Football Fans

U.A.E. won the Gulf Cup last night. This is the equivalent of winning the Superbowl or the World Series. The U.A.E. win was a tremendous upset as Saudi Arabia seems to have won practically every series for the past 50 years.

But this was the U.A.E.’s year. They beat Saudi in the semi-finals and went on to beat Oman (1-0) in the finals in front of a crowd of 60,000 in Abu Dhabi.

In the U.S. and U.K., rabid fans seem to celebrate by getting drunk, yelling, and getting into fights. In the U.A.E., alcohol is illegal for locals. It's my impression they celebrate by abusing their cars.

Cars here are decorated in the national colors. They are then taken out to clog up the major streets in Abu Dhabi. Once stuck in traffic, young men sit on the car doors with the windows open and rock the car back and forth.

Drivers also loudly rev their engines and do whatever they can to make the cars backfire. This continues until about 3 a.m. We know this because it keeps us awake, even though our apartment on the 18th floor.

I congratulate my host country on their big win. But in the name of quiet, would it be disloyal to root for Oman next year?

I Win the Lottery

I got an email today notifying me I had won the UK lottery. Imagine my luck! And I hadn’t even bought a ticket.

Not only did I not buy a ticket, I haven’t even BEEN in the UK in the last 10 years. Yet, somehow, the UK Lottery folks decided I had won 250,000 pound sterling.

I hate to criticize, but those UK Lottery folks had a LOT of mistakes in their email. It wasn’t just the usual stuff the Brits do like putting their commas mostly outside quotation marks or calling flashlights torches. This was stuff like running words together and using colons where there should be using periods.

You’d think for an important award winner like me, they’d have gotten it right. But maybe they don’t have Spellcheck in the U.K.

My email program wasn’t impressed either. It automatically routed their email to the JUNK MAIL file where it puts all emails that are mass mailings.

The last interesting fact is that the UK Lottery people left me no way to contact them except an email address on a server in India. Oh, well, I’m sure as soon as I contact them and provide them with every drop of my personal banking and credit card information, I’ll get everything I deserve.

I don’t really need the money as I also got an email from a Nigerian who wants to pay me millions to use my bank account to get his money out of the country.

And, of course, Bill Gates is giving away all his money to internet users based on how many emails you send. I am forwarding that to my entire address book so they won’t have to hit me up for loans just because I won the lottery.

Some Like It Hot

I went to a presentation by a representative of Abu Dhabi’s tourism board. Abu Dhabi wants to increase their tourism from 1 million to 3 million people by 2015. But they don’t want everyone. They are concentrating on business travelers who spend NINE times as much as vacation travelers. Now I understand why it’s much more fun to travel when someone else is footing the bill.

The rep showed us a very slick presentation geared toward enticing business traveler planners to use Abu Dhabi. These are folks who are in MICE planning, an acronym that covers incentive trips, conferences and exhibitions. (I forget what the M stands for.)

They are promoting Abu Dhabi as a “hot” destination. She made this point several times. Abu Dhabi is, in fact BOILING hot for much of the year, but I didn’t really think that was a selling point.

The board is also working hard at infrastructure to support all these business travelers. Some of the new U-shaped exhibition center with 35-story tower out by the “Pepsi Cola” embassy will be opening soon. The tourism board, which only started two years ago, are also working on industry standards for things like tour guides, buses and event planners. But hotel space here is still an issue. In fact, I read where they've now parked a couple of cruise ships in the harbor to give people places to stay.

She also spoke on how Abu Dhabi is positioning itself as the cultural center of the U.A.E. I guess Dubai has already taken the Nightlife and Shopping capital of the U.A.E. But with a goal is 50 million tourists annually, they need that kind of draw.

She also gave us a little more information about the Guggenheim, one of at least four museums going onto Saadiyat Island in Abu Dhabi. Designed by Frank Gehry, this will be the largest Guggenheim in the world.

I’d love to train as a docent for the Guggenheim. But I’m sure we’ll be long gone before the opening. The last time I looked, the island was mostly a pile of sand. And because the Guggenheim is such a classy place, they’ll insist on electricity and running water, which would also be helpful to the 150,000 residents they plan to house on the island. http://www.saadiyat.ae/.

