Hazia’s Reflections

On my 2nd day in Cairo, I was determined to see the Pyramid of Gyza no matter what. It was a busy morning, 2 dashing Egyptian men picked us up at our hotel at 8.30am. I was the only woman, so I got to sit comfortably in the front seat while the 4 men had to squeeze in at the back.

Off we went to see HE the Malaysian Ambassador to brief him on the trade mission. It was interesting how he put it in order to encourage Malays to do their own business, ‘berniaga itu sunah nabi.’

Then, we visited Al-Ahram, Egypt and Middle East no 1 newspaper. Security scanning was like at the airport. They lined up portraits of their Presidents for the last 100 years of existence on the walls.We discussed an advertisement for our forum which was due in 2 days. That was really close. It was fun, an unusual experience for us to negotiate with a bunch of Egyptians, not all spoke English. LOL! My Arabic-literate colleague had to vet the text. 

And finally, I took off for the pyramid, I had to rush back to catch the hotel’s group tour at 11.30am. Mr pizza hut wanted to go but was still torn in-between leaving the other guy, God knows, maybe he felt ‘guilty’ wheezing off with me, just the 2 of us. So I took off alone.

I had an excellent tour guide with a Masters in Egyptology. He was charming and spoke excellent English. Education was compulsory for their profession in the country, showing how much pride they had over their history and legacy.

To my luck, it was off-season, so group tour consisted of only 2 American women and me. Yeah! When we arrived, it was burning hot at 40 degree. Number of tourists was less than my fingers. The mother was asking the guide all sorts of questions under the hot sun. I tried to find a shade at first but couldn’t be bothered after that. With 1 of the 7 wonders of the world standing in front of you, who cares about the heat!!

At first the 2 women didn’t want to go inside. But because I wanted to, they decided to join me. Our guide advised us to enter the smaller pyramid. Imagine, we had to leave all our belongings with him while he waited outside, what a huge risk!

The experience was one in a million. It wasn’t what you find inside, it was more the process and challenge of going in. We had to bend down our back and bend our knees to enter the narrow passage. Both the women had knee problem. My neck felt stretched. We came upon an empty space and didn’t feel like continuing. Luckily, this French couple came down and told us it was a short way up, we could do it. This time we climbed up and bend our back…. all the way up.

We came upon the heart of the pyramid. An old man was waiting for us. He invited us to sit down near the empty tomb and gave us a narration of the oxygen-generating walls, the ancient rituals and all. The 2 women took turn chanting ancient prayers in a lowered platform near the tomb.

The process of going out was something else. Fearing that I would get claustrophobic, I rushed out in front of the old woman, behind the young one. My legs movements were forced. Man, I ended up with sore thighs and knees for the next 5 days.

It was unforgetable. Especially when the old woman said something very meaningful to me - ‘I would like to thank you for being adventurous. If it hadn’t been for you, I wouldn’t have gone in. I would have missed such a unique experience.’ Yeah, she said that. Only then did I feel like I was really, really in Egypt:)