I’m slightly embarrassed to admit it so early in our journey, but we’ve already been taken for a ride, literally.  Having lost track of the days in Sharm, we though we had one more day remaining, but in fact we were to check out that day at 12pm.  It was all hands to the deck to pack, organise accommodation in Cairo and buy tickets for the 7hr trip.

The drive itself wasn’t bad, apart from the driving which was was a little crazy, we met and chatted to some lovely people.  The fun stated when we arrived in Cairo at 12am.  The Egyptian population is approximately 80 million and 85% live in Cairo, so you can imagine the scene – it was manic, dark and a little scary.  We hailed a taxi and negotiated our fair to our pre-booked hotel (via the net), only to be told en route that our hotel recently had some trouble and that it had to close down  Not to worry, the driver knew a similar graded hotel at a great price.  Being tired and overwhelmed by it all we went along with it.  Several hotels later, which were all booked out, and having had a tour of the city in a clapped out Lada, we eventually got a room.  We ended up paying well over the odds for the taxi and hotel room.

We have since learned that this is one of the oldest tricks in the book for conning tourists, the taxi drivers work on a commission basis for guests they bring to a hotel, which tend to be pretty grotty.  It was the worst we’ve ever seen, to the point where we would not walk on the floors with bare feet and the decor was like a scene from ‘Life on Mars’.  We felt very uncomfortable and got very little sleep. 

We woke early, hastily packed and got the F out of there.  Not trusting the taxis, we worked out where we were on our guidebook map and walked our way to the hotel we should have stayed at.  Thankfully, it was exactly what we expected – clean, tidy and ever so helpful.  We plan on staying here for the rest of the week. 

Lesson learned.  More on Cairo later.