The day started with a breakfast buffet, slight de ja vu from Thessaloniki but instead of Ferris Bueller I felt like Crocodile Dundee in New York. I looked at some of the foods and had absolutely no idea what they were. I'm here to try everything though so I spooned a few scoops of brown slop into a bowl and I spotted a sauce which looked like thousand island dressing so smothered that over my ham and eggs and put that in a roll.
The brown slop is called ful and made from dried fava beans. Its the most common Egyptian breakfast and unfortunately i thought it tasted like muesli with bits of cardboard in it. At the time I didn't know what it was called but Ahmed knew what I was on about when I told him my experience. After that I needed to get the taste out of my mouth so had a safe bite of my roll. This turned out to be the biggest surprise of the day. Despite the sauce being positioned by the cold meats and salad, on closer inspection it became apparent that I had just smothered my ham, egg and cheese roll in strawberry yoghurt! I needed to try some again to confirm but yeah, it was definitely yoghurt. If I'm honest what's not to like about that roll, meat - good, egg - good, cheese -good, strawberry yoghurt - gooood! and healthy!
After another couple of trips to the buffet table/pastry table I was pleasantly plump. First task of the day, sort out Nigel. I did this in the comfort of my own room, put some Egyptian music on and took my time to make sure he was really going to be solid for at least the journey down the elevator.
When Nigel was ready I decided to go for a walk down to the pyramids. This was a wee mission in itself, not due to the distance, it only took me around half an hour. The mission I undertook was avoiding every taxi man, fruit seller, camel chaperone and horse and cart driver that I possibly could. The conversation went as follows, "my friend, where you from?" "England, no thankyou" (that's where I've already made a mistake, I answered him. Despite my premature response to his next question, I have already engaged him which means I have to endure a barrage of more questions and lies.) "where you going? You want taxi? You going to pyramids? The pyramids are this way." That one was my favourite, I could see the pyramids, I knew where they were so I was walking towards them and this happened to be the same way all the horse and carts were going too but yet they still tried to confuse and trick me. I had navigated my way from Calais to Antalya with pretty much just the use of the sun and they thought they could get me in their stables so I would have to ride a camel to get out...come on guys, give me some respect. I did enjoy the conversations though. The guys near the pyramids are clever, they lie yes but they do it with a cheeky smile that you know works probably 8/10 times on unsuspecting tourists. This time they were up against me though, someone who likes to think of himself of quite a quick minded player also so some fun conversations were had. "Can I have your bracelet?" they asked "Yeah sure" "really?" "Yeah, if you can get me in the pyramids for free" "but I can't" "well then no." "Can I have some of your drink?" They asked "yeah sure" "really?" " yeah but I have diseases" it was fun for the first 10 minutes and you got to hand it to them, they don't stop. After a while though the "teacher stare" had to come out because they did not give up!
I got away from one entrance and walked around to the other where you could see the sphinx. The fact that it was signposted from the road enabled me to know where to go but this didn't stop the camel man telling me I was going in strangely the complete opposite direction. I followed the wall around the perimeter of the pyramids through very poor housing areas that I did not imagine to be so close to the pyramids. When you see it on TV you imagine paradise and an oasis in the middle of nowhere. Reality is, the wall keeps the slums back from getting in the postcards. I had a little kick about with a few young lads on the way through. The first time I had kicked a ball in ages and it felt good. My first bit of training had to come in to good use as well when I was confronted with 3 growling stray dogs that weren't a patch on the Eastern European shire horses I was used to. I puffed out my chest, gave them the stare and they retreated because they knew I was packing nun chucks!
The Egyptians at the second gate were unsurprisingly much like the first gate although strangely the entry price was less. I didn't go in because I wanted to go back with Nigel before I cycled out of Giza so had some more chats with the locals. I told them i was living with my turkish friend who was going to give me a tour of the pyramids when he finished work and there personality completely changed from being my best mate that could help me with anything i wanted, to being completely uninterested in me. The sad thing is that one could get easily put off by Egyptians if they take the fast talking, lying, pestering, tourist "professionals" as the whole of the Egyptian population. By knowing Ahmed and Farouk, I obviously knew differently and met some more friendly people on my walks away from the tourist attractions.
On my way back to the hotel, I buckled with the western take outs and had a KFC. It was cheaper than in England and food always tastes better when you cheat the English food pricing system. I got back to the hotel and chilled out till Ahmed rang me at around 9. He was with Farouk and they had just finished work and we were going to go to another good restaurant called El Mende Oasis. El Mende is the way in which they cook the turkey out here. Slow cooking it by coals under sand and we sat down on floor cushions cross legged to tuck into the some of the best cooked meat I've had on the trip so far. A huge turkey leg on a bed of rice with soft naan bread and salad. That was my kind of meal! The lads gave me the leg bone which made me feel at home but at home I eat like a caveman. Cue the awkwardness as I tried to cut meat off the bone with a knife and fork when all I really wanted to do is pick up the bone and rip a big chunk right off. Then a great shout from Farouk, "in Egypt we like to use our hands, we find that feeling the food makes it taste better!" Well isn't that so, i could get used to Egypt as I share that same philosophy and I also believe if you have a friend like Beirdre then she's allowed to get involved with the mess also without anyone staring!
Needless to say I got stuck in, i ate so much I couldn't get back up. Well I couldn't really get back up because the last time I sat cross legged was the end of year 6 assembly and my hamstrings are shorter than a soldier's haircut, so a nice bit of cramp set in as I did my finest baby giraffe impression when getting to my feet.
We finished dinner at half 11. In Cairo a general day runs from 9am ish to 3am ish so eating late is very common. They don't do a 9-5 day with a standard rush hour, they do a staggered start from 8-11 and every hour is rush hour! Due to the current situation however, they have a curfew of 12pm with Army road blocks every couple of miles or so. If you're on the streets after 12 and spotted then you're locked up for 6 months - as simple as that. So we needed to get a slight wriggle on to get past the last checkpoint at the bottom of the street. Luckily we were all staying in the same area and we made it with about 5 minutes to go. At 11:55 there were a lot less cars on the road naturally but the urgency was visibly setting in so concentration was key when manoeuvring through the streets even without intense traffic.
I got back to the hotel and had decided to stay for a couple of extra nights. Kites were running an excursion of waterfalls, canoeing, sand boarding and a campfire out in one of their 3 main sites, 2.5 hours drive in the desert west of Cairo. The guys invited me to join the group that they were taking tomorrow, free of charge and who am I to turn down a great experience like that?!
A good day that settled me in nicely to Cairo. Farouk and Ahmed once again going above and beyond regular hospitality levels and now I have a full day of activities to look forward to. Another 6am start was waiting though so I had to get some sleep, which was proving very hard to do in the African version of New York.
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