!
Not the car we were expecting
Something I found in Egypt, is you can’t trust many people in the tourist industry (Usual people are amazing, as per our findings in Alexandria and Cairo so far). I would recommend, everything to be written down, from the number of seats in the car to the locations that you will travel. Also we never did this, but I heard of others who did this, only pay 50% up front, and the remaining 50% after the tour was fully completed if possible. Otherwise, expect to either not get what you expected or prepare to argue a lot.
The close by Misr El Hayah Travel quoted the exact same tour for 1,100 EGP / $94.70 AUD. If we didn’t have issues with our hotel yesterday we would have probably gone to them.
We were picked up on time by our tour guide in the morning. Even though we were next door to the Pyramids, we would firstly be going to the ruins in Memphis. Mohammed was really friendly and was very fluent in English. He was funny and got along with the parents really well.
We arrived at Memphis, and after paying the entrance tickets (80 EGP / $6.88 AUD), we walked to a building on the right. What we saw inside took our breathes away. Inside the building is the massive limestone statue of Ramesses II (Pharaoh from 1279 – 1213 BC). The statue is missing its legs, but it is believed to have been 10m tall. The amount of detail on the statue is staggering. If I was Ramesses, I would definitely be proud of my workers.
The building is designed nicely, as you can walk around the statue on ground level, and then you can go up one flight of stairs and again, walk around the statue, with better views.
Other items around the statue
After an explanation from our guide and a hieroglyphics demonstration, where he wrote our names, we moved to the Open Air Museum. There are several artefacts, but we were only taken to the Sphinx of Memphis and another statue of Ramesses. There appeared to be plenty more to see at the site (walking trails), but due to time constraints we could not go.
We next drove to Saqqara, which is closer to Cairo. There are several types of entrance tickets here, for additional tombs, but we only got the standard tickets (150 EGP / $12.90 AUD). Also the car costs 5 EGP / $0.43 AUD, which was covered by the guide/driver.
Tomb of Mereruka
After parking the car, we walked past the Tomb of Mereruka (Additional 80 EGP / $6.87 AUD) and into the Funerary Complex of King Teti. This required walking down a narrow passageway, into the tomb. Once in the main section of the tomb, there was 3 rooms, and each was littered with hieroglyphics on the wall, that were preserved really well. In the larger camber is the empty sarcophagus. We had no idea that photos were not allowed inside this site, but a worker came, and didn’t tell us off, but asked for money. The guide advised us to pay. Since photos were prohibited, I will not be showing any on my website. Sorry in advanced.
We next went to the Tomb of Ka-Gmni Oyn VI. This tomb is on ground level, but is still cool due to the carvings on the wall of daily life back in the day. The details are once again outstanding. On several of the carvings, you can still see the original colour pigments, which is mind blowing!
Next we drove towards the Step Pyramid Complex. The Step Pyramids were built around 2700 BC, and it is thought to be the first pyramid and first large stone building in history. At the end of its construction it was 60 meters tall. Inside the pyramid, 28m below ground level is the burial chamber and there are rooms up to 40m below ground level. The benefit of coming outside of the typical pyramids is there is way less crowds.
From here, we could see several Pyramids in the distance. This was when we found out that Egypt is full of hundreds of Pyramids (118 or 138 in total according to good old Wikipedia). The ones in Giza are famous due to their size, but they are not unique.
Pyramids as far as you can see…
We also entered the Tomb of Inefrt V, Tomb of Unas Ankh (Prince and Son of King Unas) and the Tomb of Idut. All of which are very nice with slight differences. Our guide explained the offerings and showed us the highlights of each tomb. Once again no photos inside the tombs, but we saw lots of people paying essentially a fee to the staff whenever they got caught.
