Shared vans, a policeman and the Pyramids

When visiting Cairo it is a must to see the pyramids of Giza, right?
after all this is one of the main reason I went to Egypt.

The site of the pyramids is not too far from Cairo and it can be reached with local taxis, private tours or using public transports. After few days of being hassled by taxi drivers in Cairo I have decided to opt for the public transport option…this became immediately a little big adventure.

I did a bit of research the day before on “how to get there”. I took the metro from Naguib metro station ( where my hostel was located) to Giza metro station. The underground unfortunately doesn’t reach the footstep of the pyramids and I still had around 4-5 KMs before reaching the pyramids site. According to the info I found on the internet from here you could take a taxi (Which I decided not to) or use one of the shared mini-vans that go towards the pyramids.

So the option of using mini-vans failed miserably when they couldn’t understand where I wanted to go (afer all this is only one of the most visited sites in the world): I tried to ask in English, I made the pyramid sign with my hands and I also tried to draw them but nothing…I guess next time I will have to bring a picture!

Out of desperation I stopped a policeman and asked him if he could help me... and in one minute he stopped a mini-van, he wrote me in Arabic on a piece of paper the destination and voilá in no time (well without considering the hour I tried on my own) I was at the front entrance of the pyramids site.
The van driver didn’t want me to pay as a policeman put me on the van but I paid anyway.

Definitely by taxi could have been easier but it would have been definitely less memorable.

On the way back I decided to use the policeman trick again…and it worked!