Culture shock - from AUSTRIA to CAIRO

  Cairo, Egypt
Wednesday, July 23, 2008

O.k. so get ready to encounter a lot of MEN, when you first arrive in Cairo. as 3 traveling strong women, we felt a little uncomfortable facing about 1000 men when we arrived to the airport in Cairo. this was o.k. during the daylight, but when we had to go pick up our friend at 12AM, close to the 1AM range, this sight was a little bit more scary and harsh. O.k. so let me backtrack, first we find out that we get ripped off by accepting the airconditioned, 'limousine' taxi as soon as we enter Cairo. this ran us about 85LE, which is fine in US dollars, but to find out later that was on the overpriced list. this was o.k. since we needed a taxi and we were stuck anyway. make sure you have small bills or the CORRECT amount, since I got jipped when I got my change back and did not notice the guy gave like 2.50LE less than he should have. I didnt notice this because he gave it back to me in bills. Anyway, once we got to our destination Hotel/Hostel or whatever it was, I did not dare go in there, since it looked a little scary.

Garden City house

even in the day time. the place was called Garden City House - but I don't have a reference for this place. The cab driver 'offered' to take us to a better place, which was WAY overpriced in the grand scale of things, considering it was CAIRO... we ended up paying $75 USD for a triple room for the night, which is outrageously expensive for the coniditions of this upscale hotel, called INDIANA. staff was a little bit unfriendly and only provided with 'their own taxi suggestions' and such. Don't be fooled.
Sorry if I digress, on our next stop in Cairo, about a week and half later after our initial stop in Cairo, we stayed in Lialiy Hostel, very nice, very cheap, very helpful staff, located downtown of Cairo, about 3 mins. away from the Egyptian Museum. The rooms were pretty clean, spacious, and the staff was super friendly and helped us get a tour guide for Shaqqara, Dashur and Memphis. I highly recommend them. We stayed wtih them on our way back on 8/01/08.