Pa Lu Bin Cheng: Cairo (The Great Pyramid Trail), Egypt

Though since early last year, Egypt isn't really an ideal tourist destination because of the Revolution and the on going elections, demonstrations and attacks but last year's early December we travel around Egypt for 12 days and thank god we are back safely.If you ask me if it's safe to travel there...YES! but keep track of the news before you go and most importantly to have a safe distance from Tahrir Square.

It doesn't matter how many blogs, websites or books you read about traveling in Egypt, you will never be prepared enough for what's you're about to expect there. It was indeed very different from our other trips but nonetheless it was an eye opening experience. Our 1st advice from Jossef(our Cairo hostel reception) was...Jossef: you know air? Boon and i: yesss?? Jossef: when you guys are out in the street, treat the people as if their are air. Best advice ever! You'll know, after you read all my post on Egypt. :) stay tune!

Spending in total of 1400Euro for 2 person. All included! Flight (Berlin-Cairo, Cairo-Luxor, Luxor-Cairo-Berlin), food, accommodations, transports, cruise(best decision ever), entrance fee, souvenirs and of cause baksheesh (Tip)

Again we fly from Berlin to Cairo(with Egypt air) which took about 4 hours flight........once you chop your passport there is where you start to experience Egypt.

Once we had our passport stamped, our free transport to the hostel was late! oh boy! there would be 3-5 people coming after you with taxis, hotels with ridiculous price. They might even offer to help you to call your hotel. Always remember nothing is free in Egypt, NOTHING!

our private room with cable TV in Cairo Down Town EGP137(Egyptian Pound) about 18Euro/ night for 2 person. From outside we though it was an abandon building when the driver drop us and oh don't get me started with the elevator. It doesn't have a door...yup no door. For the 1st 2 days we took the stairs eventually we gave in.

Breakfast is included. Basically everyday it's the same no matter where u stay, well except international hotels ;). Luckily i finished my breakfast cause there was no lunch break.

the 1st day we decided to took a 1 day tour (organised by our hostel) start at 8am till 4pm to Sakkara, Dashur and Giza. Cost: EGP190 for 2 pax exclude entrance fees

That's Ruby our driver of the day and our ride. Thank god it's not the same car they arrange to pick us up from the airport

1st stop. Sakkara, by car about 45 minutes drive.

The Step Pyramid of Djoser is the 1st Pyramid ever built around 2650BC

entrance fee EGP30/ pax student price EGP 60 for adult

the roofed colonnade entrance leading to the south of the complex. The stone pillars on the right pic carved to imitate bundled plant stems

i think this is how they dug up the sand when the excavate the are

donkey or horse?

amazing!!

you might think this 2 look friend. oh don't get me wrong...they do!

in fact they are VERY friendly

they insist you take picture with the horse or donkey...what ever that is, saying... NO money NO money they said.

they even carry you up their horse without you asking and heck they even lend you their head scarf for good photo, when you insist you don't want them.

when Boon get down from the horse. Guess what? Baksheesh! Boon: you say no money...Egyptian: yea! no money no money...but money for the horse....

best thing to do in this situation....walk away! salute man.....money for the horse

there are 6 steps in total, each one built on top of each other and smaller that the one below. The pyramid had been closed for a long time as it is not safe to enter

next to Titi Pyramid just 5 minutes from The Step Pyramid of Djoser

the entrance to Titi pyramid is about 1 meter and it was really deep under and walk in a narrow path to a chamber inside the pyramid. the entrance for this pyramid is included in the EGP30/pax earlier. No photos are allowed inside but There are some carving but the chamber is only a small one

next we went to Dashur, about 20 minutes drive, to The Red Pyramid.

have to walk up the stairs to the entrance

EGP15/pax for student EGP30 for adult

you can see the rusty reddish hue of it's stones, hence the name ;)