And they gotta build the two ten-lane bridges to get everybody over there and back.
There is a really cool model of the whole thing over at the Emirates Palace Hotel. In fact, Abu Dhabi is a building model lover’s dream. Because they are developing so many projects here, you find architectural models on display everywhere. Saadiyat Island is only one of them.

Fifty years ago, Abu Dhabi was a sleepy little fishing village with houses made of mud-brick. Fifty years from now, it may be equally unrecognizable. Maybe that's why now it's considered so "hot."

All at the Mall

I went to the mall earlier this week. The U.A.E. is known for their malls which are bona fide tourist attractions in Dubai.

I needed to get new contact lenses so my first stop was an optical place recommended by an expat guidebook. I was given an eye exam by a store manager who may or may not have been an optician. But the contact lenses he prescribed worked perfectly.

I also wanted new glasses as the protective coating on my old ones is beginning to flake off. (I hardly ever wear glasses so I only replace them every 3 or 4 years.) I asked the manager to show me their “cheap” frames. I picked one out and the total cost (after discount) for the frames and lenses was US$425. At that price, I decided I could get by with my old glasses, flaking or not, for a while long.

I told them just to charge me for the eye exam. It turns out it was free. So without paying a dirham, I walked out with an eye exam, a one month trial pair of contact lenses, a glass case in which to put the glasses I brought from home, a contact case where I put my old contacts and a prescription for eyeglasses and contact lenses.

And speaking of prescriptions, my second stop at the mall was a pharmacy to get Taylor’s anti-malarial medication for his upcoming trip to India. He will be taking doxycycline, which is the second best malarial preventative. The best one isn’t sold in Abu Dhabi. I tried ordering it online, but Drugstore.com wouldn’t supply it based on the prescription a highly qualified British doctor here provided.

But the second best medication is much better than choice number three. That one has possible side effects likes making you crazy and suicidal. Frankly, getting malaria sounds like a better idea than taking that drug.

The pharmacy gave me a bunch of small boxes of doxycycline and my original prescription back.

Next, I went to Seattle’s Best Coffee, conveniently located next to Cinnabons, to buy coffee beans. The first time I came in, I asked where their coffee was grown. “Uh, Seattle,” replied the clerk.

While I don’t ask questions there anymore, I still have difficulties because I like to ground beans at home as I use them. The helpful staff alway try to prevent me from making some terrible mistake when I tell them not to grind the beans. (It’s not easy being a coffee snob.)

My last stop was Carrefour, a French version of Wal-Mart, only with less helpful salespeople and much better bread. To obtain admittance, I had to surrender my plastic shopping bags. While I watched, they MELTED the top to seal them closed to prevent shoplifting.

Carrefour has special checkout lines for “10 Items or Less” and “Ladies and Disabled” and I was out in no time, my errands at the mall done for the day.

No Zip

Photo by Alec Perkins: Nancy back in Abu Dhabi.

Christmas vacation is over. It’s back to real life now.

Not that being an expat family is real life. It’s more like a surreal life in an exotic locale. Alec, for example was on four continents in December (South America, North America, the Middle East and Africa). For a poor college student, he sure does get around.

I noticed in Taylor’s high school newsletter that the French Club had cancelled an upcoming trip to Paris. There wasn’t enough interest as most of the kids had been there already.

Even though expats have great travel benefits, we still have the unique day-to-day frustrations that help keep us grounded. Like the US$3,000 electric bill I received last month for what should have been $100 in charges.

This was easily resolved, unlike the broken handle on my Electrolux refrigerator. The one dealer in the continent doesn’t like to answer his phone.

And while I am a big fan of taxis here, I do have occassional problems with them as well. I am doing some event planning for a expat women’s group here. I was almost late for my first meeting at the Sheraton because my taxi driver dropped me off at the Hilton. When I objected, he insisted it was the same place, “Sheraton Hilton,” he told me. All American hotel chains must look alike to him.

Then there’s the frustration of trying to complete an address form online where they insist on your zip (postal) code. U.A.E. doesn’t have these. Just try explaining that to your computer screen.

The End of Our Egyptian Era

Photo: Loretta, Nancy, Larry, Taylor and Alec say farewell to Egypt.

Day 8: Cario to Abu Dhabi

Larry and I had a leisurely breakfast before retiring to our balcony to enjoy the crisp Cairo morning overlooking the immensely crowded yard of the Egyptian Museum.

