The Widow and the Spinster: The Search for Adventure, Enlightenment, and the Quest for Forbidden food - Bacon, Bacon, Bacon, and New TR Link! 4/2

[franandaj]

Okay this is just weird.
What I was going to tell you was that while this post was a red x, your last update was fine.
But as I type this, I can see the photo in the quoted reply, but not in your post.

See and when I go to edit the post, the picture is there, but in the actual post it's not.

 

[franandaj]

ETA and as you can see, it posted a red x here too. It was a photo of your video monitor on the back of the plane seat showing a 3D map.

This is the same issue I was having the other day when I replaced my post with the words "technical difficulties". But it somehow resolved itself that day. I had this problem yesterday when I tried to post and everytime I've come back I still get the red X's. So frustrating!

 

[pkondz]

This is the same issue I was having the other day when I replaced my post with the words "technical difficulties". But it somehow resolved itself that day. I had this problem yesterday when I tried to post and everytime I've come back I still get the red X's. So frustrating!

Give it a day. I find that the admin or techs do stuff that affects us and is usually resolved the next day.
If not, try posting on the tech board and see if anyone else is having the same issue.

 

[franandaj]

Give it a day. I find that the admin or techs do stuff that affects us and is usually resolved the next day.

I did give it a day. I tried to post this next update yesterday and I had the same problem. That's why there is a post with just a "." On the previous page.

If not, try posting on the tech board and see if anyone else is having the same issue.

I emailed the tech guy a few minutes ago. We'll see if that does anything.

I'm meeting a friend that I met here in about an hour. She and her husband are getting off a cruise in the Port of San Pedro this morning and I'm going to entertain then until they have to go to LAX this evening. So I'll just go do that and not worry about this stuff for now.

 

[pkondz]

I emailed the tech guy a few minutes ago. We'll see if that does anything.

Good luck!

I'm meeting a friend that I met here in about an hour. She and her husband are getting off a cruise in the Port of San Pedro this morning and I'm going to entertain then until they have to go to LAX this evening. So I'll just go do that and not worry about this stuff for now.

 

[pkondz]

Hey Folks! I'm having issues with Photobucket. My images are showing up as red X's, but when I go to edit the post, the picture appears. I'm not sure if it's just me seeing the red X's or if everyone is seeing them.

One more thing. Double check that your PB account is paid up to date. The anniversary of it charging just happened. Did you get an email thanking you for your payment?

 

[franandaj]

One more thing. Double check that your PB account is paid up to date. The anniversary of it charging just happened. Did you get an email thanking you for your payment?

But other pictures are showing. If PB wasn't paid, none of them would be showing.

 

[franandaj]

OOH OOH I noticed my picture in my test post showed up so I'm going to risk posting an update! Stay tuned!

 

[franandaj]

After we visited Petra, at lunch, Jill and I had discussed the fact that we had been eating local cuisine for the last three days and could use a change. At that lunch, it was the third day in a row that I had eaten lamb after all.

Our hotel for the last night in Jordan (same one we were at the first night) had an Italian restaurant and that change was sounding rather nice about now.

We both needed to repack because for the flight from Amman to Cairo, we would be flying peasant class. It was only an hour and a half and neither of us saw the need to pay 3x the price to upgrade to business class for an hour long flight. I think the flight cost about $300. We booked it back in May and that was a long time ago. Business class was something like $900-1200. Totally unnecessary waste of money.

We were only allowed one carry-on bag, so I had to get my camera, meds, and technology all into the one carry-on, but I did it! Once we were basically ready we headed down to dinner.

I think we had the restaurant to ourselves.

We chose a table set back in the corner, because one annoying thing about this part of the world is that they still have smoking sections. We wanted to be as far away from the smoking section as we could be. I chose a table in the back in the corner thinking that if anyone else came in the restaurant and smoked, it wouldn't reach us way back there.

Since the Sun City Camp in Wadi Rum was a dry camp, I really wanted my signature drink. The waiter had to ask the bartender to come over because my drink wasn't on the menu. The bartender was OK with it and ended up making a fine version of it. He charged me for two shots of Belvedere. With the exchange rate this drink came out to almost $40! Good thing we had Jordanian cash to burn that we applied towards this dinner before putting it on the CC.

They brought us some bread and it was at this time that JIll and I discovered that we both like the crispy cracker bread in the bread assortment.

Jill got the Beef Agnolotti. She loved it!

I got the Lasagne, also loved it!

We both joined the clean plate club and ordered dessert. We had split a bottle of Merlot with dinner, but I wanted a beverage to accompany my dessert. If the restaurant had any port our waiter couldn’t understand what I was looking for, so I went ahead and ordered an Espresso Martini (which was on the drink menu) so as not to confuse anyone.

She got the cheesecake and it had her favorite liquor soaked cherries.

There was some question about what I was going to order. At first I wanted the Tiramisu because the other alternative was "warm chocolate pudding" which I interpreted as a bowl full of warm globby mousse, and that didn't sound very appealing. However, Jill pointed out that they probably have a more British frame of reference here in Jordan and that in Britain pudding refers to all desserts. For example, "Ya can't have any pudding if you didn't eat yer meat!"

It turns out that Jill was right. The warm chocolate pudding was, what we in the states call Molten Chocolate Cake and it was delicious! I couldn’t finish it all. It was so rich, but I gave it the old college try!

As I mentioned earlier we both had about $40ish Jordanian Dinars in our wallets and wouldn’t need them after tonight, so we offset the bill with those and it made the bill a little more palatable when it hit the credit card. It ended up only costing us about $65USD after using the cash. What that really means is that we splurged on an almost $200 dinner!

In hindsight, this was probably the best dinner that we had on the trip. But we had quite a few others that were really good as well. Just not quite as delicious as everything we had this evening.

So just to recap. We had been in Jordan for two days now. Here’s a map of how far we drove in those two days. It was 650km or about 400 miles. The first day’s drive was 309km or 192 miles, and the rest we did on the way to Petra and back to Amman.

