Egypt - Day 11 - Back to Crazy Cairo

Mina met us at Giza station and took us back to the hotel. I took my mobile telephone out of my bag to check if anyone had sent me a message – unfortunately the battery was dead as a doornail and the thing wouldn’t even turn on. I put it back in my bag and zipped up the pocket. I would never see that telephone again.

Back to the hotel to dump our bags in our rooms and then it was back to Khan Al-Khalili to finish up the shopping which Shelly had still not completed (unbelievably). To be fair I still had a couple of things I wanted to buy, in particular a Mounir CD featuring my new favourite song and the song of the tour, “Soo ya soo”. I ended up with a swag of stuff – the CD (I drove a hard bargain and got it down from 85 pounds to 20) earrings (from 35 pounds to 5) a silver key of life (he wouldn’t budge from 25 pounds), a papyrus for Tania (don’t remember how much I paid for that one) and some delicious lotus flower perfume (about 25 or 30 pounds I think). Since one euro is about 7.5 Egyptian pounds all this stuff was laughably cheap. From the market back to the hotel via a delicious kebab shop we’d discovered when we were first in Cairo and Rob came knocking on our door to see if we had any plans for the night. We didn’t, and were more than happy to piggyback on theirs, so we played cards with them a while (I was crap as usual but was helped by very good hands, so my incompetence at cards was not displayed for all to see) until it was time to wash up and go to the Hard Rock Café to meet the others (who had gone to the buffet restaurant next to the pyramids that we’d had lunch at). We headed out and got into a taxi. As usual we agreed the price before we got in (standard practise in Cairo) but started to worry a little when the cab driver stopped to ask a pedestrian directions. It soon became abundantly clear that the driver didn’t have the remotest idea where the Hard Rock Café was, and neither did most of Cairo. The driver refused to let us out of the cab however, and I was beginning to wonder if we’d be held hostage inside this taxi driving around Cairo all night. After repeated pleas to stop the taxi and let us out fell on deaf ears, we finally grabbed the opportunity while he stopped at a set of lights to jump out. Free from our despotic conductor, we found another cab complete with driver who knew where he was going, and things began to improve from there.

The drinks at the Hard Rock cost as much as a three course meal at most of the establishments we’d been frequenting, but since it was my last evening in Egypt I wasn’t about to let that stop me from having a fabulous time so bring on the margaritas said I! We chatted, betted on which band was coming up next on the video screen, and killed time. At one point the waiters got up on stage next to where we were sitting and began to line dance – when one of them motioned for me to join them I could hardly refuse! We did some easy Macarena-like movements to “YMCA” which was good fun, and afterwards I asked the waiter dude if anyone who had a brother named Sam worked there. Sam used to bartender at the Hard Rock and his brother (whos name unfortunately escaped me at the time) still worked there. The waiter didn’t know but pointed me towards the manager dude who might have been able to help me out. The manager had never heard of anyone called Sam, Samir or Sim-Sim so I resigned myself to not meeting his brother, until Andrew offered me his phone (mine was lost or stolen somewhere in Khan Al-Khalili) to text Sam and ask him. Next thing I knew a handsome Egyptian man tapped me on the shoulder and said “Hi, I’m Joe, Sam’s brother. Here, he wants to talk to you.” and handed me a phone. I talked to Sam a little and to Joe, who couldn’t sit and have a drink with us (“Sorry guys, I can’t, it’s my workplace!”) but insisted on getting us drinks on the house and must have asked me five times if I needed anything and if I was ok. What a gentleman! He went home and soon after so did we – Shelly and I were going back to the hotel just to grab our bags and then directly to the airport to catch our flight back to Dublin.

This trip exceeded all my expectations – I had lots of fun, it was relaxing, I learned loads (sorry if I’ve bored you with all the Egyptology but that’s why I visit places, to learn about them!) and I made very good friends who I hope and intend to keep in contact with. I loved Cairo, Aswan, the Nubians, the Egyptians, the Nile, the feluccas (most people I feel would agree that the feluccas were the highlight). I will return to Egypt one day, there’s no doubt about that. Not just to see the Red Sea but more importantly to visit the friends I made and also Cairo which I fell in love with despite (or maybe because of ) its chaos. A big hug and kiss to Budget Expeditions Egypt, the staff at the Havana hotel, the guy at the market that I bought the dance CD off, the little girl from the Nubian village, the felucca crew, the smiling bartender at Murphys and especially Sam and Rami, without whom none of this would have been possible.