Travel Journal

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Oct 1, 2000

Well we made it to Cairo and I actually have good internet access (in other words it is not too slow and I can update the site). That is good news!

We got on the plane today and Rob (who specifically asked for an exit row or a bulk head seat because of his size (6'6" 230lbs)) had to sit next to an Egyption lady who matched him pound for pound, but was only about 5'4" tall. Needless to say he was not to thrilled about the thought of sitting there for 10 hours. He promptly moved.

The Cab ride from the airport was pretty interesting too, the guy did not speak very much English and we had been told to make sure that we bargain on fares. We told him where we wanted to go and he said 40 Egyptian Pounds so I said, "how about 20" (a famous MC "go lower" tactic). He said "No, only 14" and I thought this was some sort of tactic, so I said, "how about 20" Rob was not impressed with my bargaining up skills. We agreed on 14 and when we got to our destination I gave him 15 pounds and then he annunciated "FORTY POUNDS". I don't know if we were had or not, but it worked out to be about $11 for a 45 minute cab ride that would have been $75 in the states. We are learning.

Our Hotel tonight is right in the heart of the city and right above a McDonalds. It is $4.50 per person. At this rate we may be well out of our budget by the end of the decade.

That is all for now since we have not had more than a couple of hours in the city. I am not sure what our internet availability will be like, but so far so good.

-Bill

Every person that I walk by in the streets stares me down. It's like they've never seen a tall American before. I even got a high-five from random guy who yelled "basketbol!". The arabic language is great. The guy came on the airplane speaker speaking in this kind of mumble-rap, and Bill and I just couldn't stop laughing. I'm picking up the language pretty fast though. Of course, it is one of my native tongues....a-Rab-ic. (only the san diego crowd will get that one)

-Rob