We went up to our room and I took advantage of the nice tub to try out my new Dead Sea Bath salts. They were heavenly, after exiting the bath and laying in bed, I could feel my muscles tingling from the salts in them. I went to sleep pretty early. Even though we rode the golf cart most of the way that we would have otherwise walked, we did do some walking in the heat of the day. I was tired, had some good food in my belly, some nice cocktails and wine. I was ready for bed.

We woke up fairly early, or at least I did. With all this going to bed so early, and my sleep schedule still being off, I kept waking up at odd hours of the night. I think I woke up in the middle of the night, played some games, checked facebook and stuff, and then went back to sleep until about 5:30AM when the alarm was about to go off.

We got dressed, went down to breakfast. I found the fancy coffee machine that makes you almost any kind of beverage from Espresso to Cappuccino and more. I had an Americano with an extra shot of espresso, and a then later a latte, so I was pretty amped.

I had some fruit, a little beef sausage, a hash brown, and some pastries, it was pretty filling.

We came back to the room to get our bags and we were in the lobby by 7:30AM to meet our driver. There was rush hour traffic, but we made it to the Airport in plenty of time. The guy who met us in the airport the first day also met us on this day. He was incredibly helpful in getting us checked in and our bags checked. We wouldn't have known what the person checking in our bags was saying at all.

Before we even got to ticketing we had to put all our bags through a screening device. After we checked our two bags, we had to go through actual security. We didn't have to take off our shoes, but we did have to take all our electronics out of the bags.

After security we had about half an hour to 45 minutes before our flight left. We stopped at a Starbucks. Jill was going into green tea withdrawal as she usually has a trente green tea every day, and it had been almost a week. Unfortunately, they missed the green part of her order and she ended up with a smaller iced black tea. She still said it hit the spot.

I got a bottle of water. Now if I haven't noted it thus far, ice is non-existent in Jordan and Egypt. We knew about Egypt, but we weren't quite sure that would be the case in Jordan as well. It was. You see tap water is evidently not drinkable, so everyone drinks bottled water. As I will point out later some hotels make ice out of bottled water, but it's not common at all.

We headed to our gate and waited. Foreign countries can be very strange for Americans. This little bird was inside the terminal noshing on something it found on the floor.

Then we were called for boarding the flight.

Boarding the flight was uneventful and it was not a full flight at all. Jill and I were in the second row. We had the middle and the window seat, and no one took the third seat so she moved over just before take off.

Now I'd like to mention something here that I picked up for this trip. I meant to put it in an earlier update, but forgot. A couple months before the trip I was watching GMA. Normally I don't watch their "deals and steals" segment, but at that time there was a dispute going on with one of the local channels and DirecTV so I couldn't tune into my local news after the first hour of GMA.

They featured a little purse that was only $13. It had RFID credit card slots, and two pockets large enough for a passport and/or a cellphone (unless you have a Samsung Galaxy S23+, the S23 would fit just fine.) It could be worn as a cross body, attached to your belt, or attached via carbiner.

I'd used this purse in both Denver and Kamloops and it was great for lightweight touring. It was indispensable in Egypt. I could wear it through the airport to keep my passport handy. It held enough credit cards, room keys, a tiny baggie of Ibuprofen, cash, and even a wad of toilet paper, for desperate times. It came in over 20 different colors. I might order another one for traveling in the US where I'm not trying to be so low key. But for a place where I want to go unnoticed this was the perfect choice.

Shortly after take off we were served a light snack. The slices of meat were really gross. I tasted mine, but just the one bite. We would come to find that when there were "cold cuts" this was basically what they were. I pretty much drank the juice, ate the corn (what part of it didn’t touch the olives), and the cheese.

Our plane did not take a direct route to Cairo. It flew South and then West to avoid the fighting.

We flew over the Sinai Peninsula, actually in this picture we are past in and now we are over the Gulf of Suez, approaching the main body of Egypt.

And now we’re almost there!

We actually landed early, around 11:10AM. Jill and I were among the first peasant class passengers to get off the plane. We did not exit onto a jetway, instead they pulled up a staircase and there were busses waiting for us. The Business class passengers pulled away just as we were descending the staircase.

There was another bus waiting and we were among the first passengers on that bus. This was a standing bus, which was fine since we did so much sitting so much in the past few days.

The first thing we did was buy a Visa for $25US, and then went through customs. As we walked through the airport, we looked for someone holding a sign with one of our names, but never saw one. We got to the baggage claim and lots of folks from our flight were just standing around.

Jill decided that she wanted an Egyptian Sim card. There was a cellular provider kiosk in the baggage claim area, so we picked one up for around $12US. It came with a ton of data, and it was a good thing she invested in that.

Once she got the Sim card, baggage was coming up on the carousel. An employee of the airport was removing bags and lining them up on the far end of the carousel. All our bags, but my large checked bag were waiting. I tried to keep my anxiety down as we waited, and finally my suitcase came out.

We still hadn't seen someone with a sign with our name on it, so we decided to go outside. By this point we were being bombarded by Taxi drivers. "Need taxi?"

"What hotel are you going to?"

We waited outside for a bit. I noticed that across from where we were waiting that there was a hotel attached to the airport and realized that it was the hotel we would be staying at the night before our flight home. How convenient, it was attached to the hotel via a walkway!

It had been nearly half an hour with no one picking us up, and we were starting to become displeased. We found one of the tour company’s brochures downloaded on my phone and got the phone number for the office. It took a little while to figure out what numbers to dial since the brochure had all the International dialing codes. Eventually we got through to the office. The person on the other end said that they would check into it and call us back.

Well we never heard back so we called again. They said someone was on the way, about 20 minutes. I think by this time it was 12:15. Somewhere in there Jill began communicating directly with someone who would be picking us up. He said they would be there by 1PM. Well 1PM came and went, and still no van.

