My First (Emotional) Day in Egypt 🇪🇬 Breakdowns, Pyramids, & Egyptian Food

[Music] good morning we got in last night at two in the morning it's now six in the morning come here i gotta show you something before we even get started this is the hotel lobby but if you go up these stairs oh you gotta see this so after 27 hours of flying san diego san francisco san francisco doha doha to cairo i have officially made it to egypt and on top of the 27 hours worth of travel we also had a friend pick us up at the airport in cairo and then the car broke down on the highway enroute to our hotel so it's been a long journey but we've made it and it's all been worth it you guys see this if you go up to the rooftop of our hotel this is what you'll see about that also tyler's here if you guys don't remember tyler's been featured in such videos as zion and probably my favorite series ever that no one's ever seen is the shikoku japan series but regardless this is egypt this is day one in egypt [Music] all right here we go i can't tell you how excited i am to be here [Music] it's been almost two years since my last overseas trip which is just crazy to think about considering i travel for a living and we're so anxious to get started that the pyramid gates aren't even open when we arrive they're still bringing in grass for the camels at about 7 45 am the doors open we buy a ticket and get past the intimidating guard dogs good morning guys good morning what are you guys doing what's up little timid one a little timid one and before the tour buses show up for the day we literally have the entire great pyramids of giza to ourselves if only for a fleeting moment old place to ourselves i'm not kidding you when i tell you we have this whole place to ourselves there will be a million people in here today but right now for this moment i have this entire temple to myself wow i can't tell you how bad i needed a trip like this a moment like this it's been rough not traveling and not doing the things that i really love and really want to do these real trips things that really get me excited these moments and what i travel for these moments are what i live for just having a second to enjoy a place that is so foreign from anything that i know we got the whole place to ourselves that's why you come early clouds are starting to roll in now but right behind this wall is the sphinx look at this [Music] [Music] all right we got a sneak peek before anybody showed up now we're going to go meet michael our guide and actually really go explore this place this is michael uh this is our fearless leader our guide making sure we don't get in trouble here if the sound is a little off we have to take the camera take the microphone off the camera and hide that away right yeah so we don't have to pay thousands of dollars to be considered commercial shooters so that's trick number one so if you hear a little bit of wind you're just in the elements with us today and this is the scene we are in the giza plateau the giza platoon contains the pyramids of kings of the fourth dynasty old kingdom and they are belonging to the kings keops catherine and mingero and of course their wives they had pyramids and the tombs of the nobles who and the workers but the famous that's for the king kyops the second king in the fourth dynasty wow all right let's go check it out michael just gave us the full-on run down as we approach these pyramids as we walk off let me tell you first impressions these are huge so much bigger than i expected you see them in photos you don't realize the true size of them took 30 something years to put these together and it was mostly volunteers not slaves what many people think and because they wanted to be passed through and wanted to go to heaven if they thought if they worked here they could do that but also the volunteers were paid so there is documents that have been found of payrolls and administrative documents that proved that these people were paid and also they volunteered in order to find their path to heaven oh these are insane wait tell me michael you're not coming in there with me i'm not allowed i paid i paid the ticket to get into the main pyramid here but these two are leaving behind he's not allowed tyler's gonna hang back he's actually been in here before i'm nervous i'm gonna head into the entrance i can only take my cell phone right yeah good luck i'm not back in an hour how does it feel to be climbing on the great pyramid how do you feel these are new steps yeah these are new steps while this block is the old one this is my this is crazy you are stepping on a rock which is about 4 000 years old 4 500 years old actually it's such a big moment for me in my life but i've never felt so insignificant you know i'm just one little man all of us crazy historic place once inside step one you gotta get past the first long hallway and the security guard pretending to be helpful just for a tip which we quickly realize is completely normal here next you have to crawl up a cramped ascending staircase to reach the grand gallery it's incredible to just think about what these little passageways were used for this is a tomb who came in here what did they do in here