First day in Cairo

This was our breakfast for the next 5 days, we ate in the hotel's terrace, overlooking some old English style buildings. This was the Zamalek district of Cairo, every taxi seem to want more money when we tell them to take us to Zamalek. This is the area when expatriates stay and there are more services that cater to them. So I thought for a first time, it might be wise to stay in a more 'civilized' area. Indeed, I was right, out of this area, the sound of car horns are just deafening. The traffic is a nightmare, so every evening we retreated to this little haven. After breakfast we ventured out, with no definite plans, we just walked and ended up in a neighborhood that is very different to what we are accustomed to. The locals looked at us in a funny sort of way, we stood out like a sore thumb. We started taking pictures and was met with some hostility. I was scared especially after the debacle at the airport the night before. We were accosted by touts and taken by them. No matter how much I read up and tried to protect myself, I still fell prey to these touts. No matter how much information I tried to take with me, there is still nothing like getting one's feet wet by jumping right in. As long as we weren't hurt physically, it was only money. But we learnt real fast from that point on.

From the hotel terrace, we see a leafy boulevard. There are some grand hotels that has sumptuous gardens but they were way too expensive. It was so dusty, there's sand everywhere.

There's only Arabic every where, I guess we were not in Europe anymore.

This guy had a huge stack of local bread balance on his head. He wasn't happy when I took his picture. Maybe part of it has to do with the fact that we were foreign women, unaccompanied by any tour guide or a male person. We began to feel the hostility later on and realised we need a taxi and driver to take us places and to wait for us. This is not a country where we can, as women, just traipse around as if we own the place. I was going to go to Cairo on my own but after much research, realised that it would not be wise, though we did come in contact with other independent women travelers. I have spoken to a few of my Egyptian colleagues at work who comes from Alexandria, she told me she wouldn't go to Cairo by herself. But sometimes it is the fear of the unknown that keeps us in our place. After this trip, I'm not afraid to go Cairo by myself.

Corniche el Nil. The famous Nile river. Imagine, little moi, was there. How great is that.

This was in front of the Ramses Hilton, a bus stop. The overhead ramp is the October 6th bridge. October 6th was the day of the 6 days war with Israel when Egypt took back the Sinai Desert. Our taxi driver was quick to point out, we said, Oh yes, the Yom Kippur war, to us, we remember it that way, the Israeli beat back an offensive by the Egyptian army for 6 days and on the seventh day, they were back home celebrating Yom Kippur, the day of Atonement.

From here we found a taxi that would take us to the Citadel, we didn't know where to start, the Citadel, built by Saladin, was as good a place as any.