Cairo. Day One: The Pyramids

Strange is the breakfast buffet where puréed kidney beans look more appetizing than the neighboring scrambled eggs, but sure enough, with a little cumin "Spoiled Bean Mash" is a pretty good breakfast food.

After the quick breakfast, we get a 7:30AM start to the pyramids. Given this followed a day and a half of traveling fatigue and jet lag, this is a testament to how excited we were. How could we not be? We were going to the flipping pyramids!! We get a smidgen lost, and eventually find our way to the ticket booth.

After buying our tickets (and really before we buy them), we're berated by the onslaught of Egyptians selling postcards, plastic pyramid chotchky, and (the majority of them) horse/camel rides around the pyramids. It takes a while to getting in the groove of dismissing them, and after a while, their persistence loses to our frugality and guidebook and we're largely left alone.

This next comment might get laughed at if you haven't seen the pyramids in person: the pyramids are really big. Seriously. Even given modern technology, I seriously doubt I could build something similar. Standing in the shadow (both figuratively and literally because it's 105 degrees outside) of the great pyramid, you realize the Egyptians had their act together.

We were able to snag one of the 150 daily tickets to go inside the great pyramid (score!), and I really wish I could post pictures to give you a visual of what this was like but I cannot because 1) cameras were not allowed inside, and 2) I have no way of transferring pictures from my camera to my iPad so alas, the posts on this trip will all be picture free.

Inside the pyramid makes you feel like Indiana Jones. After a short walk through a winding passage, you reach what looks like a dead end until you realize the 3'X3' opening at your feet. This is an entrance to a 100 foot passage 3 feet high ascending at a 45 degree angle. So you climb, stooped over with a piece of plywood for footing, and praying no one is descending at the same time. While I am making this sound more dramatic that it actually was, the climb up really did have an authentic feel (only a whip and a cool hat from straight up Indiana Jones'n it) and was much more extreme than anything you'd find at a major US landmark. After the 100 feet of crouched climbing, the ceiling opened up to 30 foot high and you assented for another 200 feet. At the summit of the climb? An anti climactic 15'X15' room where the mummy used to be. A quick stop to catch our breath and then we descended.

We spent the rest of the morning walking around the other pyramids and sphinx and refusing camel and horse rides: we wanted to do that at sunset. We returned to the hotel sweaty and tired, and after a quick dip in the pool headed upstairs for a nap. 30 minutes turned into 4 hours quickly, and we missed sunset. Content to sit the rest of the night by the pool playing cards, we vowed to catch a sunset horse ride tomorrow.

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Location:Giza, Egypt