मिस्र, the Dravidian translation of Egypt, I found the Egyptian history very mysterious all my childhood; I recollect admiring the golden pictures of kings and pharaohs in the encyclopedia and wondered about the gigantic construction of the Pyramids; it was more like a dreamland on my checklist. Guess what! Kehte hain agar kisi cheez ko dil se chaho … to poori kainat use tumse milane ki koshish mein lag jaati hai, I fully agree that the statement is too filmy; but it is 100% true. Firstly, my school organized a trip to Egypt and secondly my parents agreed to send me on the trip without much convincing; 2 miracles happened in a row. It was totally my day or what?
We were a group of 4 girlfriends who had somehow managed to sway our parents for this trip and then spent a bunch load of study hours just excited about the trip, fully guilty; but mostly super eager for our first trip without parental supervision. I don’t remember seeing the airport more crowded than what it was the night we were flying to Cairo; every student was accompanied by a set of parents in the least, some even had few family friends tagging along with them while pouring down truck load of do’s and don’ts. The Muscat airport allowed non-passengers to see-off travellers up to the check-in counters back in those days; we were more than 40 students travelling together along with 4 teachers, so just imagine the crowd intensity. I could not stop giggling at the thought of our teachers; they had an extra duty of pacifying concerned parents besides checking-in their luggage safely. I pinched myself to believe that I was really going to Egypt as the Oman Air Boeing 737 whirred off the runway.
Clearing customs took a while; the faculty members collected all our passports once we finished all the paperwork as an immigrant visitor; our teachers were quite serious about not getting stranded with brats like us with cases of lost passports in Africa!
We were then scurried towards a tourist bus to transport us to our hotel; the trip organizers introduced themselves as we moved into the cit. Cairo is an ancient city with all the modern amenities right on point; the city’s roadway infrastructure is quite commendable creating a whirlwind of flyovers and underpasses. An interesting fact; we noticed tall residential buildings had been incomplete, walls showing red brickwork with reinforcement bars shooting out of the walls on the outer side, however with a little bit of keen observation we noticed they were fully functional inside and were apparently left unfinished on purpose sighting some apparent tax benefit. We arrived at our hotel, the Pyramid View Inn after a 50 mins informative bus ride and checked in to our designated rooms after a brief cautionary session by our tour guides as pick-pocketing is a common mishap there around.
Citadel in Cairo
Our room was a real sight for sore eyes; situated on the 10th floor, the tall French window overlooking the Pyramids at a distance and the setting sun posed for the best backdrop one could have asked for; Nikita and I literally screamed in excitement as we entered the room and stared in dis-belief.
View from our room
View from the rooftop at Pyramid View Inn
We had the evening to ourselves and what more would a bunch of girls want when left alone, eat and shop; yes, we were a bunch of shopaholics right form our childhood! The Khan-el-Khalili market was at a minute’s walk from our hotel; skimming the market to see what’s good is very important before actually plunging into buying; day 1 evening was totally dedicated to that. We called it a night after gorging on some delicious Shawarma and Falafel. Interestingly, each platter is served with Torshi, which is technically not a dish on its own but would definitely graduate as a side consisting of pickled veggies. We all received a reminder call for an early start the next day; we were to leave our hotel at 7:30am.
Egyptian food - Foul madammas, Hawawshy and Torshi
We grabbed a few croissants and hurried into the bus; as the bus turned into the parking lot, I caught a glimpse of the Pyramid of King Menkaure; my excitement was hitting the roof no! I gazed at the humungous structure in awe and slowly walked towards it; to date, I’ve never been able to convincingly describe the magnanimity of these Pyramids to someone who hasn’t seen it, so please bear with me. Baba’s Olympus E-10 camera had maxed its zoom-out capacity and even when we were standing at a minimum distance of 200m away from its base, I was nowhere close to capturing the apex of the Pyramid. The guide mentioned that approx. 2.5 lac limestone boulders were used to create a pyramid with each boulder weighing upto 2.3 metric tons; the ones used at the base were approx. 1.5m high and the size of each boulder reduced as we climbed higher; but nevertheless our plight while climbing up a few boulders for pictures was immense. Boy, they were scarily huge! We were kids back then, pulling each other up while pushing through the crowd, we finally made it a few boulders up. The main pyramid of King Menkaure has a square base of about 230x230m, rises upto a height of about 140m and is it considered one of the most mysterious human constructions made more than 4000 years back, during the reign of Khnum-Khuf, the 4th dynasty of the old kingdom.
