Safely in Cairo

I have made it to my hotel in downtown Cairo. Before I talk about today's flight, I'm going to talk about my overall impressions of Jordan.

First of all, it's a wonderful place. I was so worried about being an American woman in Jordan, but I really didn't need to be. Everyone was very smiley and welcoming -- so much so that you actually get sick of hearing "Welcome to Jordan!". I was going to tell people that I was Canadian just to keep myself out of trouble, but those Aussies kept blowing it for me. Everytime the group was asked where we were from, someone would say "Australia, except for her (pointing). She's American." I needn't have worried though. Everyone, including men dressed in full on Arab headress and garb coming out of mosques to Muslim women dressed head to toe in black with their faces partially hidden would all smile, shake my hand, and welcome me. Don't get me wrong, many wear western clothes, but there are still many who don't. Some even told me how nice it was to see an American in Jordan after so long. The current king and queen are US educated and the prior queen was US born, so the country considers itself a friend of the US. They may hate that our government started the war in Iraq (their tourist industry has tanked as a result and they are now housing 1.2 million Iraqi refugees), but they don't hold it against Americans there.

The country is very modern and there were times that I felt like I was in the US. Besides being the first country I've been in that drives on "our" side of the road, the hotels, stores, cars, and restaurants are much more like the US than I would have thought or preferred.

The food is wonderful. From fresh cucumber and tomato salads, falafel, pita, gyro, hummus, olives, kabobs and western food, it was all fantastic.

And to top it off, there's so much history there, with over 9000 archeological sites. Not to mention desert, seas, mountains and very fertile farm land up north. But can you imagine being ploppped down in the middle of Syria, Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq? I don't envy their location! But it's a great place and I feel perfectly safe to visit. I could easily have done it on my own and not have done the tour.

So this morning, I woke up, had breakfast with "the girls" (two single retired women from Australia who I spent a lot of time with on this tour) and then headed to the airport. A strange thing happened -- I went to a money exchange as I entered the airport to change my Jordanian Dinar to US Dollars. After finishing that, going through massive security and arriving at my gate, I realized that the man gave me way more money than he was supposed to. Currently there's about .7 USD to 1 JD. He gave me the opposite: 1 USD to .7 JD. This means that I ended up with almost $200 extra dollars. I'm not sure it's completely his fault -- the computerized receipt showed this as well. I felt guilty and wanted to go back, but security wouldn't let me. Maybe this is karma for all of the scams and rip offs I endured in India?

My flight was relatively short, but took an interesting route. From Amman, we headed south toward the Red Sea. As we were just getting something to drink, I looked out my window and saw the 7 Pillars of Wisdom and all of Wadi Rum. I could even make out the area where we camped just a few short days ago. Fortunately, we were too high up for me to see any horny Bedoin. We then flew south past Aqaba (it was directly beneath us, so I didn't really see the town) to Saudi territory and then turned right and crossed the Sinai. I figure that we were avoiding Israeli air space. As we came down into Cairo, we passed the airport and the eastern part of the city. Then we did a bit right turn to head back to the airport to land. As we were finishing the turn, I looked out of my window again and there they were: The three pyramids of Giza and what I believe was the back of the sphynx. Awesome! I hadn't landed yet, but I have already seen them. I get the close up tomorrow. I'm pretty excited about that.

I was met at the airport, ushered through immigration and taken to my hotel. My tour operator met me here and is just the nicest guy. I have almost 6 extra days at the end of my tour, so for very little money he's added on another night for me in Aswan and a 3rd night in Luxor (there's so much to see there that it'd be nice to have another day). I also have another night in Cairo when we get back. He's going to make arrangements for me to spend a night or two in Alexandria (just north on the Med coast) as soon as I decide how long I want to stay. I'm also happy to say that I have met my 5th and 6th Americans on this long journey. Only 6 you may ask? Yes, only 6: 1 in little Cancun in Thailand; 1 on the rooftop restaurant of the hotel in Udaipur, India; 2 in an internet cafe in Kathmandu and now 2 from Laredo, Texas (only one speaks English, but so far I'm holding my own in Spanish). We're going to some outdoor market tonight at sundown when everything opens. Yes, it's still Ramadan until the end of the month.

I think that not having to stress over anything (except for how long some of those Aussies were going to hold up the bus so that they could shop) has gotten me over my funk. I'm feeling healthy again, though still rather tired, and really excited about the rest of my journey. I haven't felt that since I arrived in Kathmandu sick. Stay tuned!