"MTCowgirl's Cairo Adventures" a Cairo Travel Page by mtcowgirl

Sept 2005 -

Arrived at Cairo airport. Exchanging money was interesting. There were about four kiosks of different banks and people crowded around them shouting to exchange money. Then it was off to immigration. Two stamps later I was standing outside waiting for a limousine because I didn't think the taxi could handle the weight of my luggage and had some doubts as the the safety of riding in one of the local taxis :)

I had my first experience with baksheesh after arriving at the airport. While waiting for the limo, I had to inquire with a police officer if anyone was around. He yelled at a few people and then a man with a big belly came after a while and offered a limo to the hotel. After the driver came and as I was getting in the car the big belly man said "money, money" for writing me the ticket to take the limo. I was a little shocked...but dutifully handed over about five Egyptian pounds, which is around US$1 :-P It seems that no service is given without the expectation of receiving a tip...even if the guy just wrote the receipt for your taxi.

My trip back from Egypt was in one word "crazy". First, I discovered that my flight from Sharm el Sheikh was cancelled. Luckily there was another flight an hour later which limited my time in Cairo which was fine by me because there was nothing to do at the airport anyways!
At the Cairo airport, I arrived in the domestic terminal. A porter offered to take me to the international terminal and carry my luggage. Then I got the "money, money" phrase and ended up being at the wrong terminal. Second porter, another terminal..."money, money"...wrong terminal again. Third porter, international terminal, "money money"...wrong international terminal! By now, I'm getting a little frustrated. The last porter puts me on a shuttle bus to the correct terminal. Somewhere in between the wrong terminal security checkpoint and the shuttle bus, my plane ticket went missing. I spent about 30 minutes running around the wrong international terminal to see if anyone had turned in my ticket or if the police would help me but to no avail.

I decided to head to the other terminal on the shuttle bus and talk to Turkish Airlines to buy a lost-ticket replacement. Unfortunately, due to the time of my flight, there was no one at the Turkish Airlines office and I was told to speak to the rep at Gulf Air. The rep there told me that I had to buy a completely new ticket and that I could probably get reimbursed when I arrived back in Kosovo (probably being an operative word that made my senses go on alert.) Anyways, 45 minutes before my flight was leaving (before I broke down and cried in the airport out of desperation) a police officer came up to me with my ticket. I nearly hugged him out of sheer joy that I wasn't going to be stranded in Cairo until who knows when...but made a dash to the ticket counter instead. So, I thankfully made it back to Kosovo after an eventful trip back!

March 2006 -
On the way back from Sharm, we again had to change terminals in Cairo, with our luggage because they won't check your baggage to your final destination if you are first making a domestic stop...probably because they don't have the personnel to change the baggage to another terminal! It was another case of misinformation and take a taxi. We first were told that we needed to go upstairs and ended up paying a porter to lug the baggage upstairs because the elevator was supposedly out of service (the guy who told me was more than willing to call the porters over to help). Anyways, we didn't have to go upstairs, we had to go to another terminal. The security guard told us that he didn't know anything about the shuttle bus (a free service from the airport) and told us to take a taxi. I saw the sign for the shuttle once we got outside but Ray decided to pay the guy from the Marriot 45LE (Egyptian Pounds, about $8-9) to take us to the other terminal rather than push our luggage uphill to the shuttle stop.

Sept 2005 - My first day in Cairo, I headed to the Pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, and Memphis. Oh, and I can't forget to mention extensive shopping at both the Egypt Papyrus Museum (aka shopping center) and bazaar. My guide thought that I wanted to be in all the pictures so I have lots of "look at the stupid tourist in front of the pyramid" type pictures :-D But the guide, a certified Egyptologist, was a wonderful guy and very knowledgeable. I was glad to have him to point out all the little tidbits about the pyramids and take me to the "best" shops (although I had a feeling that he might of had connections at the stores). But no matter, I was very happy with the tour and the shopping :)

The big pyramid of Giza or the Pyramid of Cheops is one of the seven wonders of the world. Why only one pyramid when there are hundreds in Egypt? Well, this one is if I remember correctly the biggest of all the pyramids. Secondly, it was built in 20 years time and if you count the number of stones, it comes out to each stone being produced in just two minutes time, with each stone weighing 2-2 1/2 tons!

On the second day in Cairo, I relaxed in the morning and then headed to the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities. They say that if you spent one minute in front of each item, you would have to spend 99 days in the museum! I did a quick whirlwind tour with my guide in two hours. It was a little hot in the museum because there isn't any air-conditioning but the exhibits were top-notch. I was fortunate that King Tut's headdress was present and not overseas on display. The collection from just Tut's tomb was impressive. I paid the 70 LE to see the Mummies Display. There are approximately 10 royal mummies on display in a special area of the museum. It was a bit creepy to see how preserved some of the mummies were...some still had hair!

After the Museum I decided to take a dinner cruise on the Nile. The hotel hooked me up with The Pharaohs Cruise and it was wonderful. The buffet dinner was delicious with a complete line-up of Egyptian salads, some authentic dishes (chicken and pasta for the non-adventurous), and some really tasty desserts. There was a two-man band playing lounge-club tunes in the beginning but then a traditional band struck up with lively Egyptian music. And then...the belly dancer came out :) There was also a traditional male dancer with skirts. As he twirled around and around, he took off one or two of his skirts without stopping the twirling. He lifted the skirt over this head and then put it back on. He also did a display with swords that was pretty cool.

One thing that I noticed about Cairo is that the sky is probably never blue. Every single day that I was there the sky was brown! When I flew in from Sharm el Sheikh at night, as you approach Cairo you can see a huge brown cloud hanging over the city. The pollution hanging over Pristina is nothing compared to Cairo!