*THE BEST PLACE IN THE WORLD: Cairo (Part 10, Section E)

The following continues Chapter 6 from SIMPLE SOLUTIONS for Humanity, but concludes the Cairo ordeal:

Escape from Cairo (9Sept2000)

Hi All:

We woke up on the day of our flight and I immediately checked with the desk about transportation to the airport. They said they found a reliable person who would be by at 10AM for our 3PM flight. It would take about half an hour to the airport. I wondered why so early, but was nevertheless relieved.

Surely enough, at 10 or so he showed up. He could barely speak English, but was told in Egyptian our flight number. The bags were loaded into the back of his strange looking car, which was not air-conditioned. About ten minutes into the drive, he mumbled something about needing to fill gas. So, he went way out of his way into a strange neighborhood. Apparently, you fill his car through a hole below where our bags were, so they had to unload virtually all the baggage. I thought, oh no, they’re going to steal our luggage. Well, after about ten minutes, they put everything back in and he drove to the airport. 

He dropped us off, but the airport was closed. Closed!!! Apparently, for security reasons, they now and then stop any entry for a couple of hours because it gets too congested inside. After half an hour in the hot sun, they opened up one door, and the crowd funneled into the airport check-in area. There was no system and it was every person for himself. With all our luggage, it was a very painful process. After another 45 minutes, we made it to our Lufthansa check-in area, where they first had to scrutinize every bag in detail. This was after another half an hour wait in line. We got our tickets and proceeded into the actual airport, where there was a horrendously long line, as again, every article had to be hand-checked. At this point we had about an hour before our flight left. 

Then we had to go through customs. That was another experience not worth even repeating. This took half an hour. We then walked to the gate area of our flight, where again, there was a long line, because everything again had to be hand-checked. We walked straight to our seats and the plane left in ten minutes, some customers still in that line, for the plane was only half full. You think airport security is a pain? Try Cairo!

We’re alive and well. Munich is Heaven!

Aloha,

Pearl and Pat

I wondered how much the Cairo airport had changed over the past decade.  Just at random I read a recent travel journal.  Apparently, nothing has changed.  It is thus safe to say that we can eliminate Cairo as the best place to live.

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You can track the Atlantic (Tropical Storm Danielle could become a Category 2 hurricane, but should go more north than west) and East Pacific (now called Tropical Storm Frank, heading in the general direction of Baha, but predicted to turn west) storms by scrolling down to the blog of yesterday.   In the West Pacific, a disturbance formed between the Philippines and China, but will not strengthen much and should make landfall in Vietnam.

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