I'm so tired. We had to get up before 5 on Sunday for our flight and on our first night in Egypt last night it was so noisy that I couldn't sleep. Calls to prayer at 3 in the morning, never-ending hooting traffic outside. It's mad here. Been having fun already though. Went to the pyramids today which I had not realised were kind of on the edge of the city. And I don't mean in the distance, I mean, you're driving on a busy road then you pull into the car park for the pyramids, the closest of which is 100m away. We spent a lot of time there trying to shake off persistent hawkers with all sorts of tricks, luckily our guide had already warned us to be careful. Even the tourist police were at it with one of them letting us past the rope to take pictures with the stones then asking for money! One thing to look out for is people who ask you for your ticket when you're in the precinct and then refuse to give it back until you give them money and blow me if this kid of 14 or so didn't come and demand our tickets 10 metres from the entrance. Your MUM has my ticket sonny. Despite my disappointment in not having to trek into the desert to see them, it still felt quite magical there once you found a quiet spot away from all the other tourists, the camel drivers and the hawkers who said 'lovely jubbly' when you said you were from the UK. I got offered five thousand camels for Ann by some bloke selling postcards and T-shirts who wanted her for his wife, so the hawking must be fairly lucrative! Had an interesting afternoon at the Egyptian Museum where we saw the face mask of Tutankhamun and this evening off by seater (not sleeper!) train to Aswan. 13 hours, but we're still feeling hardy so we can cope!
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