Typed up: at Old Oasis Hotel in Bawiti Posted from: Intr\@Net Cyber Cafe
in Cairo
Because
first class was full, we took a second class train from Luxor to Cairo.
We were a bit concerned whether we’d be able to deal with it but it was
no problem at all. It was a lot more comfortable than most plane flights
we’d been on. Making everything feel even more first class, the first
class waiter came by to sell us extra first class meals for lunch. It
was expensive, of course, but nice to get a warm meal in us. The train
ride lasted about 10 hours so we made good time, too.
Towards the
end of the ride I struck up a conversation with an older Japanese man
who was riding next to us. Our only common language was French, and I
kept sneaking in Arabic words. Funny how your brain works. He was going
to a similar place as us, and we helped him take the metro to Sadat
Station. It felt nice to help somebody, although he probably didn’t need
the help nearly as much as I would like to think. It was very busy
walking down Talaat Harb to our hotel. The street was full of young
people (mostly men) out to go watch a movie. Danielle was a bit nervous
in light of some incidents of groups of young men groping women and
pulling off their veils just after Ramadan, but it was not a problem at
all.
We stayed at the Berlin Hotel in down town. Because it was full we got
the spare room which was had some miserable cots in it. I put my
mattress on the floor and that was OK. Breakfast was adequate. The
manager assured me that their regular rooms are much nicer, with nicer
beds and mattresses. I believe him.
Danielle has
a small crack in her tooth. It doesn’t hurt, but we figure it was worth
fixing now while it’s still small. We attempted to find a dentist, but
the obvious choices were closed for Eid. The other thing to do was buy
bus tickets. We took the metro to the very end of the Giza line (El
Moneeb) where we looked for the bus by following directions and looking
lost. When you get off the metro, walk back a bit with the metro line on
your left. At the overpass take a right, and follow it to cross a busy
street. Stay on the right and the Upper Egypt Bus Co. is right there.
Then buying tickets was another ordeal. I stood in the “line” (crowd)
for half an hour while the people inside drank tea and had a meeting.
Finally, with help of some other customers who yelled at the people
inside on my behalf, I got two tickets for the next day’s morning bus.
Walking back, we had a little interesting experience buying oranges. We
were charged the fair, advertised price, but the boys manning (boying?)
the cart wouldn’t accept my 1-pound coins as payment. They insisted on
being paid in paper money. We’ve heard that people don’t like the coins
(and consistently get them in change in favor of the paper) but haven’t
encountered this yet.
We had a
late lunch at Gad (solid food, best pizza in Egypt so far but no tomato
sauce). For dinner we splurged on Kowloon, supposedly the best Chinese
restaurant in town. The food was very tasty, and it was a great change
of flavors. Wandering back, the streets were even busier than the night
before. Tons of people were out, especially in front of the movie
theaters. We saw (from 15 rows of people away) a few pushing matches
which the police (which were present in large numbers) quickly ended. I
assume some people got upset that others cut in front of them, but I
don’t really know what was going on.
In the morning we got up quite early for our bus. We left so early that
we didn’t even get our free hotel breakfast, but just munched on oranges
and dates instead.
