When we decided that this would be our last year in Cairo we wrote a little bucket list of things we wanted to do before we left. The haven't, and won't achieve 99% of them, because of one thing or other (a final 'Desert Ball' didn't seem worth the money when I couldn't drink because of the pregnancy, and when we really thought about it a 12-hour drive to Siwa wouldn't work with a toddler either), but at least we have the list and will hopefully return at some point to cross a few more off. One thing on the list though was a pyramids visit. We've got pictures of us and Leila with the pyramids from our Mena House stay last year, but nothing up close. We've never been a big fan of visiting Giza because of all the hassle that you always get, but decided that we should give it a go before we left and we're so glad that we did.
We booked a private tour through the CSA as we thought that this way we'd reduce the amount of hassle we'd receive and with four adults it seemed to make sense to have transport in one vehicle rather than two cars. We wanted an early start on the Friday too, to keep out of the heat and hawkers. All in all our plan worked. Yes we got a bit of hassle from hawkers, but not all that much, and having the guide also smoothed a few other things over; like Leila (not) having her picture taken with a camel for instance.
When Chin was visiting about three years ago we went to Giza together and managed to get inside the smaller pyramid on our ticket, but this time we really crossed something off the 'list' by going inside the Great Pyramid of Giza! The authorities used to restrict the number of tourists going in, but now they have just upped the ticket price and have an open policy (tourism needs to bring in some money!).
We decided to buy all four tickets, but just see how we did inside as to whether we'd all continue into the burial chamber itself (one of us being only 19 months old, another having dodgy knees and another being 7 months pregnant!). But we're very pleased to report that we all made it. The key to our success was going back down the steep slope on our bottoms and using the back-carry position for the sling for the steeper climbs.
We were in fact the first people in of the day and had the great gallery and burial chamber all to ourselves for a few minutes before anyone else made it inside. The first stand-out moment for me though was when we first entered the pyramid and Leila just toddled off down the passageway herself! The second was the mini-break we gave ourselves in the chamber itself where we sat down and had a Pennington pyramid picnic on the floor! Leila had a packet of raisins and we all had a drink of water to revive ourselves while others came and went until the path out was clear enough for us to go.
We then stopped off at the 'photo spot' which is a little drive away, but allows you to see all three pyramids together for a great picture. Leila wasn't completely obliging up here, but we bribed her with a banana and managed a few shots.
Then we got out her toy (Dear Zoo) Camel for her to play with, the hope being that this would attract her interest in the real camels sat about and we'd get a picture of her with them. It worked and she was doing lots of pointing to the camels and then 'showing' them her toy camel and being very excited.
Our guide, Ahmed, then managed to negotiate that we'd have a picture of her with a camel (we felt that camel ride might be pushing it a bit), but this is where it all went wrong. As she approach the camel he let out a very camel-esque grunt! This was the first time that Leila had heard what a camel sounds like (we pretend they just say 'gamel, gamel, gamel') and she was suddenly very put off the idea of going anywhere near it! She backed away and just kept saying 'no no no' and wagging her finger at it! It was a shame we didn't quite get the photo we wanted, and we hope she hasn't been permanently scarred by the idea of a camel ride, but it was quite funny really. She was soon distracted from the camel and his strange sound by an old rusty chair that she decided to sit on and then decided to play with her camel along in the sand all the way back to the minibus.
Although it wasn't even 10am it was starting to get hot and we realised that we only had time for one last thing before Leila really 'lost it' in the heat. We decided on a quick visit to the Sphinx and so started the walk down the slope to it; the was Leila's favourite part of the tour I think as she had the whole road clear for her!
We had to wrestle her into photos and then once we were inside the sphinx complex had to fend off people wanting photos with her; I didn't want to let a random person manhandle her into their photo, when she didn't even want to be in ours! In the end we got a few nice pics once she had a bit of space to walk again and we made a quick exit to head home.
All in all we're really pleased that we did the trip and hopefully Leila and Pickle 2 will be able to go back again some day.
We booked a private tour through the CSA as we thought that this way we'd reduce the amount of hassle we'd receive and with four adults it seemed to make sense to have transport in one vehicle rather than two cars. We wanted an early start on the Friday too, to keep out of the heat and hawkers. All in all our plan worked. Yes we got a bit of hassle from hawkers, but not all that much, and having the guide also smoothed a few other things over; like Leila (not) having her picture taken with a camel for instance.
When Chin was visiting about three years ago we went to Giza together and managed to get inside the smaller pyramid on our ticket, but this time we really crossed something off the 'list' by going inside the Great Pyramid of Giza! The authorities used to restrict the number of tourists going in, but now they have just upped the ticket price and have an open policy (tourism needs to bring in some money!).
We decided to buy all four tickets, but just see how we did inside as to whether we'd all continue into the burial chamber itself (one of us being only 19 months old, another having dodgy knees and another being 7 months pregnant!). But we're very pleased to report that we all made it. The key to our success was going back down the steep slope on our bottoms and using the back-carry position for the sling for the steeper climbs.
We were in fact the first people in of the day and had the great gallery and burial chamber all to ourselves for a few minutes before anyone else made it inside. The first stand-out moment for me though was when we first entered the pyramid and Leila just toddled off down the passageway herself! The second was the mini-break we gave ourselves in the chamber itself where we sat down and had a Pennington pyramid picnic on the floor! Leila had a packet of raisins and we all had a drink of water to revive ourselves while others came and went until the path out was clear enough for us to go.
We then stopped off at the 'photo spot' which is a little drive away, but allows you to see all three pyramids together for a great picture. Leila wasn't completely obliging up here, but we bribed her with a banana and managed a few shots.
Then we got out her toy (Dear Zoo) Camel for her to play with, the hope being that this would attract her interest in the real camels sat about and we'd get a picture of her with them. It worked and she was doing lots of pointing to the camels and then 'showing' them her toy camel and being very excited.
Our guide, Ahmed, then managed to negotiate that we'd have a picture of her with a camel (we felt that camel ride might be pushing it a bit), but this is where it all went wrong. As she approach the camel he let out a very camel-esque grunt! This was the first time that Leila had heard what a camel sounds like (we pretend they just say 'gamel, gamel, gamel') and she was suddenly very put off the idea of going anywhere near it! She backed away and just kept saying 'no no no' and wagging her finger at it! It was a shame we didn't quite get the photo we wanted, and we hope she hasn't been permanently scarred by the idea of a camel ride, but it was quite funny really. She was soon distracted from the camel and his strange sound by an old rusty chair that she decided to sit on and then decided to play with her camel along in the sand all the way back to the minibus.
Although it wasn't even 10am it was starting to get hot and we realised that we only had time for one last thing before Leila really 'lost it' in the heat. We decided on a quick visit to the Sphinx and so started the walk down the slope to it; the was Leila's favourite part of the tour I think as she had the whole road clear for her!
We had to wrestle her into photos and then once we were inside the sphinx complex had to fend off people wanting photos with her; I didn't want to let a random person manhandle her into their photo, when she didn't even want to be in ours! In the end we got a few nice pics once she had a bit of space to walk again and we made a quick exit to head home.
All in all we're really pleased that we did the trip and hopefully Leila and Pickle 2 will be able to go back again some day.
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