Egypt

We flew into Cairo and checked into our domestic flight about half an hour early only to find that our booking was incorrect, and instead of a perfectly timed (considering transit time between terminals) three hours in Cairo airport we ended up being stuck there for six... Not only that, a particularly randy young Egyptian gentleman took a fondness to Eve's bottom within seconds of boarding the bus between the airport terminals and considered it a personal challenge to “accidentally” brush up against it as many times as possible during the short trip. Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your point of view) Rob did not find out about this until much later, otherwise this blog would probably be being authored from an Egyptian prison somewhere in the Western Desert...

After that interesting little interlude, we arrived in Luxor, collected our bags and set about finding a cab. We had been told before coming to Egypt that no taxis have meters and the fares are all negotiated. We were warned to make sure the price is agreed on before getting in the cab, which turned out to be good advice and completely irrelevant at the same time.

The negotiations went something like this:

Cabbie: “You want taxi? I give you very good price my friend. Where you from? You English?
Rob: “Yes we want to go to the Sonesta St George.”
Cabbie: “OK, OK, (leading us to a busted up old station wagon with “TAXI” hand-painted on the side) I give you very good price.”
Rob: “OK, what is the price?”
Cabbie: “Very good price.”
Rob: “What is a very good price?”
Cabbie: “Yes very good price.”
At this point, negotiations broke down while Rob explained that we were not getting into the car until a price had been agreed on, and at any rate, under no circumstances would we be getting into THAT car.

Negotiations resume:
Cabbie: “OK OK 160 Euros.”
Rob: “What? You must be joking.” (Not quite what was said – but this is a family blog)
Cabbie: “Good price my friend, very far from here.”

At which point Rob uses Google maps on the Kindle (love it!) to point out that the hotel was only seven kilometres from the airport:

Cabbie: “I meant 160 Egyptian Pounds.”

We eventually agreed on 60 L.E. and off we went (in a real taxi). No sooner had we left the airport, the cabbie demanded a further 10 Euro to cover the airport pick up “fee” that he had to pay the airport Police to be able to pick up passengers at the airport. Thus, the seven kilometres from the airport to the hotel was spent with the cabbie trying (forcefully) to re-negotiate the fare. He became quite aggressive and several times took his hands off the wheel to turn and face Rob in the passenger seat and practically scream at him while the cab swerved from one side of the road to the other. We eventually arrived safely at the hotel and gave the driver the agreed 60 L.E. plus another 20 to piss off – So far, not a good first impression of Egypt!

Thankfully the hotel was magnificent, the staff were awesome and very helpful. So good was the hotel that we didn't leave it at all the following day, which was spent lounging by the pool (overlooking the Nile) and drinking cocktails and beer.

The following day we checked out and joined the cruise. As we post this we are just putting the finishing touches on the first entry for the cruise between Luxor and Aswan...