We excitedly head down to our buffet breakfast after a restless night’s sleep. Let’s just say, it’s not the Atlantis! There is some salads, an egg station, some puddings, some other stuff we didn’t know what it was and a bakery section. Thank god for that bakery section!! There is a lady making it fresh right in front of us and it’s delicious! We head back to the room to shower and get ready for our photo shoot. As soon as we booked our trip I started looking for a family photographer. I knew I wanted photos here! Something quintessentially Egyptian with old buildings or ancient hieroglyphs. We ended up hiring the tour company’s guide to get us where we need to go because this place is a rabbit warren! Our guides name is Ahmand and is lovely. We end up having some time free so go to a perfume factory first. The owner goes through how they make it and we test some combos. They serve us tea (sweet black and hibiscus) which the kids love. Even the kids fill out their favourite fragrances. $4000 Egyptian pounds later ($300 Aud) and we have 4 bottles of perfume, 6 decorator bottles and 1 oil burner. Ouch!
Off to find our Photographer Amani from Sweet Pea Photography. We arrive at a street resembling an old market and wind our way through some backstreets. The locals look as surprised to see us as we are them. There is an open air butcher with meat of various cuts hanging all around. Fresh bakers with young boys carrying massive trays of flatbread on their heads. Stray cats and dogs everywhere! Dozens of little shops, selling their wares and interesting fair. After about 10 minutes, we arrive at the most gorgeous old building. It’s a house over 800 years old! Our photographer has gotten special permission to shoot here and it’s amazing!! Dusty as all heck but beautifully old and historic. The park is next and I’m soooo glad I brought my head scarf. Not that it helps while we are actually shooting tho. We are the centre of attention for the whole park! The kids can’t believe it. There are a good 60 people around us starting and taking photos. It’s quite unlike any of us has experienced before and I’m not sure we will get used to it. Amani is amazing and we have a great session. I’m dying to see the photos but she is booked solid for the next few weeks so we are looking at a 6-8 week wait. We quickly stop at KFC for dinner and our guide shows us the sound and light show on the pyramids. The colours are beautiful but it’s a historic account of the ancient gods that we can’t hear properly so the kids (and us) quickly get bored. Time to head home for some shut eye.
