Will has always wanted to go to Egypt, like always. And I've always wanted to go too but we've never quite found the right time. Right after we got married the whole Arab Spring happened and Egypt hasn't quite made the news for such position reasons. While we both generally think the media overhypes threats around the world, we also keep in mind that there have been cases when a random photographer or tourist get held as hostages and while the US is trying to bail them out, everyone else is thinking, "You just had to go there, huh?" So yea, we never want to be those people so we've passed on Egypt many times before. However, it didn't look like Egypt was going to be getting any better any time soon and from people I spoke to and the research I did online, it was starting to get less risky to go. In researching all of the destinations we could go to with our credit card miles, we found that a lot of flights from Thailand to London naturally had a layover in Cairo. This seemed like the perfect compromise. While most of the layovers were only about 4 hours, I worked it out with our United/EgyptAir points that we could extend the layover so it would be a full day (6am-6pm) without any additional costs! It was perfect because while we didn't feel quite comfortable staying in Egypt for an extensive time on our own, a full day tour of Cairo was exactly what we needed to last us until that area got better and we could come back for a longer trip. Cairo is small, all of the main destinations are a close proximity of each other, and we could knock out all the big attractions! Since Cairo was a little intimidating, we decided to hire a tour company or something. There were a bunch of companies that specialized in layover tours that picked you up and dropped you off at the airport but ultimately we decided on Egyptian Sidekick. Egyptian Sidekick actual has an amazing premise. Rather than being on a group tour with lots of stops at tourist trap stores you don't even want to go to, you're charged one flat rate for a half day or an entire day and you get to go where you want. We did the full day which was $140 for the both of us and we got picked up at the airport by our private driver. Along with him, we had a local Egyptian University student who spoke perfect English who functioned as our "sidekick": tour guide, negotiator, and general companion for the day. It was amazing because we were able to go wherever we wanted and since we had a driver and a separate guide, the driver was able to just drop us off and we didn't have to worry about parking or waiting or anything of that and then later he would be back to pick us up wherever our guide told him to meet us. While there was a slight debacle in meeting our driver at the airport (the reopening of the Suez Canal caused a ton of traffic and so he wasn't there when we arrived, and that was a mess), we got to see a lot in one day. Here's a picture of Tahrir Square, the main meeting point for all of the demonstrations.
We got to see the Pyramids and Sphinx of Giza, the Jewish and Coptic Quarter, and the Egyptian Museum. While we wanted to see the Bazaar, we were exhausted and wiped from the intense Egyptian heat so we decided to go to dinner with our guide and driver before heading back to the airport. Before I just vomit out all of fun pics, let's say that the tourism industry in Cairo is DEAD. Seriously, the media has successfully scared everyone away because we hardly saw any other tourists there and from what I have read online, tourism is down like 90%. It sure seemed like it because while the Egyptian people were so very nice, the vendors were pretty aggressive. I totally understand why since their livelihood has suffered so but it was definitely interesting dealing with that. I had read online that everyone basically demands tips for doing nothing so it was nice to have our "sidekick" deal with that for us.
First we went to the pyramids. The only thing inside The Great Pyramid is a super narrow staircase so it worked out that were the only two people who were going inside. Also, while photographs are strictly forbidden, the guard inside encouraged us to take pictures, took photos of us without us asking him to, and then forcibly asked for a tip afterwards. :) We didn't have much cash so we literally tipped him less than $1USD. He wasn't a big fan of that but oh well.
Then, we went on a camel ride. Now it started at something crazy like $150 which was ridiculous but after some hard negotiations (even a struggle for our Egyptian local), our guide got it down to $25 and we were ready to go! The guy who we thought was taking us on our camel ride (a normal, male adult) took us via horse to the area where the camels were and from there, he passed us over to an 8 year old kid and told us that he would be taking us and to be sure to give the kid a tip as well. Now the camel ride was much longer than we needed to be and it was pretty nervewracking as the camel went up and down the sand dunes. I definietly thought I was going to fall off at some point. Both the man who sold us the ride and the 8 year old kid offered to take our picture multiple times. However, with it being SO sunny outside (100+ degree heat with no clouds or anything to shade the sun), it was hard to even see the picture on my phone. It was way too bright that we didn't realize that these Egyptian locals were the worst photographers and clearly were affected by the bright sun as well because there as a thumb or finger in almost all of our pictures. It does make for a fun story though!
After the pyramid and sphinx visit, we went to the Coptic area, checked out a bunch of Jewish synogogues and Christian Churches and then headed to the Egyptian Museum.
At the Egyptian Museum, it was crazy seeing all of the artifacts that they had but it was so crazy to us because the museum itself seemed so run down compared to museums that we typically we see. There wasn't even air conditioning in the museum with the exception of the temperature controlled mummy room which had the country's price and joys: King Tutankhamun's tomb and mask. Unfortunately, no pictures were allowed in the mummy room. :(
After leaving the museum, we headed over to the Citadel but realized we were starving so we decided to have lunch instead! We asked the guide to take us to one of his favorite local places and we had a delicious lunch with out sidekick and our driver. Yum! After we were done eating, they'd be dropping us off at the airport to head to London!
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