Welcome to Egypt

As we boarded our flight in Richmond, the stewardess greeted us with the comment "I'm going to ruin your day". Apparently there was a suspicious item in one of the suitcases that passed throught security. The TSA didn't spot it right away and consequently didn't know which suitcase was the culprit. So they pulled all the checked luggage from the eight flights departing around 5:00 pm, and ran them through the machines again. Then, instead of keeping the luggage separated by airline and flight, they created a mountain of suitcases that had to be sorted by a handful of airline employees. We were told that we had to leave on time without our luggage or we'd lose our gate spot in JFK. Great. Not one of us had thought to pack extra clothes in our carry-ons or squash clothes in the squash bags. After 10 minutes of waiting, the stewardess announced, that there was a change of plans. The TSA prohibited flights taking off without their luggage, so now we along with all the other flights waiting for luggage would be delayed. An hour later we finally saw the cart with our luggage pull up and we were on our way to JFK.

The flight to Cairo was also delayed from 10:00 to 11:45 pm. We were all dead tired.

Despite our misfortune to be seated behind the noisiest, ill-behaved little Egyptian boys, Willy, Bear and I slept 7 of the 11 hours of our flight. Will who usually falls asleep moments after finding his seat, didn't sleep more than an hour. He watched the monitor, and two of the worst movies ever "Seventeen Again" and "Witch Mountain".

We landed In Cairo at 5:30 pm and were greeted at the terminal by a swarm of taxi drivers and tour group leaders. We pushed pass them through the doorway to passport control. Standing between us and the passport line was a cadre of Egyptians in nurses uniforms wearing face masks. They asked us to fill out swine flu card and then they directed us to a yellow line where we stood while a camera hooked to a computer took our temperature. If it was elevated, it could be an indicator of swine flu, and we could be denied entrance to Egypt. Apparently the first confirmed case of swine flu in Egypt was brought in by a 12 year old American, on June 2nd. Even though only 40 cases have been reported in Egypt so far, they remain very suspicious of Americans.

The entrance continued to be chaotic, as we needed to get visas, for which there were no signs. Will bought them from a bank tucked back in the corner of the terminal. Amr Mansi, a professional squash player (who is our unofficial host and squash trainer) met us at the airport with another car and driver and drove us to our hotel the Intercontinental City Stars. We arrived at the complex which is surrounded by police with bomb sniffing german shephards.

Every car that enters the City Stars complex is checked. Entering the hotel or the adjacent hotels, mall, and fitness center everyone must pass through a metal detector and our bags are xrayed just like at the airport. The hotel is lovely--opulant and grand. The people are a mix of middle eastern, asian businessmen, burquad women and their families from Saudi Arabia, and a few Europeans. No one looks like us.

Dinner is at exotic outdoor restaurant. It is 80 degrees outside and we are the only patrons there. Contrary to what we have heard the humidity is high. Steak sandwiches and fries, stella beer, hummus and seafood soup leave us satieted and we head back to our rooms happy.