Trip to Egypt - Day 1 - 23/12/2006

Having said our goodbyes to our friends and family the night before (both here and abroad) Caitlin and I were ready for our trip. We were going to Egypt the land of a once great empire to see the many artefacts and writings created thousands of years ago and still admired today.

There had been very heavy fogs in London causing some flights to be cancelled due to the poor traffic conditions. When we arrived at Heathrow (T4) we were made to take an indirect route to get to the departures area being diverted to an outside car park to get in (with no signs apparent to help us make our way which seems to be the way here in Great Britain).

Then there was the outstanding punctuality of BA so far managing to run only moderately behind schedule. We arrived in Cairo an hour late (which was the next day in fact) and were greeted at the Airport by a representative from our tour guide company and later met Maria one of five others in our tour group.

We were asked by our tour representative to buy a truck load of good old Egyptian tax-free liquor which would have been easy enough if it were not for some American in front of us arguing for 15 minutes over being charged 7 Egyptian Pounds (about £0.60/$AUD1.50) more than the marked price for not one, not two but three bottles of Jonnie Walker Red Label.

We were then driven to our hotel on our seeing vehicles drive by with passengers "surfing" on the vehicle roofs. The driving here was reminiscent of a dodgem car race and to make matters more interesting there were no traffic lights. Or at least very, very few.

On arrival the hotel gave us some tea (a special Egyptian iced tea of some sort) and took us to our room. It was around 2a.m. and we had an 8a.m. start. Our efforts to get to bed as quick as we can were marred by a porter desperately trying to sell us a local Sim card.

And then finally some rest (or at least a lie down for some reason sleeping was not easy thing to do).