there's these huge open spaces these little tiny narrow passageways it's just still so much of a mystery it's another long passageway but this one features an incredible 26 foot ceiling and now in the heart of the pyramid from here it's one final squirm into the king's chamber a room made of massive granite blocks and the king's sarcophagus sits empty at the exact central axis of the pyramid truthfully there really isn't much to see inside it's a long tunnel with makeshift stairway leading up to one small room but it's the idea which is so fascinating the understanding of how significant this place once was and the realization of the footsteps that you're walking in not to mention the absolutely unbelievable engineering it took to keep these massive structures in one piece for thousands of years made it out look at this this is wild back out with the living michael walks us through this overwhelming scene horses camels and carriages ready for a ride people pack in to witness history and of course to be able to prove it on social media i get it the pyramids themselves are built of massive limestone blocks almost entirely stripped of their outer casing of smooth white limestone which would make them shine when the light hit for nearly 4 000 years pharaoh kofu's tomb was the tallest building in the world originally it was 480 feet tall but now it sits around 450 feet just because of erosion this time of year it's predominantly egyptian tourists visiting and they're just as fascinated with these ancient structures as they are with a couple of random foreigners with cameras [Music] perfect perfect perfect bye goodbye very very curious uh teenage boys here at the pyramids one first impression they all want selfies that's that all right now don't worry absolute chaos we didn't get it on camera but there was just 20 kids just trying to get our photos and selfies and getting fun but aggressive aggressive but fun but despite the large crowds which honestly would usually freak me out this place is so big that it's easy to zone out all the noise and get lost in your own imagination of what once was out in the desert walked way out to the desert to get a good vantage point of the pyramids and the temples in front of the pyramids that's their wives and the smaller temples in front are their children man this is this is wild to be here in person it's like the closest thing to time travel yesterday i was at my house in san diego today i'm standing in the desert looking out at the great pyramids of giza in egypt my biggest takeaways from this morning's visit to one of the all-time bucket list locations are how mysterious this place still is the majority of the complex is still uncovered you gotta think there's still so much under all of these surrounding rock and sand mounds scientists are still excavating digging and trying to put the pieces together and second how crazy accessible all of these pieces are you can touch and traverse through the majority of this sacred burial ground these pyramids survived thousands of years now let's see if they can survive the instagram era but it's the ancient ancestors that we come to celebrate the self-righteous kings who were godly enough to dream this big and the men who believed enough to build them the great pyramids of giza are absolutely fascinating and if you're watching this for inspiration here's me telling you to make the trip happen but in the meantime as per usual all of this exploration makes me hungry [Music] let me tell you the streets of cairo come alive at night now don't get me wrong there's traffic here 24 7. but when the sun goes down there's definitely more of an alluring quality to the hustle and bustle especially when food's involved i don't know if you can even hear me at all but we're downtown we're in baba giza which we're told by our uber driver who was amazing he stayed away with us but our friend ziad got here ziad's over there putting our name in one of the most famous restaurants here in cairo or giza and that is this looks like the scene looks like about an hour to our way and we are in the mix as usual i gotta be straightforward with you guys embarrassingly enough as this dinner scene begins my knowledge of egyptian cuisine is pretty much zero luckily the staff here at el prince immediately welcomes us in and gives me a chaotic crash course on how some of the most quintessential egyptian dishes are prepared and i'll try to explain everything in a minute but first let me just give you the feeling [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] a couple of everything all right take my virtual hand and let's see if i can make some sense of this unbelievable feast oh while we're sitting right next to the restaurant's host who's standing on a chair with a microphone calling out people's names to be seated we start with one of these staples of egyptian cuisine a soup made from minced juice or juice mallow leaves herbaceous slightly bitter green that's eaten throughout the middle east africa and asia it's cooked with ground coriander cinnamon cardamom olive oil lemon juice and lots of garlic and it's said to be an ancient egyptian dish it's also what parents use here as