Mike in Egypt

[History buff]

All I can say is WOW Mike. I would love to travel to Egypt and see the great Sphinx and other pyramids and float down the Nile.

I am glad you had a blast. I loved the pictures.

[mikeinie]

Thanks for you responses.
Positives and negatives points of Cairo:

Yes the Pyramids are amazing, I always wanted to see them and although I always knew they were huge, it is very different when you are standing in front of them and they are reaching up to the sky before you. Each ‘brick’ is almost my height and I am over 6 ft tall so you can imagine the enormousness of it.

What was a surprise is when ever you see photos of the pyramids they are surrounded by desert, which they are, but I always thought that they were out in the desert, however if you face the pyramids they are in a desert setting, turn around and Cairo is sprawling out before you.

What is a major turn off is the amount of hassle you get the entire time you are there. A constant barrage of guys aggressively trying to sell you post cards, souvenirs, asking to take a picture of you, asking them to take a picture of them with their camel. Every scam you can think of.
One guy asked for our ticket to escort us over to the entrance of one of the pyramids (we said no) but what he would do is take your ticket, walk you to the entrance and then want money to give you your ticket back.

It is non stop, in fact it took away from the experience of being there as I spent so much time telling these guys to leave me alone.

This time of year the temperature is just nice, it was about 20 degree Celsius. In the summer the temp can be as high as 40 degree.

Yes there is lots of poverty, the city is very dirty and crowded. The driving is like you have never seen before, it is madness. But then there are over 18,000,000 people in the city so you would expect that I guess.

[Nomad]

So those pyramid thingies are real then ?

[Kathy Ellen]

Hi Mike,

Thanks for sharing your pictures. We took a hydrofoil from Gibralta to Tangiers. Thank goodness we had a great tour guide who wouldn't let anyone near us. We loved exploring Tangiers, but the beggers and salesmen would not leave the foreigners alone.

It was a good experience, but a bit scary at times.

[Imladris]

Originally Posted by Chezzie

I think they give pilots a map or even sat nav for the sky soz Immy I couldnt resist...me bad

I thought that as I wrote it!

Thanks for the info Mike, I'm still not convinced I want to go but I do want to see the pyramids so I might have to!!

The constant hassling I experienced in Israel and as I don't tan I got it all the time 'cos I looked like I'd just stepped off the plane!

[lala0453]

I actually really enjoy reading your blog. Glad you’re sticking around! And I must say, I absolutely love the title of your blog

[AussiePam]

And the longest living troll prize goes to........................

[Kathy Ellen]

Originally Posted by AussiePam

And the longest living troll prize goes to........................

They're usually on here early in my morning

[mikeinie]

Originally Posted by lala0453

I actually really enjoy reading your blog. Glad you’re sticking around! And I must say, I absolutely love the title of your blog

??? WTF

I don't get it

[AussiePam]

G'day Mike - we've had a series of little trolls popping in lately. They are probably in some telemarketing sweatshop in some sad corner of the globe and the new methodology seems to be to copy and paste an artfully crafted "relevant" comment in a good attempt at English in random threads possibly thinking mods will miss them and so far this one has survived and resurrects old threads daily in similar mode - with attached link to whatever.

The link's always been surgically removed - possibly without anaesthetic - so who knows what. Gee - maybe we've been deprived of getting that American green card we always wanted, or extending our manhood, or perhaps we've lost the opportunity of sending our bank details to Nigeria....