I think it was about 1:15 when the van actually showed up. Our suitcases were swiftly loaded and we were whisked into a very large Van. A man in an expensive, dark blue tailored suit introduced himself as Mahmoud. I realized that he had been the main correspondent with whom we had been emailing before the trip.

He was very handsome with jet black hair, except he had just a hint of grey at his temples giving him a debonair appearance. His white Oxford shirt was perfectly pressed and his shoes were equally expensive to match his perfectly quaffed look.

He explained that there were enhanced security measures throughout the city due to the fact that there had been a Summit of all the Arab leaders in Cairo two days prior. That is why it took them longer to get to the airport than expected. To make up for the waiting he said that even though we didn't have a lunch scheduled for today (like we did for all of our tour days), he would take us for Shawarma.

After we left the airport we had quite a shock on the roads. If folks think driving in LA is bad, take a trip to Cairo. Drivers are crazy!

While there are lines on the roads indicating the lanes, no one actually pays attention to them. It's basically whoever has the most cahones that moves forward in the intersection. There are no stoplights, right of way is generally determined by who takes it, unless an officer steps in to direct the flow of traffic. However most intersections are treated as whoever honks the most and edges their car into the spot, goes first. I'm surprised there aren't 10 accidents per second.

Later in the trip I noticed that most of the vehicles in Cairo have dents in the side of their cars that look like they passed another car too closely. We did make it safely through the traffic filled streets and the gridlock of downtown to arrive at the Shawarma restaurant.

While we were waiting for our food. He explained to us a lot of customs in Egypt. He showed us examples of the currency, took pictures of us (mainly so our guide the next day would recognize us). While he was telling us about the currency he gave us each one of these coins. They are 1 Egyptian Pound. They are worth about 3¢ US. Basically worthless.

Lunch was very good. I got the beef Shawarma.

It had pickles and other little surprises in there.

Mahmoud got the Chicken Shawarma and let me have one of the little pieces. I liked the beef better.

Jill got what I can only call a Shawarma bowl. There was another name for it, but I have no idea what that was. Under the meat was rice, sauce, and some of those crispy chip things that were on my plate.

He spent half of his time with us on the phone. Most likely putting out proverbial fires. In hindsight, Jill and I decided that whoever was supposed to pick us up most likely had completely dropped the ball and he had to step in because it was unlikely that he greets every client group personally.

Once we finished lunch, they took us to our hotel, got us checked in and settled.

But on the way out of the restaurant, I snapped this shot of the place where they were cooking the meats. I suppose this was advertising having the shawarma being cooked right out on the street.

Next up: We go on an Adventure!

 

[pkondz]

At that lunch, it was the third day in a row that I had eaten lamb after all.

That must've been a really big lamb!

Our hotel for the last night in Jordan (same one we were at the first night) had an Italian restaurant

For some reason... I never think of other countries having anything other than their own food.
Like... German restaurants would only serve traditionally German food. Or British food in Britain, etc.

we would be flying peasant class.

I like that.

It was only an hour and a half and neither of us saw the need to pay 3x the price to upgrade to business class for an hour long flight. I think the flight cost about $300. We booked it back in May and that was a long time ago. Business class was something like $900-1200. Totally unnecessary waste of money.

Yeah that's a bit much for just a short hop.

I think we had the restaurant to ourselves.

That's not usually a good sign... unless it was early?

one annoying thing about this part of the world is that they still have smoking sections.

Yeah... gross.

With the exchange rate this drink came out to almost $40!

They brought us some bread and it was at this time that JIll and I discovered that we both like the crispy cracker bread in the bread assortment.

"I grabbed for the bread but Jill was faster. I pulled her hair and she dropped it. I thought I'd get it but she kicked my shin under the table causing me to howl. She gobbled it up before I could retaliate."


A true story.

Jill got the Beef Agnolotti. She loved it!

Great!

I got the Lasagne, also loved it!

Also great!

She got the cheesecake and it had her favorite liquor soaked cherries.

mmmm... cheesecake...

in Britain pudding refers to all desserts. For example, "Ya can't have any pudding if you didn't eat yer meat!"

Well don't beat your head against a wall over it.

It turns out that Jill was right. The warm chocolate pudding was, what we in the states call Molten Chocolate Cake and it was delicious! I couldn’t finish it all. It was so rich, but I gave it the old college try!

yum!

But I think I'd prefer the cheesecake.

As I mentioned earlier we both had about $40ish Jordanian Dinars in our wallets and wouldn’t need them after tonight, so we offset the bill with those and it made the bill a little more palatable when it hit the credit card. It ended up only costing us about $65USD after using the cash. What that really means is that we splurged on an almost $200 dinner!

Actually... Food, wine, drinks, dessert... for two... $200 isn't unreasonable, I don't think.

So just to recap. We had been in Jordan for two days now. Here’s a map of how far we drove in those two days. It was 650km or about 400 miles. The first day’s drive was 309km or 192 miles, and the rest we did on the way to Petra and back to Amman.

Good chunk of ground covered, there.

I was tired, had some good food in my belly, some nice cocktails and wine. I was ready for bed.

I bet! I'm surprised you didn't sleep straight through.

I had an Americano with an extra shot of espresso, and a then later a latte, so I was pretty amped.

I had some fruit, a little beef sausage, a hash brown, and some pastries, it was pretty filling.

How was that beef sausage?

Before we even got to ticketing we had to put all our bags through a screening device. After we checked our two bags, we had to go through actual security. We didn't have to take off our shoes, but we did have to take all our electronics out of the bags.

Was this different from the North American bag scanning and security?

We stopped at a Starbucks. Jill was going into green tea withdrawal as she usually has a trente green tea every day,

Oh dear. And then she still didn't get it!

We headed to our gate and waited. Foreign countries can be very strange for Americans. This little bird was inside the terminal noshing on something it found on the floor.

Interesting. Birds eat things up here too. We're just like Jordan!

