Egypt: Day 1 - Arrive in Cairo

Hmm... Toilets are called WCs. First thought that occurs to me standing in the queue at Immigration. Immigration is painless. Airport is not bad. We visit the loo [WC], not bad either, but we have to tip the kid there 25 piastres each for the unnecessary toilet paper. Collect our bags at the baggage collection, and check with the local SIA person about getting to the Downtown area. Nora [the aforementioned SIA rep] says, "Take the bus number 356 outside the airport, and then you can take a taxi from there to your hotel. But don't pay more than 2 - 3 pounds for the taxi, he's going to ask you for 5 times that."

But before we can get out, our baggage is opened and checked as we're leaving the airport - our first exposure to the Egyptian obsession with security. Nothing terribly really wrong with that I guess. We walk down outside the airport and start looking for the bus no. 356. "Big white bus with red and blue stripes", Nora had told us.

"Taxi, you want taxi? Downtown? Where you want to go?" This from a scruffy looking chap standing in front of a taxi that looks like it can scarcely drive out of the car park under its own steam. "No bus for 3 - 4 hours, last bus just left 5 minutes!"

Somehow we get to Midan Tahrir and walk into the Magic Hotel, which true to its name, seems to stay upright by magic. After climbing up 3 storeys with our backpack, and bemusedly passing dilapidated offices with lovely colonial names such as “Occidental-Egypt Geographical Society”, we step into the hotel and check in. Here I have to make a recommendation – if you’re in Cairo on a budget, this is the place to stay. Despite its rundown exterior, it’s warm and cosy, the toilets work and, as we discovered the following morning, the breakfast is yum.