At 10, Aki sent us to our rooms for a quick break, and then we headed off to Giza. Today we had our first armed guard accompanying us. He had on a suit and carried a Heckler MP5. That was a little disconcerting, but he was unobtrusive and just followed us around keeping an eye on us. After crossing the Nile, Aki said this all used to be green fertile farmland that helped feed Cairo. Now there are just hideous apartments going up right and left. An interesting note. Muslims do not borrow money because they do not believe in paying interest. Therefore, when they build homes, they build what they can afford at the time, stop, save more money, build some more. Hence, there are many partially finished buildings throughout Egypt. We drove through the town of Giza where the vendors, camel drivers, etc. live. We got our first glimpse of the pyramids over the roofs of town. We also drove by the Mena House Oberoi hotel where we would eat lunch later.
We drove through security at the Pyramids, and Aki gave out our tickets. The driver parked on the north side of the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Cops were on pretty white camels patrolling. Aki said he hadn't seen so few tourists in decades. Lucky for us, but so bad for the local economy. We walked to the base of the Great Pyramid where Aki talked about pyramids. Granite covered one small section which is how the whole pyramid was when it was finished. Mike and Judy were the only two who bought tickets to go in the pyramid. They said it wasn't much. The rest of us wandered around the base over to the corner where King Farouk had built a 2-story 'rest house' in 1946 to entertain guests close to the pyramid. It is now in a state of disrepair and will probably be torn down.
In wandering around, I saw a neat bird that I saw all over called a hooded crow. I also looked at one of the two empty funerary boat pits. We got back in the van and drove by the second pyramid, the Pyramid of Khafre which has the granite cap, and past the third pyramid, the Pyramid of Menkaure with the three Pyramids of the Queens. We went up to a parking lot for the best view/photo op of all three pyramids. On the way back to the Great Pyramid complex we saw two men sitting on rocks washing themselves from a water bottle preparing for prayer.
We parked and went into the Solar Boat building which houses the funerary boat of Khufu. Aki gave us lots of information and then let us wander around looking at it from various angles. As we were waiting to leave, a Libyan man told me he was in Cairo for medical treatment. I guess lots of people in the Middle East and Africa come to Cairo where there are better facilities.
We drove around to the Sphinx complex. We went in and Aki talked about the Sphinx. This was the most crowded place in Giza. They have a project in process (aided with US money) to drain water that is accumulating under the Sphinx. We could see drains and pumping stations around the Sphinx.
Finally we went to lunch at 2:15 at the Mena House Oberoi Hotel at the Khan El Khalili restaurant. This was a lovely restaurant with a view of the Great Pyramid. We had sweet corn soup, a choice of chicken or grouper, and a very rich vanilla ice cream over fresh fruit. I got the chicken which was good. The folks that got the grouper got a side of rice shaped like a pyramid.
On the road again, we stopped at the Karnak Jewelry/Art store. I bought a small inlaid wood box. Dot bought a gold bracelet with a cartouche. Driving back through Giza we saw goats and sheep ready to be purchased and butchered, cauliflower on a wagon being pulled by a donkey, fresh fruit for sale, fish for sale. In the villages, it is quite apparent that Egypt is a third-world country.
We drove near Tahrir Square where we could see the protesters down a side street. As soon as we got back to the hotel, Bill and I went to the mall connected to the hotel to a shop called Mocabo where I bought 5 camel polo shirts for the nephews and one for myself. These are so cool since they look just like polo shirts but instead of the polo player, they have a camel. We went up to the Sky Pool so Bill could have a cigar break. It is a delightful place to relax and no one goes up there because they think it is "too cold". I had a lovely chat with Ahmed. He takes a bus from the hotel to Tahrir Square to catch a minibus to his home. Last night, he took a short detour around the Square, but he still got teary eyes and coughed from the residue of the tear gas being used in the Square. Ahmed is married to a British English teacher.
After we cleaned up, we gathered in the lobby at 6pm to meet up with Mohammed the A&K guy to go to an Egyptian home for dinner. His supervisor was there to see how things were going for us. We certainly do get a lot of care. We left the hotel and drove over the Nile to the home of Zeena and Sami. They were about our age. Sami ran a furniture manufacturing company, and the examples they had in their home were beautiful. The house was in an apartment building that Sami owned several apartments. Their son Mohammed stopped by and stayed to chat. Two other sons were in and out of the apartment. Zeena was complaining that her 32 year old son would not get married and move out on his own! Life can be the same everywhere.
We started out with some wonderful karkady (red hibiscus tea served cold). The Zeena served a lentil orzo soup that was really good. We chatted while Zeena and her help placed dishes on the dining room table for a buffet. There was a cucumber/tomato salad, spice eggplant/tomato, pickled (and hot!) vegetables, cheese pie (more like little cheese rolls), kushari (a mixture of rice, tiny lentils, chickpeas, and macaroni topped with tomato sauce, and fried onions), pasta (more like dumplings) with bechamel sauce with a little bit of ground beef, chicken nuggets, a rice dish, beef/mushroom/mushroom sauce. Dessert was a large many layered chocolate cake. It was a lovely dinner with lovely people and interesting conversation. This family does this maybe 2-3 times a week. I know they get paid for it, but they seemed to enjoy it as much as we did. Zeena gave us a tour of her apartment. We left about 8:30, returned to the hotel, and went to bed.
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