If you gotta go

Before we left the boat we had a final day of sightseeing - and the best was saved till last - the Valley of the Kings where on a stinking hot day we descended from the already baking desert ( it was only 07:30) into the tombs of Ramases the I, II, and IV ( not sure where the III was) Fantastic, absolutely amazing what they did. The stone carving and painting on the walls was so detailed and intricate it was unbelievable. We followed this with an almost equally stunning Valley of the Queens with a temple in honour of  Hatshepsut who was the Margaret Thatcher of the Pharaohs. Now our Egyptian education was over and we headed back to the boat and said goodbye to our guide Archie ( his real name was Gemil ).

Before we handed in our room key which, would you believe it, was the same number as our hotel room had been ( 404 ),  I went to get some cash from the good old reliable cash machine, except this one wasn’t a hole in the wall, it was like a pillar box on the street . Well of course as is the case in Cairo I had my helper who was desperate to show me how to use the machine - I obviously did not appear to be able to deal with such a complex piece of equipment, which in fact proved to be right because as I went to retrieve my card it disappeared into the machine never to appear again in spite of me pressing every single bloody button. Shit! So what do I do now ? I try and find the bank who owns this technical wizardry only to find out that their office is closed on Fridays. I return to my helper who has stood on guard just in case it regurgitated the card but to no avail. Consolation was I had got the 1000 Egyptian Pounds to pay our drinks bill (its only 100 quid between two for four days before you say anything ) but it was an inconvenience I could have done without. Yes, yes, before you tell me, I have of course cancelled the card, due to having had the forethought to take my internet banking details with me so I could get the number to ring just in case something happened to my card.

A final lunch on the boat which like all the other meals was buffet style - ‘help yourself to as much as you can possibly get on your plate and step on anybody who gets in your way’ style. At least it was freshly cooked. Beer was good, when available, and I had a surprisingly good Egyptian Brandy

Back to the hotel in Cairo where we had use of a room to change and wash - room number ? well almost, 403. Had plenty of time so went up onto the terrace to have something to eat and got right in the middle of an Egyptian Wedding where a woman makes some very strange noises and a man plays some very strange music on a pipe, and two youths do a very strange dance with poles. The bride and groom look as if they are going to a funeral, and here’s the bride on a mobile phone in the middle of the procession !

We escape and go to our room only to find that the key won’t work - the bloody door is double locked . Don’t panic - they will have a master key at reception. So go and call reception. Man arrives with two keys and hey presto….. neither of them work. Images of doors being hacked down come to mind. Planes being missed etc. Anyway he somehow finally cracks it and we are away.

Say goodbye to brother, who I leave somewhat reluctantly with a tour guide who was rather sweet - apparently she stayed with him for another hour until 02:30. Well I manage to check-in OK with just a moment of crisis when he can’t find my name on the list and I look at the ticket which says 03:30 on the 12th, and I look at my watch which says the 12th. What! but it’s Friday - if Friday is the 12th then I’m a day late. Oh God, what the hell am I going to do now ? I then realised, with a certain amount of relief, that it was of course after midnight and the date on my watch had changed.

What a relaxing final day in sleepy Cairo

This entry was posted on Sunday, April 13th, 2008 at 8:59 am and is filed under Travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.