July 13 - Egypt: Cairo

In Nairobi, we woke up at 4:00AM to catch a ride at 4:45 to the airport for a 6:30 flight.  Jon is very, very ill.  He was up all night with stomach cramps, a fever, and other unmentionable stomach problems--"Delhi Belly"- and we haven't even hit India yet!.  This is a bad day to travel, and I had to finish his packing for him because he was so sick.  We briefly considered staying in Nairobi for a few more days until he got better, but he really wanted to get out of Nairobi.

Egypt Air

Egypt Air only assigns seats on check-in, so we were glad we got their early.  We scored a two-seater exit row, so at least we'll be comfortable!  We didn't realize, however, that Egypt Air still allows smoking on flights greater than 3 hours, and our wonderful exit row was unfortunately three rows in front of the smoking section.  You win some, you lose some.  Jon slept for much of the 5-hour flight, which was good for him.  He ate a little, but mostly looked like he was in extreme pain.  I decided before the flight to give him some of the prescription medicine we had, hoping to lessen the cramps - and it looks like it worked a bit.  By the end of the flight, he was feeling better and in improved spirits.

We arrived at the Cairo Airport at 1:00pm, and we had some trouble negotiating a taxi ride but finally got one that we liked.  However, the taxi driver spoke very little English and seemed to have no idea where our hotel was.  Lonely Planet suggested that this was a ploy to get us to a hotel where he gets a commission, but he never suggested another hotel.  And for whatever reason, he didn't seem to recognize the map of Cairo.  But we finally named a road that he recognized, and got to the hotel.

Cairo

On the way there, it was time for afternoon prayer.  There were people lined up on the streets as part of the "overflow crowd".  There were men on little mats in the streets bowing and praying on their knees.  I didn't know until I'd read on the plane that Egypt is a very, VERY conservative country where women are concerned.  They seriously dislike western women, and see us as corrupt and immoral.  They also believe that we corrupt their wives and daughters.  So Lonely Planet suggests that we (women) cover up as much as possible or else we'll get harassed and/or touched.  Well covering up is all fine and dandy for the sake of another culture, but it's 95 degrees today and I only have pants.  Then again, I don't feel like facing the venom of Egyptian men, either.

Odeon Palace Hotel

The hotel we're at is a bit of a splurge for us.  Granted, it's not the Marriott, but it is on the high end of the "mid-range" hotels.  But in this heat we don't feel like toughing it out in a non-air-conditioned hotel.  So we get checked into our room and Jon sleeps for a few hours while I read through Lonely Planet Egypt.  When he wakes up, he feels much better and I am very happy!  We plan out what we're going to do over the next few weeks while we are in Egypt.  This takes a bit of strategizing because of multiple train schedules and ferry times, but we finally get to an itinerary we're happy with.  We've decided to fly back to Cairo from the Red Sea rather than waste another 24 hours on a train & ferry.  We also get another day for diving - SWEET!

The Mall

By this time, it's around 6:00 so we found a place we wanted to go for dinner and set out on the roads.  We passed by a mall, and decided to go in to find me a skirt.  The mall is a tall, round structure with 8 floors.  Each floor has about 10 stores on it, and each floor looks down onto the bottom food court.  We discovered that the mall is QUITE the place to be on a Friday night--the food court, complete with McDonald's and KFC is very popular with the Egyptian teens and there is a live DJ with at least 10 huge speaker!  We are also the only tourists in there and this attracted quite a bit of attention.  But I found a long linen skirt that I can wear and feel comfortable in.

Alfy Bey Restaurant

We had dinner at the Alfy Bey Restaurant, which was not bad but not overly exciting either.  Lonely Planet basically bashes Egyptian food as "crude: salads are boring, vinegary and often far from fresh; vegetables have the flavour boiled out of them; typical main dishes of potato, rice, and meat are heavy and oily."  This is a bummer because Jon and I LOVE food.  But the Alfy Bey gave us food that was edible, and Jon ate everything he was served despite his earlier illness.

After dinner, we walked around Talaat Harb which seems to be Egypt's equivalent to New York's 14th street.  The stores are pretty cheesy, but families are out on the town.  Egyptians are very affectionate with one another.  We often passed women that were walking arm-in-arm or hand-in-hand.  And the men walked arm-in-arm as well.  I was also surprised that - despite the veiled women - their husbands/boyfriends seemed to enjoy walking with their women on their arms and had no problem showing their obvious affection.

We went to an Internet Cafe in the Hilton to find our friend, Brenden who was also in Cairo.  He told us what hotel he was staying at so we stopped by, but weren't surprised that he wasn't there.  (Social butterfly that he is).  So we went back to the room and crashed for the night.