'Culture Shock'

The Wangfujing Youth hostel had indeed served me well for what I wanted to see and get done in Beijing. On the 6th, I checked out of there in preparation for my long series of flights bound for Cairo. First, I caught a plane from Beijing to Hong Kong where I transferred to Dubai, before catching another set of planes from Dubai to Jordan and then on to Cairo. It was quite a day. I didn't get much sleep on any of the planes, so I was indeed feeling quite sluggish upon arrival in Cairo. This all changed when I met Ahmed (the hostel's airport pickup guy). He seemed like a nice enough bloke, but when we got in the car I'd noticed that there was about 2 inches of dust on each indicator. On the way to the hostel, I quickly learnt that this was typical of an Egyptian car (as was the need to go 100 through a 50 zone). You see, in Egypt, the roads have lanes, but they, by no means, suggest you should drive between them. Furthermore, an Egyptian driver drives the car with one hand on the wheel and one on the horn. This is because the horn is used not only to tell someone where to put it, but to let other drivers know that you're about to radically pull out in front of them. You know that little red triangle on the dashboard? In Egpyt, that's used if for some reason, you feel like pulling over in the middle of a highway (which is perfectly acceptable).

When we arrived at the hostel, I opened the door, dropped to my knees and kissed the ground. After that, I was led up to the 7th floor of an Egyptian metro building where the words "Wake Up Cairo Hostel were printed above a wide doorway. This hostel is awesome! The beds are comfy, it's reasonably priced, it's got a guitar and a cool lounge area overlooking the Nile but best of all, the staff don't try to rip you off!

Yesterday afternoon was pretty cruisy. Once I'd unpacked my stuff, I had a chat to all of the people staying here at the time. From that, I worked out where to eat, where to take photos, where to try a local beer and even where the belly dancing clubs are. I also got a chance to organise what I did today.

That night, an English Premier league soccer game was on. Manchester United vs. Porto. So, with a bloke from Bristol England, I went to a real Egyptian Shisha bar to watch the game. For those who don't know, Shisha is like a type of herb that has been infused with different flavours. At this particular place, we ordered Apple (the local favourite). Don't worry, it's not hallucenatory.

With a slight change of pace, this morning at 9 o'clock, I headed out to the pyramids with a couple of other Australian backpackers from the hostel. Upon arrival and after 10 minutes of intense bargaining, we'd secured ourselves three camels and a tour guide to check out the site. It was very impressive. These things are huge! The camels were also quite the experience. Hang on, I still smell like one...