The second day itinerary was quite packed, but we knew that it was going to be all fun ‘n’’ interesting. Right from the Papyrus museum, visit to all pyramids, and then to the famous laser-show late evening, all was something going to be new for us…more than a regular weekend of course…

We had a brief buffet breakfast, struggling with the kids to finish as Ahmed was already waiting outside the hotel.

Our trip kicked- off with the visit to the Papyrus Museum. In all imaginations, it was going to be a visit to some government- owned museum, exhibiting the history of this unique plant, but in fact it turned out to be a shop! Then we came to know that all the shops with souvenirs, papyrus, local perfumes etc. are called museums… After buying one painting, we proceeded to the Pyramids zone of Giza, very near to the place.

Ahmed drove us downtown behind the pyramids. On the way, we saw lot of Bajaj three- wheeler auto rickshaw (which they call TUK-TUK locally) and Ahmed acknowledging, which was again a proud moment. We hired horses for the visit to the pyramids, and we left for the much awaited journey by the desert route with butterflies’ in the stomach… felt like I was the chosen one to visit the moon, and hey I was on my way!

We neared to the pyramids, and disembarked to walk to the Khafre first. We allowed the guide to recite his course on the history of the Great Pyramids and, he diligently narrated the Pharaohs’ testaments of pyramids being their eternal power, and the tombs as their shelter of after- life course.

Some other information that he gave were on each pyramid, which is beyond  my memory disk space! You may visit- (http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/pyramids.html), for a more picturesque narration.

We took a host of pics and videos around and on the pyramids in this highly prohibited photography zone, as our guide kept paying tips to all police on guard there (it looked conventional though).

We did not visit inside the pyramids, as fellow tourists cautioned that it was suffocating and nothing much to see inside, except for empty stone coffins (called Sarcophagus). One can go inside only in the Pharaoh King Khufu’s pyramid and not more than 200 tourists are allowed in a day. To restrict entry, the tickets are available until 1 pm.

The pyramids have an amazing history and look more like an alien artwork wrt perfection, fine architecture and above all the longevity (today our apartments start falling in 30 years … harr harr harr!!!). Like… in my other blog, I had mentioned about the triangular images where ever the sun rays were falling make images of the pyramids, which I saw more in my other video of the visit to Saqqara, about 11 km away… it is something all unusual.. Maybe we can call it hyper- science of those times, which we should research and understand!!

Little did we realize that we had already spent more than 2 hours wandering around mesmerized, as we slowly started back our journey to the gate through a different route, which once put us face to face with the Sphinx. Though was far, but big enough to be seen in details.

That was the last leg on the desert route. We paid tips to the guide and 2 of the horse assistants, and then he took us to some LOTUS museum (another shop), where they told how Egyptian perfumes were made traditionally since ancient times… even about their proficiency in making Diors, Chanels, and they were behind all this perfume revolution around the world… anyway we declined to buy anything from there as they frankly smelt more like oils. We said farewell to Hassan - our guide as well, leaving him with a glum face (as he missed his last commission from us at the Lotus museum).

We de-throned from the horses near our car, and then Ahmed rode us about 11km away to the first ever pyramid and the oldest of all… the Step Pyramid- Saqqara.

His assistant Teti’s pyramid is on a lower latitude about a km away, where we went inside to see his empty tomb, sculptures etc. There was an ancient museum (actually made during that time), which depicted various professional activities in art and culture (you can see one of the pics that I took inside).

After visiting Saqqara, on the way back we saw more than 100 handloom carpet schools (again these were shops!). These carpets are made of Egyptian cotton, and it was quite evident that minors are exploited to make them, as in India. The owner came to see us but was not so zealous, as he was experienced that Indians do more of window shopping, and he presented prices like 3000- 10000 pounds for each! Anyway, he was admiring our Kashmiri carpets, visibly with envy…

It was late afternoon now, and we were tired enough to take lunch and siesta before going to the laser show. We were back to the hotel, and allowed visibly exhausted Ahmed to go home till 7PM.

We joined back the road right at 7:15 PM to attend the English session of the laser- show at the Giza pyramids.  We bought the tickets, and left for the theatre inside. There was a magnanimous set- up of lasers all across the marvelous pyramids and Sphinx (where we had strolled the whole day), also bringing live the history of building theatrical imageries through lasers on a natural articulate screen on stone walls, and running across a long distance.

Some of the shots are in my profile pic, and more on the blog itself.  It was exhilarating to see the show... and then we discussed it again on the table at dinner in a hotel from a distance from the Sphinx, as we saw it again in different languages through the window. The hotel owner met us personally, as he recognized us being Indians somehow. Then we realized that they have lot of respect for Indians and the way we are growing in economy. They identify Indians as themselves, the way we work hard and make both ends meet. Surprisingly, we do share common latitudes in Geography as well!

We came back to the hotel, dazed, mesmerized and exhausted, and slept in a wink, more excited for the next day to go to the Egypt museum.

See you in next blog!