Egypt, Day 3

I've been asked to show what Egypt is like, so I'm going to include some pocket camera snap shots in this post. The following photos were happy-snapped through the window of our coach on the way to Cairo. (Whenever I wasn't asleep, that is.)

Two day trip to Cairo

Set off: 4 AM. Ugh. Oh well, it's all worth it. The journey is going to take us about six hours.

So we are driving from the blue dot (Taba) on this map to the green dot (Cairo) across the Sinai desert peninsula. Click on the map to make it bigger.



And this is what it looked like just after sunrise.









Just after we had gone through the tunnel under Suez Canal, we stopped for a few minutes to stretch our legs.



Approaching Cairo and its mad traffic.











Did you know that Egypt is the fifth largest garlic producer in the world? And that they have been munching on the divine onion at least since the time the pyramids were being built?



Here we are about to arrive at the Pyramids of Giza, in the outskirts of Cairo.



...and I take my SLR out.

It's the usual story: lots of tourists and camel ride sellers...



This guy just wouldn't leave me alone unless I took his photo.



But it didn't take long for the tourist police to come and chase him away. It's the first time I've seen a police use a whip as a weapon of choice. Well, OK - it's the first time I've seen a police riding a camel, too.



The obligatory shots...







Wasn't quite sure whether it was OK to take this guy's photo. But didn't want to ask him, either. The weapon looked well used.



Some street candids, taken from inside our coach with my 100-400mm lens.







We arrived at our hotel by the river Nile just at the time of sunset.



View from our hotel room balcony.



Wish I could add sound to these photos; imagine a constant cacophony of car horns honking. I liked the sound of it - it was kind of mad and exotic, but at the same time I was quite thankful for the sound proof French windows in the room.