© Richard Randall

HURGHADA

Egypt was the second country that Richard and I travelled to together. We spent over three months there, ideally we had wanted to begin our trip in Cairo, but we found a package deal that was much cheaper than just flights alone would have been. So we started our travels in Hurghada (Ghardaka), one of the popular Red Sea diving spots, where we stayed for a fortnight in a self catering apartment a few minutes walk from the sea. It was nice knowing that when most of the other passengers from our flight would be returning home in a fortnight, we were at the beginning of what would be one of the most amazing, interesting travelling experiences of our lives, so far. Hurghada is a very busy diving resort, our apartments were full of divers most of whom had been on our flight. Neither of us are interested in diving, and apparently the best marine life that Hurghada has is found far offshore, we were informed that Sinai was far superior. Tourism accounts for 95 percent of the local economy, so although diving was not going to fill our days, we found enough to do. Actually there wasn't much else to do apart from the various water sports on offer, but there were bars, mainly within resorts. We spent the first week trying to sort out a problem with our mobile phone, (not for pleasure, we needed to be in constant contact with home for various reasons). Well at least our little phone problem made the days go fast, all we had to sort out next was our forward travel plans for our stay in Cairo. There were plenty of good places to eat in Hurghada, all with extensive menus. Our trip to Hurghada was so long ago that I do not remember the names of any of the restaurants we ate in. We did have a particular favourite not far from the apartment that served the most delicious okra we had ever eaten, I became quite addicted. As Hurghada is full of tourists it is supposedly expensive but we didn't find it so, we ate and more importantly drank out every day. We found out that the best way for us to get from Hurghada to Cairo would be by coach. So we booked two seats on the 'Super Jet' bus which departed from the town in the afternoon. I think the journey took about 8 hours, I don't remember how much it cost but I do remember that it was excellent value. The coach was new with air conditioning, toilet, movie, and a snack was offered; a roll, crisps, drink etc. When we arrived at the Super Jet Terminal there were quite a few people waiting for the bus, and by the time the bus arrived for boarding it had a full load. We all had designated seat numbers, but these kind of rules are not usually adhered to by the Egyptians, as we were soon to learn. We didn't care where we sat as long as we were seated, but as with practically all of the journeys we made whilst in Egypt, on trains, coaches, and even by taxi, there was always someone sitting in our seat. Nine times out of ten it was due to someone sneaking on without a ticket, so we always ended up with a couple of seats ... eventually! One thing that was constant the whole time we were in Egypt was the severe pushing and shoving by the locals whenever the opportunity arose, and yet they were never actually in a hurry to get anywhere! We are not bothered about being the first to board and be seated, in fact it was all rather amusing to watch. On this particular journey we were the only 'foreigners' on board, and we seemed to provide much amusement and interest for the other passengers. We were seated right at the back of the coach with a group of young brothers, I remember them watching us for the whole 8 hours. Everyone we saw in Egypt always had lots of food with them, and I mean lots, each person appeared to have enough for a family for a week, we had none so maybe that was why we were so interesting. The journey was pleasant enough but we couldn't wait to get to Cairo.

