Egypt! This has been our dream destination for so long and with all the unrest in the country we had been putting off our visit for several years now. We were also worried about traveling to a country that’s so different without sufficient preparation. This visit wasn’t easy either. Compared to our travels I had very less time to plan our trip and there were a few issues cropping up after we had booked our flights. However, thanks to the universe, everything fell into place and we were off on one of our longest trips!
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Day 0 – Departing London
With an unbeatable offer from Holiday Inn Heathrow Airport we decided to drive down to London in our car instead of taking a taxi with our luggages. Left around lunch time and reached Holiday Inn at a little past 3 pm to an overcrowded parking lot. After hunting around for over an hour for a space to leave our car, we had just about an hour to stretch our legs before the long flight to Cairo.
With the Hotel shuttle never turning up we had to book a mini cab to transfer to the airport and arrived to a nearly empty airport. We had anticipated a lot of rush at the security being just a couple of days before Christmas but I guess many chose not to travel. After some quick dinner at EAT we boarded the Aegean Air to Athens. It was a full flight but being the national carrier they were little more generous than the budget airlines. The kids received a Santa shaped chocolate and they served free food, albeit a little too late into our red eye flight.
Trying to sleep took most of the 4 hour flight into Athens and we arrived quite drained in the wee hours of the morning to an almost deserted airport. Lucky for us there were large lounges that gave us chairs with no arm rests and we soon stretched ourselves like most of the other transit passengers to get a nap. We had about 4 hours to kill.
Day 1 – Arriving into Cairo
Our flight from Athens to Cairo was uneventful except for a hangover like feel and gaping at the islands of Greece glistening in the morning sun. As we crossed the mediterranean into Africa it seemed cloudy at first sight. I was very disappointed as I expected to feel the heat of the sun on my skin. As we neared Cairo I realised the “clouds” were actually a haze that hung over the city of Cairo . The visibility from the air was pretty low though we could see a brown city below.
Arriving at Cairo airport we noticed people lining up to get their visas at the bank counters. Fortunate for us we had already got ours and proceeded to immigration with our landing cards duly filled. There was no sign of an ATM for currency exchange and I was worried it might turn out like our Shanghai experience. I spotted the Orange SIM card counter near the baggage claim and I wanted to get myself a local SIM to help me tide over the next 7 days with less hassle. Again with no exchange I had to use my international VISA card for a SIM costing about 261 EGP that gave me 200 minutes of calls and 5 GB of data. We were the last ones to leave baggage claim and passing through the customs I noticed there was a Vodafone just outside. Well, too late now. I quickly located an ATM and changed about £40 to get me 900EGP. In Egypt there are automated machines that are located all over the country in hotels, especially, that takes in notes from convertible currencies like US Dollars, British Stirling, Euros and some other powerful currencies and dispenses Egyptian Pounds. As of 2018 they did not accept the new £5 and £10 from the UK.
We then made our way outside the airport to look for my driver from Cairo Shuttle who was nowhere to be found. We were being pestered by local taxi drivers asking if we wanted a ride and I was getting annoyed at the booked cab not turning up. I managed to use the data on my phone to find their number and asked why the driver wasn’t there. I was given the contact for the driver who was already supposed to be there and I had to quickly hunt for a paper and pen to down that number while guarding my belongings from the pestering taxi drivers. I managed to tell the driver who spoke very little English about where I was waiting for him and he came to get me from the meeting point outside the terminal. He took us to the van and we were soon on our way to Novotel.
After the overnight flight and lack of sleep the Cairo traffic was lulling me into sleep. I fought hard to stay awake. I was dehydrated, drained of energy and the fight to not sleep gave me a headache. All I wanted to do was get to bed straight.
We soon arrived at Novotel El Borg and were asked to wait for a few minutes before our room would be ready. I decided to select an international chain hotel rather than an Egyptian one as security was beefed up at these hotels as Cairo seemed to have a permanent security threat. This was also one of the hotels that considered children up until the age of 16 as children while most others treated 12 and above as adults and required us to book 2 rooms.
We relaxed in the lobby while the room was getting ready and were treated to delicious Guava juice. We were given a free upgrade to a junior suite and it was humongous. The bathroom was the size of a room by itself. There were large windows offering unhindered views of the Nile. Gaping at the world’s longest river and the soul of Egypt, we got around to discussing if we should actually take a nap and just visit the Khan El-Khalili at night and keep the museum for our last morning. But we realised we may not have enough time the last morning. Refreshing ourselves with a hot shower we proceeded to book an Uber to Abou Tarek for lunch.
Abou Tarek and Koshary
I used Uber to book a cab and he took us in thick traffic to Abou Tarek. It cost us 15EGP and when I offered him EGP20 he politely declined and earned a 5 star from me! We walked to the first floor of Abou Tarek and ordered 4 medium koshary and a couple of rice puddings. We had to pay up front. We soon got our Koshary and it was delicious and very filling. No one managed to complete it other than the proud me! Leaving a 10EGP tip for the waiter we walked down to the Egyptian museum along a crowded and dirty street. Crossing the road in front of the museum was a nightmare. There was no gap in traffic and even if there were vehicles in the distance they increased speed to close the gap. I finally took the plunge and stepped off the curb and held up my palm and a bunch of us crossed the road at the same time. It was nearly 3:30 when we reached the museum and it was to close at 5. Again we were wondering if that was sufficient to see the highlights and decided we would anyway go ahead as we could come back on our last morning if we had anything left to see. There are no clear signs and we joined a queue to get the tickets. We bought a photo pass and soon entered the museum. The guards were more interested in seeing the photo pass than checking if we had really bought our tickets!
