| 9/14/1999 | |
| In flight, and arrival in Cairo | |
| After 11 hours on the plane, three sad and depressing movies (sad and depressing referring to their quality as opposed to their genre), and three or four hours of Alpha Centauri, we arrived in Cairo. As we came in for a landing, we were treated to a grand view of the ancient city. It looked unlike any other that I have ever flown into. The buildings were clustered very close together. The landscape was a sandy-mud color, as were the buildings. I was puzzled by what we would later find out was the City Of The Dead. It was dark, much darker than the rest of the terrain. It looked like a bomb had gone off, but there was no structural damage. It was deserted and very very eerie. Another treat, sort of a foreshadow of things to come, through the desert haze a haunting view of the pyramids of Giza. Upon landing, one thing was obvious: we weren't in Kansas any more. It was hot; it was damn hot; it was hot as a snake's ass. The difference in societies was readily apparent the moment you walked off of the plane and saw the dudes carrying my favorite weapon, the DK5 Deutche (a fully automatic assault rifle). There were military in black, and police in white. They both looked like characters I had killed a thousand times in 007. They were everywhere; it was very cool. Our passports were checked at "passport control", a very structured and orderly place, much like checkpoint-Charlie. Once through there, we met up with our pseudo-guide who took us to the baggage claim area. Once there, another thing became readily apparent: we were going to be donating oodles of moolah to people who have done basically nothing for you. Much like Mexico, everyone in Egypt has their hand out for a tip for the smallest, even non-existent service. I think that the Egyptians are much more practiced at this than the Mexicans. Anyway, after a tip to the porter that moved my bag about 6 inches, and an orderly march through customs, we were on the tour bus and headed to Cairo. On the bus we met our real guide, Shahinaz. I didn't quite know what to expect from our guide, but a female wasn't it. However she seemed very nice, and we drove on to Cairo. The scenery was neat. Many familiar logos, but converted to Arabic. Contrasting buildings, some modern and beautiful; some dilapidated and ugly. Cars ranging from sleek new Mercedes' to unidentifiable wrecks spewing smoke as they putt-putted down the road, to donkey carts driven by withered old men. Drivers in Cairo have taken offensive driving to new heights; mayhaps even surpassing their American competition of team Boston. Pedestrians are either very brave, or very foolish. We arrived at the Mena House. The entrance was dazzling. It was elegant with a very distinctive Arabic flavor. And, right across the street: the pyramids, bigger than life! The room was very pleasant, but there is definitely an exchange rate for hotel stars as well as money. I'd say five Egyptian stars equals about three American. We ate in the hotel, at The Greenery (aka The Granary to Chrissie) Restaurant. It was a buffet, largely of Egyptian fare, with samples of dishes from various other regions. To my surprise, it was very good. Not knowing what to expect, and being a fussy eater, we brought a mountain of packaged food with us from the states. It became apparent that this was unnecessary. I sampled a number of the local dishes and found all of them excellent. After dinner we found that five star hotels charge five-star prices. We blew almost $100 on our first meal (yikes!). Anyway, it was back to our room for a much-needed nap. |
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