Day One Egypt – the whirlwind tour

Day #1 of Egypt tour.
Queen Alia airport provided a decent if busy lounge, after I was delivered to the airport by a cocky young man who was 20 mins late for pickup.  The plane left on time, but the flight wasn’t the most pleasant – a grossly obese man squeezed into the third row of economy had his eye on being upgraded to business class, and was very put out when his wish wasn’t granted – and also when the first row, with extra legroom, was declined.  The rest of the trip was taken up with angry outbursts which a senior steward repeatedly and patiently dealt with…. the fellow ahead of me, who had the best seat of the extra legroom first row, then leant back his chair to fill tilt – meanwhile I’m crushed into the worst legroom I’ve experienced for a long time.  And the bathroom was the filthiest I’ve ever seen on an airplane.  Go, Egyptair.
However it did deliver me to Cairo and I got out of customs etc very quickly only to wait 1/2 hour for the first bags to appear on the carousel.  I’d previously booked a ride through Mozio and wasn’t too worried as they give 1/2 hour grace period.  Having retrieved luggage finally I got to the inside arrivals hall where my ride was supposed to be posting my name.  Nothing but a line of men trying to foist taxis on one.  Tried to log onto airport wifi but of course they want your phone number to send a verification code, and the phone is off….. so quickly switched on and through what’s app tried to get hold of mozio.  They directed me out of the arrivals hall outside the building where my ride was supposedly waiting.  Did same, and panned up and down the line of names being held up several times – nada.  Back on the with the phone to try calling this time, in desperation – told again they’re there.  No they’re not, says I – oh okay, I’ll call you back.  Wait a couple of minutes, phone still on roaming, nothing, what’s app again then back to the terminal building.  Or tried, directed by police to a security entrance where my bags were again screened and I went over to Vodafone to get a local SIM card (Telus now telling me I have $50 worth of roaming charges… what a rip).  Mission accomplished, my Telus SIM snapped into place on the Vodafone card and back on the line to Mozio, now 30” after first call – now I”m told to take a taxi as the driver has “had a problem” and won’t be coming.  Awesome.  Taking a taxi at midnight was what I was attempting to avoid…. so into the fray, start to negotiate and the first two are charging about double the normal rate, find someone who’s got an official badge on, white new looking taxi who agrees to the usual rate so off we go.  I have the address written in Arabic in case this happens but he still clearly has no idea where the hotel is as we set off, and tries to negotiate an extra $5 USD as he tells me that’s how much his parking is at the airport.  He backs down though and calls his company (I think) to get directions and off we go at screaming speed down the motorway with some pretty wild driving.  We drive on, and on, and on….. main motorways but weaving in and out of traffic and clearly the lines for lanes on the road are merely suggestions.  Then a heated engine smell pervading the car permeates my consciousness and I notice that his warning lights and engine block lights are on (prob since the beginning?) and about now I really start praying with images of not having a clue where I am, stuck with this mad taxi driver on a motorway in Cairo…
Driver has several conversations on the phone (while driving of course) to get further directions I assume, one of them quite angry.
Eventually we reach a sign that says Alexandria Road and I get peppered with questions – here? Where?  As it looks like a line of hotels I assert this looks right and he does a u-turn on the Main Street (fortunately not a ton of traffic at this time in the morning but I doubt he’d be doing anything differently during the daytime) and asks me which Pyramids Hotel it is – I didn’t know there was more than one? So direct him to the Steenberger Pyramids Hotel sign and he honks at the closed gate – the attendant takes a few seconds to get up so driver starts to take off again – yelling at him to stop, the gate opens, we go in and TG it is the correct hotel.  Pay my mad driver and am met by Exodus rep with room key and instructions for tomorrow.  Suggestion to Exodus – organize an airport transfer for everyone, not just the group flight – like in Jordan, given the shenanigans at the airport.  Not a pleasant way to start a trip.
