Giza ~ Day 96

today is roughly halfway through the trip. only.

We had a buffet breakfast, and I had this delicious African drink called guava juice.

Then we officially started our tour. We drove a bit to the pyramids, we learnt a lot there, like how the Great Pyramid isn't the one everyone thinks. There is one with a shorter structure, but started high up, making it higher above sea level.

The pyramids also were covered in a smooth plate of limestone, but that was all robbed. We had an interesting labour of ice cream. It was mango sorbet, mixed with açai, and it was surprisingly good.

We also got to ride a camel, and it was super scary when it stood up and sat down.

The Pyramids are quite close to the city, only a kilometre away. Then we drove to the Sphinx, and its literally on the edge of the city. Apparently the Sphinx was next to a temple where they mummified the people, before they moved them to the pyramids. This is just a guess however, because no one has actually found a mummy inside a pyramid.

After great Pyramids and the Sphinx, we went to the great step pyramid in Saqqara, the oldest remaining structure on earth. We also went into a tomb, where there were interesting pictures and hieroglyphics, and apparently modern day letters come from hieroglyphics.

After that, we went and had lunch. Everyone was asking for tips. The lady in the bathroom wouldn't let my mum have soap unless she tipped her. And when we were getting off the camels, a random guy came over and helped Maya down. He asked dad for a tip, and dad said " what for?" and he said "well I helped your daughter down!".

After lunch we went to a carpet school, where kids had to make carpets. A tiny carpet took a whole month to make, and they had to tie a knot and tie a knot and on and on. The person working there showed us the "gallery". and he was desperate for us to buy a carpet. He was saying "they are 100% washable, colour fast, and they change colour see, I can flip it, and I can flip it again, and flip it again, and again". Then he let us look around "those ones come in different colours" and "that can also change colours!", "those ones are pure Egyptian cotton" and "those are pure red hibiscus silk imported from Kenya".

Mum said we can't carry any carpets for 3 more months, but he said "ok, smaller" "no, smaller", "still no, even smaller!". We got to the smallest carpet, and I decided I wanted it. In truth, I just wanted to get out of these, and I knew that guy wasn't stopping until we bought a carpet. Of course, if I got one, Maya needs one too, so we ended up buying two carpets. Who knows what we are going to do with them. Even after we bought them, he kept rambling on about his carpets.

Mum said "I have taken dad to Turkey 10 times, and not once have we bought a carpet. Then I leave him alone for 5 minutes and he buys two of them!". I guess its not a trip to the middle east without buying a carpet.

Then we drove 45 minutes to a cotton factory, but we were tired and decided not to go in, as we didn't want a repeat of the carpet situation. So we drove back to our hotel, and went for a swim (the pool had exercise equipment and a pool table in it for some reason).