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Egypt

Goldenmaggot
2005-09-06 18:47:52

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We left our home town in Hertfordshire in pouring rain, definitely a good time to fly south. Just over four hours from London sees us landing at Cairo airport.

Cairo is my least favourite African City. Driving from the airport to our hotel means crossing the City. The traffic is very bad. Our guide Medhat told us that traffic lights in Egypt were for decoration only; we thought he was joking, he wasn't, nobody stopped at any red light. I wondered what would happen if a Brit had collected a car and started driving in Cairo, the first set of traffic lights that were red he would have stopped - I wonder what the other motorists would do, probably all run into him. There is heavy pollution over Cairo, it looks like a blue/grey cloud lying over the City.

It is so important to have a good guide in Egypt it makes the difference between really enjoying the history of Egypt or just tolerating it. We have had both. And Medhat was an excellent guide in every respect. Every time we have been to Egypt we have stayed at the Mena House Hotel. I would strongly recommend this hotel for several reasons. It is a first class hotel and it is right on the edge of Cairo. From your bedroom window you can look out on to the pyramids.

The Mena House is a historic hotel. It was originally a hunting lodge that the Khedive Ismael had furnished to receive Empress Eugenie at the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869. Kings and poets have stayed here. It was renovated, and is now run by the Oberoi hotel chain.

Cairo has a population of more than 13 million and we were told that a baby wa born every 23 seconds. Cairo is the largest city in Africa and the Middle East. It was founded at the spot where the Nile valley widens into a flat, fertile delta. The most radical changes have come within the past ten years. In 1960 fewer than 40 percent of the Egyptian people were city dwellers. The city then had a population ...