Giza's Need Excitement

A trip to Egypt isn’t complete without a visit to one of the seven wonders of the world, the pyramids of Giza. For 100 Egyptian pounds ($16) each, C and I managed to get a driver to drive us around for a day.

Our driver picked us up from central Cairo and dropped us off in a quiet street in Giza. He walked us into a small room and together, with his dear friend, a camel-tour operator, tried to rip us off. They told us that after travelling all the way to Giza, we could only access the pyramids by camel, or the more expensive option, limousine. We were agitated and knew this was part of a well-rehearsed profit-making scheme. The driver had strategically driven us to an extremely tourist-unfriendly area – there were no signs of the pyramids, other tourists, or anything in English. In other words, we didn’t want to be stranded here.

Our driver dropped us off in this street.  This was where our camel tour begun.

After bartering and paying about a quarter of the original obscene camel-riding fee, we found ourselves at the back of the building surrounded by unhealthy-looking camels. It was at this point that I deeply regretted my decision to ride these camels. I had ridden camels in Morocco just weeks before this adventure, and knew that the ones in Giza were horribly neglected – they seemed weak, malnourished and heavily scarred. Nevertheless, as we reached the desert plateau overlooking the Giza pyramids, it was a breathtaking sight. As our camel guide dropped us off at the site, he unsurprisingly tried to scam us again, asking us for an extra payment.

One of the three large pyramids of Giza

One of the things to be careful about in Egypt are scams. Every time you sign up for something and agree on a price, there will undoubtedly be a reason why more money needs to be paid over at a later time. In our instance, this applied to taxi rides, tours, driver’s fees and the like. The extra payments will be for reasons such as fictional road tolls, road taxes and additional service fees.

The Sphinx

A large pack of tourist buses were crowded together between the pyramids. As we walked around the pyramids, security officers warned us not to get too close. At this site, there are nine pyramids altogether. Each one is worth marvelling at. How they were constructed, I still don’t know. Unfortunately, there was no information regarding the history of the pyramids at the site. The famous Sphinx was only a few hundred metres away. It was tiny compared to the Great Pyramid of Giza and was somewhat disappointing considering how well publicised it is.

The Red Pyramid of Dahshur

Later that afternoon we drove to Dahshur to see the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid. As you would expect from its name, the Bent Pyramid has bent sides. It looks funny, as if it were made by some bored kids who were no good at Jenga. I managed to delve into the centre of the Red Pyramid through a small tunnel. It was dark, hot and tiny inside…and the smells were putrid. I had never felt so claustrophobic in my life. It was an anti-climax once I made it to the end of the tunnel; there was a small room with boulders scattered around.

This is the entrance to the tunnel leading into the Red Pyramid...it's tiny!

We finished off the day with a quick visit to the Step Pyramid of Djoser.  That's a pyramid with six giant steps on each of its walls.

Hangin' Lo in Cairo - Part 1

The first thing to notice about Cairo is that the city is alive. There are people, cars and bikes everywhere, anytime. Without lanes marked on many of the city’s roads, cars and bikes vie for their share of the roads. As a result of this, the city is engulfed with the sounds of incessant honking and some of the worst traffic congestion in the world.

The air of Cairo has an enveloping profound warmth in it. This warmth is certainly visible; it's orange and its tinge permeates through every inch of the city. It’s comprised of smog and dirt. I struggle to fathom the adverse health impacts of this toxic concoction on Cairo’s people. I was once told while living in Hong Kong that the air pollution is so bad that spending one day there is equivalent to smoking 7 cigarettes a day. In Cairo, I believe the air is as bad as smoking 7 packs of cigarettes a day.

Another thing to note about Cairo is that there are incomplete buildings everywhere. It’s a common sight to see a building lacking a roof. I was told that the reason for this is because of a loophole in the tax system: an Egyptian can avoid paying taxes of up to 6,000 Egyptian pounds on their building if they don't complete the building. This doesn’t stop locals from occupying/running businesses on every floor below the top floor of the building!

As mentioned in my last post, the food in Egypt is brilliant. In Cairo we followed some of the recommendations in Cindy’s Lonely Planet guide. Before I continue, I should mention that, to my surprise, there were hardly any tourists in Cairo. For example, we were the only occupants in our hostel which was highly rated on Hostelworld. Being tourists, it was quite nerve-racking to walk into a restaurant full of locals. There were generally no English menus nor English-speaking staff. For our first meal, in a restaurant hidden upstairs to a bakery, everybody stared at us (in particular, they stared at Cindy). She felt uncomfortable but I teased her about it. We ordered enough food to feed a family. We tried a few different types of foul and salads, as well as a giant pizza-like dish. It was delicious.

