November 5, 2006 In Transit – Cairo, Egypt

November 5, 2006
In Transit – Cairo, Egypt

At 1:30 a stewardess woke me. She informed me that I had to return my seat to its upright and full position. Initially, I thought we were already in Cairo. In all of the confusion with the fight I had forgotten that we had a stopover in Sudan. After doing as I was told, I fell back asleep. I did not wake up again until we were in Egypt.

At 3:00 we finally arrived in Cairo. As we made our way down the walkway a man from our hotel greeted us (he had been waiting at the airport the entire time). He helped us find an ATM, get visas (for which they will not take local currency), and make our way through immigration. It was a long process made worse by the fact that it was the middle of the night.

We finally got to our checked baggage at 4:00. B thought it strange that the gauze he had had in his bag was lying of the floor. Too tired to worry about it, we followed the hotel employee outside. He passed us off to another person who led us to a taxi. Each of these individuals demanded a tip…

We finally arrived at our hotel at 4:30. After tipping someone for showing us to our room, I collapsed into bed. As B prepared himself for sleep he opened his bag to find that his camera had been stolen (that is why the gauze was no longer in his bag…). The thieve must have gone through his (and maybe my) bag while we waited in the long immigration line. I jumped out of bed and we quickly checked the rest of our possessions Luckily, nothing else was stolen (his plane tickets were lying next to his camera…).

We finally got to sleep just before 5:00.

I woke up at 9:30 and badly needed some water. I made my way to the hotel lobby and purchased some water (I also had to tip the guy who sold me the water…). After quenching my thirst I went back to the room and chilled out until B woke up (at 10:30).

Once we had showered and unpacked a few of our things we grabbed an early lunch at the hotel. We then decided that we should treat ourselves to a day of luxury (since we had a rough day of travel yesterday).

We grabbed a taxi to the Nile Hilton (recommended by our hotel) and utilized their spa, steam room, and cold pool. Once we were fully relaxed we headed to the nearby shopping area and got a professional shave. It was the first time I have ever been shaved by someone else. It was a fun and relaxing experience. Next, the barber talked us into getting facials.

I have never done something like that and probably never will again. It was much more painful than I expected. Still, when they were done (about a 30 minute procedure) my face felt smoother than it has since I was a baby…

Sufficiently pampered we made our way back to our hotel. Upon entering the room we immediately fell asleep (15:45). We did not wake up until just before the meeting with our tour group (19:00).

Our group seems like an interesting mix of people. Five of the 12 people are a family from New Zealand (parents, 2 boys, and a girl). Another three are Australian. And, once again, we have an Irish couple along (this time they are from Belfast).

After going over the details of our trip our leader, a big Australian named Danielle (who looks like Holk Hogan), took us out to a local restaurant for some dinner. Everyone was starving and enjoyed the traditional meal (meat, rice, soup, pita).

Once everyone had their fill Danielle convinced us to try one of the hookah bars. We hung out and sampled the shi-sha.

When we got back to the hotel B and I utilized the internet available at our hotel. Luckily, it was much faster than in Nairobi. We each spent several hours catching up on world news, sports, and our social lives.

We got back to the room at about 1:00 am and then had a lot of trouble falling asleep (due to our long midday nap).