Well firstly you need to physically get there. There are several options including flying, land rover and my personal favourite, the train. Unfortunately I still need to get around to building the last option and the second one is hideously expensive, dangerous and time consuming (pretty much sums up traveling in Africa really). This leaves the third option, flying.
I did all my booking through www.travelstart.co.za and it generally was pretty good. Their web-interface was easy to use, and their flights were definitely cheaper than anything quoted to me by a normal travel agent. So, go online business!
The price I got quoted to fly directly from Cape Town to Cairo was R8000 return, which is pretty pricey. Alas it is time of year of the Hajj and December is never a great month to travel in. Luckily I found the price from Joburg to Cairo was R6000. So including R1000 for a return ticket to Joburg from Cape Town, It brings my total to R7000 (and a saving of R1000!). As an aside this is a pretty damning evidence against the pricing structure of airlines - it is costing me the same to travel to Cairo, as it does to London, which is double the distance. I understand the economics of more often traveled routes, but still half the distance! There must be a better way to do things.
The next step is to obtain an Egyptian Visa. Luckily as a South African, this is free. Unluckily if you are a Capetonian, you have to get the visa from the Egyptian Embassy in Pretoria (Which seems to be staffed by Afrikaans people, the embassy that is, not Pretoria). What I ended up doing was couriering my passport and forms (obtainable by emailing egyptemb@global.co.za) to the embassy. Then two days later (they can teach home affairs a few things!), the passport was meant to be picked up by the courier and returned to me.
The snag I hit was thus: When one hands a passport into the Embassy you are meant to get a reference number. You then use this reference number to reclaim your passport. The courier didn't bother with the reference number on the drop off,meaning that when they went to pick the passport, there was considerable confusion. Luckily the lady at the courier (Brenda at Speed Services - I have her direct number if any one wants it) was extremely helpful and between the two of us, we persuaded the embassy to hand over my passport. My blood pressure returned to normal, as soon as I had my passport in my hands, on Wednesday.
Finally there are the assorted logistics that is visiting another country. I had to make sure all of my commitments were met while I was away, especially my SHAWCO ones(Community Development Organisation I belong to - www.shawco.org). I'm still seeing to those, much to the chagrin of Jon, the president of the organisation. I also had to return my library books (overdue) and suspend my gym contract (underused) for a month. My fashion consultants(sisters) are taking me shopping on Saturday mainly for clothes and stuff, although I will be picking up on a few necessary supplies (biltong, Lomotol and an Arabic phrasebook). And also some uniquely South African gifts for my hosts. Of course that means I have to decide what constitutes uniquely South African gifts, any suggestions welcome.
I also had to make sure I was technologically ready to visit Egypt. As you might recall (and read my other posts if you don't), I am going to be looking at what Ismail and his telecommunications company are doing. They are pretty interested in Software Signals Processing, so I'm taking all the related software (GnuRadio) and documentation (the stuff Simon and I produced this time last year). I also needed to get my laptop ready - I had broken my Ubuntu (Linux Operating System, a free and superior alternative to Windows) on it with fiddling (possibly the greatest danger with Linux), and with no time to fix it, needed to do a clean install. It seems to be fine, Gutsy Gibbon (Version 7.10), the latest release, is awesome. While I was at UCT picking up the Signals Processing Stuff, I also updated and got all of the software I needed off the LEG (Linux Enthusiast Group) server.
So I leave on Sunday, and Flying Spaghetti Monster willing, I will be in Egypt on Monday. I hope I've got everything I need!
Coming Soon: Arrival. This heading is pretty self explanatory.
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