 We followed another recommendation one night and went to a fast food joint in a shopping centre. We got lost several times before finding the shopping centre. It’s tricky finding places with Arabic names when you aren’t Arabic-literate. As we approached this particular shopping centre, we lined up to get our bags screened and walked through metal detectors just like you would at an airport – this is apparently normal in Cairo’s shopping centres. We then discovered the best fast food joint in the world. They offered a large variety of foul, salads, grilled meat and all sorts of other things I can’t even describe. There were no English menus so we just ordered some grilled chicken and anything that had a cool name. Whilst this fast food joint was not so fast, it was well worth the wait.

Following Cairo, we went on a trip to the pyramids and to the Sahara Desert. But that’s for next time.

Hurghada

After a brief stay in a small town on the French/Swiss border, I was so happy to leave behind the frosty weather of Europe to arrive in Egypt. Upon landing at Hurghada airport, we were forced into a large bustling hall where bank and customs officials vied for our business. After purchasing a cheap shiny sticker (ie. an Egyptian visa) for my passport, we experienced an awkward taxi ride to our hotel where our taxi driver continuously argued with us over the agreed price of our lift.

It didn’t take long for us to notice the ghost town feel of this beach resort town on the Red Sea. A small number of run down, abandoned shops and loitering locals filled the streets of Hurghada, giving the place a bleak feel during this off-season. We visited some amazing beachside resorts whereby dozens of neatly placed deck chairs were left deserted. The desolate resorts, normally home to massive parties of beach-goers, were instead met by strong, eerie gusts of wind.  This didn't stop us from dipping our feet in the Red Sea and running around on one of the town's many beaches.

Notwithstanding the lack of tourists in this city, there was still an abundance of colourful and tacky tourist shops in the surrounding streets. Every time a cab drove past us it would endlessly (and hopelessly) beep at us in the hope we would hail it.

The food in this place (or Egypt in general) is amazing. In was in Hurghada where I discovered one of my new favourite meals, foul, a rich cuisine made from beans. During our night in Hurghada we ate at a strange family-owned restaurant that was decked out in Spongebob Squarepants décor.

Paris, not Hilton

In January I flew with Ryanair to 'Paris' from Rome. While Ryanair is extremely cheap, I wish they'd had the courtesy to inform me that my flight was not actually landing in Paris, but rather, over 150km away in the middle of nowhere. From the airport, we were forced to catch an expensive 2 hour bus late in the freezing evening to central Paris.

I only had a few days to spend in Paris, and, as it seemed, a few euro too.

Under the Arc de Triomphe

I irk at the thought of Paris being considered one of the world's most romantic cities. I don't see how anyone can consider this place romantic unless they enjoy cold, gloomy, wet weather. Then again, three factors probably adversely affected my time in Paris: it was winter, I don't speak French, and I was physically exhausted.

We sought solace from the assertive Parisian chill in overpriced and crowded cafes that lacked the cosiness and kind hospitality that I'd become accustomed to in Copenhagen.

C and I had a bit of an art adventure in Paris. The first art museum we visited was the Musee d'Orsay. Located along the left bank of the Seine, it's an old train station that was converted into a museum in the mid 1980s. We spent a whole day inside this historic building, admiring the works of some of the most prolific artists in history, from the likes of Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin to Renoit, Monet and Signac.

Inside the Louvre's Pyramid

We of course couldn't avoid the attraction of the labyrinth that is the Louvre. Standing in front of its glass pyramid entrance designed by Chinese artist I.M. Pei, I vividly remember experiencing one of those "Wow, I'm actually here" moments. Housing over 35,000 pieces of artwork, I could have easily spent a week here exploring all the exhibitions and/or playing hide and seek. Despite closely following the directions of my audio-guide, I managed to get lost amongst several exhibitions in my quest to find the Louvre's three most famous masterpieces; the Mona Lisa, Venus del Mar and the Victory of Samothrace.

Inside the Louvre 

I find it interesting and perplexing as to why and how these three 'masterpieces' have reached such great heights in fame, whilst none of the other 34,997 pieces in the museum are nearly as recognisable. Curiously, my audio-guide suggested that one of the reasons the Mona Lisa has reached its current state of fame is because it was stolen and returned not long ago. Then this led to the debate with my friends as to whether the Mona Lisa on display is the 'real' Mona Lisa...

I was lucky enough to have my local Parisian friends Yannis and Aurelie take me out for dinner one night. We went to a dimly lit cosy little restaurant on the corner of a small street near the Cluney La Sorbonne station. I remember the entree was amazing; spring rolls filled with some sort of gourmet French cheese. Another night, C and I ventured out of our comfort zones and ordered some foie gras (duck liver) and escargot. I gotta say, I never thought snails would taste so good!

