My first overseas trip and I choose the Middle East. Why? Because I’ve always been fascinated by the aura of romance that surrounds it. The fact that I’ve been taking bellydance classes does help a bit to add to the mystique of the place. So when K brought up the idea of visiting Egypt, I jumped at the chance!
After exhaustive research (re-watching The Mummy a lot, mostly) and reading many tour catalogues, we decided on Gecko’s Footsteps of Alexander tour. It ticked off all the big things we wanted to get out of the trip, plus took a detour into Jordan, which looked fabulous.
We arrived amongst the hustle and bustle of Cairo airport and followed the crowd to back collection and visa checkpoint, where we found our transfer. Phew! Glad we organised a pickup at the aiport as we were pretty zonked after two long flights, and negotiating the taxi touts would have been fun and games. The traffic is interesting too – a 2 lane road means at least 3 lanes of traffic, beeping and bumper-car-ing their way through!
We ordered room service for dinner when we arrived: moussaka, yummy! and had our first experience with Egyptian plumbing. At least there’s hot water!
So here we are in Cairo, woken at 5.15am by the call to prayer from the mosque we can see from our window. Beautiful, but we certainly don’t need an alarm clock.
Two Weeks Away 