Arriving in Cairo
Day 1 was travelling to Cairo and the day started super early. I had already been up for a while when my alarm went off at 4:20 am. I cleaned up my house, so I could leave it alone for two weeks. Mostly dishes that I had left to dry the night before. Also, because while I am gone movers will be coming to change my apartment and move me upstairs. I made sure my laptop and chargers were packed before I went down to get a taxi.
I tried to use my Taxi app to call a taxi for me but there were none in the area. So I had to stand at the road and wait. After about 15 minutes a taxi drove by and stopped for me. Turns out he drove one of my co-workers to school the previous year. He took me to the airport for a fair price of 5KD. The time of morning meant it was a bit more expensive than the regular 3-4KD, but I knew this.
Then it was check in and go have breakfast at Chili’s restaurant. I had Crispy Chicken Tacos and tea. They were not set up to serve breakfast, yet. I found that strange.
Then it was to Bahrain for a quick layover and then to Cairo. At Cairo the line to get through immigration was ridiculous. I quickly paid my 25US$ for my entry visa and went to line up with at least 3 other planes worth of people. They had 6 counters open to process, maybe, 1000 people. I was in line for over an hour.
Then I went to get my bags and they were not on the conveyor belt. I wasn’t sure if this was slowness on the part of the airport or planning so that bags wouldn’t be unattended. Only about 5 minutes later people started crowding around the bags started coming.
Then it was through customs and off to get an ATM. At the ATM a guy trying to get me to take his companies taxi approached/accosted me. I told him no I don’t have money. He left for a bit. When I was done with the ATM he was back and trying to grab and take my bags.
When I asked how much for his taxi he told me 200LE. I told him no thank you and went to go find the proper white and black airport taxi’s. He decided to try and haggle with me, which I am horrible at. I also didn’t want to take the taxi due to the level of aggression/dedication he had while trying to get me to take the taxi, and the way he tried to grab my bags. I went to the white and black taxi for 120LE.
The only difficulty was that the driver did not know where to find the hotel. Cairo is a big city with many streets. He found the main street to turn onto but he thought the hotel was on that street and couldn’t find it. Eventually, after asking quite a few people, we found the hotel on a nearby side street.
I checked into the hotel and was able to go up to my room. There was a large number of bags in the hallway I could only assume belonged to the others in the Intrepid group. I was told we had a meeting at 5 pm. I took the elevator up to my room 401 to find I was in a nice big suite. It had two rooms and a lounge room.
I had booked my trip as a single traveller. In order to not pay a single supplement, I needed to be okay sharing my rooms with an assigned same-gender roommate. My roommate on the trip would take the other room.
I went to go online to say I made it safe and found that Egypt used the 2 round prong power outlets. I had only brought one of that type of adapter so I went out to wander around the area and see if I could find a place that would have them for sale. There was a Radio Shack and was able to buy what I wanted.
Then I found a grocery store and was able to buy water and snacks for the trip. I returned to the hotel at about 4:30 and went up to my room. No new arrivals. I used to time to do some writing about my trip to Oman and to check on my Facebook.
At 5 I went down to see if anyone was there for the meeting. I asked and had been told some people were on a half day trip, exploring Cairo, and would be back around 5. They would get Mohammad, the group leader to phone my room when he arrived.
I was barely back in my room when I got the call to come down and meet with Mohammad. I filled in the rest of my insurance details and he let me know the rough plan and gave me a list of optional activities and prices. My trip was a budget level trip. Very little was included in this type of trip. I could, however, choose to pay and go on optional excursions. Mohammad told me would meet at 6 for dinner and then come back for a group meeting.
So I went up to my room with a price guide. I researched and selected what I wanted to do. It could cost me up to 800$ extra to do and see the things I want. I started to play the what’s worth it game. I also figured I’d play it by ear because the more people that go on excursions the cheaper it gets. For one activity, if everyone goes that is 12 people and the cost is 154LE but if it’s only 4 people go the cost is 324LE.
I went back down at 6 pm to find there are 15 others going for dinner. We walked down the road to a GAD, which we also have in Kuwait. It serves basic Middle Eastern foods, like Kebab and Falafel. We took up a good portion of the restaurant.
Some people already knew each other because they had already been on tour together. This tour was two smaller tours. The first part went through Jordan. Some people were only doing Jordan and were departing the next morning for home. The second part went through Egypt. Some people were joining in Cairo, like me. And some were doing the entire tour.
After dinner, we went back to the hotel for our tour meeting. Mohammed let us know that our itinerary was changing due to hostilities at the Libyan border. We went over the old itinerary and what we would have done without changes. Then he went over the changes that we happening since we can’t travel in to the desert.
I am not too sad about the changes. The start is the same in Cairo and Aswan. Then we have a Nubian homestay with full board. Then we travel up the Nile in a Felucca with full board. In Luxor, the Temple of Karnak and the Valley of the Kings has been included to make up for the changes. This saves me between 574-305LE, depending on the number of people who would have gone. We now travel to Hurghada where we get half board and a private boat has been rented for a snorkelling trip. In Alexandria, we get to visit the fortress that stands over where the Lighthouse at Alexandria once stood.
Then it was time to go to bed. I learned that I was the only single female on the trip so I don’t share my room and I don’t have to pay a single supplement. I think this trip is working out awesome for me.
My adventure continued on Day 2 – PYRAMIDS
