Day 11 - Arriving in Cairo

We left the Jade early this morning and took a bus to the Rome airport.  The cruise was fantastic (except for 2 days of rough weather). At the Rome airport we checked in and boarded our flight to Cairo.  It is a 3 hrs. flight from Rome to Cairo and though it was mid afternoon we were served a full meal.  On the plane we met and talked with an Indian lady who works for the UN and has been posted to Cairo - she is not sure how long she will be there, but her husband (also with the UN) is already in Cairo.  We genrously gave us their contact numbers in case we should need them in Egypt.

I couldn't believe the geographic size of the city as we were landing.  We were met my the tour respresentative, Mustafa who walked us through getting the visas, customs, etc.  Egypt contains more than 80 million people.  As the guide said "There are over 20 million people in Cairo, 10 million cars and no driving rules".  We thought Rome was bad, this is just chaos.  There is more chance we will get hit by a car than a rock thrown by the few thousand protesters.  It to30-40ok us 1 1/2 to get from the airport to the hotel as the 5 lane boulevards are literally packed with cars (24/7 according to the guide.  Cairo never sleeps.  In transit to the hotel we drive right up to Tahrir Square, but it is currently blockaded.  Our impression is that this is New York but with building a little more spread out and double the amount of people. 

Our tour guides are young (30-40) with the head one - Mohammed - being a Egyptologist with a Master's degree.  Education is important to Egyptians for both male and females.  His wife is also an Egyptologist and the mother-in-law watches their 2 yr. old daughter.  Egypt is 98% Muslim and the tour operators hope their country can be like Turkey - democratically rule and non-religious.  They feel the previous president, Mubarak, was very corrupt and keeping all the money from their vast resources in gas and oil for himself and his family and friends.  They have welcomed the change to Dr. Morsy and feel the referendum on the constitutiion will be passed.  Gas prices here are $1.50/gallon which probably accounts for the great number of cars even though they have a subway/metro system. 

There is not a military presence evident, but we did not go near the presidential palace.  The hotel, a 5 star Western, however, had a dog sniffing any vehicle that comes up their drive and their is a metal detector one must go through to enter the hotel each time.  Whether it is due to the current situation in Cairo, Mumbai or the hotel(s) just feel the need to increase security precautions, I am not sure.  This is a recent development. 

After checking in, we then were escorted to a dinner cruise on the Nile which included traditional Egyptian entertainment - belly dancing.  Bell dancing is viewed as an art so bare skin by women is allowed.  To me it seemed like a cross of strip dancing and hula dancing because I am not familiar with the moves of the dancer.  We arrived back at our hotel at midnight after another full day of traveling.  We will be picked up at 9 am tomorrow for our first real view of the pyramids, archeological museum and old town bazaar.