Egypt Day 11 and 12 – Return and Wrap Up

Our morning started with a new café, amusingly called Beano’s, and this time we tried some unusual coffees. I had a cinnamon, turmeric and cashew milk latte, and Kuniko had a cardamom coffee with a real kick. They were interesting, but not something I’d drink every day. For the second round we switched to two regular coffees and shared a pretty standard omelet for breakfast, and a Nutella cookie to make the meal more calorically exciting.

Back in the hotel we got organized and did our final packing. Our suitcase had plenty of space to fit all the candy bars and other snacks we had bought, and as usual we tossed out old toothpaste kits, toiletries and underwear and shirts that we didn’t want any more. The suitcase is starting to show its age – it has traveled through around twenty countries by my count. It might be time to retire this old road warrior.

Our London Cab was waiting for us downstairs, and he drove us to the airport without any accidents. It was our last time driving through Egyptian traffic, and I couldn’t say that I would miss it. You wonder if people will ever be able to change back to driving within their own lanes – once a society gets used to driving all over the road I think you probably can’t go back to following the rules. It’ll be nice to drive in Japan where drivers are at least predictable.

We paid our driver in cash, he tipped us a smile and drove off, and I was pleased to see that I had exactly one Egyptian pound remaining in my wallet. I had already reserved one each of the Egyptian notes as a souvenir, and we had just one Egyptian pound left. Egypt ended up being very easy on our wallet – we used less than half of our daily budget for expenses during this trip.

We had arrived a full five hours before our flight, thinking that we would hit some restaurants or bars at the airport before checking in, do some shopping at the airport shops for last minute souvenirs, and then finally check in and go to the gate. From outside security we could see a Starbucks and McDonald’s display, so we went ahead and went through the thoroughly confusing airport security rigmarole. This time we were at Terminal 2, and international terminal of the Cairo airport, but it was still the same. Nobody really focused on their job and the side conversations quickly distracted people causing more delays.

The joke was on us after getting through all the security and finding that the restaurant displays that we had seen from outside the terminal were in fact on video screens above the empty check-in counters. All the restaurants were located beyond the next level of security, and we would need a boarding pass to get there. Unfortunately our check in didn’t start for another three hours, and so we were kind of stuck. There were some seats and some restrooms, so we ended up killing time reading and waiting. Whoops! But one thing we know how to do well is kill time in airports.

Check-in opened and we were right there to get it done quickly. With boarding passes in hand (and our luggage safely checked all the way to Osaka) we went through our final security gate, and then it was time to eat and drink. We ate at Burger King – a rare treat for us, drank our last Egyptian beers, and did a little shopping to kill the time remaining before our flight.

It was a quicker trip back – just two and half hours to Dubai, and eight and a half hours to Osaka from Dubai. Our stopover in Dubai was short – we barely had time for some buffalo wings and cocktails at a sports bar in Dubai airport and then were off to our gate. Suddenly we were surrounded by Japanese people – and that’s when I really felt like the vacation was over.

It was an easy flight on Emirates to Kansai airport, we cleared immigration and customs in record time, and then we were on the bus and heading home. It was very cold in Japan – we had been lucky to enjoy comfortable weather for the entire trip in Egypt – and I could tell we’d need to use the electric blankets when we got home.

So we were back in Japan after an interesting, and challenging trip. We had always expected that Egypt wouldn’t be easy, and we wanted to try it while we were younger (and more flexible). It turned out to be less difficult than I expected, but no walk in the park.

It was tough to see how the tourism-based economy was struggling and to see the desperation in the faces of the people of Luxor whose incomes had dried right up. We really stood out when we walked around and sometimes I worried that we would end up being targets for some unsavory types. There were some communication problems at critical times but mainly people spoke English well and I often didn’t need to resort to my crappy pronunciation of Arabic expressions.

The thing I’ll remember most is that so many people called out to us out of the blue, and said, “Welcome to Egypt!” Kids smiled at us and people were proud of their culture and their city. I really felt like all the elements are there for Egypt to come back as a popular tourist destination – they just need someone to organize it and make it happen. I’m glad we were brave enough to take the trip, because it really left a big impression on us, and it will be these memories of our adventures in Egypt that we’ll be reminiscing about for years to come.


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