Pyramids of Egypt

Well it's difficult to miss this one if you like to travel. It's on the list of most every international traveler. I flew into Cairo and took a taxi to my golf resort hotel nearby the Pyramids. From there I took a taxi on two separate occasions to see the Pyramids.

Really you only need one day to see them. I went two times because there were not many tourists so it was a great time to visit. Also I was in Egypt for 3 weeks so I had lots of time.

Upon entry to the site I was inundated with local guides wanting to guide me on their camels. As I mentioned on an earlier post, walk past them. The more you walk the more the price drops. But it is a worthwhile one time experience on a camel. Probably no more though.

You can see a lot of people in the background but really this is nothing compared to what it's like in the busy season. I was there at the end of February so tourist season was winding down.

You will be hit up for not only camel rides, but carriage rides too. I passed.

Up close the pyramids are not as even as they appear at a distance.

My camel guide posed me for several shots after my ride into the desert:

Pretty lame poses I know. I'm not even going to show the rest of these silly shots. And he wanted a tip for this????

An odd thing happens when the camel operator stops to take these photos. Another man is already out there alone at that spot in the desert. He quickly runs over and provides the head wrap seen in the photo, After the head wrap is on your head and the photos taken, he opens a cold coke from his ice cooler and hands it to you. After the coke is in hand (pictures with head wrap already taken) he demands payment of some high amount (I forgot the amount, but it was crazy high).

Well, I don't like being taken advantage. Since he asked for no price upfront I assumed it was included with the camel ride. I had not drank from the coke so I simply handed the open coke back to him (what was he going to do with that?). I then removed the head wrap, returned it, and told him, "no thanks".

This did not go over well. He was very upset and was demanding payment. Like I haven't seen that before! I stood my ground. Had he been upfront with me and not tried to extort such a high price I would have obliged. But I never reward this type of behavior.

The camel operator tried to intervene on his behalf but it did not sway me. Finally they gave up and we were off. The coke man was saying something in a cursive manner in his language as we left. Oh well!

After the camel ride I had a tip incident I already documented in another post. Then it was off to see the next attraction.

The obligatory sphinx photos:

Nose is missing.

There were a lot of local tourists at the Pyramids which surprised me. They were very eager to be photographed with a foreigner so I obliged. I also enjoyed taking selfies (is that the right word?) with them. I'll share those pictures on another post.