I Got Swindled in Giza!

Now, I write about this day separately because it was probably the most memorable of the trip thus far.

We woke up just before ten and made it downstairs to find no Mohammad. We used the receptionists phone to call him and he said he was on his way. He showed around 11am and told us we had to meet up with Mahmud who wanted to do the pyramids as well. We began walking towards Sadat Station where we found a very warn out and tired looking Mahmud waiting for us. He had not slept all night and looked like he was ready to pass out. He said he was fine n still wanted to join us. The guys hailed a cab for us and then we were on our way to Giza.

I couldn’t wait. We were snapping pictures like crazy while we were riding in the cab as soon as I saw the first pyramid. We got dropped off near the entrance and then were escorted by the guys to a perfume shop where they said the owner was going to arrange our tour for us. The price was going to be 125EP for one hour on a camel and 250EP for two hours. This seemed very expensive to us. We were having major second thoughts but the guys assured us that this was standard pricing. We said “screw it” and went with the two hour tour. How often were we going to be in Egypt to see the pyramids anyway? The man said we could pay him when we got back to the shop.

They brought 3 camels around front and two horses. I mounted Mickey Mouse brown, Ramsey got Charlie Brown and Lindsey got BBC. Mohammad and Mahmud took the horses. We skipped the main entrance and were brought around the side to a different gate where there was a guy in a lawn chair at a foldout table. This was security and the ticket collector. This is where things started to get even more fishy for us. He checked our bags and then let us through.

The view was amazing! It almost didn’t seem real to me trekking through the desert on the back of a camel approaching the original wonders of the world, the Great Pyramids. We were brought to a spot somewhat close to the pyramids to get some great panoramic shots. Our tour guide was snapping away for us getting all of the goofy pyramid poses we could think of. Mahmud was not feeling all that well due to lack of sleep but still managed to muster up some smiles for the camera.

 

 

We were then brought to the smallest of the three big pyramids where some man told us we could climb halfway up if we paid him 50EP. I would have done it if he would have said I could have made it all the way to the top but I probably would have gotten shot by security. Ramsey and I exchange some photos posing by one of the smaller pyramids and then we got back on our camels and headed to the front to get some Sphinx photos. Mahmud ended up leading us to the Sphinx after we dismounted our camels. Unfortunately, it was already 3pm at this point and they were beginning to kick people out of the entrance area, so we never got to get right up next to the Sphinx. We were still pretty close though.

This is where things really started turning around for me. Mohammad whispered to me that we should tip the guide but none of us were really happy with the tour. We did get our two hours in but never really had a good feeling the entire time we were out there. Mahmud and Mohammad left before us back to the shop and that was when the guide asked us for money. The little boys who were towing the camels for us were giving us the hungry look which is always hard to turn an eye to. Lindsey gave the boys who were towing around the camels for us 20EP and then we each gave the guide 10EP. He wasn’t happy with this but we weren’t happy either.

The call-to-prayer was going off as we returned to the shop but the vibe was even more tense upon our return. The man who we organized the tour with gave us some free Pepsi and tried to sell us some perfume before asking for our money. We didn’t feel right paying that much and Mohammad and Mahmud were looking down at the floor, almost ashamed, the entire time. We payed anyhow and got out of there.

The guys hailed another taxi for us back to our hostel. We dropped them of along the way and Mohammad told us to be sure not to pay the man more than 15EP. The Cairo cabbies will always charge you more than what you bargained for but we learned it is easy to just leave the agreed amount and walk away no matter how pissed off they get.

We made it back to the hostel and everything just clicked. WE’VE BEEN SCREWED! From the boat rides to the pyramids those guys had been working us over big time! The worst part was that we had had a conversation with our hostel manager the night before and he told us straight up that we shouldn’t pay more than 60EP per hour for a camel. We all somehow went into brain-dead mode when we were with those weasels. We were mainly embarrassed because of what had happened. There was nothing we could do at that point but keep our tails between our legs. We had trusted those damn couchsurfers and ended up getting raped. We immediately called the other two couchsurfers we were supposed to stay with and canceled telling them what had happened. We felt bad turning them down on account of other people’s actions but we couldn’t trust anyone at that point. We had paid $50 each for that trip instead of the $25 we could have spent for even more. We didn’t even get to go into the pyramids!

We spent the rest of the night planning our trip out of Cairo to other parts of Egypt and decided to leave as soon as possible the next day. We made one more trip out of the hostel to get some crappy chicken shwarmas for way too much which gave us all the more reason to go back to the hostel and go to bed to dream that the whole day never happened.