And, just for the record, yes, I visited the Eiffel Tower, and yes, it was beautiful!
Oh, and I also visited Notre Dame, Champs Elysees (could never pronounce/remember this name) and the Arc de Triomphe.

Over and Out! 

brb

Wow, I've been SO busy since moving to Melbourne and starting my job. While at work, I'm regularly thinking about going home to write about some of my adventures (both here and abroad), but then I end up getting caught up in the excitement of this city and arrive home late and exhausted.

For anyone who still reads this (apparently there are):

brb.

ps. missing Copenhagen so much
pps. Melbourne > Copenhagen

Rome Sweet Rome

Ahh, I've just moved to Melbourne and left a bunch of stuff behind in Brisrael, including my little moleskine which I carried around with me across Europe and North Africa. I had jotted down a number of facts, descriptions and doodles of each place I visited in that precious diary. I'm trying to dig through my memory to see what I remembered of Rome. Not much apparently.

Cindy and I arrived in Rome on New Year's Day. We checked into a hostel that was the size of a shoebox. As it was New Year's Day, the hostel decided to mega-inflate their prices...to USD$80 per person per night in a shared dorm. For the same price, I can stay in a 5-star hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Or I could buy six pet hermit crabs.

On the first day we visited the Colosseum, the Roman Forum and Palatine Hill. Here's a tip for anyone who wants to avoid the two hour queues into the Colosseum: go to Palatine Hill first where there are no queues. There you can buy a multi-pass to go into Palatine Hill, the Roman Forum and the Colosseum.

Inside the Colosseum

The size, age and sheer beauty of the Colosseum made it one of my favourite attractions in Europe. Palatine Hill and the Roman Forum lie in the centre of Ancient Rome. They are littered with ancient ruins of palaces and buildings which once homed the affluent and noble Romans. A great number of Roman mythologies unfolded here as well.

The Roman Forum

We spent a whole day at the Vatican Museum. It was definitely worth the one and a half hour wait to get in. After a few hours of walking through the Museum, we ended up inside the Pope's official residence in the Vatican City: the Sistine Chapel. Despite the large crowds filling the chapel, there was an eery quietness and darkness inside. Photographs, and noise, it seemed, were prohibited, and this was strictly enforced by the dozens of security staff inside the chapel. Looking directly above us we could see one of the world's most famous, sacred, and precious artworks on the ceiling: Michaelangelo's 'Creation of Adam'.

Outside the Sistine Chapel

Inside the Vatican Museum

I also visited the awe-inspiring Fontana di Trevi where I flipped a coin over my shoulder and made a wish. Apparently, an estimated 3,000 euros is thrown into this fountain everyday, with the proceeds used to subsidise a supermarket for the needy.

Fontana di Trevi

Berlin&out

We welcomed in the new year from Berlin. It's a fascinating and creative city with such a rich and turbulent history. However, my main lasting impression of it was that it was unbearably cold: something like -10 degrees celsius. We didn't have long in Berlin so we followed the beaten track and visited all the touristy places. 

The East-Side Gallery was our first stop. It's a memorial for freedom which stretches over 1km along the Berlin Wall. Since 1990, it's been decorated with powerful and symbolic paintings from artists all around the world.

When we were closer to town, we visited Brandenburg Gate and the Holocaust Memorial. We then followed the line of the Wall through the former Nazi Government District to Checkpoint Charlie; the famous crossing point between East and West Berlin during the Cold War. Further on from here, we ended up at Lustgarten. It's not much of a garden when there's a layer of snow that goes up to your knees! This place is home to the awe-inspiring Berlin Cathedral. 

I love Christmas in Berlin. Except the part where it's freezing and it's hard to get around because of the snow. But we spent a night wandering the beautiful Christmas markets at Gendarmenmarkt. Gendarmenmarkt is a lovely square, where two cathedrals stand at opposite ends; one is French and the other is German. They seem almost identical, but I was told the Germans made their cathedral a few metres taller than the French one to assert their power. At the markets here, we feasted on sausages and watched an outdoor theatre show where a muscular man paraded around in a girl's pink ballet costume.

One afternoon, our local friend, Jen, took us to Kunsthaus Tacheles. It's a former Nazi prison that's now run by a collective of artists. Every inch of its walls is covered by graffiti.

On New Years Eve, we ventured out to a club at Potsdamer Platz. Firecrackers were firing from all directions on the streets well past midnight. It sounded like we were in a battlefield.


We spent our last day visiting the Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. I wont go into detail here as I think it's one of those places you have to see and experience for yourself. It's a depressing place filled with tragic and terrifying stories that outline the human capacity for evil.