We then stopped for lunch at Restaurant Pharous. It was an Egyptian Grill with really tasty food. There was heaps of delicious food and the price was expensive for back packers, but considering the amount of food, a total of 870 EGP / $74.80 AUD for 5 people is not bad (we paid for the guides lunch)
We then drove to the world famous Pyramids of Giza and the main event for the tour! Once again, there were several optional tickets, but the standard ticket is 160 EGP / $13.73 AUD. After we purchased the tickets, we saw the Pyramids up close. They are massive. Having seen the pyramids over our time in Cairo from a distance (Day 238, 239 and 240), we could see that they were big, but to be standing right next to it, touching the massive blocks, this is the only true way to appreciate the scale of them.
One annoying thing, was that our guide took us to an official horse cart operator, who told us he will give us a good price to see the pyramids. He started making lies, saying its the only way to see the pyramids, otherwise we will run out of time. The guide was silent, insisting that it was a good price. When I refused, he would not stop pursuing us, which annoyed me, so I semi politely grabbed my tickets and walked towards the pyramid. If they say that it will be faster by a horse cart, its complete horse poo. Trust me, your car will be faster.
Anyway, you can walk up a few meters on the Great Pyramid, up to the entrance of the tomb, at which point you can either show your additional ticket, or like us, turn back down.
After a few minutes here, we got into the car, and drove to an amazing viewpoint (we drove past many poor horses struggling to haul tourists on the road…could not help but feel sorry for the animals).
The viewpoints views are amazing, as you can see all 3 of the gigantic pyramids. Its an amazing spot for selfies. People did approach us offering to take photos of us (nothing here is for free, so we refused), since we had a tour guide who could do it for us.
After that we hoped back in the car, excited to see the Sphinx. Unfortunately the time was 3:55pm and the security guard didn’t let us pass. We were the first of many cars to be turned away. QUE TEARS!!! I personally blame the horse cart guy. Seriously never do it, just don’t! Our guide valiantly tried to argue with the guard to let us in, but to no avail. Bus loads of tourists also got out of the buses to beg/argue/complain to go in. All attempts failed unfortunately.
So enjoy these distant views for the Sphinx, which is still very cool. However, a clean up would be nice. Remnants of the event from the previous day, I think.
Then we picked up our luggage from the Guardian Hotel, and we were dropped of in down town Cairo at the Valencia Hotel. Here, we had to climb the stairs as the elevator “broke yesterday.” We had to wait in the lobby until our room was prepared. While waiting in excess of 20 minutes, we heard a group of tourists, that had arrived directly from the airport.
They had also booked on Booking.com and received their booking confirmation. When they arrived, the hotel told them that the booking.com had confirmed the booking, but the Valencia Hotel had not confirmed the booking, which is absolute bull. The tourists were understandably not happy. Considering our experience with Egypt Pyramids Inn, we felt badly for them.
Since we had only booked for one night, the staff at Valencia asked if we would be happy to move to another hotel, which they would arrange. We said we want to see the room. We left our parents and bags and walked with the manager to Mid Town Hostel. Here the rooms were amazing. We were given a better room for the same price as we had booked at Valencia. The hotel also paid for a taxi to transport our parents and bags. Even though it was a horrible situation that should not happen, I think Valencia Hotel were honest unlike the dreaded Egypt Pyramid Inn.
Please note: Overbooking appears to be common practice in Cairo on Booking.com from our experience. From the reviews, it is impossible to see if this happens, as the hotel will instantly say you are a no show, which cancels the booking. Keep this in mind when making a booking. After all our bad experiences, we continued to use Booking.com, but after a booking we would instantly message the hotel and ask for confirmation on the room. We had no issues once we started doing this.
Mid Town Hostel was very nice with a significantly larger room. We were secretly happy for the issue Valencia Hotel had caused. However, this wasted a lot of time so it was late. With assistance from the hostel we ordered food to our room, and my wife and I, walked towards the Egyptian Museum, to find a tour agency for a Nile River Cruise. We ended up finding an awesome one with so many inclusions (we got everything written down as we are fast learners) for a nice price. We also made the smart move of withholding the payment. We told them that we can only pay two thirds of the price now, as there is a limit on our ATM Cash Withdrawal per day.