Saturday, December 18, 2010
You already know we left San Diego at 6:30 am on Friday, barely making the flight. For Carol, the idea is to watch as many movies as possible on flights, and we managed to put away Inception at $6 each, which is a definite “Two Thumbs Up.” I opted out of a second viewing of Eat, Pray, Love, and watched an episode of Boardwalk Empire on my new Droid X, but that is a different story. Delta offers no frills!
I did not mention that this trip I have decided to try to blend into the local background wearing black pants, black shoes and semi-dress shirts, instead of jeans and tennies. I think the fact that I was not wearing a tee shirt in the SD airport helped us to get into the preferred security line. Probably more on this dress concept later.
Some parts of JFK are not as luxurious and refined as others. There is something about mixing up a bunch of Greeks and New Yorkers at a Delta gate that turns into craziness.
We left JFK in the evening to tour Egypt, and tried to sleep as much as possible for the redeye to Athens, arriving at 9:30 am after a 10-hour flight. Athens is part of the European Union (this becomes important later, after visiting Egypt). So while in the waiting area, I tried my hand at an ATM and became the proud owner of a 50-Euro note. All the signs now look like Greek to us. One hour later, we were off for the 2-hour flight to Cairo, to tour Egypt.
For those of you who have never been to an Arabic country, let me say that it can be a shock. Remember the first time you went to Mexico, and you wondered at the buildings with rebar sticking out of the top of most buildings, partially finished? And all of the dirt roads? In Cairo everything seems old, not to mention the antiquities. The toilet facilities are different – generally smelly and without TP unless you tip the attendant. Women wear scarves on their heads, or sometimes burqas – full body robes with slits for the eyes. Men wear dark slacks, collared shirts, jackets, and dress warmly in weather that we would consider temperate. People tend not to respect the formation of lines to wait for stuff. But they are very friendly and tend to have a dry sense of humor and feed you one line jokes that are tricky but still funny in broken English.
We had conflicting instructions about how to navigate the customs area. Our tour doc said the host would get our visa, but my brother-in-law said get the visa before customs. He was right. So luckily, we did not stand in line to present our passports, and got our visa at a bank near the passport place. Why can’t that stuff be clearly explained by signage? Another cultural issue.
This is the first time we have had a private tour arrangement. When we exited from the customs area, Ayman (“I-Man” ) was waiting, and we met our driver, Malek. We were off to the Marriott, defying the onslaughts of the traffic on the Cairo streets. Let me tell you, I have been a lot of places, and I have NEVER seen traffic and drivers like Cairo. Lane lines have no meaning, constantly honking the horn is de riguer, and there are few if any stop lights at intersections. But Ayman is great, and soon we are at the hotel, trying to find a drink.
The Egypt Cairo Marriott is sort of a combination of a good American hotel, combined with a rough try at normal amenities. Everything costs. No freebies. Internet $20, breakfast $20 plus gratuity and taxes, laundry out of sight. I think we spent $80 to get our shirts and undies done.
We had discovered talking to my sister-in-law, Judy Leep, that Bill Holste, her brother (ok, my brother-in-law) lives in Cairo, a few blocks from the Marriott. He works for Qatar as a construction consultant, and has been in the Mideast for 25 years. So – this is fabulous – a couple hours after we arrive, he picks us up in a taxi and we are off to a fantastic Lebanese-Egyptian restaurant, Sequoia (isn’t that a California tree?) and have really what is one of the most wonderful evenings we have had for a long time, in Egypt, eating from an immense spread of hummus, baba ganoush, pita bread and kofta, sort of a spiced, ground, hotdog-sized lamb shish-kabob. South African white wine. Welcome to Cairo! This is a preview of how much we will eat in the next 7 days. In the picture below, either the waiter moved when he took the picture, or JB has had too much to drink. Anyway, it was the best picture we had to show the inside of the restaurant, which was tented and had canvas-covered chairs!