Pyramids at Giza
We were taken to the Chepren Pyramid next, wherein passages were made open for tourists to enter and witness the complexity and grandeur of the construction. We heard the guide enquiring if anyone was claustrophobic and instructed, “Stay bent and keep your head low, while going down and while coming up”. It was a 3x3 feet opening made for tourists; “Am I going to able to fit in through the passage” was my first thought, quite evident from my pictures above. “I may roll while climbing down, but what if I get stuck while climbing up?”; all jokes apart, I was genuinely worried but proudly Golu! 😊
I however didn’t want to miss out, probably the only opportunity of witnessing this marvel; hence with tad bit of convincing from my friends, I decided to leave it in the hands of fate and joined the rapidly moving queue. No cameras were allowed inside as any flashlight could cause potential damage to these ancient constructions. I heard my heart thump with mixed feelings as I bent to enter, “Oh boy! there were no stairs”, it was a wooden plank riveted with metal strips for improved grip and a rickety railing for holding-on to. The inside was moderately lit with dim yellow lights for decent visibility while the smell of chalk wafted through the surroundings; the King’s chamber was lined with granite and multiple other chambers were constructed at various heights constructed for the supporting beams, stress-relieving and for the grand gallery. After a brief look around, we were hurried towards the way out; it got quite difficult crawling our way out against the steep incline.
The Sphinx
We spotted the Sphinx as soon as we landed out of the escape hole; it is essentially an ancient monolithic structure with a human’s head with wings of an eagle and the body of a lion, primarily known for guarding the princely treasures inside the Pyramid. The Sphinx is largely made up of limestones and stretches to about 20m in length and stands tall in line with the Pyramid of Khafre, the second largest of Giza’s pyramids. After spending the day checking out the comparatively smaller pyramids which were constructed to house the queen’s mortal remains and grabbing bites of some brilliant Arabic food, we returned to the Pyramid site for a transcending light and sound show. It was a full cast drama principally narrated by the Sphinx since its conception by Pharaoh Khafre in approximately 2500 BC till the end of the monarchial era.
We headed to the Egyptian Museum the next day morning and it unfurled like a pandora’s box of information; a 70 feet tall statue resembling the seated monolithic ones at Abu Simbel greeted us at the foyer; I still get goosebumps every time I read about the Egyptian era and the marvels they had created about 4000 years back. The museum hosts a specific chamber for restoring and preserving the mummies which were carefully retrieved from inside the pyramids; quite a chilly affair! The museum guide took specific interest in making sure we understood and remembered the dates and facts; he kept us engaged by asking question while giving the tour. A history teacher who had accompanied us smirked and remarked, “And all you fools thought you were on a trip!”, we frowned while he laughed and took off.
Egyptian Museum
The tomb cases at the museum
After a day loaded with facts and figures, it was time to have some fun; we had about 2-3 hours before the dinner cruise; needless to say, we headed to the Khan-el-Khalili market to do some actual shopping; we were warned about bargaining. An interesting fact; this market dates back to the Mamluk era of 14th century and was primarily established to engage into commercial trade and empower artisans and craftsmen and is a bustling market till date. The market has a plethora of shops showcasing statues and figurines made of blackstone; some adorned with gold plating, others beautifully carved with intricate designs. You would fine chandeliers and Egyptian cotton garments ornated with extravagant baroque work. I grabbed a flower vase with some amount of savvy gold work and a couple of miniature pyramids. We were fairly content with our picks from the market, but our eyes caught a heavily crowded store at the exit, displaying beautiful statue replicas. A cat statue specifically caught my eye; on enquiring the shopkeeper quoted 1000 Egyptian pounds and pointed towards a tourist who was closing the deal for the same statue. “Man! That’s expensive”, I thought, and retorted with a straight face, “Will pay 200 pounds”; the other tourist swiftly turned to look at me, bewildered and walked away laughing. As we stood there for a couple more minutes, the shopkeeper quoted “take it for 500 pounds”, I stuck to 200, a few more iterations of number calling, and we closed the deal at 250 Egyptian pounds. 😊 I was totally built for Sarojini market since then!
Khan-el-Khalili
Khan-el-Khalili Souq
We dressed as fancy as possible and gathered at the dock yard for the dinner cruise on River Nile; we did not know what to expect and hence everything about the cruise felt fancy. I recollect having a space reserved for all of us on the upper deck; as the ship set sail, we grabbed our welcome drinks and headed to the outer deck to soak in the breeze. The bank was adorned with beautifully lit hotel and commercial buildings and a generous number of malls; the sound of mizmar instrument was quite evident; yes, we were going to witness a live belly-dance performance. The crowd cheered in amazement as she caught on with her graceful performance; few other artists accompanied her belly-dancer and we had a gala evening. The dinner spread was on-point; we ate and danced to our heart’s content and called it a night after the 3 hours cruise ride. we headed to Alexandria the next day, so stay tuned for more travel stories.
The school gang
Expense Summary
Trip duration - 4 days
Flights - INR 36,000 return fare per head
Stay - INR 3,500 for twin sharing rooms
Food - INR 2,000
Basic expense total - INR 43,250 per head
Additional Expense
Dinner Cruise Passes - INR 1,500 per head
Shopping at Khan-el-Khalili
Additional expense - Approx. INR 1,500
Recommendations -
Try to plan a trip during Oct and November months, they form the shoulder season with comparatively lesser crowd cheaper hotels and airfare
If you eat non-veg, please do try the Shwarmas, they are delicious.
Falafel and Foul madammas are must try dishes for vegetarians
Do not miss out the dinner cruise on Nile