Alec had planned on going back to the museum today, but it was so crowded he just walked around the neighborhood taking photos instead.

Larry, Loretta and I did a bit of shopping at the Hilton's shopping center. You couldn't have dragged me to the Cairo bazaar. I think I have more than met my lifetime quota for tourist markets.

I idly wondered why I had bought so much on my Cambodia-Viet Nam trip and so little here. I realized it was because in Cambodia and Viet Nam, everyone had sounded out their local expat contacts and had come with a list of the best places to find the best stuff.

Which is not to say I was coming home exactly empty-handed. I did buy an inflatable sarcofagus. As I have no real need for an inflatable sarcofagus of my own this was purchased as a gift.

Despite the fact I didn't buy anything our suitcases seemed much fuller. It must be all that heavy ancient tomb dust on our clothes.

On the flight back, I was disappointed that none of our personal viewing screens worked, with the exception of Loretta's. Even then, they aburptly shut down the system. (Just because the flight was landing.) She was watching the Coast Guard film with Kevin Costner and someone was drowning. She'll have to wait for the flight home to find out if they made it.

WE made it back to Abu Dhabi safely, however. Egypt was an unforgettable experience, made even more special by seeing it together.

Photo by Alec Perkins: Who is that masked man in the pink shirt wrapped up in the cashmere shawl?

Time for the Pyramids

Photo: Taylor conquors the Great Pyramid in Giza.

Day 7 Cairo

We overruled our guide's suggested 8:30 a.m. start for today and met a bit later. With the combined Eid/New Year’s Day holiday, it only took us about 30 minutes to get to the Pyramids at Giza.

I had been warned by several people (including Larry) not to expect too much. But I thoroughly enjoyed the pyramids. We climbed along the base of the great pyramid, envisioning how mystical it must have looked covered in smooth limestone with a glistening gold top.

Taking a page from Richard Nixon who said, "This really IS a great wall," I kept thinking, "This really IS a great pryamid."

As we walked around the base, the guide shoed away salespeople. No, we weren't interested in cheap t-shirts, postcards or camel rides, even if they were giving them away!

She led us to an ugly hangar-like building between the two largest pyramids. This was the solar boat museum.

I was dumfounded to be handed protective shoe coverings so I wouldn’t scratch up their polished wooden floors. This building was built as a museum. Did they not understand lots of people were going to walk through? Scuff proof floors would have been a better choice. And while we’re at it, why put up this ugly building in the middle of two world treasures?

But the 4,000 year old boat housed by the museum was impressive. It was held together with rope, most of which also survived. Things were built to last then, unlike my clothes dryer which had to be replaced after two years.

We moved onto the second pyramid where Loretta, Alec and Taylor took the trip down inside through a narrow shaft. (Loretta was an amazingly good traveler, willing to try almost everything as long as it did not involve camel riding.)

We then stopped for a photo op with the three pyramids as a backdrop before moving on to the Sphinx and the step pyramid. The step pyramid, a sort alpha version of the later ones at Giza, was built by the first known architect, Imotech, who was not just an evil character known for dropping his jaws and roaring in the blockbuster, "The Mummy."

Lunch was a surprisingly good countryside restaurant where we watched as they cooked us fresh pita bread and falfala.

After lunch we enjoyed walking though more tombs with impressive reliefs before heading onto the Memphis Museum.

On the drive back, the guide handed me a blank sheet of paper, requesting our comments for the agency. I told her I’d prefer to email them later. She complained that she might not get a copy . It turned out she wanted me to provide her a personal reference which she could use to get other freelance tour guide jobs.

She ended up giving me her email address which I promptly lost. (Trust me, even if I wrote a reference letter, she couldn’t have used it to drum up other work unless they were LOOKING for a bossy, insulting, tour guide with little background in Egyptology.)

We gathered for our last dinner in Cairo at the Hilton's Italian restaurant. The lasagna was a step up from Chef Boy ‘R Dee. Stouffer’s is better. In general, we ate a lot of bland touristy meals this trip. This was the tradeoff for guaranteed cleanliness. I do not allow food poisoning on MY tours.

Photo above: The Step Pyramid.

Photo left: Taylor, Alec, and Nancy do the pyramids.

Cairo A-Go-Go

Photo: The Egyptian Museum as seen from my hotel balcony.

