Egypt

So I’m laying here in a bed in a guesthouse in Cairo, Egypt listening to Toni Braxton and thinking about how interesting the past 24 hours have been and I decided that it would be worth writing a blog.

Yesterday we left Nairobi to spend a couple of relaxing days seeing the sites of Cairo. Jermaine and I booked our flights separately, and ended up flying on two different airlines, so while Jermaine’s arrival time was set for 11:30pm, the arrival time for my significantly cheaper flight was 1:30am. We had made arrangements to be picked up at the airport, so we obviously expected that we would be picked up at the airport. After getting through customs and immigration we went out to the lobby looking for the sign that said “Justin Culp.” There was no sign.

One thing that you learn after being taken advantage of a few times is that when you are traveling with a specific plan, and some stranger starts trying to talk you out if it, you should ignore that person. This is especially true with the official-looking people at the Cairo airport. We had barely landed and walked out of customs when the people from the “Department of Tourism” started saying things like “I don’t think your ride is coming, you should let us take you in our taxi” and “How many stars is your hotel? Maybe I can get you a good deal on a nicer one!” At first we saw the uniforms and expected help, but within five minutes I was referring to them as “the sharks.” Later we were reading about Cairo in the guidebook and they actually mentioned these guys as a common scam in the airport.

We waited around to see if the driver was late, but eventually had to take a cab with one of the sharks, so we negotiated a price and left. The man assured me that they knew where the place was that we were going, and we left…with three of the “drivers” in the car with us. As soon as the car pulled out, the two extra taxi-cab personnel started frantically calling people on their cell phones. Now, I don’t know Arabic, but I know that ‘kinnesa’ means ‘church’ and we happen to be staying at a guesthouse owned by the Catholic church. We were moving…on the road…in a cab with a driver who didn’t even know where he was taking us. As if that wasn’t doing enough to make our night more adventuresome, about fifteen minutes into our car ride, the two guys with phones just got out of the car and walked away (but not before reminding us to tip the driver).

The driver took us to the wrong place, but the people at the wrong place knew how to get to the right place, so eventually we showed up at the guesthouse and were able to get into our room by about 3:45am. We went to bed just in time to hear someone singing very loudly at 4am….I have very little use for morning people sometimes.

Despite the difficulty, the night was actually pretty fun. Today I was talking to Jermaine about some “Oh no, that’s terrible!” responses that I got and how we were pretty much laughing through the whole night. You don’t come to Africa and last very long if things like that can get you too worked up!

Today we woke up without really knowing what we would be doing. We went downstairs for the guesthouse breakfast and met some of the other travelers staying here. After some…energetic…conversation with the fellow guests, we got to visit with Helbees the guesthouse manager. After last night’s difficulty it was kind of refreshing to meet someone as pleasant and helpful as Helbees. We told her that we were just going to walk around today, so she told us where we could go to see cool stuff. We talked about places to go and where the food places were, and when we indicated that we wanted to eat the local food (instead of McDonalds and Chili’s) she offered to go to the nearby sandwich shop and order our food for us since we don’t speak Arabic. The food was amazing.

After eating we went for a walk along the east bank of the Nile River. Our goal today was just to get out and see what the city is like. We walked for about six kilometers down the river, and we found some sailboats that would take us out onto the river for a while. It was quiet and…quiet, so we just hung out, enjoyed the scenery, and took lots of pictures. If you find yourself in Cairo and you want to take this kind of ride, don’t go to the guys who chase you down the street. Their boats are all flashy with loud motors and playing loud music. Walk to the Four Seasons Hotel (It’s huge…you can’t miss it) and go to the guys across from the hotel (our “driver” was named Sayeed).After the boat ride, we walked a little farther and then tried to come back a different way. That was a bad idea, so we got back to the road we came by and returned that way.

When we got back to the guesthouse, Helbees invited us to dinner. Dinner is not provided here, but she was cooking for a friend who ended up not coming, so she had extra. We enjoyed some home cooked food (a new recipe from the internet that she was trying) and some good conversation before retiring to our room.

When we were planning the trip to Cairo, we were looking for a good place to stay. One of our friends recommended the guesthouse at the All Saints Cathedral, so that’s where we’re staying. I strongly recommend the place if you can get an available room. It’s not a 5-star hotel, and you share common dining rooms and other facilities with other guests, but the staff are quite helpful and hospitable, the price is very reasonable and the location is great.