Welcome to Egypt

After a long day of travelling (which included an eight hour stop over in Amsterdam checking out the city centre) we eventually touched down in Cairo at about 3.00am. Feeling tired and jet lagged we bagan the fight to buy entry visa's, navigate our way through one of the longest and slowest passport control ques I've ever seen and eventually escape the dodgy taxi drivers touting their business on tired and confused westeners.

We finally got out of the airport and after a bit of bartering we found a taxi driver to take us to our hotel in Giza. My first impressions of Cairo were amazing, the streets were so full of life, there were people, traffic and animals everywhere. Driving through the busy streets we saw arab men riding camels down the middle of the busy roads, donkeys over laided with goods scuttling in between the cars and everywhere you looked large groups of men sat chatting and smoking sheesha's, the sights, sounds and smells were intoxicating.

I suppose one reason why the streets were so busy at this time of the day, was because we had come to Cairo in the middle of Ramadan and the locals, forbidden from food or drink during daylight were probably making the most of the night hours and making sure they took on enogh food and water to see them through the next day. For those who have never been to Cairo the driving itself is an unbelievable experience, traffic lights, round abouts and general road safety do not apply here and if one side of the road is blocked then the drivers will simply start driving up the wrong side of the road into on coming traffic. Another thing we noticed during our life or death taxi ride was the amount of mosques in Cairo, it seemed as though every street had its own mosque and each mosque was illuminated with bright green and white lights it really did add to the experience and gave you got an amazing feel for the place.

As we continued our drive through the city we went down through a motorway underpass. Just a few feet below the busy motor way was what seemed like another world, loads of run down old shops, market stalls selling sweets (a popular choice for people to eat during Ramadan) people everywhere and what seemed like rusty old car parts / junk just stacked in the alleyways between the shops. Some of the streets we drove through were so narrow you could almost touch the adjacent buildings if you stuck your hand out the window and all the time more and more people appearing from nowhere. It was great to see such a diverse mix of people on the streets of Cairo, even at this time of the day it felt like there were men from every African country sitting together and going about their business, what an unbelievable place.

By the time we reached our hotel in the suburbs of Giza it was about 4.30am and the early morning call to prayer could be heard from the local mosques, calling the faithful to prayer, and as they woke to pray we were gladly shown to our rooms and went to bed.

After a few hours sleep we were up and about checking out the hotel facilities. We spend the rest of the day chilling by the pool and organising our trips for the coming days. We met a local guide at the hotel called Iman and arranged with him to take us to the pyramids the next day.