Egypt Day 2: Golden Eagle, The Sphinx, and the Train

Golden Eagle Papyrus Shop

Us in the Golden Eagle Perfume Shop. We had a private room for  an oil presentation. We waited eagerly for our free massage.

Tammy was loving the massage, and the man was too. 

The Sphinx

Picking the Sphinx's nose (just what I've always dreamed of doing)

Two lovers sharing a moment at the Sphinx (or just 2 friends taking a fun pic)

The money pit (with many different currencies)

Charmaine touched the top of his lovely head

Tammy waiting for the train

We were so exhausted

and just wanted to know where that train was!

Oh joy! 10 hours on the sleeper train (good thing I was prepared for this and  have done it before)

Our cabin. It was small

Our arrival station in Luxor

Continuing on with day 2 of the Egypt expedition. 

One of the other things we had done earlier on in the day was visit the Golden Eagle Papyrus and Perfume. We had visited a papyrus shop on our own the night before, and honestly, the other papyrus shop was far more impressive than this one, but we still took a look. The perfume shop though was very nice. They sold the oil perfumes, which we were all interested in. We had our own private room, where the gentlemen pictured above presented some different scents to us, as well as other oils for healing and other such purposes. There was even oil that supposedly attracts men and makes them go crazy for you. However, you cannot put on more than 3 drops of the oil, because then it will kill them. Hmmmm. I was tempted at the thought of having such a weapon, but I ended up passing on this oil, to choose some much nicer aromas. We even each got a 5 minute neck and shoulder massage. We were all quite excited about this, however, I'm sure the gentlemen doing the massage was way more excited to have his hands on 4 lovely ladies.

Then, later on, following the Pyramids, we then went to the Sphinx, which was our last attraction for the day in Cairo. The Sphinx is quite a mighty half man/half lion. We took a few pictures, but were sadly getting increasingly irritated by the young boys who were harassing us into trying to buy things or let them take pictures for us. Not to mention, we had been sight-seeing for about 9 or more hours, so we were absolutely exhausted and practically having to use match-sticks to prop our eyes open. 

We enjoyed a delicious and traditional Egyptian meal, and then made our way for the train station. We would be spending the night on a sleeper train. Fortunately, I had been on one when traveling from Spain to France, so I at least knew what to expect. The space was small, and the bathrooms did not smell very nice. But, at least we got to lay down and sleep. We originally were supposed to have a sitting train, but the company had changed it. Thank goodness because we wouldn't have made it if we had to sleep sitting up. 

So, for the next 10 or so hours, we would be on our way to Luxor, arriving around 5:30 or 6 in the morning. We were excited to see what the next new city would have to offer.

Egypt Day 2: Mit Rahina Museum and Pyramids

The giant statue of Ramses II

Us in front of the Sphinx of Memphis (a smaller sphinx)

Ramses II's legs fell off during an earthquake way back in the day

Me and Hathor, a goddess of love

Me flying in front of Ramses II

Japanese tourists

Did you know? The head of the statue is the most valuable part of the statue.

Indian tourists

A pretty tree. We like them since there aren't many in Bahrain

 Egyptian tourists

The Pyramids from a far

Posing on the camels

The oldest pyramid in Egypt, in Saqqarra

Wow! The Pyramids are massive!

Really, they are so big! Pictures don't show the size well enough.

No trip is complete without touching the top of the pyramids.

Adal and I. He was very interested in why I am not married.

View of Cairo

Loving life

Check out that movie star on the camel!

I decided to teach Rachel how to fly

and I taught Charmaine too.

Two lovely ladies riding donkeys. Didn't realize what a mess this would put us in.

Tammy was wowed too!

My camel had a crush on Ahmed's camel.

The big day of touring. Day 2. We were up bright and early to get some breakfast at the hotel buffet, so we would be good and energized for all the sights we had to see. Our tour began by driving to the "countryside" of Cairo, which wasn't very country in my opinion. The countryside is the very poor area. This is where people are walking around with their herds of animals and riding ox down the streets. This is also where we discovered the obscene amounts of trash in the canals. It piled up like nothing you had ever seen before. It made the canals absolutely disgusting. And yet, we somehow managed to actually see some man swimming in the canal. As Charmaine said, "that man must have an immune system of iron and steel".

We first stopped at the Mit Rahina Museum, where there is a giant statue of Ramses II. He was very famous, and his statue currently weighs about 55 tons and is made of limestone. Sadly, his legs fell of during an earthquake a long long time ago, so he now has to lay down inside, instead of standing.

We saw other cool statues and stuff outside of the museum. We saw goddess Hathor, the goddess of love, and the Sphinx of Memphis, which is a smaller version of the official Sphinx. We posed as Japanese and Egyptian tourists. We posed as Germans too, in which we had very serious faces and were not smiling.

After departing the museum, we headed for the main attraction, the Pyramids. We first went to a smaller pyramid in Saqqarra. This pyramid is the oldest pyramid in Egypt. This is where to flood of Egyptians trying to sell you things began. Every few steps we took, someone wanted to see us something. It got annoying after a while, but we tried to remain friendly and vulgar-free. While checking out this old pyramid, we saw some donkeys, and the 2 men conned us into getting on the donkey's, which turned into a donkey ride, which was fine, until they tried to insist on us paying at least 100 Egyptian pounds for the 5 minute ride. This ended in a heated "voice raising", and eventually Charmaine yelling at them. I gave them 30 pounds, but they were convinced it wasn't enough. Oh well!

We left the small pyramid, and then headed to the big ones, the Pyramids of Giza. Now, I have always seen the Pyramids in magazines and on the internet and all that, and they always looked cool, but it really is so different in real life. First, the internet just doesn't show how big the Pyramids really are. Each block is taller than me, and weighs a few tons, and they stack up oh so high. I really is a wonder how these things were built when you are looking at them from the very bottom. This is where you feel like a little ant in the desert. I wonder how the ants actually feel?! 

We moved from pyramid to pyramid, stopping to get a bit of a history lesson from our tour guide, Ahmed, and taking a million photos as well. Of course, we had to do a camel ride as well, since Charmaine and Rachel had not yet been on a camel. So, we went to the camel camp, and got our camels. Tammy, Charmaine, and Rachel were all one connected camel chain, with one guy leading the camels, and of course, I was separated with my own personal camel leader named Adal, pictured above. Adal was very interested in why it was that I am not married. He felt that I was perfect for him, and he would be perfect for me too. He really wanted me to stay at the desert that night so he could cook me dinner, and wanted my phone number as well. Sadly, I had to once again be an evil heart-breaker and turn him down. I don't think living in a camel camp is quite my style/preference of living. Regardless, we had an awesome camel ride overlooking the Pyramids, and having some great photo ops as well. 

After finishing our lovely time at the Pyramids and riding camels, our next stop would be the famous Sphinx.

A Few Other Pictures of Cairo

Here are just a couple other random pics I decided to include. To show a little more scenery and food and such.