A Day in The Life of a Nomad: Giza

This is a continuous series of posts about random, nonspecific but typical days in the life of my nomad lifestyle method. –view all days

*GIZA + CAIRO, EGYPT

08:02 AM Sure this is Africa but Cairo is an urban jungle, not an actual one so it’s crazy I have to sleep with a head net to keep the army of flies and mosquitoes away from my face. Looking at the bathroom mirror, my face looks like a screen door, better than the dozen bites from the night before last without the net… Shower.

08:35 AM Sipping my Turkish coffee while crossing a street on my way to Tahrir Square, a speeding car whizzes by nearly hitting me as it runs a red light, then another and another. It’s not the police or an ambulance but civilians driving as they do in Cairo as if they’re being chased by the cops. I feel like Frogger.

08:58 AM I meet my friend Ehad at Tahrir Square, where the protesters camp is in full force despite the beatings and tear gassing just hours before. We have tea and kebab by his tent for breakfast.

09:36 AM Guy, a former Marine turned professional urban explorer, picks us up in a Jeep Wrangler and we head to Giza. Oh look, he’s smoking a blunt.

09:42 AM When driving on roads where everyone drives like a maniac, one must drive like a maniac to survive… Crash!!! We get into a small fender bender with a taxi on the middle of Giza Bridge. We pullover.

09:43 AM As Ehad helps Guy deal with the accident, I enjoy the view of the world’s longest river of which spans 11 countries, the Nile. Ehh, I’m sure it looks better without the buildings and even Biblical in the desert.

10:20 AM The closer we get to Giza, the sandier it seems to get, as if we’re approaching a sand storm.

10:31 AM As we approach the Great Pyramids, the streets get livelier and denser with a sense of a post-apocalyptic era. The buildings, vehicles and the smallest of structures seem like it survived some sort of world-ending-event then was uninhabited for decades, left in disarray. Further magnified by the completely sand covered streets in the process of being taken back by the desert, it’s beautiful decay at its urbanized finest. Like a future-ancient ghost town reinhabited but not rehabilitated yet revived with all its former culture… Then suddenly, a Pizza Hut and KFC.

10:49 AM We parallel park the Jeep between a resting camel and a Mercedes SL, that’s some exotic shit. Also, Guy steps on camel shit as he steps out as I almost do while laughing. But the laughing halts when I see a horde of “freelance tour guides” approaching us like piranhas looking to feast on us tourists…

10:50 AM As soon as they see Ehad, our native Egyptian friend get out of the Jeep, they instantly stop moving and seek other foreigners in vicinity like radar.

10:59 AM We get to the gate for the entrance to the Pyramids and more “tour guides” laser in on us, but again repelled by Ehad like a mystic force… We each pay 60 Egyptian Pounds($9 US Dollars) for the ticket and as if we’re going through a Third World airport, we go through metal detectors and bags are screened.

11:04 AM From the darkness of the security sector we walk towards the exit but are blinded by the sunlight piercing in and can’t see anything in front of us… Do you remember the first time at a major baseball or football stadium? That moment when you walk through the dark corridor and finally see the field in all its massive glory? It’s like that but on a much higher level as my eyes adjust to the brightness and lay eyes on the 3 Pyramids with the Great Sphinx just chillin’ there.

11:05 AM Time for a selfie, snap…

11:19 AM Despite being a 5,000 year old World Wonder, Ehad is unimpressed with these 3 pointy things and the noseless lion statue. I suppose it’s not much different from a New Yorker and the late Twin Towers or Parisians and the Eiffel Tower. As for myself, these simple pointy things and the broken statue are of one of the most awe-inspiring I have ever witnessed.

11:41 AM Ehad hooks us up with “Ferrari and “Lambo”, apparently the fastest camels in all of Giza so me and Guy can tour the Pyramids in style while he works on our secret mission with the security staff.

12:53 PM These camels don’t exactly handle like Italian driving machines and with a mind of their own, we end up in the middle of nowhere with the Pyramids hazily far like a mirage. We get off and explore an unkept half-underground ruin.

1:44 PM The ruin goes pretty deep but we find nothing of interest except for some nice shade. We chill for a while as Guy sparks another blunt.

2:09 PM As if our camels were really a Ferrari and a Lamborghini that sped off into the desert, they’re not found within our visual range. High AF, Guy blurts out laughingly “man, we got car jacked”.

2:40 PM Following our camel tracks for a half an hour it leads us to a giant pile of fresh dung slightly sprinkled by sand, my Ferrari must be close.

2:46 PM The tracks end and no camels in sight.

3:12 PM We finally make it back to the Pyramids and meet up with Ehad. While eating some strange Egyptianized Pizza Hut slices and kebab at the foot of the Sphinx, he tells us about our plan to ??????? ???? ????? ?? ????? ????? after sunset.

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