It held enough credit cards, room keys, a tiny baggie of Ibuprofen, cash, and even a wad of toilet paper, for desperate times.

Ah. Learned a lesson, did ya?

Thanks for that. Now I can really see which way you went.

The Business class passengers pulled away just as we were descending the staircase.

There ya go. You could've been on that bus for a measly grand or so.

Nice shot of you two!

The first thing we did was buy a Visa for $25US

Why? I'm confused by this.

There was a cellular provider kiosk in the baggage claim area, so we picked one up for around $12US. It came with a ton of data, and it was a good thing she invested in that.

I'm going to have to learn about that... or eSIMs... either or.

All our bags, but my large checked bag were waiting. I tried to keep my anxiety down as we waited, and finally my suitcase came out.

Ugh! I hate that feeling! Had it happen a few times. You wait and wait and every second that goes by, your anxiety goes up.

It had been nearly half an hour with no one picking us up, and we were starting to become displeased.

Somewhere in there Jill began communicating directly with someone who would be picking us up. He said they would be there by 1PM. Well 1PM came and went, and still no van.

Not okay...

He was very handsome with jet black hair, except he had just a hint of grey at his temples giving him a debonair appearance. His white Oxford shirt was perfectly pressed and his shoes were equally expensive to match his perfectly quaffed look.

This does not sound like your average shuttle driver...

He explained that there were enhanced security measures throughout the city due to the fact that there had been a Summit of all the Arab leaders in Cairo two days prior. That is why it took them longer to get to the airport than expected.

Well, okay.... I'll let it go... this time.

To make up for the waiting he said that even though we didn't have a lunch scheduled for today (like we did for all of our tour days), he would take us for Shawarma.

All is forgiven??

If folks think driving in LA is bad, take a trip to Cairo. Drivers are crazy!

Uh, oh...

While there are lines on the roads indicating the lanes, no one actually pays attention to them. It's basically whoever has the most cahones that moves forward in the intersection. There are no stoplights, right of way is generally determined by who takes it, unless an officer steps in to direct the flow of traffic. However most intersections are treated as whoever honks the most and edges their car into the spot, goes first. I'm surprised there aren't 10 accidents per second.

Holy crap!

They are 1 Egyptian Pound. They are worth about 3¢ US. Basically worthless.

Pretty coin, though.

That looks good!

In hindsight, Jill and I decided that whoever was supposed to pick us up most likely had completely dropped the ball and he had to step in because it was unlikely that he greets every client group personally.

That's what I was thinking too. He just seemed... more owner than driver.

 

[zanzibar138]

There was some question about what I was going to order. At first I wanted the Tiramisu because the other alternative was "warm chocolate pudding" which I interpreted as a bowl full of warm globby mousse, and that didn't sound very appealing. However, Jill pointed out that they probably have a more British frame of reference here in Jordan and that in Britain pudding refers to all desserts. For example, "Ya can't have any pudding if you didn't eat yer meat!"

It turns out that Jill was right. The warm chocolate pudding was, what we in the states call Molten Chocolate Cake and it was delicious! I couldn’t finish it all. It was so rich, but I gave it the old college try!

Really enjoying your TR Glad you decided to try the pudding! In Australia, the term 'pudding' basically refers to a heavy cake served warm with sauce. Common flavours are chocolate, lemon and golden syrup. We even have Christmas pudding which is like a very heavy liquour soaked fruit cake often served with brandy custard.

 

[franandaj]

That must've been a really big lamb!

No, I just don't eat that much!

For some reason... I never think of other countries having anything other than their own food.
Like... German restaurants would only serve traditionally German food. Or British food in Britain, etc.

Yeah, just wait until you have Chinese food in Vancouver....oh wait, it's actually really good!
We have a few different cuisines in Egypt.

I like that.

That's a Franism.

Yeah that's a bit much for just a short hop.

way too much.

That's not usually a good sign... unless it was early?

Well actually the first night we also had the restaurant to ourselves. It seemed that everyone who was dining wanted to sit outside and smoke. This was a Sunday night so it was even slower than the night we checked in. No one else came to the restaurant. I wonder how many people were actually staying at the hotel. Though breakfast was pretty full the next day.

Yeah... gross.

"I grabbed for the bread but Jill was faster. I pulled her hair and she dropped it. I thought I'd get it but she kicked my shin under the table causing me to howl. She gobbled it up before I could retaliate."


A true story.

Actually we were very civil and split it. There were usually two pieces.

Well don't beat your head against a wall over it.

It took me forever to figure out where you were going with this. I googled the lyrics and couldn't find this bit anywhere.

yum!

But I think I'd prefer the cheesecake.

More for me, we don't have to split it!

Actually... Food, wine, drinks, dessert... for two... $200 isn't unreasonable, I don't think.

Considering this was our best meal, yes. I just wouldn't want to keep it up over the course of the trip!

Good chunk of ground covered, there.

Yes, we traversed quite a bit!

I bet! I'm surprised you didn't sleep straight through.

I was too! I thought for sure with that much alcohol and exertion I would sleep well, but no.

How was that beef sausage?

It was actually pretty good, however this was the last of the Beef sausage I would eat. For the rest of the trip, it just didn't look at all tasty. It was on all the breakfast buffets, but it had no little specks that looked like spices and it seemed like it would be super bland, so I never even tried it from here on out.

Was this different from the North American bag scanning and security?

No. But I have TSA pre Chek so I'm used to not having to do any of that garbage.

Oh dear. And then she still didn't get it!

Yeah, I think she went the entire two weeks without her Starbucks tea, but eventually there were places that had green tea.

Interesting. Birds eat things up here too. We're just like Jordan!

But do they live inside your airport terminals?

Ah. Learned a lesson, did ya?

Well after that horrific episode in the desert I wasn't taking any chances. When. I finally did use some (and I don't remember when that was) I rationed it and only used half of what I had in my purse.

