Arrival!

This post has been a few days coming, although it has been delayed by the serious and important business of settling down in a new country.


First my travels: I had a pleasant flight to Joburg, where I visited my Aunt Lynette . She saved me from several hours whiling away the time in OR Thambo International and fed me a good meal, which all in all makes her one my favourite relatives. It was also nice to see my cousins and Uncle Robert again. James, the eldest has recently bought some Sheep, who are featured in the picture above. Needless to say the Osner family Dobermans are pretty keen to eat them.


I then boarded the flight to Egypt at about 9 on Sunday evening. The 8 hour flight to Cairo was pleasant, although I could have done with more sleep and less reruns of High School Musical 2 (I really must take the time to highlight the crime against Music, the Dramatic Arts and Taste in General that this movie represents). Arriving pretty early in the morning, I was met by a friendly taxi driver who took me to my hotel to sleep off my journey (I had been awake for almost 24 hours by this point). Cairo International is about 20kms NE from Central Cairo, and so I saw quite a bit of the city on my way in.


Waking up a little later, I got a chance to explore my surroundings. The Salma Hotel is in a suburb called Mohandiseen (apparently it means ingenious). It is an inner city suburb - lots of flats and restaurants. Like the rest of Egypt it is very safe (Lots of police everywhere, take note South African Government). The streets are quite narrow, exacerbated with cars parked on both sides of the road.

First I have to mention that the Egyptian approach to driving is much the same as taxis in South Africa (an Egyptian taxi is in the photo above). There are no rules of the road to speak of, including lane directions, lane markings, speed limits (although practically most people drive at 40kms/h) and signalling. Also lights at night appear to be optional. In addition to this, Cairo seems to have taken lessons from the English school of urban planning (not very wide roads and not a lot of parking space).

Surprisingly enough, the (non)system seems to work, with everyone getting where they want to get, albeit slightly shaken maybe. In addition, there is no ill will exhibited while driving, which I think maybe indicates a lot less anger underlying Egyptian society compared to home. In general, life seems to be approached with a sense of humour that is extremely refreshing. I wouldn't be surprised if instances of heart attack and stress-related disease are fairly low in Egypt.

By this point you might have realised that I have not being posting great photos or that many photos at all for that matter. Rather stupidly I left a camera at home, so I am going to borrow one of Omar's (one of Ismail's son). So more and better pictures in my next post! On that note I think I should end off.

Coming Soon: Down to Work Part 1: What on Earth is Gordon doing in Egypt?