Past Adventures • Tomb Raider

After I posted my NYC past adventure I planned on sharing more of my travel mishaps and social calamities – unfortunately they are a regular occurrence in my life – but being the awful blogger that I am, I forgot.  I was however reminded of this particular incident when Quinn posted about her trip to Cairo (Quinn, I just realised my trip to Cairo was probably just a couple of weeks before yours)

AUGUST 2010

Kevin had booked for us to go on holiday with his friends and their little boy.  10 days All Inclusive in Sharm-el-Sheikh, Egypt.  Now, I’m going to sound like the most ungrateful girlfriend in the world but…  I know it’s great if you have kids or if you are the type of person who basically just wants sunshine (I’m from Scotland I get that!) but an all inclusive resort is really not my thing.  Sharing a pool with the same people you shared the flight with, Good Morning nods to the guy from seat 28E and battling it out for a sun lounger with the kid that took a flaky in the airport does not give you feel for a place, you don’t learn about the culture or history and most importantly you do not help the country’s economy.[RANT OVER].   Egypt, as you probably know, has incredible history and home to the most famous and extraordinary landmarks known to man.  There was no way I was lying on sun lounger, expanding my waist for the whole 10 days when I was so close to the last remaining wonder of the ancient world.

Firstly, lets talk about the transfer from the airport.  17 people from our flight were going to our hotel, we were picked up in a 12 seater minibus.  As usual, Shorty here drew the short straw and had to sit on Kevin’s knee (ok, maybe Kevin drew the short straw) in the front next to the driver, my face practically pressed against windscreen.  The driver was actually really lovely and talked about everything we were passing but OMG I felt like I was in a Mario Kart.  We dashed in and out of lanes in rush hour traffic, I never heard so many car horns blasting.  Kevin questioned why some of the lamp posts were lying at the side of the road.  The driver replied ‘look ahead the road is not finished’, he wasn’t kidding, we drove over sand for about half a mile before joining back onto tarmac.  I was more than grateful when we finally arrived at our hotel in one piece.

After a couple of days of chilling out, which I must admit was actually amazing.  Kevin and I headed off to explore Cairo and ancient Egypt for a few of days.  Our friends stayed at the resort.  They didn’t have visas to leave Sharm and although this was before the political unrest that it is now, Egypt was still very high risk for terrorist attacks.  I couldn’t blame them for wanting to keep their little boy somewhat oblivious in this sanctuary of water slides and free ice cream.

SHARM-EL-SHEIKH  TO  CAIRO

I’m not a great flyer but this was honestly the worst plane I have ever been on in my life, the only way I can explain it was an old military cargo type plane with actual bus seats stuck in, we even had to climb up the hatch/ rear door. NO JOKE

Thankfully we made it to Cairo without the back door opening, sprinkling us all across the Sahara.. that’s what I kept imagining the whole way…  I might have a slightly overactive imagination.

EGYPTIAN  MUSEUM

After an altercation with airport security and losing some clothes off our backs to beggars our first stop in Cairo was the Egyptian Museum.

Now is probably a good time to share that I get really freaked out by dead bodies, graves, ancient remains, supernatural, the dark.. in fact I’m scared of flipping everything…  a museum full of mummies was right up my street. NOT!  Alas, we were here for a history lesson so I sucked it up.  The Museum was actually phenomenal, even if I did walk around cowering behind Kevin holding onto his arm in fear that one of the mummified bodies would jump out of its glass case and kill me.  Thankfully they didn’t.

Most spectacular was the Tutankhanum exhibition.  Every item an absolute work of art. The craftsmanship and the extravagance of the riches found in his tomb were unbelievable for the time period which makes it even more heartbreaking to see the poverty and war across Egypt today.

With our minds blown we enjoyed lunch in a restaurant that sat on the Nile before being picked up for the next and most exciting part of our adventure… and the actual point of this post.  I need to work on my rambling.

On the coach to the pyramids our guide warned us about camel touts, people offering to take photos to extort money etc.  he also said the police that guarded the area were just as bad.  Everyone, except me, was excited that one of the Great Pyramids was open if we wanted to go inside.  HELL-TO-THE-NO!  I said to Kevin he could if he wanted but there was no way I was going into a tomb, the mummies in glass cases just scared the bejesus out of me… have you even seen the movie The Mummy!!! I was happy to marvel at them from the outside and get one of those obligatory tourist photos where you look like you are touching the top.

As we got nearer we could see the pyramids above the buildings.  Quite surreal how close the city is to them.   We were informed no photography was allowed inside the pyramid, it wasn’t allowed inside the museum either.  The guide also explained that the pyramids would soon be closed to the public as they are becoming badly damaged and so, Kevin convinced me to man up and go inside.  Holy sheeeeeeet.

THE  PYRAMIDS  OF  GIZA

Standing at the base of the pyramids was one of those moments where you can’t find words, you just stand in silence staring.  I still cant comprehend how they were built and how are they still standing all these years later.

I was so scared walking in, the passage was really narrow and small, Kevin had to crouch, I can’t remember if I did, probably not.  We descended for a bit and then changed to a climb before we reached the chamber.  It was much smaller than I imagined and hotter than hell.. imagine being inside a huge stone oven.  As I made my way to the middle of the chamber a ‘pyramid guardian’ tapped me on the shoulder from behind, I jumped out of my skin ‘Seriously dude I’m already having actual palpitations here!’  He said something like “10 dollars for photo” and made a hand signal that looked like clicking a camera in front of his face.  I must have just stared with a confused look, like erm, cameras are not allowed?!?  He grabbed my arm pulling me over to the other side of him saying ‘photo, photo, cheese’.  The next thing I knew I was lying inside the coffin on the floor of the chamber.  Petrified that he was about to close a lid over, I jumped out and grabbed onto Kevin.

There were a couple of other people from our coach there who had sneaked cameras in (we’re so nieve) so they stayed to pose in the coffin and take photos whilst I made a sharp exit running back through the passage way like Lara Croft, but not really like Lara Croft, she was badass I am not!  Kevin thought it was hilarious but I wasn’t ready to laugh, I was bloody traumatised and convinced I’d just been cursed by Pharoah Khafre for jumping into his bed.

I calmed down and eventually started to see the funny side as we wandered around outside the pyramids still not believing that we were here.  A camel tout asked if Kevin wanted a camel ride?  He declined the offer and was then asked …’What about your daughter?’  I burst out laughing as Kevin hastily, explained that I was in fact NOT  his daughter!! Haha

Thankfully the rest of the trip was less dramatic.  Well, there was one more.. I was tapped on the shoulder whilst sunbathing back at the resort.  I opened my eyes to a huge picture of a shark, and jumped 10ft in the air..I have a phobia.. ‘shark fishing ma’am?’ Snorkelling?  You want to try?’  Arrrrrgh!!

This is why I don’t do trip reviews, my mishaps make it hard to sell a place but I can honestly say that Egypt was and still is one of my favourite trips of all time.

 

Feel free to share your travel mishaps with me? Go on, make me feel kinda normal.

Have you seen the pyramids? How do you think were the made? Aliens, Magic?

Thanks for reading😊

Have a great day ❤

Angela xo