As much as we dreaded having going back, we arrived at the Giza train station at 9:50am this morning. This time, however, we had reinforcements: our Arabic-speaking guide, Amira. This turned out to be a life saver! We walked up to the window of the shack, and low-and-behold it was closed. Immediately, Amira started talking Arabic to the rifle-carrying guards, who informed her that the shack opens at 9 (not 8, as we were told), and the man is on his way. We stood around for 15 minutes, but no one came. Amira conversed with the guards again, and they called down the sharp-shooter from the guard tower (why they need a sharp-shooter at a train station is beyond me). He told her that 3 guys run the ticketing, and is surprised no one is there yet. Kim and I now discussed our options. We mentioned that we might want to try flying to Luxor at this point, especially if it was close to the same price as the train, which wasn’t cheap to begin with. Immediately, our guide got on her cell phone with Egypt Air and gave us prices (which were comparable to the train), so we decided to change our plans and fly. In a way we were relieved, as I don’t think Kim especially wanted to take the train after the train station experiences (and friends have told us the train is a little shady). Amira spent the rest of the morning driving us to the Sheraton (we were able to book extra nights with our Starwood points), then to the Egypt Air office to buy tickets. Amira was awesome.
So our Cairo tour didn’t really get started until the afternoon, and since we were running behind, we decided to skip lunch. We visited three famous Mosques in what is known as Islamic Cairo, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, and then Coptic Cairo.
In Islamic Cairo, it seems like there is a Mosque on almost every corner. The mosques we visited, Ibn Toulud (dating from around 640 A.D.), Sultan Hassan, and Al Rifa’I, were definitely huge/impressive. While visiting the mosques, we witnessed an Imam doing the actual call-to-prayer, and learned a lot about Islam from our guide along the way.
After having visited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, the bazaar in Cairo seemed less impressive. Plus, it was like a maze, so it was very easy to get lost in sketchy back alleys.
In Coptic Cairo, we visited the Hanging Church, a church from the Byzantine times, which was built on top of a Roman fortress.
On the way back to Giza, we visited an Egyptian cotton factory, where, by the way, I purchased my “Egypt” t-shirt. We ate a huge dinner back at the hotel to make up for not eating all day, then hit the sack, preparing for our 6:30am flight to Luxor the next morning. By the way, the Sheraton upgraded us this night, since we booked with Starwood points. Below was our new view.
So our Cairo tour didn’t really get started until the afternoon, and since we were running behind, we decided to skip lunch. We visited three famous Mosques in what is known as Islamic Cairo, the Khan el-Khalili bazaar, and then Coptic Cairo.
In Islamic Cairo, it seems like there is a Mosque on almost every corner. The mosques we visited, Ibn Toulud (dating from around 640 A.D.), Sultan Hassan, and Al Rifa’I, were definitely huge/impressive. While visiting the mosques, we witnessed an Imam doing the actual call-to-prayer, and learned a lot about Islam from our guide along the way.
After having visited the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, the bazaar in Cairo seemed less impressive. Plus, it was like a maze, so it was very easy to get lost in sketchy back alleys.In Coptic Cairo, we visited the Hanging Church, a church from the Byzantine times, which was built on top of a Roman fortress.
On the way back to Giza, we visited an Egyptian cotton factory, where, by the way, I purchased my “Egypt” t-shirt. We ate a huge dinner back at the hotel to make up for not eating all day, then hit the sack, preparing for our 6:30am flight to Luxor the next morning. By the way, the Sheraton upgraded us this night, since we booked with Starwood points. Below was our new view.
Additional thoughts/notes:
- Having a guide in Cairo is a must. They are inexpensive, we learned a lot, and a driver is included to drop you off at your destinations and navigate the tricky streets of Cairo.
- The population of Egypt is ~80M, and even though Egypt is huge, the entire population lives along the banks of the Nile (97% of the country is desert). The population of Cairo is 20M (larger than Istanbul), ¼ that of the entire country.
- Tourism is Egypt’s largest industry, providing 60% of Egypt’s GDP. Second is cotton, and third is fees from the Suez canal. The tourism industry, and thus Egypt's entire economy, has been hit badly because of the swine flu.
- One piece of advice - In Egypt, stay at American hotel. We are glad we did.
- Turkey = beards; Cairo = mustaches
- Cairo - The Good: The pyramids and our hotel. The Bad: Everything else. I think our friend in Istanbul, Jonathan Pascual, put it best: "Take Cairo and then remove everything that's bad about it, and you have Istanbul."
- Having a guide in Cairo is a must. They are inexpensive, we learned a lot, and a driver is included to drop you off at your destinations and navigate the tricky streets of Cairo.
- The population of Egypt is ~80M, and even though Egypt is huge, the entire population lives along the banks of the Nile (97% of the country is desert). The population of Cairo is 20M (larger than Istanbul), ¼ that of the entire country.
- Tourism is Egypt’s largest industry, providing 60% of Egypt’s GDP. Second is cotton, and third is fees from the Suez canal. The tourism industry, and thus Egypt's entire economy, has been hit badly because of the swine flu.
- One piece of advice - In Egypt, stay at American hotel. We are glad we did.
- Turkey = beards; Cairo = mustaches
- Cairo - The Good: The pyramids and our hotel. The Bad: Everything else. I think our friend in Istanbul, Jonathan Pascual, put it best: "Take Cairo and then remove everything that's bad about it, and you have Istanbul."
- Below is a video of the call-to-prayer we meant to post while in Istanbul. The video is taken of the Blue Mosque from the roof of our hotel, which should give you an idea of how loud it was in our room. This happens 5 times a day.
Call To Prayer (Blue Mosque) - Istanbul, Turkey from Brian Burns on Vimeo.
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