Day 6 Cairo

Six hours after we went to bed, the phone rang. Our Cairo tour guide was waiting for us in the lobby. “Come back in two hours,” I said. There are definite advantage to having your own tour group.

We went down for a free buffet breakfast and the restaurant was packed. I guess they weren’t kidding about being full. I stopped off at the front desk and told them we’d like to keep the suite. They checked with the manager who immediately okayed it.

Last night, they could have said, “We are upgrading you to a suite,” and I would have been very happy with the Nile Hilton. Instead, I am forced to argue with them at 2 a.m. and come back for more today. The results were the same. We’re keeping the suite but how they handled it made a huge difference in my perception of the hotel’s service.

With accomodations resolved, it was time to meet our guide. Even though we were literally across the street from the Egyptian Museum, she insisted on loading us all up in the van to drive over. She had limited English and we had difficulty understanding her in the packed museum. Her background was in tourism, not history and she approached the museum as if she had a checklist of things we had to see and the spiel she had to give.

She couldn’t answer a lot of our questions, a combination of her limited knowledge and English language abilities. I wish we could have taken our very knowledgable, if completely bored, Egyptologist from Luxor with us.

I was disappointed by the Egyptian Museum. It was as if somebody had taken a bunch of really great exhibits and scattered them in a building about 90 years ago, not bothering to update anything. Couldn’t they at least spring for new signage?

We finally made it to the King Tut exhibition, a more recent addition. There are a few pieces on loan in a traveling exhibition, but all the good stuff is here. (And it’s pretty good stuff.) Most amazing to me was the famous death mask. First of all, it’s just a stunningly beautiful work of art. Add to that, the fact it’s made of pure gold. And then you consider the historical significance.

The chariot, sarcofagasus and the jewelry were also incredible. While I gazed at them in wonder, I could hear Alec and Taylor quietly singing Steve Martin’s, “King Tut.”

We moved on to the highest point in Cairo, the Citadel and went through a couple of the interesting historic mosques.

That night was our Gala New Year’s Eve dinner at the hotel, a required buy as part of our package. The room was lovely and I quite enjoyed the string quartet. However, as we had not brought our Gala attire we were a bit underdressed so we ate our four course dinner and bolted, well before midnight.

Larry, Loretta and I retired early while Alec and Taylor watched the ruckus below from their balcony. Some folks were storming the gates of our hotel below and the boys watched while the police arrived and eventually managed to dispurse them.

I’m not sure why they were so set on getting into our hotel, but I bet it wasn’t because they wanted to go the Gala dinner.

Photos above and below by Alec Perkins: Inside the mosque at the Citadel.

Selected lyrics from “King Tut”:

Now if I'd known, They'd line up just to see him,
I'd've taken all my money, And bought me a museum.
(King Tut) Buried with a donkey,
(Funky Tut) He's my favorite honkey.
(Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, King Tut)
Dancing by the Nile, (Disco dancing) The ladies love his style.
(Fox Tut) Rockin' for a mile,(Rockin' Tut) He ate a crocodile.
He gave his life for tourism.

Hurry Up and Wait

Photos by Alec Perkins: Evening at Luxor Temple.

Day 5 Part Two: Luxor and Cairo

After racing through Luxor all day, we now had a lot of time to kill before our midnight flight out. The temples and tombs were all closed, so we went to the Mummification Museum. This sounds cheesy, but it was really well done.

The tour company was able to give us credit for the lunch we didn’t stop to eat and applied it to dinner. They dropped us off at the Sonesta Hotel for a buffet dinner. (We obviously weren’t doing the Egyptian Culinary Tour.)

We did our best to linger over dinner, including the competitive napkin unfolding event, handily won by Taylor. The tour company picked us up at 10 p.m. and took us to the airport. We were still trying to organize our luggage in the terminal when our contact came back with our boarding passes and checked luggage tags. We went straight to the gate. Now that’s an airport transfer service.

There were two flights on Egypt Air from Luxor to Cairo, both leaving at the exact same time. Our flight boarded first and I thought it would be overrun with people on the other flight but there were no issues.

The only good thing about arriving at Cairo at 1 a.m. was there was no traffic. Still, as we neared our hotel, I was astounded by the crowds along the river that time of night. Our hotel, the Nile Hilton, was right on the river. It was completely gated and our van had to stop for their bomb-sniffing canines to check us out before they let us in.

