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Because everybody just has to know and there aren't enough top ten lists on the internet. No order except for #1 1. Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds - Mercy…

It depends on whether you're considering compass direction or fow. But I'm off on the overnight train to Aswan in a couple of hours. From there I will be doing/seeing:…

So after I came down from the roof it was time to head over to the sound and light show. I was pretty tired by now, but I’d had my expectations suitable lowered by my guide book and other travellers. But low enough for guys in Egyptian headdresses playing bagpipes badly? Tough call. But it happened, and it happened for nearly half an hour while they waited for it to get dark enough to begin the show. I’m afraid I was too overwhelmed by WTF to get any photos of that dismal performance.

The light show however when it started was a little more impressive.

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You know how I told you about the dodgy tour and driver. Well Memphis was one of the places he raved about. Turns out it was because he wanted to drag me to a dodgy kebab joint where I paid 60 quid for a bad kebab and 20 quid each for beers.

Before that ripoff, we went to Memphis, once the capital of the Egyptian Empire, now a tatty museum where all the pieces not good enough to be in the British or Egyptian Museum are. Except for a huge reclining statue of Ramses II. That was ok.

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South of Giza, just outside of Memphis is the vast necropolis of Saqqara, with many pyramids and mastabas and other ancient bits of rock. My driver was intent on just showing me the step pyramid but I was onto him by now and decided to have a good look around.

Having stayed outside at Giza, I was keen to crawl around inside the odd pyramid, and Saqqara offered a great chance to do this. I started off being accosted by an “Egyptologist” who wanted to show me around inside a couple of tombs. I took him up on his offer as he seemed quite knowledgable, unlike my horse guide at Giza who told me that the Great Pyramid was 500 metres tall.

So we wandered off and round a corner to this locked mastaba. A very desert looking guy shuffled up, produced a key and let us in. Turns out this was the tomb of twin noblemen, who’s high status was ensured because they were the King’s manicurists, as well as scribes and some other stuff, but the drawings and hieroglyphics on the wall were dominated by hands with neatly trimmed fingernails.

They must have gotten on ok as they were buried next to each other. You’re not meant to take photos but I grabbed a couple anyway since I knew I’d be paying for it in tips anyway.

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There, easy to get impressive post titles after 5 minutes in Wikipedia. Sphinx is the Greek name, Hor-em-akhet (Horus of the Horizon) is a later Egyptian name, no-one knows the real name. I tried saying “Here kitty kitty” but got no response. So that’s another mystery I haven’t solved.

This post occurs directly after the last pyramid shot but that post was getting long and I was getting sloppy since I’d had 5 cans of Heineken from the off-license I found just down the road. Yesterday’s exploration was good and I have much better bearings for where I am.

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said Napoleon, “I saw myself founding a new Religion, Marching into Asia, Riding an Elephant, a Turban on my head and in my hand, the new Qu’ran.”

I want what he’s having! Egypt hasn’t quite grabbed me like that yet, though I’ve only been here a few days so maybe it creeps up on you. Anyway boys and girls, I’ve finally made it to the pyramid post.

Against my better judgement, and it seems the advice of the Rough Guide, I booked a tour through the Mayfair Hotel. As the Rough Guide says (paraphrased): Great place to stay, don’t book a tour there. In my defence, I’d just landed and had just been driven through Cairo traffic for nearly two hours.

And anyway, it wasn’t quite as dire as I was dreading so no harm done really. Up early to head off at about 8am, I arrived in the foyer to find my driver asleep, a state he was in for most of the remainder of the day.

He woke up long enough to rive me down to Giza. We hadn’t gone far when I got my first glimpse of pyramids in the distance. When we got a bit closer I stopped the driver so I could take this shot:

Then the driver took me to some stables near the pyrmiofds here the hard sell was put on for a camel or horse trip. I started with a camel…

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So I’m not really a planespotter. Well not a good one anyway. But the Sheraton was on the flight path. And it was near the airport. And there was a swimming pool on the roof. And the pool had a bar. And the bar served vodka tonics. And the stereo only had one cd. And the CD was Bob Marley’s Greatest. So to cut a long story short, I took a lot of photos of planes.

Most of them were terrible, a few were ok./ They need better framing which I can’t be bothered doing. Here they are:

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This was a monumentally stupid idea. You can see from the photo in the last entry the two of the reasons why I should never have tried this. It’s a long way away and the air is full of sand and smog. The final reason is hinted at by the picture below. Duba is the domain of the car. I think I spent as much time trying to cross roads and work out which of 5 exits from an intersection was the one I wanted.

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On holiday again. Alas unlike 2007, this is not a proper 10 week holiday but a 4 week taster of 2 or three countries. On the plus side, I’m going places I’ve never been as well as catching up on how things have changed in Dubai. Enough fake anticipation, I’m a week into the trip and sitting on the balcony of the Mayfair Hotel in Cairo, a so-called 1 star hotel but actually quite a lot better than that makes it sound. Let’s call it a 1-star bedrooms with 2 star service in a 3 star building. I like it anyway and it is certainly an oasis from the hustle and bustle of Cairo.

Anyway, Cairo comes later. First I had 3 days in Dubai. Don’t believe all the negative press you read about this place. It’s no ghost town. Every crane I saw was woreking. And it makes sense. In a world where you’re nervous about giving credit, giving it to those who do the banking for the oil producers is still a pretty safe bet. Anyway, I could go on about this for ages, but will save that for another post.

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