Phase II: Egypt- Day 1

Ask anyone I know, and they will all tell you that I have been dying to go to Egypt for as long as they have known me. For too long I have wondered the Egyptian rooms in the ROM, and since I have been living in London, stopping off in the British Museum during my lunch break to admire the Rosetta Stone, the collossal statue of Ramses II, or to admire the exquisite hieroglyphics covering the surface of the statue of Thutmosis III.

Now that I've uncovered my extreme nerdiness when it comes to Egypt, you can truly understand why I was so excited to actually get the chance to go to Cairo.

I went with my friend Nick from UJS, and we began by taking an overnight bus on the 9th of July to Eilat. We arrived at about 5:30 in the morning and were able to make it to the beach in time to see the sun rising over the red Jordanian Mountains. We fell asleep on the beach for a while, and woke up only because the sun was shining right into our eyes. We then went to find a hotel to get changed and wash up, then we headed over to the border.

We jumped in a cab with a woman who was a little crazy. When she found out I was from Canada, she could not have been happier because her son is living in Montreal doing some work, and so she loved the connection. Then she asked me how she could get a visa to work in Canada because she wanted to get away from Israel for a while. Naturally, I insisted that there is no reason for her to leave Israel (especially to go to Montreal), but eventually she revealed that she had tried and that Canada just wasn't willing to accept an Israeli woman to come and work as a cab driver in Montreal (I'll let you insert your own jokes here).

We arrived at the border for Egypt, keen on getting across as quickly as possible and jumping into our cab destined for Cairo. We had a group of a few people who were going with us, and getting through the Israeli side was not difficult at all. We paid our border tax, went through security on the Israeli side, went through security on the Egyptian side, and then arrived at the Egyptian passport control desk.

Adam: Ahlan! (Hello! using my Arabic now)
Border Officer: Passport please
Adam: Huna (here)
B.O.: Where are you going?
Adam: Cairo (Cairo)
B.O.: Where is your entry visa?
Adam: I thought we could buy it here? (only took 1 year of Arabic... limited)
B.O.: No. Only from Egyptian embassy in Eilat. Go back and get one.
Adam: But that will take forever and we just went through customs!
B.O.: Get in a cab, and go to Egyptian embassy in Eilat.

At which point we all stopped and looked at each other trying to figure out what to do.

Adam: What time does it close?
B.O.: at 11 am.
(I look at my watch... its 10)
Adam: Can't you just give us a visa here?
B.O.: Only at Egyptian embassy, or a group travel agent can issue you one.

So.... we turn around not knowing what to do. Then all of a sudden this random Egyptian guy shows up behind us who works for a travel company operating inside the border building, and says he can call his friend over to come and give us visas. It will only take 15 minutes.

40 minutes later, a guy arrives with stickers for our passports and demands $40 American for each one (even though it actually says on the sticker '$15'). At this point we just want to get into Egypt so we give him the money, and he puts these stickers into our passports which we're SURE are fake, which would in essence still not let us into Egypt, and invalidate our passports entirely (WHILE WE'RE STUCK IN BETWEEN TWO BORDERS)

We take our passports over to the border officer again. Doesn't say a word, takes the passport, stamps it, and we are in Egypt!

We get inside and now we need to find a cab to take us to Cairo. We go and ask at the Hilton for a bit of help because we assume they know how much it will cost, and after figuring out a reasonable price, this old Egyptian man comes to pick us up in his van which is perfectly white and clean, with fully operational air conditioning.

We jump in and get ready for our 6 hour cab ride.

After 20 minutes, the cab comes to a complete stop in the middle of the road. Our elderly driver takes out his phone and starts talking quickly in Arabic. Now, like I sad before my Arabic is very beginner, and can't really pick up any of the words. However, my deductive skills are incredible, and so I turn to Nick and say "He's arranging a drop off. He's handing us over to Al Qaeda."

After a nervous laugh... the cab starts moving again. Maybe the drop off spot has changed. In any case, let's hope the doors are locked and air conditioner still works.

After another 20 minutes, the driver pulls over and this random guy wearing all white gets in. He's not too old, turns around and smiles at us and says hi, and we get on the way again. After a few minutes, the driver wants to tell us something, and so I move up to the front to begin my first genuine conversation in Arabic.

After a few introductions and Salam Alaykums, I have made my first Egyptian friends. Mohammed is the guy in white, and Abu Ziad is our driver. Now, Abu Ziad tell me that he is not actually going to take us straight to our hotel in Cairo, he is going to take us to a station just inside Cairo, and then we are going to have to take another cab to the hotel from there. Ok, not too bad, and Mohammed confirms all the information.

Approximately 4 hours later, the cab comes to a stop at a junction just after we have crossed under the Suez Canal. There are about 20 people around, another cab, and two small shops selling drinks and chips. The driver turns to me and says "ok, you change here. No more money."

Now like I said, I though he was taking us to Cairo and we were switching there, but apparently we were switching at this random junction I like to call Bakalakadaka Street. We jumped into the next cab, who's seats were lined with an animals fur of some sort, and drove for two hours to Cairo SWEATING, eventually making it to our hostel.

The first thing that struck us in Cairo was the driving. The population of Cairo is 20 million. If anyone thought there were a lot of people in London, thats almost three times the population of London. And it appears that every single one of those 20 million drives a car.

I have to make this point very clear, and although this may seem to be based on an assumption, I can assure you its not: There are no road rules in Cairo. There simply are none. For three days we racked our brains about what you would have to do to get pulled over in Cairo, and we couldn't come up with one idea. There are wide roads with no lines on them, you can drive wherever you want, there are no speed limits, no blind spots to check, and the best thing.... red lights are completely optional. (Needless to say that this made crossing the road an adventure of a lifetime, but just something to add to the list of experiences).

We finally made it to the hostel though, were exhausted, sweaty, and hungry, and wanted to go get something to eat. After a few minutes of wandering, we figured that the safest bet was to head to the Hilton. We had been adventurous enough for one day, let's just go somewhere that we can trust.

Lo and behold, the Hilton does not disappoint. We entered this beautiful air conditioned building, and as though it was lit up by halos, we found the Sherlock Holmes English Pub tucked away in the corner of the Hilton. After lifting our jaws up off the ground, we went inside, and said the most British thing we could have said: "We'll have two pints of beer, and two orders of fish and chips". (Although in England they use Haddock and in Egypt they use Sea Bass... it was amazing).

We then headed back to the hostel and chilled a bit, and then fell asleep in our ridiculously hot room that was mysteriously lacking the air conditioning that was promised to us on the Hostelworld.com advertisement.