Midnight found us in Cairo, dreading our next moments. We wanted to stay near the airport in a nice place. A travel agency at the Arrivals hall suggested a 3 star hotel called the Oasis Hotel. However the price was 3 times what we'd paid at the New Palace (our first hotel in Cairo, several weeks back). Too tired to argue, we reluctantly agreed. When we got there, we knew Kenya had spoiled us badly. The hotel was not any nicer than Cairo's New Palace, except we h...

We awoke with tentative hopes of a good day. The logistics were going to be tricky. We needed to get to Cairo in time for our flight, fly overnight to Nairobi, and hope a driver would be there to take us to our hotel so that we could finally get some solid sleep. It did not start well. Barry went to take money out of the bank machine but the first two didn't work. When he returned, he discovered that our 500 Egyptian pound taxi, had "mechanical problems"...

Another hot night's sleep and up at 7:00 am. We wanted to do a lot so that's just what we did. Our driver, Mohamed, and our guide were both outstanding. There were no stop signs, no lanes, no rules and, from what we saw, no real road rage (lots of honking, though; and a few loud words exchanged between drivers). Our guide had arranged a lovely cultural array of activities so we looked forward to it all. First we went to Sakkara, the site of the oldest pyramids in...

Flying with Egyptians is very interesting. Many of them do not remain seated during the flight but stand and visit with other people. There was quite a party atmosphere which made it hard to sleep so we didn't bother. Our pilots took their jobs seriously, though, and our flight was smooth except for a very bumpy landing which set the tone for the next few hours. Going through customs was different because there were no line-ups; people just crowded together and j...