After arriving in Cairo at 6am (with a quick pitstop in Bangkok) we got taken to our first hotel in Giza on the outskirts of Cairo. We were a little unprepared for the first experience on the roads....no seatbelts, no speed limit, no lanes and it's a free-for-all on the horn. The rule for Cairo driving is "free space is my space" as there is as many as 9 million cars on the road on any given day.

Safely at the hotel, we had a look around and met some of our tour group over a local 'Stella' beer by the poolside. Later we jumped on a Nile dinner cruise for our first taste of Egyptian cuisine and a bit of belly dancing entertainment. It is currently winter in Egypt so standing on the top deck watching Cairo go by was freezing!

The next day we had a round of intros with our entire tour group and set off to see the Pyramids of Giza. We kicked off with a visit to the world's oldest pyramid, Saqqara, which is looking a little worse for wear as it approaches it's 4662nd birthday. The great pyramids we saw in the afternoon once all the fog and smog of Cairo had cleared off. Our tour guide, Dino, organized a camel ride for us which cost 50£E ($8AUD). A little guy about 12 years old was in charge of the camels and he led the group down to the photo spot to get some good shots of us touching the tip and holding the pyramids in our hands.

The sphinx was the last stop. She is a lot smaller than expected, only 70x20m. We didn't get a chance to actually go inside the pyramids as it was closed for the day, so we ran about 1km up the hill and made sure we got a quick climb on the base of the great pyramid before leaving to catch an overnight sleeper train to our next destination Aswan.