Jejak Mesir 2006: Day 2 - Giza Pyramid Necropolis

31st January 2006

If it were up to us, we would have visited the Great Pyramids upon touchdown on this land of Anbiyaa', but after careful planning we decided that it would be better if we went there on our second day, after getting some rest from the long journeys from Kursk to Moscow and Moscow to Egypt.

Now, as you all know the pyramids are the only surviving Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and being able to witness it with our very own eyes was just unbelievable. Although, our friends studying there commented that they've been to the pyramids a lot of time that it's getting a bit boring, but that didn't stop them from enjoying their day playing tour-guides to these three jakun from the land of the Tsars. We managed to get inside the pyramids compound at half-prices after Md.Nor negotiated with the guards at the entrance - usually tourists would always get tricked into paying exorbitant amount of money without them realizing it, but we got in with the price usually the Al-Azharians students got. Lucky us.



Our first stop was at the camels. It wasn't my first time seeing camels, but the ones I saw were those imprisoned inside our Zoo Negara. Here the experience was authentic, with the surrounding deserts and the grandiouse pyramids as our backdrop. Halim and Md.Nor dropped the bombshell: any of us wanted to ride the camels? Of course all of us wanted to, and upon further negotiation we managed to get the camels at half-price as well, by having two people sharing one camel. I thought it was no biggie, riding a camel, but I soon realized that it could make one lose their breakfast. I didn't, but rasa semput tu ada jugaklah, heheh. We were brought around the deserts and Muhammad managed to get some good shots of us while we were parading around the deserts.



Then it was the pyramids. Loads of tourists were around, and they all struck some weird poses. We joined in the bandwagon as well, imitating other tourists while trying to come up with our own unique poses. The ustazs were sporting bunch of people as well, joining us with our phototaking craze here. :)








From the pyramids we made our way towards the Sphinx, another magnificent creation of the ancients that still stood there guarding the pyramids. The nose was broken and there were attempts on restoring it, but strangely no attempt was successful even by using our modern-age technologies. So the Sphinx remains noseless until present time. Poor Sphinx.



From the sphinxes we then went to explore the structures around the necropolis, poking our heads here and there, being regular tourists that we were. We contemplated on entering the tombs to see the mummies, but our friends told us that if what we really wanted to see was the mummies then it's better for us to go to the Cairo Museum instead since the mummies of the pharaohs were kept there where they were safe. Same goes for the treasures and whatnot, the only thing that still remained in the tombs were dusts and sands.








The tour was officially over then, but we decided to have a go around the pyramids again despite having exited the compound. There were a lot of people going there and the policemen and guards were getting shorthanded so somehow we managed to slip in for free. And thus we went around and around until we pretty much got tired of seeing the sands and the stones. It was time to head back.




Night came by and we went to the city of Cairo to experience one of the Egyptians' pride and joy - their Metro! The metro was full and there was one compartment specifically meant only for the ladies, although the other compartments were for both gents and ladies. We Russians were ecstatic upon seeing that out of all other compartments, one was empty and we went there straightaway......only to find out that this empty compartment was meant for the ladies, only! Haha.



Had some drink at one of the many juice stalls scattered around Cairo - the drinks were superbly delicious! Earlier, we specified that we wanted to eat 'what the Egyptians eat' and our ustaz friends obliged....by taking us to one restaurant where we were guaranteed to have an authentic Egyptian dinner.






However....it wasn't exactly what we had in mind. We couldn't even eat these stuffs, geli tekak, but our friends ate them with apparent ease. They told us that when they first arrived they too couldn't stomach these foods, but now they were used to it. So we had to just watch and finish up our drinks. We finally specified what kind of authentic meals that we wanted and were assured that we would get what we wanted on the next day onwards. Nasib baik tak lapar sangat pun.

After the foods it was time to have a city tour. There was one time I entered a shop and suddenly the bustling shop froze into a second of silence. Then the shopkeepers cried out laughingly of something I couldn't understand, so I was a bit dumbstruck until a friend translated that the locals thought that I was from Japan. That's not going to be the first time it had happened, I've to say. It was funny and awkward at the same time.

The journey back to our apartments was by bus, and by this time around I began to feel a bit uneasy. We went to Egypt during our winter holidays, and even Egypt was a bit chilling this time around. The winds were at times biting through our clothes. And I became its victim.

I've caught the flu.