yesterday, I went to the pyramids, fulfilling my tourist quota for this entire trip, and maybe even for my eventual recovery trip to St. Louis (Stuart: I would kill half a dozen men for a pizza-pie from blackthorn. Just name names. THERE IS NO REAL PIZZA HERE).
Ahem. Anyway, I went with the same kiwi I’d met yesterday, good guy. Walked around in the heat of the morning (not nearly as bad as you’d expect) and in total spent about $20 (100 Egyptian pounds). I’d been told previously that it was rather more expensive to get into the site, so I was pleasantly surprised. Of course, I could have paid more to go into one of the pyramids, and more to go into the temple next to sphinx, and more again for a guide, souvenirs, and refreshments, but as I had my water, knew enough about the pyramids already, and the only souvenir I wanted was a bit of sand, I was satisfied just to go and see and look.
About that: Don’t be an asshole. I say this because I was tempted to be like Anthony Bourdain and skip the pyramids altogether. That would have been a mistake. They are, in a word, magnificent. Skyscrapers are cool, and much taller, and arguably superior in a lot of other ways, but man, these things are impressive. I’ve tried to convey the scale in the pictures below, but it’s hard. Scale like that doesn’t fit easily into a frame (it’s interesting to note how well the city-scale of things here seems to fit in my viewfinder though).
A note about the location: The town ends abruptly at the pyramids, and on the other side, from the looks of it, there is only desert. Amazing how the city would have such sharp borders.
Anyway yeah. I’m going to shut up and show you the pictures. The photo of me is by Mr. Kim (not his last name, but whatever). Annoying tourists are annoying, with all the silly things they do.
