It’s a little after 8 am. The sun isn’t blazing yet. Miles and miles of golden sand lie in front of us. With a few camels, a dozen or so guides and lots of fellow tourists for company, we stand mesmerised as six centuries of history stares down at us in the middle of the world’s longest desert. Suddenly there’s a tap on my shoulder and a voice crackles, “Hello, how is Amitabh Bachchan? Do you want this shirt?”u00a0Shaken out of my dreamy state, I look back bewildered. There is a bearded man, draped from head to toe in white, trying to sell me what looks like kurtas. “Amitabh Bachchan?” I ask, incredulous. “Err, I assume he is fine.” Our man doesn’t blink. “So Amitabh Bachchan, you take shirt, I take you inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. I know good man, he take you in and bring you out,” he smiles back. Welcome to Cairo in the 21st century — untouched by the passage of time and yet, very ‘in-with-it’ in so many other ways.u00a0

An Egyptian sells souvenirs in front of the Great Pyramid of Khafre in Giza. u00a0AFP Photo