Farewell Egypt

After a last breakfast on the rooftop in the dark watching the first pink rays of dawn behind the pyramids, it was goodbye to the Pyramid View Inn staff who all stood on the footpath to bid us farewell, then down the road past the 'Egypt International Fragrance of Arabian Horses' perfume shop, and off to the airport.

Arrived ridiculously early, as the tour guide was paranoid about a last minute road block or incident, and then had to wait half an hour for the check-in gate to open. Finally found the food court, hidden away on the third floor of the terminal, and spent my last Egyptian pounds at Starbucks. The plane was an Embraer 195, a bit like a small 737. Not sure I've been on one before, but it was only half full which made boarding and seating really easy.

Egypt. How do you sum it all up? Well, the first thing to mention is about safety, as it was the question we got from everybody before we left. Why are you going there? Is it really safe? Well, yes, you can be unlucky and run into an idiot anywhere in the world. However, in all our time there, we didn't see one incident, one demonstration, or one problem. We were in both the Islamic and Christian quarters, as well as downtown and the Giza district. We drove round Tahir Square on a number of occasions. There was a police presence around the Egyptian Museum, but we just wandered around. There was no curfew and no harrasment, and everything's open. Is it safe? Well, I saw nothing that seemed unsafe to me. If you want to go, go.

Tourism? Well, everything's open, but the tourism industry is really hurting. If you are prepared to go, there are no queues, prices are really competitive, and everybody is really falling over themselves to ensure that they give good service and get good reviews. The number of times that they asked you to leave a good review was off the scale, and we even got reminder phone calls when we hadn't done them in a few hours. Where else would you get the entire hotel staff lining up to say goodbye.

So a few bouquets. If you want a clean budget hotel with great service, low prices, lovely food, and a view to die for, stay at the Pyramids View Inn Bed and Breakfast in Giza. It was just great fun, and hasn't won lots of Trip Advisor awards for nothing.

If your tour company is still spooked by the media coverage and cancels your tour, contact Walid Fathy of Egypt Tailor Made Tours (walidfathy007@gmail.com or egypttailormade.net) who will put together a tour of any length to suit exactly what you want to do, at a very reasonable price, and then overwhelm you with great service. His guide, Dalia, was knowledgable, helpful and friendly. Really, there is no reason not to go.

But then there's Cairo as a place. The Big Mac index is $5.80, so it's not cheap to live in, but neither is it expensive. Whilst the antiquities are amazing, and a great reason to visit, the rest of the city gives an overwhelming sense of heading downhill slowly. Our guide talked of several golden ages of Egypt, interspersed by 'intermediate periods' where the civilisation was not unifed or stable, and the country declined. I can't help thinking that Egypt is now in one of those periods. They have given up the stable reign of a king where there was direction and prosperity, for the instability of military and factional rule. There are no infrastucture projects happening that we saw. The place is dirty, the only rule is that there aren't any. Planning rules are ignored and green zones are largely now gone. Buildings aren't finished, and rubbish is everywhere. Drivers drive anywhere anyhow, and lines on a road are just a philisophical concept. As our guide commented, people don't seem to care. Such a shame for the guardian's of a 6000 year old culture.

Arrived in Amman, Jordan on time. Lovely new airport only 8 months old, but that doesn't mean that there will be stairs waiting for the plane, or that when the stairs finally arrive that there will be a bus to take us to the terminal. Ah well, we had all day. Arrived at the hotel, and spend the afternoon wandering around the district prior to our tour group meeting at tea time. Seems that we are in the Chapel Street district of Amman. Never seen so may bright red evening dresses, lingerie, jumpers, stockings, santa costumes and goodness knows what else. Really interesting for a scarf wearing, muslim culture. The guys must have a great time at home.

Got a bit confused with the time of the tour group meeting. All of the computers and world clocks were showing one time, but we turned up in the lobby to be told that we were an hour early. Never had that happen before.

After the mandatory briefing, we all piled into taxis and went downtown to 'the best hummus shop in the world' where we had pita bread, hummus, chick pea balls and salad for the princely sum of $3. Some went out to a bar, but we wandered around the streets for a while and headed back.