a sauce to get their kids to eat vegetables oily soup tons of garlic that we saw together the rice alone is so next the dish i was actually most looking forward to try when it was being cooked up on the stove top liver or kebda cooked with oil garlic and hot peppers [Music] and the dishes keep coming so gold baked mini sausages smothered in tomatoes and onions sausages mini sausages slow roasted beef and potatoes in a clay pot [Music] not yet [Music] which we'll dive into even more on the next episode but it's a seasoned beef patty stuffed into a crispy dough or pita it's like a seasoned cheeseburger inside of a fried dumpling that's what it tastes like it's never been done this is something new and ziyad's personal favorite thinly sliced steak quickly seared and tossed in garlic tomatoes and onions first night in egypt this is the meal everybody's yelling we're in the mix you can't hear me it doesn't matter look i don't want to get ahead of myself drunk off all the excitement of the night but if this is any indication of how we'll be eating here in egypt over the next two weeks i'll be a very happy man this has been easily one of my favorite dining experiences from the last 15 years of traveling the world the food the people the atmosphere the flavors and of course we can't forget dessert as if we can't eat anymore right next door the restaurant is a sweet spot you gotta just get into something i don't know what all right what do we got here okay so this is rice pudding with ice cream and [Music] the sweet sounds of that cairo a very sweet vanilla flavor a perfect little finisher to all the meats we just had sounds of the city i love being back on the road this is absolutely perfect [Music] i have to jump in on this soon hey get in there get some ice cream get it oh yeah [Music] all right all right last one last fight last week this is day one here in cairo giza i should say in particular and i am truly impressed i came in here with mixed emotions just based on other people's experiences and interactions and for us it has been nothing but positive i think first impressions are the streets are crazy people are very very excited and curious there is some heckling people trying to get money or things like that but if you just tell them once or twice they're going away they don't stick around also guys just everywhere a lot of guys out another little side note you got to pay to play so if you go around with 20 egyptian pounds everybody if you anybody's bothering you about people want to help you out with stuff just hand over 20 which is about a dollar a little dollar a little change so give them five pounds give them a few pounds so keep small change on you give out a few pounds people are helping you with parking people helping in the pyramids outside of food places so that's another thing also a big shout out to cuts this is the new cuts bomber if you guys saw in the ig stories tyler's rocking the cuts cuts has been such an awesome supporter of this channel so if you guys go ahead and check out the link in the description 15 off use travel deeper otherwise this was a great first day huge shout out to this guy god was big tyler behind the lens today we're just gonna hang out have some chisha and enjoy day one night one in egypt there it is see you guys in the next one all right it's about 1 30. we're just getting back now i got to just tell you something a little behind the scenes just kind of ride home it's 1 30 in the morning and there was a guy giving a haircut there was kids playing soccer out in the street there was this three-year-old out for a walk they don't sleep here in egypt they don't sleep we went home early all right first questions first how do these get here we need to start with these it all starts from the ground up that means that these tombs will will live for millions of years who's they they one of the most important is that a heavy question is this an early time to ask who is there who's they and they're going to build it for who for the king the king okay why the king he's the most important wine because he's closest to god exactly yes start now no wait again he's probably gonna get those like black egyptians we're gonna have american flag canadian flag in a jimmy flag hanging up at our table hopefully because we're not drawing enough attention already here's the room there's tyler look at this setup not bad at all you got cleopatra right there i think this should be oh no nothing don't nope nevermind yeah let's go look at the roof there's the bathroom not bad not bad at all

Channel: Gareth Leonard

Views: 215,418

Keywords: egypt, egypt travel, Egypt, cairo, giza, cairo egypt, giza egypt, pyramid egypt, egypt pyramids, cairo pyramids, Egypt travel, travel egypt, Egypt travel guide, egypt travel guide, travel deeper, gareth leonard, travel deeper egypt, things to do in cairo, egyptian, Egyptian, Egyptian food, egyptian food, best places to eat cairo, things to do in egypt, travel vlog, vlog, pyramids in giza, pyramids of giza, hotels in giza, hotels in cairo, egypt pyramids tour, tour, pyramid tour

Id: 8bl3wPRuzP0

Length: 23min 41sec (1421 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 18 2022