home•itinerary•world map•guestbook
USA•Brazil•Spain•Portugal•Morocco
Egypt•Greece•Bahrain•India•Thailand
Malaysia•Singapore•Australia•New Zealand•Fiji
Egypt
| Journal Entries | Movie: |
|---|---|
|
• Cairo Touts and Getting There Alive (this page) [added March 28, 2007] • Pension Roma Abounds with Character! [added added March 28, 2007] • Cairo Days, Sheesha Nights [added added March 28, 2007] • Temples, More Touts and Nubia [added added March 28, 2007] • Whew... or, Why We Didn't Write More About Egyptian Monuments [added added March 28, 2007] • We Love Dahab! [added added March 29, 2007] |
• Arabic Lesson Series.wmv [added added March 28, 2007] Photos • Cairo Photos [added added March 30, 2007] • Aswan Photos [added added April 4, 2007] • Abu Simbel Photos [added added April 5, 2007] • High Dam Photos [added added April 6, 2007] • Philae Island Photos [added added April 7, 2007] • Luxor Photos [added added April 8, 2007] • Hurgada and Dahab Photos [added added April 9, 2007] |
Cairo Touts and Getting There Alive
Cairo, December 3, 2006
Wow! We made it to Cairo! Getting out of Morocco turned out to be no problem,
though the security worker at the airport frisked us so thoroughly that we
really should have been treated to dinner in a nice restaurant. We flew from
Casablanca to Madrid, and from there to Cairo. At the airport in Cairo, we
traded some money, paid for our visas and were quickly admitted through the
passport control. We got our bags with no hassle at all. But these hassle-free
times were short indeed! As soon as we had our bags, all sorts of people with
official-looking badges began to offer their services: hotels, limos, all
that. Liza agreed to talk to someone who said he was employed by the tourist
board and would help us find a hotel in our price range for no service charge.
We were led to an office where the guy started telling us we needed to go
to a hotel he recommended, because the one Andy had found online would be
expensive and far from everything. We became suspicious of his claims and
tried to leave. He basically accused Andy of being afraid of him and ungrateful
for all the help he'd given us. This was enough for us, so we got up and left.
Immediately more people surrounded us, and the technique we'd learned in Morocco
— just ignoring unsolicited help — didn't seem to be working.
We tried to find a cab, but there were none around. So, we decided to accept
the “help” of someone offering a taxi. He got a car for us and
we paid 10 Euros and were off. Instead of going to the hotel of our choice,
though, we were taken to a real dump with a filthy lobby and a broken elevator.
Liza refused to get in the elevator, which really was an excellent choice.
In the dark stairway, there were people looking at us, maybe hiding, maybe
waiting to rob us. Eventually, the driver reluctantly took us to the hotel
we wanted, but insisted we pay more. OK, fine, we paid a bit more and he left
us at our hotel, Pension Roma, which is quite nice and very affordable.
Cairo seems to be an amazing city, though we're both still a little rattled after our arrival. There were several strange things going on as we looked for a taxi, perhaps strangest that the man who arranged the car for us, somehow knew our names, though we'd never told him or anyone else. The only people who could have told him our names were the border police or airline personnel. This was a bit unnerving for us, but we have nothing to hide from the police or whoever else might know more about us than we know about them. It's something we need to be aware of, but we won't let it ruin our time in Egypt!