We're here!!!

The immigration card is on brand

Omg we’re in Egypt.   We landed in Cairo, got our visa (which took all of 2 seconds had had no line) and found our guide even before we crossed customs.   I’m amazed they guides are allowed in that area, but given all the horror stories we’ve heard, was a nice plus.  Our guide was representing both Insight (our tour) and Trafalgar (sister company) because there were only 3 couples total on that flight.   Our luggage was last to arrive and then our guide shepherded us through all the people wanting to “help” or offering taxis.  Which honestly - wasn’t nearly as bad a gauntlet as it is in Mexico, so that was the first surprise.  I had been expecting a lot worse.

The trip to our hotel was…. An experience ;). Cairo driving is wild - the lanes are irrelevant.   Everybody is on the hwy - cars, buses, tuk tuks, motor cycles with multiple people strategically balanced on them, even a donkey?!?!   Horns constantly - apparently if you want to pass someone you just lean on the horn to let them know you’re coming and go.   I was extremely glad I wasn’t driving.   Turnarounds in the middle of the hwy - again much like in Mexico - where you go from a dead stop to merging into hwy traffic to roll back the other direction.   The other people were dropped off first so we had a longer drive to get to the hotel but…

… it turns out we’re getting a private tour?!?!?  We’re the only ones on our tour - there’s nobody else to meet.   So we’ll meet our guide tomorrow and it sounds like it’s going to be just us.   So that is… beyond amazing.

Anyways - we grabbed dinner at the Egyptian Restaurant in the hotel.   It was good food but really expensive.  However, we didn’t feel like going adventuring to find food at this point.  We also lost two hours to timezones in traveling and have an early start tomorrow.

Super excited, mildly overwhelmed by the chaos that is Cairo, and looking forward to tomorrow.

View from our hotel window; if you squint, you can see the Nile.
We would learn later the brown haze/smog is omnipresent in Cairo, but not the other places we went.