Pyramids and Camels

When people take a trip to Egypt, often the first thing on the list of things to visit is the Pyramids of Giza and trust me, they were at the top of our list too.  We see them all the time because they are about 15 minutes away from our house.  However, when we see them they are still miles away.  Even then they looked magnificent.  But, as is true with anywhere you live, you need to make an effort to be a tourist in the area you live.

Where seeing the Pyramids for tourists is often their first stop, we opted to wait until now to see them because we wanted the weather to be cooler.  Many local people warned us about the sun and the heat, so we decided to heed their advice for the sake of the kids.  This also leads to there being fewer tourists around which had pros and cons.

When we first pulled up to the Pyramids it was truly amazing.  They have two things going for them, they are really big and really old.  You cannot help but stand in amazement as to how they built them.  It was a very clear day so we could see virtually every massive stone in each of the 9 pyramids on the site.  Princess is a climber so naturally she wanted to climb all the pyramids.  As soon as we walked through the gates to enter the area of the historic landmark, the locals began trying to sell us things.  Men on camels trotted up and tried to sell pictures with the camel, or rides on the camels.   We played along as we usually do with these types of "salesmen" because it makes it more of a joke than an annoyance.  Hubby is particularly skilled in this department.  He develops a new name and new story with each person that tries to sell him something.  It is really quite comical.

One of the things you have the option to do at the pyramids is to go inside them.  I have heard that they are barren and empty inside and hardly worth the time or the money to go into.  However, we felt differently and had that opportunity to go inside the biggest of the pyramids.  When we walked to the entrance the two "guards" inspected us for cameras.  They asked repeatedly if we had cameras as they are forbidden inside the pyramids.  The minute we walked inside and turned the corner it was worth the money. Going inside was amazing because the tunnels were so short and the climb was quite steep in places.  Princess climbed the whole way up and down on her own, which we felt was rather impressive!  Dimples stayed outside with a friend of ours because the ascent would have been too challenging with him.  The end of the climb took us to an empty room with one sarcophagus.  There were some tour guides to show us around the empty space.  Despite the fact that we had no cameras, we did have a cell phone and the guide took our picture in the vast space.  We then began our decent, in ways the decent was easier, but Princess was moving very quickly which resulted in me bumping my head more than once on the hard stone.  We probably looked ridiculous as we walked all curled up down the stairs in this 3 foot tunnel, but it was fun.  Was it worth the money we paid for it?  Not really, but if we did not pay the price we never would have gone inside which was an experience of a lifetime.

Once we exited the pyramid, Princess exclaimed that she wanted to go in all the pyramids.  Each pyramid had different cost and I was not about to shell out more money for the same experience, so we reunited with Dimples and our friend and discovered that Dimples had played in some camel poo. Not exactly what I was expecting, but we got him cleaned up promptly and I wished I had brought him a change of clothes.  We decided to venture towards the next humungous pyramid.  This is where we met Charlotte Brown, Snoopy and Mahmoud.  Mahmoud was the camel man and Snoopy and Charlotte Brown the camels.  I have ALWAYS wanted to ride a camel around the pyramids.  In fact, within the first month that Hubby and I met 9 years ago, I created a list of places and things I wanted to do with him in my future travels.  Consider it my traveling bucket list.  I think there were upwards of 50 places on the list.  Right close to the top was Egypt's pyramids and a camel.

Princess never ceases to amaze me when it comes to her adventurous spirit.  She walked right up to Snoopy and wanted to climb right on, without help of course.  So, Hubby took Princess up on Snoopy.  It was only going to be for a short while to start with and they went for a short walk around the area.  Dimples and I stayed behind and he played with the Camel Stick that Mahmoud gave him to hold.  By the time Hubby and Princess returned, we had decided that we would see how Dimples would react to being on a camel.  He is a bit more reserved that Princess.  He seemed to enjoy Charlotte Brown, so we decided to go for an hour tour around the pyramids as a family...our friend also joined us on a third camel. 

If you ever find yourself in Egypt, visiting the Pyramids of Giza, you must take a camel ride.  The tours all take you far out into the desert where you get the most incredible pictures of all 9 pyramids in one shot.  It is truly breathtaking.  The camel ride is entertaining in and of itself and a unique way to journey out into the desert.  You would never want to take the walk to the place where we ended up.  In the sand it would be an arduous journey that would probably take two hours on foot.  Our guide was very kind and carried our camera for us and took pictures of our journey.  Dimples rolled in the sand and I was incredibly impressed by how well behaved both kids were on the camels.  No one whined or cried and that made the trip even more incredible.

When we returned to the 2nd pyramid and dismounted the camels, the very kind and generous Mahmoud became a very nasty man that insisted that we pay 350 LE for each camel that we had taken on our journey.  This is a ridiculous price because we know that the going price per camel is 50 LE.  Our Egyptian friend defended our position and after a very heated negotiation, the price dropped to what we wanted it to be.  This is where the major con of going when there are not many tourists around.  The people that are selling things become very greedy and demanding because there are fewer people around to try and sell things to. Then when they get someone to indulge in their services they try to rip them off.  This is common in virtually every tourist area so we were not phased by this.  Some of our friends were extremely distracted by it and it tainted their experience at the pyramids.

Once the negotiation with Mahmoud was dealt with we finally ventured to the area where the Sphynx sits.  I really was looking forward to seeing the Sphynx but as we walked through the little market, the salespeople really started to bother me.  They just would not let up.  The most interesting sales tactic was that they would give something to the kids and say, "it is a gift", let them hold it for a minute or so, and then ask for the money.  We had no problem giving them back their pyramid or camel or pen.  We did walk away with some small treasures, but it was something we actually wanted. 

Once we got past the market and closer to the Sphynx, it was truly grand.  It was everything that I thought it would be and we reveled in the presence of such old and magnificent structures.  We took our pictures, climbed all over the rocky structures, chased the kids and posed for the cheesy tourist photos that everyone should do, just for fun. 

 When we left the Sphynx, we decided that we were all pretty tired.  Our butts were sore from the camel ride and we smelled like camels.  But despite being tired, we still went for lunch and dined along the Nile.  It was an excellent way to end such a special day.  (Pictures of the Sphynx still to come).

Dimples loved playing with the Camel Stick. 

Princess was so excited she would not even pose for the camera!

Hubby and Princess on Snoopy, ready for the trip!

This picture was about 20 minutes into our camel travels.

This is one of the cheesy tourist pictures we just had to take.

Dimples is a sand magnet...this is post playing with the camel poop and he was already filthy anyways.  Other tourists walking past commented that one day he would be an archaeologist excavating some ancient treasure.  I couldn't have agreed with them more!