Thanks for that. Now I can really see which way you went.

You're welcome!

There ya go. You could've been on that bus for a measly grand or so.

Nice shot of you two!

Thanks!

Why? I'm confused by this.

I don't know, that's how you got into the country. You purchased a Visa for $25USD at a bank kiosk and then the guy at customs peeled off the tag and put it in your passport. There were about 7-10 other people in line with us. I suppose if you had CDN dollars you would have been SOL. We knew in advance that we needed $25US to purchase a visa upon arrival so we were ready.

I'm going to have to learn about that... or eSIMs... either or.

Yeah me too for when I go to Germany and Austria.

Ugh! I hate that feeling! Had it happen a few times. You wait and wait and every second that goes by, your anxiety goes up.

Not okay...
This does not sound like your average shuttle driver...

He actually was not the driver. He was in the passenger seat and definitely behaved like the owner. When the headrest got in the way of him talking to us, he just removed it so he could chit chat easier.

Well, okay.... I'll let it go... this time.
All is forgiven??

Well what else were we going to do?

Uh, oh...
Holy crap!

Yeah, driving was nuts!

That looks good!

It was!

That's what I was thinking too. He just seemed... more owner than driver.

Yeah, that's why I described him so eloquently, but he also makes a return cameo. We must have been super high maintenance travelers!

 

[franandaj]

Really enjoying your TR

Thanks!

Glad you decided to try the pudding! In Australia, the term 'pudding' basically refers to a heavy cake served warm with sauce. Common flavours are chocolate, lemon and golden syrup. We even have Christmas pudding which is like a very heavy liquour soaked fruit cake often served with brandy custard.

I will try to remember this as I travel abroad. All of those sound absolutely delicious! Sign me up!

 

[pkondz]

Yeah, just wait until you have Chinese food in Vancouver....oh wait, it's actually really good!

I have, actually.

That's a Franism.

Oh! Well I like it.

Well actually the first night we also had the restaurant to ourselves. It seemed that everyone who was dining wanted to sit outside and smoke. This was a Sunday night so it was even slower than the night we checked in. No one else came to the restaurant. I wonder how many people were actually staying at the hotel. Though breakfast was pretty full the next day.

Hmm... so maybe a combination of fewer guests and more smokers.

Actually we were very civil and split it. There were usually two pieces.

My version is more fun.

It took me forever to figure out where you were going with this. I googled the lyrics and couldn't find this bit anywhere.

What I quoted was from Another Brick in the Wall...

More for me, we don't have to split it!

People try to take a taste of my dessert get a fork in their hand.

It was actually pretty good, however this was the last of the Beef sausage I would eat. For the rest of the trip, it just didn't look at all tasty. It was on all the breakfast buffets, but it had no little specks that looked like spices and it seemed like it would be super bland, so I never even tried it from here on out.

Was wondering. No reason why beef sausage shouldn't be good...

No. But I have TSA pre Chek so I'm used to not having to do any of that garbage.

ohhhhh...

But do they live inside your airport terminals?

Yes
I don't see them all the time, but... Yes.

I don't know, that's how you got into the country. You purchased a Visa for $25USD at a bank kiosk and then the guy at customs peeled off the tag and put it in your passport.

D'oh! I'm an idiot. Either that or just too exhausted to think straight.
I was thinking VISA as in a credit card. "Why do they need to buy a credit card?"


Don't mind me. Just go about your business.

He actually was not the driver. He was in the passenger seat and definitely behaved like the owner. When the headrest got in the way of him talking to us, he just removed it so he could chit chat easier.

Oh! Thought he drove.

Well what else were we going to do?

Good point.

 

[franandaj]

Hmm... so maybe a combination of fewer guests and more smokers.

Either that or guests with more mobility. I bet there were better restaurants outside the hotel, and those guests with cars or who knew of where to go, didn't have to eat at the hotel.

What I quoted was from Another Brick in the Wall...

Where? I couldn't find it. Googled the lyrics (of which I pretty much thought I knew). I listened to that album over and over again in High school.

People try to take a taste of my dessert get a fork in their hand.

I've always wanted to do that to someone!

Was wondering. No reason why beef sausage shouldn't be good...

Chicken sausage either. As long as it's seasoned properly. When we got to Cairo, I was afraid to try either of the sausages because they all looked bland.

Yes
I don't see them all the time, but... Yes.

OK, that's weird. I have never seen a bird in an airport. Ever.

D'oh! I'm an idiot. Either that or just too exhausted to think straight.
I was thinking VISA as in a credit card. "Why do they need to buy a credit card?"


Don't mind me. Just go about your business.

Get some sleep.....

 

[franandaj]

We were staying at the Ramses Hilton, which was in the heart of Downtown Cairo, overlooking the Nile. Everything, including all our bags and carry-ons, went through the scanner before we entered the hotel. There were two entrances, we would learn, and each one had a scanner. The back entrance, where we came in today, had a scanner that was large enough to handle suitcases, while the front door scanner only took small packages like purses, etc.

We weren’t thrilled that we got this hotel. On the proposal there were two possibilities, the Ramses Hilton or the Cairo Hilton. While the Ramses Hilton was supposed to be the more upscale of the two, it was also undergoing renovations. We hoped that we might get a renovated room. Nope.

As you can see this room hasn’t had much of a refurb since the 70s.

This fridge barely cooled our waters. We threw away the leftovers that we took from the shawarma restaurant the following day since they were not kept at a proper temperature.

Jill took this panoramic shot off our balcony. We didn’t spend much time out there. As you can see it was very smoggy outside, and most of the time it was just super hot.

Our luggage was delivered to the room, so I had the camera, and all my charging cords etc. We both got our extraneous electronics on chargers and we started looking for the two most important things for now, a camera repair shop and where to buy wine. We located a few different camera places, but we decided on one called CamFix. Jill said they had positive reviews in English and it was only a 15 minute Uber away.

