Cairo. Ouch.

Twenty-one million people. Plus another four million ‘migrants’ that come and go on a daily basis and with very little in the way of infrastructure, it’s chaos. They tell me all the traffic lights are broken so intersections were no place for the faint of heart. Fleet-footed pedestrians scooted through the cars with a practiced dance though traffic often moved slow enough for the beggars and vendors to tap on the window. The lines on the road are considered decoration and entirely ignored by the drivers who drift from one opening to the next alerting one another with flashing headlights and blaring horns. Three lane roads hold five cars abreast at whatever speed traffic - which included donkey carts - would allow. The drive in from the Airport was the scariest of my life.

Cairo is the world’s seventh largest city according to our guide and like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s teeming with people, cars and animals so the senses are under constant assault. Traffic and its noise are 24/7 as is the smell of the detritus of a population too large to manage. The air is toxic with car fumes, animal fumes, cigarette smoke and rotting garbage causing burning lungs and eyes. Light brown dominates and I soon realize it’s the dust blown in off the dessert that gives the city its drab uniformity. Think Bladerunner with its outsize, flashing billboards towering over a populace frenetically trying to survive.

Our plane did, in fact, touch down in Cairo and we slipped through the airport with ease. The airport, like the city, was rundown and resembled a smalltown bus depot. Our driver was waiting with sign in hand and rescued me from the grasp of a competitor who grabbed me as I exited the gate. The ride that followed makes all amusement park seem tame and he deposited us in what appeared to be a derelict neighbourhood in the heart of Cairo. It’s called Zamalek and is actually an island in the Nile, home to some of the richest people in Cairo but you wouldn’t know it from the street.

With our baggage and driver we squeezed into the tiny, ancient elevator to the 6th floor which housed Hotel Longchamps. The same building housed several hotels and businesses on other floors but we were assured that Longchamps was particularly good. And it wasn’t bad. The room has forty year old furniture painted black but was clean and comfy and it had an airconditioner. We didn’t get in til after 11 and with a guide picking us up at 8 we barely had time to down half a bottle of wine before passing out.

A lots happened since I wrote those last 4 paragraphs. I’m going to have to write about our day in Cairo, the pyramids and our overnight train to Aswan later. We’re now in Aswan and we’ve boarded our ship which sails soon but I’m in a tiny internet cafe down some back alley and She’s tapping her foot outside. Luka’s got a nasty canker and soooo cranky so will have to tell you more, and share some amazing fotos, later.