The museum of Egyptian Antiquities
This museum holds an absolute treasure. It is widely believed that there are more treasures stored in the vaults below than on display in the halls of the museum. All the treasures will be moved to the Grand Egyptian Museum when it is expected to open in 2020. I had made a list of highlights in the order we would be seeing them based on the Lonely Planet guide. As far as I know there is no particular order in which the different rooms and the objects in them were arranged. Hence it made it necessary for me to pour over the guide to make a note of the highlights in the museum and arrange them in the order of the rooms they were displayed in starting from the entrance and working our way to the left and around and then to the first floor. Even then we stopped to marvel at some displays that weren’t on my list but simply breathtaking. We first made our way to see the Narmer Palette (the oldest artefact ever found), followed by the tiniest statue and perhaps the only available figure of the builder of the Great Pyramid at Giza, Khufu. We then continued to follow our plan and saw the huge statue of Akhenaten, bust of Thutmose III and walked through the history of ancient Egypt. One display that was not on my list was the wooden statue of a common man who eyes were inlaid with a reflective material (marble perhaps?) that they looked very real and seemed to staring straight into me!
The highlight on the first floor is the treasures of Tutankhamun. We had decided to skip the Mummies Room as we thought it might not be comfortable to look at dead people who had been laid to rest several millennia ago. But we were surprised with two new additions to the museum – the mummies of Yuya and Tuya completely intact with hair and nails. After a fleeting glance at them we went on to look at Tut’s golden mask and ancient Egyptian jewellery. The guards hang around in Tut’s room to make sure no one photographs the mask. Tut’s tomb was the most recent found in the Valley of Kings in Luxor and it was intact when it was discovered. Tut was a boy king who most likely died due to an injury to his head. His story seemed sad but he seems to be the most popular of the Egyptian kings outside of Egypt. It’s Rameses the great inside of Egypt. There were also canopic jars holding the organs of the mummified bodies, the different altars found inside tombs, treasures recovered from tombs and more statues on the first floor. The Egyptians sure celebrated their Pharaohs and death even more!
It was just about 4:30 when we were done with all the highlights and we went back to the central hall to take in the views before we were ushered out by the guards. With the Egyptian museum done, I decided to get one more Uber to Khan El-Khalili where I had some shopping pre planned. I had to message the driver a couple of times to tell him where exactly I was and he arrived soon to take us through heavy traffic. It cost us 35EGP to reach Khan El-Khalili and I rounded up to 40 with a 5 EGP tip.
Khan El-Khalili
It was one of the most crowded places in Cairo, or at least I think so. It was chaos with the usual traffic plus tourist coaches plus local people plus tourists. The bustle of the market and the merchandise on display added to the chaos. Being a sad bargainer I had decided I would purchase only from a store that had prices marked and was reasonable. I wasn’t looking for a one-of-its-kind type of souvenir and was willing to slightly overlook quality. Researching ahead of the trip I committed the name of the store “Jordi” to memory and this was my destination in Khan El-Khalili.
As we enter the bazaar, the lanes are narrow and it becomes quite confusing to follow google maps. I was worried I might be hassled if I asked for directions and sought the help of a non-native resident who asked one of the sellers and he soon directed me to Jordi’s. After climbing a flight of stairs with litter strewn around I was wondering if I had made the right choice to visit this place. I soon realised I was. The shop, though narrow, was quite crowded and there were prices neatly marked on all merchandise. The quality may not be the best but there were plenty of choices. I picked up a few and ordered cartouches (Egyptian name tag pendants) for the girls. He promised to keep them ready in 30 minutes.
We went back into the narrow streets of Khan El Khalili looking for the perfume shop at El Henawwy. I was now more confident asking for directions and we soon reached the store but were told it was closed for prayers. So we decided to head for dinner to the Egyptian Pancake House. Following google maps I reached the cafe soon and chose a table outside. We soon realised that was a wrong choice. We were plagued by passing sellers, touts and all kinds of people who wouldn’t let us have our meal in peace. If you look at it from another angle it is all part of an authentic Egyptian experience! The food was good and as usual we couldn’t finish all the we had ordered. The portions are very generous in Cairo!
We went back to get the cartouches from Jordi’s and a couple of perfumes from El Henawwy – Jasmine and Lotus being the most recommended and they smell divine! We booked an Uber ride back to our hotel and I had to message him a couple of times and call once to confirm where exactly we were waiting. There were a couple of others waiting for their Uber rides too.
We returned completely drained and we still had to sort out the tour for the next day. Sent SC down to speak to the tour operator who had a desk at the lobby. Even after a few calls he was proving difficult to get hold of. When we finally did he went back on his word and said the guide would only accompany us to Giza but not to Saqqara and Dahshur and also offered a smaller car. I politely declined and was firm with him about wanting a van to fit all of us and insisted we needed the guide to Saqqara and Dahshur as well. After a couple of calls back and forth it was all sorted and I finally drifted off to sleep.
Fly ✧ Ride ✧ Drive 