Okay, so I only took my first Uber back in August and that was with Jill. We went from the Westin in Anaheim to Disney (cause clearly we are too lazy to walk, remember the golf cart in Petra?) And now we were going to attempt it in a foreign country where driving was like a free for all “who gets where they want to first!”

So Jill called a driver and just like in Anaheim, we got the make and model of the car and the driver's name. He arrived shortly and we were on our way. Here we are on our first time (of many) crossing the Nile. Oh, and that's the Ramses Hilton, the tall building off to the right.

We got to the address that she provided and he dropped us off. There was nothing with any kind of sign indicating where this camera place might be. We walked up and down the street a couple times before Jill asked a guy in a jewelry store if he knew "where this place was" as she pointed to her phone. He made gestures that he didn't speak English and called someone from the back of his store. The guy from the back of the store pointed down the street and said, "that guy, more English"

We weren't quite sure who "that guy" was but we walked farther down the street. There was a guy sitting at a desk at the entrance to a building. Now don't Americanize the scene I just described. The building is dark and dirty, the door is not made of glass with numbers on it. In fact I’m not really sure if there was a door. There was a wall. And the wall didn't cover the entire opening because as we walked past the larger opening of the door, the guy at the desk could tell we were perplexed and he had a look on his face like, "I want to help if I can."

"Let's ask this guy." I said to Jill. So she showed him the phone. He didn't speak English either, but he took us to a super sketchy elevator. I've never been in something like this before. It was about 2 feet square. It had doors that resembled French doors only in function. Otherwise it was dingy with peeling paint, and dirty smudges. With people in the elevator you could not actually close the doors. Our new friend pushed a series of buttons that made it go up. I have no idea how many floors, but we were literally watching the walls go past with open doors and then we would hit an opening, and then go up another floor with the wall covering the elevator door until we came to an opening.

We reached a floor and exited the elevator. The guy knocked on a door and another guy answered. The sign on his door read "Legal offices for equal treatment…." Or some such thing. He was evidently some sort of advocate for the people, is the gist I got. Meanwhile our helpful friend descended back down the elevator.

When our advocate for the people answered the door Jill showed him her phone. He shook his head. We were looking for #53 and he said that he was #47. When I turned around I saw some empty Togo containers on the floor. It looked like one was filled with milk, and I thought "cats here?"

We decided that perhaps 53 was up the stairs so we climbed a flight of stairs. All the stairs in the building curved around in a U shape with the ascending staircase as the curve of the U and the landing stretches across the top.

As we reached the top of the next level I saw two tiny kittens go scampering behind some discarded lumber which lay against the wall. Now when I say tiny, I really mean small. These kittens were at least 5-8 weeks old, eyes open and with full use of their legs. Yet they were hardly larger than that tiny bird at the airport in the last update. When my kittens were born six years ago, they were larger than these kittens who were weeks old.

As soon as they disappeared behind the boxes, another scruffy looking cat (who I assumed was mama cat) showed up and followed them back behind the wood. We decided not to go any further and went back down to the floor we were originally on. There we found #53, but it was some sort of clinic for stretching and wellness.

Since neither of us had any clue how to operate the elevator we walked down the flights of stairs to street level. Jill was ready to give up, I had one more navigational tool I wanted to try using Google Maps, but when we got to the street level, the helpful guy who didn't speak English came rushing up to us. "CamFix? CamFix?" He asked, nodding his head.

We nodded our heads in agreement. He signaled for us to follow him, and we followed him back out to the street and down to the next building. Inside that building there was another Egyptian seated in the lobby. Not at a desk, but in a chair, just watching out the door. "CamFix?" They kept repeating, and we continued to nod our heads. I think Jill even showed this new "doorman" her phone with the Google page with the address.

There was a mother and daughter already in the elevator that was waiting in the lobby and though no one spoke English other than Arabic numbers, they were able to communicate to us that the elevator would take us to floor six and we needed to go up one more flight of stairs. Here’s some shots I took from this sketchy elevator. These may have been on the trip down.

I’m assuming that we are passing through the 4th floor here.

When we reached floor six, everyone exited the elevator. The mother and daughter pointed up the stairway indicating that the place we wanted was up there. When we reached the top of the stairs there was a door with a sign next to it with the business name in a large stylized font in rainbow colors. We had found CamFix!

I knocked on the door and a young woman in a hijab answered. "CamFix?" We asked. She looked at us a little blankly.

And then a man came out of the other room, "Can I help you?" He spoke great English. There was a table/desk set up on one side of the room. He sat down, i took out the camera and I explained the problem. I showed him my pictures from the day before, he saw it right away. There was a big chunk of dust on one of the mirrors/plates inside the camera. He took it back into the other room to clean it.

The day was a warm day, and inside the small apartment it was a bit stifling. They had fans going and one was pointed directly at the teenage boy. The woman saw that Jill was uncomfortable and unplugged the fan from where it was and moved it so that it was focused on Jill. She didn't need to do that, but it was a very sweet gesture.

When he had solved the problem (and cleaned out the camera so my pictures were even clearer), he said it was no charge because it was an easy fix. This is the photo in his apartment that I took to verify that the spot was gone.

We told him that we felt we should give him something. He asked for $200LE, (which was less than $10), but didn't have any Egyptian pounds, would American dollars work? We offered him a few dollars, but then he said he needed $15US.

You see we had read that Egyptians preferred to be paid in their own currency because they need a minimum to be able to take it to the exchange office. That minimum is around $13-15USD. I was happy to pay him $15. In the US it probably would have been $50 just to take a look at it!

After that we headed out. I asked if we wanted to take the steps down, but Jill said that this elevator wasn't nearly as sketchy as the first. She thought she could figure it out. We made it safely to the first floor and thanked the gentleman in the lobby on the way out.

Then she called an Uber to take us to our next destination. We really wanted some wine for in the room. The two nights at the hotel in Jordan were kind of pricey. The bottles of wine we drank at dinner were $35JD ($47US) & $45JD ($67US), so some pre-dinner drinks at a reasonable price would be nice.

