Hello Egypt!!

After an interminable flight, at long last we landed in Cairo. With flight and luggage delays, we finally made it to our room at 1AM, nodding off around 2. Alas, we had a 7AM wake up call.

We usually do not stay in 5-star hotels, but knowing that we would arrive exhausted, I opted to splurge, so we treated ourselves to three nights at the St. Regis. It is a marvelous property, sitting on 63 acres, with much of the landscape not yet fully completed. That said, it was probably a mistake. Making the reservation, I was not fully aware of just how far this place is from the city. It takes 90 minutes to get to the city center.

The breakfast restaurant at the St. Regis

Egypt is spending enormous sums of money to erect a new capital city, which has not yet been named, and that is where the hotel is located. Construction abounds; skyscrapers, a new miles-long monorail, new stadiums with an Olympic City, sumptuous shopping malls, are all going up, and the place looks like a futuristic Arabic dream. They say it will be fully constructed in about 3 years.

All that said, I should also state that, for once, I opted not to rent a car, choosing instead to hire a personal driver and a guide. Cairo is a 20-million people megalopolis, and the traffic is horrendous. You can share the road with not only cars and trucks, but camels, horse or donkey-drawn carts, tuk-tuks, and motorcycles laden to the max.

Hauling cauliflowers and beets

I believe we made the right choice. Our driver’s name is Nihad, and our guide is Ahmed. They are both super nice.

Today was entirely dedicated to the bucket-list destination of Giza, where the 5,000 year-old pyramids and the sphinx are located, as well as Saqqara, home to more pyramids I knew existed, including the oldest in the world.

To say that these amazing places are awe-inspiring is to be minimalistic. So much has gone into the building of these shrines that one cannot wrap his head around it. The sheer size of the stones is mind blowing. How did they place these rocks to fit next to each other so perfectly, and seriously, how did they get these boulders to Giza from Aswan, 1200 kilometers away, 5000 years ago, before the wheel was even conceived?

At the base of the largest pyramid

At Giza, we rode horses (Gianna made us promise we would not ride a camel, as she believes that they are being mistreated, and many indeed are). It was a great experience. We seemingly had the place to ourselves, which was wonderful, as the tourist hordes in these places are notorious.

The Sphynx

Considering the time of day, this turned out to be an amazing shot

Always wanted to own one of these head towels

The Saqqara Necropolis was really a gem. I’ve mentioned the oldest pyramids, but we also walked along the oldest road in the world, privately built for the Pharaoh of the time, and lined with stones covered with amazing designs and Hieroglyphs.

Zoser's Funerary Complex

The Step Pyramid, the oldest stone mountain in the world.

We concluded our day with a delightful Egyptian meal at the Valley of the Kings restaurant in Giza.

Day one could not have been any better. We are looking forward to a full day in Cairo tomorrow, but honestly, right now we are mostly looking forward to a good night sleep.