Day 5 -Cairo

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Left for Cairo this morning. Dubai airport was a bit of a shambles and we only just made it to our gate in time for boarding as it took us about 2.5 hours to check in and clear passport control. Emirates planes are excellent and we managed to score exit rows which was even better.

The landing in Cairo was a bit bumpy as there was lots of turbulence near to the ground. Cairo airport made me very grateful that we had booked transfers to the hotel through our tour company. About 15 minutes we had already broken the first rule of traveling by giving our passports to a complete stranger just because he was holding a Geckos - our tour company- sign. All turned out for the best as he ran away and got us our visas and helped us through passport control.

If we thought the driving in Hong Kong was interesting compared to Cairo it was the sole of organization and safety. There seems to be no road rules here at all just some basic guidelines. Every car is dented and one had seems to remain on the horn the whole time just crazy.

Made it to our hotel in one piece and managed to check in after some confusion. Everyone smoking is something that Michelle and i will have to get used to. They smoke in the car in the hotel, everywhere.

After a short rest we decided to head out and try to find some food. 2 minutes later we are breaking all of the remaining rules of traveling and are following a man named Said who we met on the street back to what we thought was his shop. It turned out to be a shop named Rosetta which was down this little alley.

When we got to the shop we were introduced to the owner Emad. We were sat down and offered drinks as part of his Egyptian hospitality. He then proceeded to ask us where we came from and what we were going to be doing in Cairo whilst producing a large blue book that was filled with peoples recommendation in it with lots of Australians saying that he was a great guy. When he got up and closed the shop door it was a bit nerve racking but he said that it was just so the the air conditioning would work better.

After about 10 mins of reading through his book and watching some videos on this mobile phone Graham remembered that he has actually read about Rosetta and Emad here on travelblog and that he was well known for helping out Aussies that were traveling through Cairo.

He ended up buying us lunch and we talked for about 4 hours about the differences in culture between Egypt and Australia. We ended up buying some Papyrus from him and he organised a tour for us for the next day. Emad as it turned out was a really nice guy and if your are ever in Cairo and staying in the King Hotel his shop is very close and you should look him up.

We left Emad at about 5 bought some water on the way back to the hotel and went to bed with no dinner as we were absolutely buggered.

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