Africa
Egypt
 This article is from Angie Whitehead. Check her website at http://www.srilankaundiscovered.co.uk
This part of the trip is the Egypt Part from Angie Whitehead who I met in Yemen.
Egypt (exchange rate 1 US$ = 5 EGP ; 1 GBP = 11 EGP)
I traveled to Cairo with Alitalia via Milan, but wouldn’t recommend this airline! The flight was scheduled to leave London Heathrow at 16.25 but was delayed 1 hour. The connection in Milan was also delayed 1 hour but we actually arrived in Cairo only ½ hour late – 3.15 am. The airport is old fashioned and there was a longish queue for visas, which cost US$ 15 for 1 month. I was met by my hotel driver (this cost EGP 60) and taken by shuttle bus to where he had parked the car. It’s about ½ hour’s drive to downtown Cairo and the Lotus Hotel is very centrally situated, in Talaat al Harb Street on the 7th floor of a rather dingy looking building. The room had private bathroom, air con, balcony and cost EGP 90 with breakfast included. This consisted of 2 bread rolls, jam, beans and coffee. Beans appear to be the staple food of Egypt; they are cheap and often mixed with rice and/or noodles (a popular dish – called kushara, costing around EGP 7). This was mid June and Cairo was very hot, so I took to wearing the usual large headscarf reserved for the Middle East (useful in India too!)
Cairo is a city of big contrasts and there is lots to see and do, from the fashionable westernized areas of downtown, with walks along the banks of the Nile to the Cairo Museum (huge but very badly labeled; you really need a guide!), crossing the river to Zamelak, a smart tree-lined area built on an island. Further down from here is a park which houses the 8th century Nilometer (which measured the height of the river) and the museum of Om Kalsoum, Egypt’s most famous singer. Across the river from here you can reach the Coptic Quarter, otherwise known as Old Cairo, which has a huge amount of Coptic Christian churches, one of the most notable being St George’s chapel, a synagogue and a vast cemetery, in which people actually live! Cairo’s main cemetery, known as the City of the Dead, is beyond the Islamic Quarter, home to the famous Al-Azhar mosque. This is a picturesque and charming area of town and took around 45 minutes to reach on foot from my hotel. From here I actually walked to and into the City of the Dead, Cairo’s main cemetery, before I realized quite where I was. It is quite fascinating – people have set up house in most of the tombs and even have water and electricity here!
 To visit the Pyramids I hired a car for the day – this cost EGP 200 but was well worth it. I went first to Saqqara, 50 km south of Cairo in the desert and on a hill. This is a vast site, a huge necropolis of underground tombs and pyramids, but only part of it can be visited, as excavation work is still ongoing. The main pyramid, called Djoser’s pyramid, is one of the oldest in Egypt and is a step pyramid. The barren tree-less site has an excellent museum and not too many visitors! I continued on to Dachur, passing a poor-looking village on a dirt road. Dachur has 3 large pyramids, but only the Red Pyramid can be visited, and I was accompanied round the perimeter by two so-called Tourist Police and their camel, Antonio, who wanted baksheesh (tips) after this. I then climbed ½ way up to the entrance and then down into the interior; the stairway is at a 45 deg, the passage dimly lit and low. I was the only visitor and it was quite scary, especially when I reached the lofty burial chambers (don’t get excited – there is no treasure or sarcophagi here as it has all been removed to put in museums). My next stop was Memphis, a grubby looking small town with an outdoor museum. Entrance fees for each of these sites is approx. EGP 20 per site and this includes money for the car. The final stop, just after lunch, was Giza, right on the edge of Cairo, home to 3 hill-top pyramids, the most famous being that of Cheops, and of course the Sphinx. My car dropped me at the bottom of the site and I walked round the whole area; it was very hot and there were crowds of visitors. You have to pay extra money to enter the pyramids and, as I had already been inside the Red Pyramid, I passed on this. Egypt is famous for papyrus so I ended the day with a visit to a papyrus factory, where I bought to papyrus paintings featuring Isis (the Goddess of Love) and Osiris as presents for the coming Sri Lankan weddings I was to attend.
After 6 days in Cairo I got the 10.30 am Egypt Air flight to Dubai. The plane was delayed for security checks and the journey took 3 ½ hours– clear skies over Saudi gave way to a superb view of the Dubai skyline, where the tallest building in the world is about to be finished!
Comments : Egypt is a country of contrasts – old and new, rich and poor. The road system is good between main towns and Cairo has an impressive metro (there are even carriages for women only), average journeys costing around EGP 1. The cost of living is low compared to West Europe; around 4 times cheaper. People are helpful and friendly and English is fairly widely spoken. Touting for tips (baksheesh) can be a problem as people are quite pushy. Foreigners are treated well but women should take care to dress modestly and cover their heads (essential in the 40 deg. C heat anyhow!). Weather was very hot (it was June) with daytime temps around 37-40 deg. C. Sunrise is at around 6 am, sunset around 8 pm. Mosques are found all over and the call to prayer omnipresent, complete with loudspeakers.
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