Here’s some scenes from the road while we were waiting for the Uber driver.

We found a store called Drinkies that sold alcoholic beverages, and called Uber to take us there. Other than the choice of music and the fact that his car smelled like an ashtray, the ride was good. He had the AC cranked and got us there quickly.

They had a decent selection of Egyptian wines, most under $10US. We got three bottles and were out of there. Here we are going back across the Nile to our hotel.

The last Uber driver had the windows down and the stench from the traffic and pollution was awful, we were both coughing the whole way back and for about an hour afterwards. Next we stopped at the ATM in the lobby for Egyptian pounds. We tried to change the bills for smaller ones at the Reception desk, but she directed us to the bank in the lobby (which was now closed.)

We dropped the stuff in the room, and had one more thing to take care of before we could have that well deserved drink that we both agreed that we needed in one of the bars. Self service laundry is not a thing for tourists in Egypt, at least at our hotel. It took a while to explain to the guy in laundry what we wanted. We had one bag and one price sheet. We wanted a second bag and a second price sheet so we each could send out our own laundry.

At first he showed up with two extra bags. Then he had to come back with another price sheet. I was perusing the price sheet and they wanted just over a dollar per pair of underpants and almost two dollars for a pair of socks. I decided that I was going to wash those in the sink and hang them dry in the tub and save a few bucks.

Once we filled out the sheets and filled up the bags, he had to come back and pick them all up. He said that they would be ready by 5PM tomorrow. Jill wanted to hop in the shower quickly before we left. Now we were ready for that drink.

I wanted to check out the rooftop bar, but as soon as we got off the elevator something didn't seem right. We followed the hallways to the bar and immediately realized that this was a smoking area. Neither of us cared for the smell of smoke so we turned around and left.

While we were waiting for our Uber driver earlier in the day, we had taken a walk around the lobby. There was a lobby bar as well as a bar called Sherlock Holmes Pub. We decided that we would have a drink in the lobby bar, and then see if they had anything decent for dinner.

It was around 7PM when we finally headed down. We had a glass of wine from one of the wineries that we purchased at Drinkies. Each glass cost about the same as the bottle we purchased.

There wasn't anything on the menu that either of us really wanted. My top choice would have been chicken wings. They had stuff like Flatbreads, I believe there was a burger on the menu, there were fish and chips, but basically your standard bar fare. I took this shot a couple nights later, when we decided that we would give it a shot.

We checked the menu for the Sherlock Holmes Pub and the same thing but even more pub-like bar food. We were more interested in a real meal. There was an Indian restaurant on the second floor so we thought we would take a look at that. When we got off the elevator, there was another restaurant whose menu I'd read online, but some websites had reported that it was closed.

It was called the Citadel Grill, and one look at the menu told us that we were eating here. They had Merguez sausage served in Moroccan style Cous Cous. The first time I had this was at a restaurant in France 30 years ago. I'd had it once more at a restaurant in West Hollywood, and since then I've only had a version that I make at home.

We ordered a bottle of BeauSoliel Syrah that was not nearly as full bodied as I would have expected from a Syrah. In Egypt you basically have two choices when it comes to wine. Egyptian wine or pay through the nose for imported wine. The Egyptian wines were around $1000LE (about $33). The imported wines started at $4500LE (about $150). We would be drinking Egyptian wine for the duration of this trip.

We got a nice bread basket and three flavors of butter. Herb, tomato and olive.

We both ate the crispy pieces of bread first before I chose this one.

Jill ordered the Crab Risotto.

Here is my Moroccan Cous Cous served in a tagine.

They served these sauces with it. They said that one was spicy, but I ate all of them, and didn’t find any to be spicy.

I ate so much that I was super full. Not quite "bring me a bucket" full, but close. Jill wanted to have the Panna Cotta for dessert, but after they brought the meal, it was like we became invisible. After about 15 minutes of being ignored, we decided just to go up to the room. I couldn’t have eaten anything more if I wanted to. We sent up smoke signals to the waiter to finally get the check and headed upstairs. Jill had some mints and that helped my super full feeling. I went to sleep by 9:15.

Oh and if you’re keeping track, this is day #4 in a row eating lamb. Jill started to joke that we should call the trip report, “they need to breed more lamb, cause Alison is eating it all.”

Before falling asleep, we remarked about our American privilege. Earlier that evening we had been in the home of a local Egyptian whom we paid $15US (about $450LE), which was about the same as what I paid for my entree at dinner. I'm sure he was thrilled to have made the money he did, and here we were spending the same on one meal. We would see things and have many more experiences that made us realize how truly lucky we are as Americans, and in our circumstances.

Before going to bed I double checked our wine bottles. I realized that we didn't pay attention to how they opened. I used to carry a corkscrew in my bathroom bag, but since most of my stays are in DVC villas, I haven't needed to bring my own. Turns out two of the three bottles had corks. Only one was a screw top.

Rookie move there. Oh well, I'm sure we can work it out.

My sleep started to get better as the week went on. I still kept waking up in the middle of the night, but eventually I was able to fall back asleep until maybe 4:30 or 5AM.

This night when I woke up in the middle of the night, I grabbed my phone to see what time it was and there was a WhatsApp from my car guy. He had one of the Cougars listed on OfferUp and Facebook Marketplace. The day before I left on this trip I had to vacate a garage in someone else's building that Fran's family had rented since 1991. That garage is where I stored the 1963 Lincoln Continental that Fran and I owned. I drove it up to his shop for storage. He told me the next day that it had a big oil leak, and that he thought we should list it on BringATrailer.com when I returned. Well evidently one of their regular customers happened by the shop that day, saw the Lincoln and fell in love with it. He ended up bringing cash deposit the next day and we would complete the sale when I got back. Well that just eased my mind on spending for the rest of the trip!

