Cairo!
Ok, so Iran was a no-go as most of you will know already. Visa issues were a nightmare and it all got a bit much so now I'm in Egypt!
I arrived last night. The flight was late cos we had some sort of fuel paperwork error that meant that engineers had to open up holes in the winds of the plane to manually check how much fuel we had before we could take off. Phobic me had to resist the urge to ask the flight attendant whether anyone had considered that maybe the fuel was leaking into other parts of the plane and would catch fire spectacularly in mid-flight. Fortunately i was distracted by the 500 channels(!) of entertainment on demand and had a great time watching movies and playing games on my seatback tv.
Cairo was underwhelming when I arrived. We went to a dodgy old terminal (saw the shiny new international one from the car on the way out of the airport) that was all chaotic and no signs and a million lascivious men to deal with. And this was before I even went through passport control. Met my first Egyptian pest when trying to pay for my visa. One of the bank guys decided it would be cool if he hung onto my passport while 'playfully' telling me we could get together later that night and was I married and where was my family? clearly not here etc etc ad nauseum. It's fine and I just waited till he got sick of the game but it's pretty irritating too.
Hotel is fine. I think it had some history. Something about George Bernard Shaw used to stay here? It's seen much better days though and most of the beautiful old features are hidden under that muzak and eighties floral fabric virus that afflicts so many cheap hotels all over the world. It actually reminds me both of the 'best' hotel in Belize City that I had dinner in a couple of years ago and the hotel I stayed at in Quebec City that winter. These faded gems are everywhere.
Have been taking it easy today. Still very tired from the flights but in good spirits. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the tour group tonight.
I arrived last night. The flight was late cos we had some sort of fuel paperwork error that meant that engineers had to open up holes in the winds of the plane to manually check how much fuel we had before we could take off. Phobic me had to resist the urge to ask the flight attendant whether anyone had considered that maybe the fuel was leaking into other parts of the plane and would catch fire spectacularly in mid-flight. Fortunately i was distracted by the 500 channels(!) of entertainment on demand and had a great time watching movies and playing games on my seatback tv.
Cairo was underwhelming when I arrived. We went to a dodgy old terminal (saw the shiny new international one from the car on the way out of the airport) that was all chaotic and no signs and a million lascivious men to deal with. And this was before I even went through passport control. Met my first Egyptian pest when trying to pay for my visa. One of the bank guys decided it would be cool if he hung onto my passport while 'playfully' telling me we could get together later that night and was I married and where was my family? clearly not here etc etc ad nauseum. It's fine and I just waited till he got sick of the game but it's pretty irritating too.
Hotel is fine. I think it had some history. Something about George Bernard Shaw used to stay here? It's seen much better days though and most of the beautiful old features are hidden under that muzak and eighties floral fabric virus that afflicts so many cheap hotels all over the world. It actually reminds me both of the 'best' hotel in Belize City that I had dinner in a couple of years ago and the hotel I stayed at in Quebec City that winter. These faded gems are everywhere.
Have been taking it easy today. Still very tired from the flights but in good spirits. Looking forward to meeting the rest of the tour group tonight.
posted by becsh at 10:06 pm
1 Comments:
hey becky!
OMG aeroplane! glad you're all good now! i would have been pretty nervous too! yay for 500 channels! british airways only had 14 or something, oh maybe there was more radio ones.
*shudder* to the men. i got off extremely lightly in asia. guess you'll have to reapply all those skills you got in latin america. >:|
eighties floral fabric? hmm, don't know if i noticed that in thailand... are you taking lots of photos of things?
zoe says hi and wags her tail.
love, anne x
Post a Comment
<< Home