Summer Sun 2017 Day 1 - Cairo

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It was 0500 hrs local time when our plane landed in Cairo from Mumbai, after a 6 hours flight. Swati, Akshay and me could lie down and sleep the whole journey since we had grabbed empty seats. However Pradnya hadn't slept at all, sacrificing her seats and sleep for her daughter Anvi who slept peacefully. This motherly act of love could potentially put our sightseeing plans offtrack for today. As we disembarked the aircraft, one thing struck all of us; how empty the airport was!
We had been cautioned by some well wishers about going to Egypt considering the recent uprisings and violence that the country had seen. We had done our due diligences and had decided to carry on, backing the best of our wisdom and craving for adventure.
We were out of the airport in 30 minutes flat. Any other day this would have been a good news but today it meant we would reach our hotels really early and be at the mercy of the mangers to provide early check in. With no other options and a drowsy Pradnya, we decided to hail a taxi. After a little haggling, which was going to be a norm in Egypt, we took off in a SUV to our hotel, thus getting the first glimpse of Africa and Cairo.
Cairo in that rising sun looked eeriley ghostly. Cairo is a concrete jungle with buildings jostling for every inch of land. Most of the buildings do not have plaster so the entire city looks like a heap of bricks. Buildings look run-down and covered with a layer of the Sahara desert sand. The few cars on the road were all battered and bruised. Our driver named Aam, informed us with pride there were 40 million people living in Cairo! Many of them were idling on the roads in groups, as we zipped by the city. Overall Cairo gives you a dreaded and unwelcoming feel in the first impression. The only sight to behold was the sudden appearance of the blue Nile; the longest River in the world. The Nile was a contrasting blue to the overall grey with welcoming green banks. It had plentiful of water which carried small and big boats on it.
It took us 45 min to reach our hotel as technically our hotel was in the suburb of Gizha near the Pyramids. It was 0630hrs when we reached the hotel. Our check in was at 1400 hrs a good 6 hours difference. We requested the manger for early check in to which he had a standard answer of "it al depnedz wen za guests czech out". We pointed in the direction of the child Anvi and zombie Pradnya hoping for some sympathy but to no avail. We dumped our luggage in the lobby and decided to check out the property.
Hotel Le Meriden is high on suggestion for anybody who want to visit Pyramids. It has a beautiful pool body from where you can see two of the three Pyramids up close. The sunken bar which blows barbeque smoke after sun set is a bonus.
We settled down on beds beside the pool, which was not yet open to guests, inviting Pradnya to catch up with some sleep. As Swati and Pradnya caught up on their beauty sleep by the pool with soft cool morning breeze blowing, Akshay, Anvi and me decided to dig into the breakfast spread. Leisurely we ate for more than an hour when the girls joined us, a little fresher than before. Another hour passed as we tried everything that the breakfast spread had to offer before Akshay's patience weaned off and he took to the direction of the receptionist but to return with the good news that our rooms were almost ready. We quickly gulped down our 3rd cup of coffee eager to get into the rooms.
As if to make amends for keeping us waiting, we were offered rooms with a staggering view. From the French windows of our 5th floor room we could see the two Pyramids clearly, lying in our bed. It was a sight to behold. Overjoyed we decided to freshen up quickly and visit them. However the one hour nap of Pradnya wasnt good enough to get her going immediately as she dozed off for a much needed sleep. 3 hours later when she was up and about, it was too late to venture into the African sun, so we decided to settle down for lunch. Pyramids would have to wait for another day as they shut by 1600 hrs.
Post lunch we hired a half day taxi and decided to venture into the city of Cairo. Our driver, a big guy with a gentle smile named Aalah pulled over a 10 seater mini van just for us. We decided to go to the down town Cairo and check out some local shopping and food scene. Aalah was more than happy to double up as our guide as he manoeuvered the minivan through the crazy traffic of Cairo city. Being from India one wouldnt be surprised by crazy traffic, but Cairo traffic is a different level altogether.
Cairo roads are jammed by old, bruised, bumped cars cutting each other by inches. Add people walking and on donkeys zipping through them and you would get some idea.
We passed the famous tahrir square before finally after a 45 min drive Aalah dropped us at a big circle with a statue and roads going in all directions. For next 2 hours we roamed the streets, shopped Egyptian cotton clothes, ate local felfela, drank local street drink and shooed beggars and creeps away before calling aalah to pick us and take us to the Nile River front.
Nile River front is dotted with 5 starts hotels but all again looked run-down as if they had seen better days. We sipped on some Egyptian coffee by the Nile as the blazing sun set. By now Anvi was exhausted and wouldn't have made the return journey to hotel awake, which meant she would go to sleep empty stomach. To avoid this we stepped into the Hilton hotel, which seemed the only hygienic place to feed a kid. As we settled down in their Italian restaurant, since Anvi wanted to have a pizza, we were astonished to see the rates. They were cheaper than most regular restaurants in Pune we are used to visiting. We all decided to have dinner there as we were treated to some beautiful wines, delicious soups and yummy pizza and pasta without burning much Egyptian pounds. Our hearts and stomach satiated and bodies exhausted, we aksed Aalah to take us to the hotel directly where we crashed into our beds after a loooong first day.

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Photos

Room with a view
Our hotel room Le Meridien, Pyramids

Comments

[Sandhya]

Local drink
Was it the tamarind drink?