Mark's Travels

10 years of travel blogging from 35+ countries around the world

Taxi ride to Sakara, Memphis and the Pyramids 9th November 2009 in Cairo, Egypt


I booked a cab for the day. I was told he'd arrive by 8:30am, he got to my hotel at 10am. My driver, Wahir, seemed nice. He liked to spit, shout at women, drive all over the place, listen to distorted Arab disco, have a cigarette every half hour in the car and, according to another cab driver we met, spoke about as much English as I speak Arabic. He taught me "Yallah" which means "Let's go". He used it constantly to try and get me to hurry up at each of the attractions we went to.

We drove to Sakara, Memphis and the Pyramids. Throughout the day police extorted money off him and tried to sell me photos of themselves. At one point, when I finished up in Memphis, two police officers, one undercover and the other uniformed, were frisking Wahir down in front of our car. I saw this and thought to stand back and pretend he's not my driver. He gestured at me to come forward. They took a bunch of money off him and we drove off. As we drove out of the complex he had to pay some other security men at a road block more money to leave.

I managed about 7 hours driving with Wahir without him getting me into any of his mate's shops. God knows he tried.

At the pyramids my guide quizzed me on my sexual history. It turns out he paid about 2 million Egyptian pounds for his wife and was shocked to learn mine was for free.

Skype works a treat out here but I was still missing Anja, it would be a few more days before she'd arrive in Sharm El Sheikh.


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