Next up: We meet our guide and driver for the next week.

 

[DnA2010]

I wouldn't expect any less

this is actually a very good looking piece of pizza! yum!

Fun fact- I'm not a fan of cesars/bloody mary's- D however, loves them

The stewardess was such an enabler!

Always love me a good enabler!

Nice looking spread!

Jill had been watching YouTube videos for the past year about how these things worked.

Atta girl, I would be too!

I know the world all loved this sweatshirt! So good!

raspberry.

With a strawberry garnish!

That's a lot of food that they have to stock on the plane!

We are drinking from Reidel glassware!

Nice! Good touch.

So cute! Are those fuzzy socks? I love fuzzy socks.

Jill went with the Taittinger Champagne.

Mmmm I think this would be me as well

This looks perfect, other than I'd probably add the beets with goat cheese

What is the drink? coffee/tea?

I decided I should sleep at least another two hours and then try to wake up that would put me somewhat on local time. By this time I had been about 24 hours in transit and some sleep was definitely in order.

I'd probably bring something to assist me...some sort of "aid" to combine with the wine...I'm not a great sleeper even in my own bed...sigh...



Thanks for the poke that I'd fallen behind!

 

[franandaj]

I wouldn't expect any less

this is actually a very good looking piece of pizza! yum!

It was very good for airport pizza!

Fun fact- I'm not a fan of cesars/bloody mary's- D however, loves them
Always love me a good enabler!

Yeah, I was going to stop after two, but she was generous.

Nice looking spread!

I thought it was!

Atta girl, I would be too!

I just don't have that kind of time to watch videos and such.

I know the world all loved this sweatshirt! So good!

It got a few comments on FB.

With a strawberry garnish!

That's a lot of food that they have to stock on the plane!

Well that menu was only for business class. I'm not sure what the rest of the plane was served. They are known for their "flying chefs".

So cute! Are those fuzzy socks? I love fuzzy socks.

Yes they are fuzzy socks. I didn't end up using them. However they did have slippers that I took with me and used them in the hotel rooms for the entire trip.

Mmmm I think this would be me as well

I prefer flat to bubbles......

This looks perfect, other than I'd probably add the beets with goat cheese

I'm not a fan of beets. Although, I should try them again, my tastes may have changed.

What is the drink? coffee/tea?

It was a super strong tea....you will see we have some more of that later. This region of the world loves it's tea.

I'd probably bring something to assist me...some sort of "aid" to combine with the wine...I'm not a great sleeper even in my own bed...sigh...

Just be careful! Lots of things we find to be common can land you in jail in these areas of the world.

Thanks for the poke that I'd fallen behind!

You're welcome!

 

[jedijill]

I had discussed the fact that we had been eating local cuisine for the last three days and could use a change. At that lunch, it was the

Jill got the Beef Agnolotti. She loved it!

It was so freaking good! I would have licked the plate if I was not in a foreign country or a restaurant.

She got the cheesecake and it had her favorite liquor soaked cherries.

Those cherries are the best! The cheesecake was very light and delicious!

It turns out that Jill was right. The warm chocolate pudding was, what we in the states call Molten Chocolate Cake and it was delicious! I couldn’t finish it all. It was so rich, but I gave it the old college try!

I credit all the seasons I have watched of the Great British Baking Show! Thanks Paul Hollywood!

We headed to our gate and waited. Foreign countries can be very strange for Americans. This little bird was inside the terminal noshing on something it found on the floor.

Um, I will introduce you to some of those airport birds in Denver!

t had been nearly half an hour with no one picking us up, and we were starting to become displeased. We found one of the tour company’s brochures downloaded on my phone and got the phone number for the office. It took a little while to figure out what numbers to dial since the brochure had all the International dialing codes. Eventually we got through to the office. The person on the other end said that they would check into it and call us back.

Well we never heard back so we called again. They said someone was on the way, about 20 minutes. I think by this time it was 12:15. Somewhere in there Jill began communicating directly with someone who would be picking us up. He said they would be there by 1PM. Well 1PM came and went, and still no van.

I think it was about 1:15 when the van actually showed up. Our suitcases were swiftly loaded and we were whisked into a very large Van. A man in an expensive, dark blue tailored suit introduced himself as Mahmoud. I realized that he had been the main correspondent with whom we had been emailing before the trip.

I was displeased to say the least.....I didn't tell Alison but I had a worry in the pit of my stomach that the tour agency had completely dropped the ball on the whole trip and we would be on our own and out the money. Thankfully this was the only real hiccup for the trip. Mahmoud was really sucking up to us. LOL

Jill got what I can only call a Shawarma bowl. There was another name for it, but I have no idea what that was. Under the meat was rice, sauce, and some of those crispy chip things that were on my plate.

It was so good! I love the yellow rice...there was just so much!

Jill in CO

 

[franandaj]

It was so freaking good! I would have licked the plate if I was not in a foreign country or a restaurant.

Those cherries are the best! The cheesecake was very light and delicious!

I'm glad you like them! I'm just not a fan of cherries.

I credit all the seasons I have watched of the Great British Baking Show! Thanks Paul Hollywood!

I'm glad you did! I'm sure that cake was better than the Tiramisu.

Um, I will introduce you to some of those airport birds in Denver!

Really???? I've never seen a bird in an airport before!

I was displeased to say the least.....I didn't tell Alison but I had a worry in the pit of my stomach that the tour agency had completely dropped the ball on the whole trip and we would be on our own and out the money.

I am the eternal optimist, and I knew that we had not been scammed. They were so good in Jordan, I knew it was a blip, but it was sure an annoying blip.

Thankfully this was the only real hiccup for the trip. Mahmoud was really sucking up to us. LOL

Yes, well other than the other one, where again Mahmoud somewhat sucked up to us, but we have a ways before we get to that one.

It was so good! I love the yellow rice...there was just so much!

I like the yellow rice as well! I just was feeling more sandwichey.......