CAIRO

The coach approached the centre of Cairo through the slums on the outskirts of the city. Everything began to feel very busy and loud and dirty, as we knew it would. We were dropped off quite a way out of the centre, and as soon as our lily white skin saw the light, we were fought over by a lot of taxi drivers. After securing a good price for the ride to our hotel we were about to get in the taxi when a policeman approached us. No, we hadn't broken the law, he just wanted to make sure we were not being ripped off! Well that was a great start to our stay in Cairo, and our whole time there was fantastic. For me, I would say that I felt safer in Cairo than in any other city I have visited in the world. I always covered myself, arms, legs etc, because I don't like to get a suntan, and yet I still had the occasional nasty comment from some men. Oh well, they judge every western female as an 'easy' target. I am pleased to say that they were not threatening in any way though, just feeble mutterings under their breath as they walked past me. Sometimes I would look round to reply and they would always run off, so nothing to worry about. As we were planning to spend at least three months in Egypt we wanted our money to last, so with this in mind we looked at a few possible hotels before we picked the best one for us. We decided to stay in Zamalek, the northern half of Gezira Island, which was much quieter and cleaner than central Cairo. This was a beautiful area full of offices, embassies and smart houses. About a third of the island belongs to the Gezira Sporting Club, where anyone willing to pay the membership fees can play golf, tennis, and horse ride on land set out by the British Army given by Khedive Tewfiq. Non members are strictly refused access. We stayed at the El-Nil Zamalek Hotel, Midan Sidki, off Sharia Aziz Abaza, Tel: 340 1846. We were offered a choice of room, all were spacious and en-suite, with phone, TV, huge fridge and air conditioning, some rooms had a balcony overlooking the Nile. The people who worked at the hotel were so lovely and helpful, and the beds were always changed and the room was cleaned daily, and all for the amazing price of about £14 per night, excellent. Whenever we felt like a little bit of luxury we would have a drink in one of the bars at either the El-Gezirah Sheraton, the Nile Hilton, or our favourite the Cairo Marriott. The Cairo Marriott, Sharia Saraya el-Gezira, off 26th July Street, Zamalek, Tel: 340 8888, was within easy walking distance but sometimes we were lazy and took a taxi. Obviously the surroundings at the Marriott were a little more luxurious than at our hotel, having said that whatever our budget I would still have stayed at our place because it had character, unlike a lot of the soulless large chain hotels. Our main reason for going to the bars in these other hotels was for a change of scenery, and there were more people and it was lively. I think that the people who ran our hotel had a very different view on the joys of alcohol consumption in public too! The older original building of the Cairo Marriott was a palace constructed for Empress Eugenie, some parts of the building are gorgeous and well worth exploring. We spent quite a lot of time there enjoying drinks in the atmospheric, wood panelled billiard room bar, as well as enjoying several meals outside by the pool. Considering that the Cairo Marriott is a four star hotel we were both surprised that when we paid our bill we never ever received any change, it wasn't that they thought it was a tip, it wasn't only coins that went missing, and we are generous tippers! Along with many other guests we had to chase the waiter, and we both had food poisoning from there, after which we avoided the food. The food poisoning was the least of out worries though as we both had dysentery during our travels in Egypt, and yet we still fell in love with the country! We had read that if you are just visiting Egypt for a couple of weeks then be very careful with everything you eat and drink, but if you are going to be there for any longer then you don't need to be as careful, as your body will adjust. But we decided to be careful anyway, not that this helped! We were both very ill for a long time after we returned to the U.K. So that advice obviously wasn't worth the paper it was written on, or maybe we are extra sensitive little flowers! As we were going to be in Egypt for a few months we spent our first week in Cairo relaxing. We walked round generally getting a feel of the city, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells of the busy place that was going to be our new home.

PYRAMIDS OF GIZA

We were looking forward to visiting the Pyramids, and after a week settling in we set off to see them very early one morning by taxi. The Pyramids of Giza were not that far from our hotel but we wanted to be there before they got too busy. It turned out to be a good decision to leave early as about half way there our taxi suffered a flat tyre. This took quite a while to change, our driver did offer to get us another taxi but we thought we would stay and help him and then let him continue our journey to the Pyramids. Before we went to Egypt I had always imagined the Pyramids to be out in the middle of a desert somewhere, not near to anything or anyone. But the Pyramids of Giza are so close to houses, hotels etc that as we approached them in the taxi they appeared fake, like a prop on a film set. As our taxi drew closer we couldn't wait to get out and start exploring these world famous creations. Even with our flat tyre we still arrived nice and early, which was good as although the site was not yet open there were already quite a few people waiting. As soon as there were signs of life in the little ticket hut, we joined a queue to purchase our tickets. As is common in Egypt when we arrived at the front of the queue we were informed that we first needed to queue up elsewhere and then return to this original queue for our tickets. There was no apparent reason for this, but the Egyptians do like to exert power over you and they are obsessed with paper work, they never use one piece of paper when ten will do the same job! Anyway a group of us, all independent travelers, followed these instructions only to be told that we should have stayed in the first queue, they love to mess with your mo-jo! Back at the first place where we had all queued, we were still at the front as it was so early not many other people had arrived yet. Then the ticket seller decided we could now purchase our tickets, we were all ready with our money when a man pushed to the front of the queue demanding to bulk buy tickets for three coach loads of people who had just arrived! Needless to say this did not go down well with a now quite restless and impatient crowd, the tour guide soon saw the error of his ways and quietly went to the back of the queue, I should think so to! Once the tickets had been purchased there was quite a mad rush across the sand towards the Pyramids.

Caribbean

Sundries

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