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On the way back the guide started really whipping the camels and got them going at a full run (I honestly think to hurt and punish us a little) because after 2 minutes he said “This is too fast for you?” with a nasty smile. I said I was fine and he slowed the camels. When we were 1 minute away he stopped the camels and told us to start smiling so he got paid a lot of money from the owner. He also started asking my partner for his tip. My partner told him to take us back to the stables so he could get off the camel and get his wallet out of his back pocket. It had only been an hour since we’d left (not 2 hours like it was supposed to be and we only saw 7 of the 9 pyramids but we were happy to be back).
When we got back the manager asked us how the tourguide was. The tourguide was 5 feet away so we just said “It was ok.” The manager kept saying “tell me the truth.” I’m sure our non-smiling faces said plenty.
We got in the car and Sam asked how it was. We told him “bad.” He said he could take us around again but we’d have to pay the entrance fees again. We said it was ok but asked if he could take us to the KFC to get a picture of it. One of the girls who worked at our head office in Japan asked us if we’d get a picture of the KFC at the foot of the pyramids for her. (Love you Mieko!)
We did that and then set off for the oldest pyramid in Egypt and the world’s oldest stone monument (wow moment) built in 2650BC: the Step Pyramid in Saqqara. It was 50LE each to get us plus 2LE for parking for the car. Our own tourguide gave us a 30 minute lecture about the history of the SP, the mummification process and the evolution of the pyramids (including the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid which you could see from our stone “seats” in the sun). It was very interesting.
He then gave us 20 minutes to walk around on our own. Usually we’d have more time at all of the sites, but since it’s Ramadan everything closes down at 2 or 3 so we had to hurry a little. I think pyramids are a lot like temples (once you’ve seen a few you feel like you’ve seen them all) so I felt pretty good with just seeing the Giza and Saqqara ones.
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