Cairo? Sounds good
After a change of heart, Kathryn and I decided it would be a fun trip to meet up in Cairo. She has been studying in Madrid this past semester but we have kept in touch through Skype and mobile minutes for the past two months. Cairo happens to be nearly midway between Madrid and Mumbai and home to some fantastic history and sites. We were both interested in seeing them and each other so we booked flights to Cairo. She left Spain early and had to rebook her flight to Chicago and I took off three days of work and took a bus from Pune to Mumbai’s airport.
The bus ride last Thursday night felt like a three hour off-road adventure. I expected that the highway between Pune and Mumbai would be smooth and easy but I was mistaken. I didn’t get much sleep in the Volvo (what they call a motor coach) because the AC was broken and the bumpy ride, but I watched a few TV show and tunes on my laptop.
The bus arrived in Mumbai before midnight however my flight was not until 6am. I hung around the baggage claim area and slept on top of my luggage. I got bug bitten but the sleep was good. When I tried to check into my flight at 4am but it had been delayed. They moved me onto an earlier flight to Muscat, which would go to Abu Dhabi, to Behrain, to Cairo. Hey, whatever works? J
I spoke a little bit to my seatmates on each flight although neither spoke English very well. Nearly all the Indians on the flight to Muscat were going to work in large factories. They work 1-2 year stints before returning to their families in India. There is not very much work for people in India and so they do this to provide for their families. On the flight to Cairo, I met up with an older university student who was studying mathematics. He taught me a few Arabic words upon request. I needed to know “hello” – Salam and “thank you” - Shakran and I ended up picking up a few other helpful words.
When I arrived in Cairo, I faced an interesting problem. Having come from India, I only had Indian rupees. The Egyptian visa stamps cost $15 USD. They had a few windows which provided currency exchanges, but none accepted rupees or credit cards. The funny part was there was an ATM, but this was located beyond the visa inspection point. I ended up having to grab a guard to escort me to the ATM – on the way waiving hi to Kathryn who was a bit confused but looked lovely – and then returning to purchase the visa stamps.
Kathryn and I caught a taxi after haggling with the guy for a bit. I forget how many Egyptian Pounds it was but it wasn’t bad. We really didn’t know how much things cost in Egypt but we figured it out fast enough. He took us to our hotel – the Sofitel Le Sphinx in Giza. It was a quick 45 minute drive because we caught up with each other on the ride. I was a little nervous about the trip until speaking with her in the cab. I realized this trip was going to be incredible and was glad that we made the efforts to meet up in Cairo.