Arrival in Cairo

I arrived in Cairo at 11PM on Sunday night and was met, as promised, by an AIA representative who,  walked me through the purchase of a visa ($US 15) and passport control. There was quite a long wait for luggage so we didn’t leave the airport until midnight. The ride to the hotel was a solid hour through continuous urban sprawl. The nicest part of the city seemed to be closest to the airport with modern apartment blocs and new and beautiful mosques. We travelled on one continuous road which went from excellent to not so good. Not a single traffic light so in the latter part of the drive, people need to run across the street and dodge speeding traffic.

I was surprised to see how much life there is on the streets after midnight. Markets were open and there was a great deal of apparent social activity (mostly male) going on all over town. The other surprise was the temperature: it was as cold as NY, not more than low 40s.

The Mena House Hotel is not in downtown Cairo but across the Nile at the foot of the Giza Plateau. When I awoke this morning, I was stunned to see the Pyramid right in front of me. Hard to describe. I am in a new wing of a famous 19^th Century hotel. The hotel appears to be  no more than 25% occupied.

Saturday night I slept four hours on the KLM flight to Amsterdam and Sunday night I wet to bed at 3 and was awakened at 6:30. I am “running on fumes,” but hope to get a decent rest tonight.