Having left JFK about an hour late, it should be no great surprise that we landed about
an hour late as well. We landed in Cairo at about 12:30 p.m. Cairo is seven hours ahead
of Eastern Standard Time. We were met at the airport by MISR travel. We got our Egyptian
visas for $20 and headed through passport control. Becca got her checked bag and we
proceeded to the buses. There were approximately 50 other people on the tour.
Our guide, Waffah, informed us that MISR Travel is the official government tour company. MISR actually means Egypt. She also informed us that our rooms would not be ready until 4:00 p.m., so they would be taking us to a perfume factory so we could start spending our hard currency immediately . . . I mean, so that we could learn how perfumes were made, and then start spending our hard currency.
The reason that our rooms were not ready yet was because of the feasting days following
Ramadan. Ramadan is the Islamic month of fasting. Between 5:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. they
do not eat, drink, swear, smoke, or perform other . . . acts. This goes on for thirty
days, after which they have a three-day feast. Ramadan ended on Monday, November 24, so
the day we arrived was the second day of feasting.
During the feasts, it is a holiday, so most people do not work. People buy new clothing and shoes and go on vacation. Children are given extra money as well. The result is that traffic is fairly light because a lot of people have left Cairo, but there are a lot of people in the streets because they don't have to be at work.
We arrived at the perfume factory and Becca and I wandered over to check out a souvenier
shop next door. there was not much of interest in the souvenier shop, so we went into
the perfume factory. They had a lot of nice perfume bottles and some candlesticks. After
a while we got bored and sat in on the perfume demonstration. What they were selling . . . I
mean demonstrating, was essence. It is the base used to make perfume. It does not burn,
evaporate, or go bad. You can dilute it with a 1 to 3 or 1 to 4 ratio of methal alcohol.
Becca liked the Jasmin, and the Sandlewood was neat. Sandlewood does not have much of a
scent, but it warms up when you put it on your hands and then rub them together. As luck
would have it, after the demonstration you could actually buy these essences. of course,
the guide would then get a 10-30% cut of everything sold. None of the four of us bought
anything.
We piled back into the buses and set off for the hotel, the Mena
House. We saw the pyramids in the distance as we approached our hotel, which is located
in Giza, right next to the pyramids. It was very difficult to gauge the size of the pyramids
because of the distance, and lack of reference points. We arrived at the hotel at 4:00 p.m.
and were checked in by 4:30. There was a metal detector at the entrance to the hotel lobby,
but as tourists we did not have to go through it. There were a lot of police and security
around, including "Tourist/Antiquity Police," who were often undercover, but still packing heat.
We had to meet back in the lobby by 5:00 for an orientation, so we headed to our rooms. The
rooms, which were in the new section of the hotel, were nice enough, including a blcony. However,
the rooms faced the garden, and not the pyramids, and out balcony doors did not lock. Becca and
I headed back to the lobby at 5:00 and were the first to arrive at 5:05 . . . not a good sign.
Once there we were informed that MISR travel needed our tickets in order to reconfirm our flights
and get us boarding passes. So I went back to the room, just in time for our bags to arrive, and
told mom and Anne to bring their tickets along.
The rest of the group straggled in after I returned at 5:15. Then, our guides took us up to one
of the meeting rooms and discussed aspects of the trip. They gace us guidelines on tipping the
guides, drivers and hotel staff, and gave a very brief overview of the following day's activities.
In the morning we were headed to the Giza Pyramids, and we had to leave by 7:45 a.m. to get there
by 8:00 in case anyone wanted to go inside Khufu's pyramid (the Great Pyramid). The cost was
£40 ($6.50), and they only allowed 150 people in in the morning and 150 in the afternoon. They
said that we would be back by 11:30 and then there would be an optional tour to Saqqara and
Memphis at 12:00 for $35 per person. I asked about going to Dashur, but was told that it was too
far. I also asked what was interesting in Memphis, as I had heard that all the buildings were
gone, they said that the alabaster sphinx and some statues were there. They also mentioned the
optional tour to Coptic Cairo on Friday afternoon for $25 per person.
They also told us that they had scheduled wakeup calls for us at 6:30 a.m. and that we should
be in the Garden Room for berakfast at 7:00 and at the bus by 7:30. Oh, and did I mention? They
only accept US dollars for the optional tours. This came as a bit of a shock to some people who
had changed money in the US and had very little US cash. Waffah told us that if anyone wanted to
get good quality cartouches, she had a catalogue and could order them for us from a government
store that would guarantee the quality and have them back for us within a couple of days.
After the meeting, the four of us headed down to the Khan el Khalili restaurant on the second floor of the main hotel. The service was at a leisurely pace, but the food was very good. I had lamb chops and some ice cream for dessert. The whole meal for all four of us came to less than $70. It also took two hours. We headed back to our rooms and by 8:45 Becca and I were in bed and I fell asleep pretty quickly. If only I had slept through the night . . . .