It is also believed to be the world's first successful attempt at constructing a smooth-sided pyramid

there was only 2 more tourist beside us

this is the narrow path way to go in the pyramid...it's quite deep under. For those who have breathing difficulty i suggest you skip going down. Even it was December inside it's very warm. i think during summer it would be even worse

again no photo inside

took this from the internet

this is how it looks like inside the pyramid. It's empty most of the treasures are in the Cairo Museum

Our driver Ruby gave us some suggestion on how to pose with the Pyramid,

it's actually not bad

The Bent Pyramid from far. We didn't visit the Bent Pyramid but the story behind this strange shape of this Pyramid is that the architect actually made a mistake when building this Pyramid, not realizing it until the height reached about 48m(with an angle of 54 degrees). He then changes his original plans to make it safer as it was not strong enough. He completed it by modifying the angle to 43 degrees. Hence the name

so the Red Pyramid is the improved version, the architect make sure not to repeat the same mistake. It was built right afterward by the same Pharoh Sneferu (Approx: 2600BC)

on the way to Giza the driver brought us to a Perfume shop and also a Papyrus paper factory. They have free drinks :)

the process to make a Papyrus paper isn't really hard. 1st of all.. soak the Papyrus stem in water, then peal the skin then cut into thin strips. After that smash it, roll it and soak in the water again...the longer u soak in water the darker color the paper will be. After maybe few hours the strips are arrange as shown in picture 5 after that put in between 2 cloth and press it to the press machine

voila! Papyrus paper.

According to this man a real Papyrus paper u can fold and soak into water without problem

this is how the outskirts street looks like

We are here in Pyramids of Giza !!!

we decided to take the horse to cover the area because it's darn big. The horse ride cost about EGP100/pax and about 1 hour and we got this price after 1/2 bargain...the guide took use from the back entrance and we went to the highest point to see the whole view of Great Pyramids of Giza. The view was incredible.

As usual i can't stop wowing!!! weather was great plus the path that we took was less crowd.

go crazy.

oh ya the entrance fee was EGP60/pax and half price for student. Apparently only international student cards can only be used here

i can't believed I'm finally here....looking at the oldest 7 wonders of the world

the map.

According to the Escapologists, believe that the pyramid was build as a tomb for the 4th dynasty Egyptian Pharaoh Khufu(Cheops in Greek) and took about 20 years to complete around 2560BC

so magical

Pyramid of Khufu the oldest and also the biggest pyramid of the three pyramids in Giza

Thank god we took the horse instate the camel, because the path was up n down so going down hill it's quite scary and camel are higher so imagine falling n break something :S. Plus horse are easier to get down. So they can't harass for more money :)

siao po trying to climb the pyramid

Boon @ Great Pyramids of Giza

the local said that 2010 December about 20,000 Tourist a DAY!!! and now because of the revolution only few hundred or less per day

2 pieces of history in my palm

Ruby told us that the limestone that were used to built the pyramid here were all from Luxor. It's one hell of a distance.

This is supposed to be the capstone for the top of the pyramid (also called top-stone), but according to a vendor there, this is a fake on as the real one was gold and the government took it for their own..hehe

Well that was what he said but there are rooms to speculate

another thing to look out here in Giza besides the vendors ;) is camel and horse $h!t. They are everywhere

do you know that camel can walk, shit and pee all together at the same time? how cool is that

last but the least the Sphinx.

It's really cool that the irregular shape of the stones are put together and they fit just nicely together. Awesome!

Me with the Sphinx

or as the ancients knew it, "Shesib Ankh" or "the living image"

Even with all the Pictures that we see of the Sphinx, nothing can really prepare you for the time that you finally see the Sphinx with your own eyes

The 18th Dynasty King, Thutmose IV installed a stela between its front paws, describing how, when Thutmose was a young Prince, he had gone hunting and fell asleep in the shade of the Sphinx's head. He had a dream where Ra Hor Akhty (the sun god), talking through the Sphinx, spoke to him, telling the young Prince to clear away the sand because the Sphinx was choking on it. The Sphinx said to him that if he did this, he would be King of Egypt.

Thutmose cleared away all the sand and after 2 years, the god fulfilled his promise to the price and he was made King of Egypt.