Despite our paid-in-advance voucher, the hotel was short on rooms. Their solution was to put four of us in a one-bedroom suite with a pull-out sofa. If we had been willing to have people sleep on sofa beds and be four to a bathroom, I’d have booked it that way. I insisted on three separate bedrooms and bathrooms as per our reservation.

After more hemming, hawing, and computer tapping, they said they could give us two rooms plus the one-bedroom suite but we’d have to move out of the suite the next day. “No,” I said. “We are not moving.”

This resulted in more hemming, hawing, and tapping . Taylor came up to the front desk to see what the delay was. He volunteered to take the suite for one night with his brother and then move. With that agreement, we finally got to claim our rooms and go to bed.

Photo by Alec Perkins: The Nile view from Alec and Taylor's suite.

We Love Luxor

Photo: Alec at Karnak.

Day 5 Dawn to Dusk: Hurghada and Luxor

Luxor was a last minute addition to our itinerary. (Last minute for me means within two weeks of travel.) I looked into a Luxor daytrip from Hurghada after a friend raved about it. It looked close enough on the map. But, unfortunately, it was too far to go there, see anything, and make it back to Hurghada for our flight that night to Cairo.

But maybe we could fly to Cairo from Luxor. It took a couple of days, but the Egyptian travel agent called me at home to tell me there was a new Egyptian Air flight from Luxor to Cairo. However, it would cost us an additional 100 pounds each. “A hundred pounds!” I shrieked. (This is about US$200 per person.)

She informed me these were Egyptian pounds, (about US$25 each). I’ve GOT to start remembering to verify the currency when talking prices. So we’d take a van to Luxor, spend the day and then fly direct to Cairo.

In Hurghada, I’d received a message that we were to be ready to go at 5:30 a.m. to make the 7 a.m. desert convoy. While everyone was highly insulted whenever I asked about the crime, a standard question of mine when traveling anywhere, tourists crossing the desert must be escorted in a caravan by an armed police escort.

I called the local tour contact back. “Having our group ready at 5:30 was a tad early. Didn’t they have a later convoy?” They admitted there was a convoy at 9 a.m. but they didn’t recommend that as it would severely limit what we could see in Luxor.

After a hasty group survey, we decided on “sleeping in” and meeting at 7 a.m. This decision was driven by the fact that our flight from Luxor didn’t leave until midnight. We likely wouldn’t get to the Cairo hotel until 2 a.m. and getting up at 4:30 a.m. was just too long a day.

I had ordered sack meals for us, but Loretta and the boys still had time for breakfast. The caravan, made up of tourist buses and vans, left promptly at 9 a.m. The drive across the dessert was interesting because it was so barren. Near the end of the drive, suddenly everything became green. “What a difference water makes,” Larry remarked.

The guide suggested we start with lunch as the restaurant would be closing. Having already cut short our tour with a late start, the last thing we wanted was to stop for big lunch. Much to their astonishment, we decided to forgo lunch and start the tour. (We still had our sack lunches from the hotel to fortify us.)

One side of the Nile has all the stuff for the living, like temples, and the other side has the stuff for the dead, like the tombs. We started with the Valley of the Kings where we rushed through a couple of the tombs. Cameras weren’t allowed, so Alec drew sketches of symbols in which he was interested to discuss with our guide. (Having our own personal Egyptologist came in handy.)

We then made a made dash by ferry across the river to the living side, narrowly avoiding being hit by a larger boat. I seriously thought we might have to abandon ship and wondered if the water in the Nile was safe for swimming.

We took the ferry because the bridge was miles and miles away. Apparently they couldn’t erect the bridge anywhere near the town as they kept finding ancient ruins every time they dig.

We walked to the humongous Karnak complex which was just amazing. We had a lot of time to wander around there before moving onto Luxor Temple whose majesty took my breath away. After Angkor Wat, I didn’t expect to be so impressed with any man-made structures, but only a few months later, I’m walking around in amazement.

Travel is expensive, inconvenient, and uncomfortable. But, I have been to Luxor. That’s more than a fair trade.

Photo above by Alec Perkins: The near miss between our ferry boat and this tourist boat on the Nile.

Photos by Alec Perkins: The Temple of Luxor.

Weighty Issues

Photo: Tay is "King of the World" on our dive boat.

