Travelogue Egypt: Day 2 The Pyramids in Giza

The day dawned very predictably, sunny and already warm. We learned from yesterday how hot it would become. Mohamed and Ashraf were waiting for us. For my family this was a big moment, to see the great Pharaonic pyramids up close and personal. For me it was another surprise. The entire pyramid complex has been fenced off and there is now a modern place to purchase tickets to visit the pyramids. In some ways it was still the same, tourists from all over the world, Egyptian tour guides busy telling the stories of the pyramids, hawkers of trinkets and camels for rent. But it was more orderly than the past, less ‘free agents’ running around.

Everyone but Wanda went down the long dark passageway into the second pyramid. The passageway goes down, then up. But now there are railings and foot boards to help tourists go down and up. There is also air circulation and even dehumidifiers present inside the pyramid. So it wasn’t quite as hot and stuffy as it was 20 years ago when I went in a pyramid. It would still be a hard slog for anyone claustrophobic. The enclosed (entombed?) space was a reason Wanda didn’t join us.

In about 20 minutes we emerged back into the brilliant sunlight, got our photos taken with the pyramids, showing how large we are or how small they are (see photo). Love that optical illusion. From there we went up the hill to where the camels were. The girls each had a short ride on a camel. No one fell off, no one had a runaway camel. It was all pretty touristy normative, including the boys asking for their tips. As a tourist you are expected to spread the wealth around and we did although I was glad that Mohamed paid for almost all of our activities up front. It just made it more fun for me, I didn’t have to worry about wrangling for the most part.



We made our perfunctory stop down at the Sphinx, our last point on the Giza tour. Even in low season there were a lot of tourists from all over. The Egyptian government and businesses must be happy to see all the tourists again, we bring in a ton of money for them. I can’t imagine what high season (Jan-April) looks like. At any rate, everything was also very organized here as well although a few more independent hawkers were among the tourists. One young girl followed us around for quite some time. I am sure she was convinced she could sell her wares to a family of three young girls and the wife. But our girls are pretty inured to people in their face, they don’t like it and they ignore it. The downside is that they tend to shut out all conversation at times, making it hard to make friends in country.

The final stop for the morning was at a government approved papyrus shop where they showed tourists how papyrus was turned into pharaonic writing paper. Of course the whole point was to sell tourists papyrus sheets with some ancient pharaonic script and drawings on them. And yes, we did buy a very nice drawing that shows the ancient Egyptian tree of life with all our names in hieroglyphics. It was fun to see how the papyrus paper was made and to come away with something we can hang up when we get home.

Now it was lunchtime and the girls were hungry for McDonalds. It was only the second full day in but they were focused on eating at McDonalds, the pre-teen nirvana for those abroad. The question was, could they wait for lunch, since McDonalds was all the way up in Heliopolis? An emphatic yes. So Ashraf drove through mid day traffic, a 45 minute drive north east to the area I used to live. We were driving there because we planned to visit the MCC offices in the afternoon in Heliopolis. I have to admit I enjoyed eating at McDonalds that day. The reason they are so successful is that the food is good and it tastes the same, whether you are in Wooster, Ohio or Cairo, Egypt. The French fries were crisp and tasty, the Big Mac tasted the same, the milk shake was thick as always. Only the flurries tasted a bit different, the flavor a bit bland and the toppings a bit thin. But it was a large dining room with air conditioning so everyone was quite content.

After lunch we went downstairs shopping at a little supermarket, mostly just to check out the prices and selection. Once again, there was more selection in Cairo than in Addis and the prices were lower. We would shop again before the end. Then we went to look for the MCC Egypt offices. Here Mohamed and Ashraf charting unknown waters, they had never heard of MCC. But they were great in finding the street and the number and we eventually pulled up to the door of what was once the CR residence. I remember when Frank & Holly Keller and Rick & Jan Janzen lived there. It was converted to the MCC offices now. We knocked and found several MCC’ers there. So we sat down and chatted. Ayman, Maggie and Rowan happened to be there. I could have chatted all afternoon but the family had limited patience and we were on the clock with Mohamed and Ashraf (although we had paid for their services). In the end it was a mutual wish to make further connections because there are special connections that could be made between MCC Egypt and Ethiopia because of the unique Orthodox, Evangelical and Muslim contexts that both countries have. Some of our programming is similar and even though they have a good relationship with the Orthodox church and we don’t have any relationship at the moment, maybe we will in the future. So maybe someday soon there will be an impetus to connect the two MCC programs.

We finally went to see the MCC guesthouse. This would be the place that Ashraf and Mohammed would bring us on the final day prior to leaving for Addis. Thanks to Ayman for escorting us to the door. Once they saw where it was, they were sure it would be no problem to bring us back on the final night. So we arranged to get the key on that day for access.

By now the girls were itching to get back to the Grand Pyramids hotel to swim. We had to fight traffic back the whole way, not making anyone’s moods any better. But in the end once they hit the pool, all was well. The waiting, the driving and the hassles of the day were washed away with the plunge into the water. As for food, room service would do. Everyone could swim until dusk and we would eat in our rooms. The girls were ‘home bodies’ in that way. No going out, no showering and dressing up. Just hanging out in your swimsuit or bedclothes. This was vacation. This was the way to do r & r.