Отдых в Каире

Overall, I really enjoyed my time in Cairo.  It’s about a three-hour flight from Bahrain, which goes pretty quickly on Gulf Air, since they feed you and entertain you almost from takeoff to landing.  Although their customer service on the ground is pitiful, the flight attendants do a great job in the air.

Once we cleared the several customs and immigration hurdles, we found our driver for the ride to the hotel.  Although I’ve driven in some pretty crazy countries, Egypt definitely takes the cake.  As a matter of fact, the lanes are completely ignored, as well as other cars if you’re driving something bigger.  To tell you the truth, the only way to get someone’s attention is to honk obnoxiously and hope their feeling considerate.  Our driver naturally wove in and out of stopped and moving traffic, all the while happily singing along to a CD of American disco. Still, it was a fast ride and we got to our hotel fairly quickly.

As it was expected the hotel was wonderful.  I highly recommend the Four Seasons to anyone visiting Cairo.  To be honest, I have to admit I pocketed all the bath products every day. Shame on me!

Anyway, next day we took a cab out to the Great Pyramids.  Admittedly it’s only about a thirty-minute ride from Cairo, but it seems like you’ll never really leave the city.

At last, the driver took us to an animal hire shop, where we both got horses.  Actually, I can’t say I was a big fan of my horse, and I’m pretty sure the feeling was mutual. Next time I’m getting a camel. We also got a guide in the deal.  Apparently it’s a crap shoot what kind of guide you get at the pyramids.  This guy was definitely at the lower end of the scale, as he could only recite a sentence or two about each view and when asked a question, just repeated the most recently recited sentence. Maybe next time my luck will improve.