Day 3 & 4: Hurghada

We did four dives in the next two days. I usually enjoy boat rides, but the waves were so rough, I was fighting nausea some of the time.

Because of the cold, we were also dealing with 5 ml. suits for the first time. As our dive instructor says “The only thing worse than getting into a dry wetsuit is getting into a wet wetsuit.”

While getting into and out of these things is complicated enough, you then need to compensate for your increased buoyancy, a little fact I neglected. (Science has never been my strong suit, okay?) When it came time to dive, I couldn’t sink. I remained floating at the surface like a cork. The dive master had to throw six pounds of weights in the pockets of my BCD to get me down.

The next day, I added an additional six pounds to my weight belt and sank like a stone. But with the extra weight, I had a lot of trouble keeping up with the group, despite how fast I finned. The overexertion was causing me to run through my air faster.

More worrying was the fact that I couldn’t climb back into the boat after my last dive. The dive master had to swim over and take my weight belt off first.

On the deck, I discovered I still had the six pounds of weight in my pockets. This plus the 24 pounds on my belt and the additional 25 pounds of equipment meant I was carrying 65 pounds. I was overweighted for the dive and my legs just said no to carrying that load up the ladder after all that swimming.

I did see some wonderful table coral, an impressive lionfish and a very timid stingray. (After the bad press of Steve Irwin’s death, it wasn’t taking any chances.) But because I was dealing with new variables, this diving was more like practices than pure pleasure. The most fun, of course, was being out with my family.

I’m seriously considering becoming a “fair weather” diver and only diving where I won’t need wetsuits and the corresponding pounds of extra weights.

Back on dry land, the boys tried to get reservations to eat at the Hilton’s seafood restaurant on the beach. They were told it was closed because of the “wizzar.”

Larry and the boys headed into town to check out a seafood restaurant, while Loretta and I ordered room service and I ate in my jammies. Hey, I’m on vacation.

Photo: Alec and Larry relax on the back of the boat after diving. The dreaded wetsuits hang in the foreground.

Not So Hot

Photo: Alec and Taylor looking for fun at the beach by the Hilton.

Day 2: Hurghada

We hit up the breakfast buffet, zoning in on the omlet and waffle station. Travel pointer of the day: If forced to eat at a buffet, start with whatever they are cooking in front of you. It's always better than what's congealing in the warming plate.

Larry, as usual ordered two fried eggs, doing the universal sign of over easy. Here’s how it works. Extend one palm flat in front of you and then quickly turn it over. Works in every language.

After breakfast, we wandered down to the dive shop only to find that the dive boat had left and wouldn’t be back until evening. Seeing as how our ship had sailed, we had a day to explore the resort and the town.

It was way too cold to hang out by the pool (even the Russian and German tourists were inside), so we took two taxis into town. Our meter showed 15 Egyptian pounds (about US$3). I gave the driver a 20 pound note and he refused to give me change. Alec, Taylor and Loretta paid six Egyptian pounds for the exact same ride.

The town was full of tacky souvenir stores. As we walked around outside in the dust, bored shopkeepers would try desperately to engage us. “Where are you from?” they called.

“We’re from the Hilton,” I said in an effort to disengage.

Taylor tried being from Russia, but these guys spoke Russian fluently.

Next, Taylor responded, “I’m from Korea.”

The Egyptian shopkeeper said, “Me, too!”

We should have just followed Loretta's lead and said we were from Oklahoma. No one would have a clue where that was.

At this point, I’d had enough of the “authentic” Hurghada. Larry, Loretta and I caught a cab back to the hotel. Once again, the meter indicated 15. Larry gave the driver 7 and he didn’t complain.

I checked out the hotel shops, buying a sweatshirt after a very protracted negotiation. (We could have settled much earlier but both the shop owner and I obviously had plenty of time to kill and enjoyed the process.) I’m sure I overpaid but he made me promise not to divulge the “low price” I got to anyone.

I’d booked massages for the boys and me late that afternoon. (Buy three, get one free.) Alec and I were shown to one room and told to disrobe.

When I refused, the masseuse said, “But you are from the same family.” I don’t know what culture condones mother and adult son nudity but it sure isn’t MY culture. I insisted on undressing in private and then crawled under the towels so neither of us was exposed.

Our group ate at the empty Italian restaurant that night, having made the reservation the required 24 hours in advance. (No wonder no one ate there.) The food was not wonderful but it was better than the buffet.

