Off to the Pyramids - in Air-Conditioned Comfort!

And here is the Nile.



And in the city of Cairo ultramodern, sleek international hotels stand side by side with poverty and squalor.

These city shots above and left are both views from our hotel balcony.








Our guide Sahar took this photo of me with the pyramids in the background while we waited for Boak to return from the desert.





Boak had a half hour camel ride (negotiated by our guide) across the desert, and here are some of our photos. He makes a dashing figure on a camel, but says it’s a bumpy ride!




To try to make up for some of our lost sightseeing, the tour company gave us a guide, driver and air conditioned limousine (read Hyundai people-mover – nothing like an Aussie limo), to take us to see the pyramids at Giza and Sakkara the next day. It’s a blessing that the pyramids are so close to the parking lot, a bit of a “cheat” really, so I posed for the photos and hopped back in the car.

I thought I was prepared for the scoundrels who want to separate tourists from their money there, but even as I went to take a photo myself, a smooth operator plonked a (new) Arab headdress on my head, told me it was a gift “because I was nice”, and asked to take my photo. Boak, who’d been distracted taking shots himself, came to my rescue but had 3 tacky pyramids thrust into his hand. Then the hard word came. No small change would do. So I threw the headdress in his direction and we hurried away leaving him muttering something unsavoury in Arabic. When Boak tried to take a photo of me against the Great Pyramid a couple of friendly looking policemen posed themselves beside me. Then gestured to Boak for money! We quickly realized we must trust no-one. However I was almost caught again later when I was lining up a shot and 2 policemen offered to pose. I said “no”, then closer to me heard a stage whisper “Psssst”. It was a cleaning man pointing to a better vantage point. Took the photo, then – wouldn’t you know it – he too wanted baksheesh! Sheesh!