Bellhop takes case and sets off at brisk pace down a hotel and I scurry along afterwards – we walk and walk and walk (or jog) and then up an elevator one floor and walk some more – this hotel is immense.  Ensconced in my room at last, completely shattered,  I am pleased to see a kettle, and nice digs with a balcony although morning determines no view of pyramids. That definitely rates as the worst airport transfer experience in my history.  To top it off I discover that the Telus SIM card has disappeared from my Vodafone card…..
A few hours sleep yields a better outlook and I’m happy to see a good buffet breakfast. Meet up with Exodus group in the lobby at 8 a.m. – totally different demographic this time.  There are a few people from Belgium, a couple from Iceland, a couple of New Zealanders and the rest are Brits – total of 20.  Late to join the group is Joyce from Malaysia originally but living in London – portending things to come.  And apparently we are meeting up later with Tony, who missed his flight yesterday in London….
After group paperwork we pile into a big bus and are whisked off to the Egyptian Museum, off Takhir Square – famous for the protests in 20111 and 2013 – sniffer dogs around the bus, police checkpoint to go through, and armed security guard accompanying us all day.  They are determined not to disrupt the tourist industry again, as it was economic disaster when it collapsed after the Arab spring.  It actually feels pretty safe, though I don’t put much faith in the above precautions – I think if someone wanted to do something, they could as throughout the day we passed police checkpoints with members fully engaged on their phone, most people were just waved through anyway, and some were asleep.  
Anyway back to the museum, which is to move to a gorgeous new location (billions of dollars to build) in 2020 just down the road from our hotel.  There is a large number of tourists lined up outside the museum and security again at the entrance – eventually we shuffle through and those of us who want to take pictures pay extra for the privilege.  And of course someone in the group gets into trouble for taking a camera inside without a photo ticket despite being told by the guide it wasn’t good enough to say you just wanted to take photos outside…. we don receivers and earphones to listen to our guide/Egyptologist take us around the highlights – like the Louvre, one could spend weeks in here.  Phenomenal place.  Ahmed , our guide, is fabulous – clearly very knowledgeable and good delivery.  We spent most of the morning here, and after our tours were given 1/2 hour free time then instructed to meet outside the exit.  Tutankhamen’s relics were particularly impressive but the whole experience was reminiscent of the Nairobi Antrhopology museum with drawers upon drawers of artifacts from the Rift Valley……After waiting 1/2 hour longer for tardy tour members we went on to see the oldest mosque, where we get a lesson on Moslem religion (had it in Jordan, and it was hot in the square), then a brief stroll around the market nearby which was mostly closed anyway due to it being the equivalent of Sunday, plus a voting day (new constitution vote underway).
So now it’s 1:30 and we’re all starving.  Breakfast at 6:30 – apparently the group flight picked up from the airport was instructed to purloin some items from breakfast to take with them – thanks a bunch, nobody told me that (and a few others left out of the loop).  It would have been easy to stop on the motorway entrances/exits for some fruits for people as we did in Jordan? Or a mini mart for snacks as we did in Jordan?  Luckily I had an “elevate me” bar in my bag so wasn’t completely bereft but…..
So it was off through completely choked traffic to Giza.  Could have walked the first mile much faster…. But eventually we made it to the pyramids and the sphinx – some chose to crawl inside to the tomb for an extra $20 USD but I felt my life would still be complete without this so wandered around the outside admiring the view, the armed guards (this bunch were vigilant) and the pushy souvenir vendors, camel ride offers etc.  Our guide had prepped us on the current scams which was helpful…. The size of Cheop’s pyramid is amazing, and the Sphinx was disappointingly deteriorated and adjacent to a complete mess leftover from the drawing of the Africa Nations’ cup last weekend.  A quick stop to learn how to make papyrus next before at last returning to the hotel where we were on our own for dinner.  Initially thinking I’d go out with others for local food, I heard the arrangements being made to meet in 1/2 hour  then walk to the restaurant.  After a week of Middle Eastern mezze in Jordan it wasn’t attractive enough to wait another hour to eat so bailed and went with others to the poolside restaurant at the hotel where food and drink was more imminent and a pleasant time was all.  We became horizontal early in prep for a 2:30 a.m.wake up the next day to catch a 6 a.m. flight to Luxor – brutal….