Egyptian Museum in Cairo and the Pyramid Light and Sound Show

Hello and welcome to my Egypt travel diary. This is day 1.

Day 2 can be found here
Day 3 can be found here
Day 4 can be found here
Day 5 can be found here
Day 6 can be found here
Day 7 can be found here

I took one week of annual leave to explore one of the most ancient civilisations, and it was incredible. I hope you enjoy peeking into my travel journal.

Amy and I are up early to head to the airport for our flight to Cairo Sphinx International Airport. The flights cost $70 per person each way. So for $280 AUD return for us both, how could we not go?!

The airport was so quiet, so we got through check-in, security and passport control in what felt like minutes. We were airside and good to go!

We grabbed a delicious breakfast from Jones the Grocer. It was so filling that Amy couldn’t even finish hers. While this detail seems irrelevant now, it becomes important later on.

We board the flight and have great seats except for the whole no window thing, as we are in the exit row. Yay for legroom. Boo for no window.

It was quite a turbulent flight, which the crew told us about before flying, so at least we were prepared. He was right. It was very bumpy, although Amy largely slept through it.

The crew member was in a jump seat facing Amy and me. He was looking out his tiny porthole window as we were flying over the city. He was Egyptian and was excited to be coming home for a few weeks of vacation.

He was looking for the pyramids as we had been discussing our itinerary with him. He asked for my phone to try to get a video of them. He didn’t quite capture them for us, but I really appreciated his efforts.

We land at the airport, and we get into a brand new terminal that is still being finished. The airport only opened this year. I was expecting chaos as I’d read a few horror stories in a Facebook travel group I’m in.

Because it is a new airport, there are only a handful of flights that currently use it. Our flight was the only one that had landed at that time. As we’d already organised our visa, it was so quick to go through immigration.

I had organised the hotel to collect us from the airport, as once again I was expecting chaos. The guy was waiting patiently with a sign for me, and soon enough, we were on our way to the hotel.

On the way, Amy spots the pyramids first. It was completely unexpected! I couldn’t believe that I could see the tips of the pyramids poking out from behind buildings so effortlessly. They were just… there!

This is literally the view from the taxi as we sped along the highway.

We reach the hotel and check in. I booked this hotel due to its proximity to the Giza Plateau. It is about $50 per night, and it’s a two-star hotel. I didn’t realise the star rating as I was just going on location, price and reviews.

It turns out that the star rating shouldn’t matter, as it’s worth much more than simply two stars. The view from the rooftop terrace is ok, I guess.

After getting our eSims up and running, we head out to find the ATM so we can really start our adventure. Just getting to the ATM was a journey.

Once the touts see you walking down the street, it takes all but a ringmaster’s whip to keep them away. La shukran, no thank you, I do not want your taxi/souvenir. But I understand you’ve got a job to do.

I ordered an Uber, and I still have my settings set to Visa, so the driver won’t take my fare until I pay cash, which I can’t do as the fare was booked on a card. So we hop out, I change my settings as I don’t feel like fighting today, and I book another fare. It takes a minute, and the new Uber is there.

I am dreading the Cairo traffic that I’ve heard so much about. I don’t know if it’s because it’s midday during Ramadan, but it’s not banked up the way I expect it to be.

Sure, it’s crazy, and there are cars everywhere, but it’s not just queues of non-moving cars. And when I say crazy, it’s the most orderly crazy I’ve seen and equal parts fascinating and scary. And for someone who gets motion sick really easily, nope. Not even once did I feel queasy.

We arrive at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, pay the entrance fee and go inside. The building is impressive enough from the outside, but oh my goodness, the artefacts on the inside are amazing.

Immediately, you’re greeted with a two-story high, domed foyer with oversized statues. I just stood there, not knowing where to even start, until I saw a trail sign and decided to follow it.

The museum is bursting with artefacts. Now, there’s not a great deal of individual signage on each piece. There is overview information provided throughout, which is good for context, but not a lot of detailed information.

Which is fine, actually. While I would have loved to learn every single thing, it would take me a whole week just to go around this one building.

The Tutankhamen exhibition is the major drawcard. You can’t take photos, which is fine, I respect that, so you’ll just need to take my word for it that it is so beautiful in real life. I was in absolute awe.

The other exhibition, which I so morbidly enjoyed, was seeing the mummies.

Amy was fading fast as it was now after 3 pm, and we hadn’t eaten since breakfast. So we exit through the gift shop and find a little cafe outside for something to eat.

I wanted to visit the other museum, the National Museum of Egyptian Civilisation, but we had run out of time. Sad face. While I was thinking about what we could go and see instead, Amy coaxed me into just going back to the hotel to relax. I’ve been a bit stressed lately, and she said I needed to just relax.

So, we headed back to the hotel and went to see the star attractions again. We decided to just sit and enjoy the view and quiet time. I set up a Timelapse to capture the sun setting, it didn’t turn out as spectacular as I thought it would (the sunset), but I can forgive it this time.

We are about to order dinner, but the hosts need to leave for Iftar. We don’t mind at all, and we keep relaxing. I think I needed this bit to switch off from work (although I’m still thinking of the couple of emails I didn’t have time to send before switching off for the week!)

We ordered dinner: falafels for me and a pita bread with meat for Amy. The food is delicious, and we are full to the brim. After dinner, we change and make our way to the Pyramids light and sound show.

This is certainly an experience. I’m not going to say it was enjoyable, I mean, I guess it was. I liked it enough. It was like a 1970’s dramatised documentary, complete with a booming British voice-over. I just think of Vivid and imagine how amazing this could be done.

But I did learn a few things, so there’s always that. I’d bought VIP seats for an extra few dollars, and it was worth the extra money. We had a front row seat with cushions, so the experience was much more comfortable.

By the time we got back, I was exhausted. Too exhausted to keep my eyes open. It was a long day from start to finish, but wow, what an amazing introduction to Egypt.

I’m in love with the sights and sounds. Where else would you see people riding camels around, horse and carts mixed in with normal car traffic, and incredible pyramids?!

I really haven’t even captured all my thoughts from today in this post, even though it’s a 1500-word essay. Just… amazing.

More journal entries from this trip

My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 2
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 3
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 4
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 5
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 6
My Egypt Travel Stories / Day 7

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