egypt... the land of tax evasion

so we made it safe and sound to Egypt, we stepped out of the plane at night into 30 degree heat, but surprisingly its really not that bad. today it was around 37 degrees and you dont really notice because it's got a nice humidity level.

Anyway, we got to our hotel, and its pretty nice, good location, etc etc, and our tour guide from intrepid gave me a call and asked if we wanted to do any other trips before our tour starts in a couple of days. He suggested Sakkara (also spelled Saqqara) and we decided to do that one. We were picked up early this morning and there were no other people on our tour. It was a really great tour. We went to Saqqara to see the stepped pyramid which is currently under restoration as the sand damage is pretty bad. The amount of hawkers there is crazy, and the only way to get rid of them is to avoid eye contact and just shake your head, dont even say no, or they will follow you!!

After Saqqara we went to a carpet "school"??? Where they are teaching young people how to weave carpets (after regular school of course) and we got to walk around the factory, and then got taken upstairs to the showroom (where we bought a carpet... suckers!). But we feel better about buying their carpets because it's all legit and government sanctioned and checked upon... no slave labour or anything (I checked about the kids working in the factory with the tour guide, but they actually ARE learning skills etc for the future.)

We then went to.. er.... Dahthur? Dah something? I cant remember all these names! It is a place, which i will look up later, with two pyramids, a bendy one, and a true pryamid. We got to go inside the true pyramid. OMG crazy! Its got this narrow narrow shaft and you have to duck as you walk down the 200 - 300 odd meter shaft to get into the burial chambers. It stank like wees down there! I am a little concerned about where the dodgy "friendly tour man"-hawker-sitting-at-the-top-of-the-shaft goes for wees huh. Anyway, it was really amazing, and exhausting climbing back out!

After that we went to Memphis which was the first capital of the united Egypt. Theres a giant statue of Rameses II there, but most of the rest of the stuff there is too badly damaged by the other people who have come by in the ages. We then headed back to this restaurant for lunch, and had this amazing lunch, which included felafels, homemade puffy pita thingys, salads, roasted veges, roasted meats, and rice. It was great!

We had a really great tour guide who told us a lot about the country (we went with Intrepid Travel). As we were driving along she pointed out a lot of stuff to us, like, on the West Bank of the nile, there are a lot of tall apartment buildings who look unfinished, but have a lot of people already living in them. They leave it unfinished as a tax dodge!!! those sneaky egyptians! I'll try and take a picture if we go past it again, but imagine a sea of red bricked 7 story high buildings like a sea in front of you... all with metal rods and half built bricks on top!

It's been fantastic so far, just going to the supermarket and a day to chill and roam around the neighbourhood tomorrow before our tour starts!

till next time
xx
Laura