We knew the situation in Egypt was tense when we left Jordan for our separate flights to Cairo, but we did not expect things to accelerate as soon as we arrived. After meeting in the airport and having a frustrating time finding a taxi that wouldn’t terribly rip us off we set out for the hotel in a supposedly government guaranteed cab. He was a good and friendly driver, pointing out Ramses Square and even taking a short detour to bring us within safe but viewing distance of Tahrir Square. Everything seemed pretty quiet, people were getting on with their daily lives and we were more impacted by the amounts of trash and car/motorcycle accidents that we saw along the way. And then out of nowhere there were the Pyramids on the horizon!! I knew they were big but was not prepared to see them from a distance high above all other buildings. That was the acute goal of coming here; Jonathan on his mission to see all the Wonders of the World, and me willingly along for the ride.

Safely deposited at the hotel we caught up on a few hours of sleep, and then headed to the rooftop restaurant for dinner and Oooing at the Pyramids directly in front of us.

We saw in the news earlier that Egypt had declared a National State of Emergency and instated a curfew from 9pm to 6am. Nevertheless, along with everyone else on the rooftop, we were fascinated to watch multiple military vehicles roll in to the big intersection outside of the hotel at 9:17 and clear everyone out. They immediately got on a megaphone, dispersed the informal mini-bus stand on the roundabout, shooed away pedestrians, and proceeded to set up barricades to stop any traffic entering or leaving the city. From our safe viewpoint above and away from attention we watched all of this happening, getting translation from the concierges and other patrons at the hotel.

The soldiers (or ‘security force,’ I’m not sure exactly) seemed forceful but not violent or particularly aggressive. We watched one angry woman get out if her car and berate one of them; she was a fully covered Muslim woman and as she kept taking steps toward him he was forced to walk backwards; forbidden to get close to her. We also saw a wedding procession pull up and after a few pleading words from the groom, let through! Eventually the soldiers stopped letting the other gusts through, as we joked with a British/Pakistani family about how the groom must have told them not to let the new Mother-in-Law out.

The next morning we were again shocked to see the last nights violence on the news. The Pyramids and our hotel are in Cairo, but far from downtown, on the outskirts, and none of the protest actions made it that far. We decided to try to get out a day early and spent over two hours on the phone with Orbitz and Royal Air Maroc, who was very difficult to work with, gave us change quotes from $198 to $1,080, and at one point told us we would have to go to their regional office, one block away from Tahrir Square, where demonstrators were due to start a “March of Anger” after the noon time prayers. Time eventually ran out; the driver that the hotel organized told us we had to leave right then or not at all, so we deiced to just hunker down and wait it out with everyone else.

After that, determined to make the best of it, we were disappointed to hear that the Pyramid complex was shut down for the day, so we had a lazy day of sitting by the pool and getting caught up in our journals and e-mails in the air conditioning. I shared some Scotch that I had brought from Scotland and Jonathan shared his Cuban cigars, and we had another evening on the rooftop watching the streets outside and talking with the other guests.

We were surprised to hear that the British family had in fact gotten a good view of the Pyramids that day, by hiring a car through the hotel to a town a few kilometers away, and hiring horses and camels to ride up the tall dunes that then looked down on the city and the Pyramids from the other side of the complex. It is an extended family with many children, and they said they felt very safe and had a lot of fun with the folks running the operation. Jonathan and I were not excited by the prospect of hiring an unofficial guide with his livestock to get there, but ended up biting the bullet and doing the same. After all, we had come all this was for that distinct purpose.

Without giving every detail, it was a very interesting activity. I’m glad we did it and were able to see the Sphinx and some life outside of the hotel. But a few things were shocking; we rode our camels past old and new carcasses of horses that had been put down by their owners, who because of the extreme drop in tourism could no longer afford to feed them. The animals that we did see were mostly very skinny, which is the main reason I insisted on taking camels instead of the emaciated looking horses. We had initially planned to insist on walking part of the distance but it was quickly clear that it would not be sanitary or enjoyable with all of the trash and animals littering the streets.

We rode the camels (mine was named Mickey Mouse and was tattooed all down his neck in geometric designs), to the top of the dunes and took the quintessential photos of the Pyramids in the distance. We could also see Smoke rising from Cairo in at least 3 places. I asked our camel drover what was on fire and all he said was that the city isn’t safe, but where we are is safe.

Next they brought us to a gate in the fence from where we got a view of the Sphinx, which was awesome.

After we took our pictures and were being led back through the small streets to the start point and our awaiting taxi, one man called out from his porch, “Americans no good. Go back. Obama no good.” That freaked me out a bit, although I still didn’t feel threatened; our guide and his two sons who were leading the camels did not pick up on it and were cheerful the entire time. We told anyone who asked that we were Canadian, and consistently got “Canada Dry!!” as response. It does make me wonder though; if that is how [some] Egyptians really feel, why is our government choosing to not call it a coup and continuing to give $1.5 billion to them in aid?

Now we are safely on a plane out of Cairo, receiving reports that violence has started to break out between civilians on both sides. Polarization is growing and the police have been given permission to defend themselves with deadly force. We passed many armored personnel transports with armed soldiers hanging out, and three security checkpoints on our way to the airport; and that was on the Ring Road which skirts around the city and is away from the downtown action. We may be among the last few American tourists to Cairo for awhile.