Photo: Larry and sunset in Hurghada.

Caravan to Egypt

Photo: Loretta, Alec, Nancy, Taylor and Larry on our Egyptian adventure.

Day 1: Abu Dhabi, Cairo and Hurghada

I always think of Egypt as sweltering. But it's not like that in December. And when I finally got around to checking the weather, the day we were to leave, I found out it was unseasonably cold. I put away my flip-flops and got our my sweaters.

It took two cars to get the five us of and our seven bags to the airport. This included one bag of tennis gear we hauled around and never used and one bag with our snorkle equipment. We breezed through check-in and customs. It’s so easy here I’ve completely blanked out the bad old days of flying out of Russia and China.

This had been a complicated trip for me to arrange. Our Etihad Holiday package covered our roundtrip airfare to Cairo, our Cairo hotel and transfers in between.

A second provider, recommended by an Egyptian friend, arranged our transfers from the Cairo international terminal to the domestic terminal and our flights from Cairo to Hurghada and from Luxor to Cairo.

The second provider had referred us to Escapade Travel which arranged a private van from Hurghada to Luxor, a day tour in Luxor, transfers from the Hurghada Airport and to the Luxor Airport, and a two day tour in Cairo.

Larry arranged taxis to and from the Abu Dhabi airport. I booked our Hurgada Hotel package directly and we would arrange the SCUBA dives and equipment rental ourselves.

The night before we left, I held an orientation talk with the family to review the schedule. This would also helped me keep straight who was suppose to get us from Point A to Point B.

We had a nice flight on Etihad, the official airlines of UAE. With a U.S. carrier, I’d have been lucky to get a free sandwich on a 3.5 hour flight. But our Etihad flight featured a multi-course meal, a hot towel to refresh us and a personal entertainment system with about 40 movie or TV choices.

When we boarded someone was sitting in Larry and my assigned seats. Even more strange, I knew her. It turns out, her travel agent had put her and her two small children in an exit aisle and the flight attendant had moved them to our seats. Larry and I were happy to trade for the additional leg room.

After we landed, our group was met by the guy arranged by Provider Number Two. Larry, who had previously flown to Cairo on business, was used to being wisked through passport control by whatever luxury hotel was picking him up. Our guy had no such connections and we had to trudge through the line with everyone else.

Larry and I had to wait for the second car to take us to the other terminal as our driver was praying. On the way, we had to stop to let out our guide as his car was about to be ticketed by the police. We STILL arrived at the domestic terminal before Alec, Loretta and Taylor who left in an earlier car because their driver tried to take them to the wrong terminal.

The domestic terminal was only handling pilgrims to Mecca so our departure was transferred to a private terminal. As Loretta was the only one of us who had changed any money, we made her pay for snacks while we waited for our flight.

Our Egypt Air flight to Hurghada on the Red Sea took about an hour. We were met at the airport by the Escapade Travel service which loaded us and our luggage into a van and drove us to the hotel, giving us a nice rundown about the area along the way. We learned that up until 10 years ago, this had been a tiny fishing village. Now tourism was their major industry.

The Hilton Hurghada Plaza must have been the first big hotel in town. It had been beautiful but it was way overdue for renovations. At check in, I learned that our room rate unexpectedly covered an all-inclusive package. The bad news was we would now be wearing plastic Hilton orange wrist bands for the next four days in order to claim our free meals.

We unpacked and met downstairs for dinner. We tried to eat in the practically empty Italian restaurant but they refused to seat us as we had no advance reservation. We ended up at an uninspiring buffet. Larry attempted to order a Heineken Beer.

Beer and wine were free as part of our all-inclusive deal, but only the local stuff. And forget trying to order ANYTHING not covered, even if you were willing to pay for it. It was like trying to order a rib eye steak at McDonald’s. They just didn’t get it. Larry was met by increasingly baffled looks before giving up and ordering an Egyptian beer.

While our room had a balcony and a lovely view of the pool and the sea, our bed was only slightly softer than sleeping on the floor. Oh, well, we’d be diving in the Red Sea tomorrow, what did we care?

Photo: Balcony view from our room at the Hilton Hurghada Plaza.

Walk like an Egyptian

I'm busy brushing the tomb dust off with Larry, Alec, Taylor and Loretta. Check back after January 3 for updates.