*** Friday, 23Jun06 ***
I had breakfast at the Corniche Cafe but my waiter was really stupid, very irritatingly stupid. I ordered a cheese omelet plain and got a plain omelet with no cheese in it. I complained and the waiter brought me some grated cheese that they put on an omelet as garnish. I had to ask for Edam cheese before they could understand what a cheese omelet is.

A very proud street sweeper.

I took the Metro to the intercity train station to see if they would move the statue of Rameses today. Apparently not so I took some pictures and walked over toward the cemeteries north of Bab al-Futuh. I couldn't find them the way I wanted to, so I ended up walking through Fatamid Cairo and took a taxi back to the hotel.

In the process I discovered something new. As I looked for a taxi, I noticed one parked on the street and asked the young man I thought the driver if he would take me to the Semiramis. He wanted forty and I counter-offered fifteen and he asked for twenty. I insisted on fifteen, he on twenty and so I started to walk away. He agreed to the fifteen and I started to get in the cab when he said, "No," and turned to the street and flagged a taxi and then told me to get in it. I saw the driver give the guy a bill and I realized I had been dealing with a middle man. I won't do that again.

*** Saturday, 24Jun06 ***
I decided to take the Metro to the stop after the train station and walk over to the cemeteries that are north of Bab al-Futuh. I managed to do so but only discovered that they are a bit dull. There were no large, handsome and old mosques or other architecturally interesting structure. Still I saw a lot of it and then decided to go back to the hotel so I caught a taxi. As we were driving, I began to wonder if my insides were completely OK. I couldn't tell for sure.

Once back in my room, my insides seemed to be a little peckish so I decided to stay in my room near the toilet. I made at least six sitting visits, after each of which I felt normal for a while and then the peckish feeling came back. But things didn't get any worse than that. I wonder about the food sanitation in the hotel. Perhaps I wonder because I don't know what else to wonder about. Out of ignorance of the source of the problem, or preference, I may have to spend my last few days here on Coke and Pringles. I have to be healthy for my trip to South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe. I did mention that I was going on a Safari, didn't I?

*** Wednesday, 28Jun06 ***
The Adventure from The Adventure
The workday ended and I was in an increasing quandry about what to do. I didn't board my plane to Johannesburg until 11:20 P.M. and work was over at 5 P.M. and I had already check out of my hotel room. What to do?

I had made arrangements with Nabil, the head driver, for Hani to drive me to the airport at 6 P.M. but Hani suggested we go at 2 P.M. I decided to wait at the office rather than spend more time at the airport. In the end, Than rode with me to the airport (not all that far from the office) and dropped me off at Terminal 2 at 5:20 P.M.

I entered the building and this guy walked up to me and said, "What airline?" and I said, "Kenya Airways." "Want a fast way in?" he said and gestured me toward a doorway. I decided that I wanted to discover things for myself so I took my bag in the opposite direction, toward the signs.

I found Nairobi on the list at 00:25 A.M. I tried to check in but I was told that the check in desks were not open until two hours before the flight. "You can sit there, the man said, and pointed at a row of metal seats beside the big glass window with the intense rays of the sun pouring through it. I chose a seat out of the sunlight. It consisted of very hard metal punched with holes that constituted something of a mesh. "Well," I thought, "I won't be comfortable but I can fart with ease."

The pre-checkin area was amazingly barren, just a floor with one row of hard metal seats. It was going to be a long wait. Before very long a young man with a big soft-cloth suitcase sat near me. He was neatly dressed and had short hair. He opened a book and read intently.

A few hours later an old man who periodically passed by and asked if I wanted water ("No thank you") asked the reader if he wanted a Coke and he said Yes. The man came back a few minutes later and gave him a Fanta and a bottle of water. The young man said that he didn't want the water but the old man insisted and demanded 15 LE. The guy didn't have 15 Egyptian pounds ($2.25) and he looked like he was about to give him a $10 bill which would have been a big over-payment of a big over-charge so I offered the money. He took it to get rid of the old guy.

And so we started to chat. Jack was an American living in Portland, Oregon and in the Army as part of the International Peace Keeping force in the Sinai Desert. He was on his way home for the first time in six months. Jack was a friendly talkative guy with more time on his hands than I had. His flight was at 4 A.M. We chatted about this and that for 90 minutes and then I got to go thru security, got my boarding pass and went to the departure lounge.

What a change!! There were duty-free shops everywhere selling everything: macadamia nuts in chocolate, children's toys, liquor and even Egyptian-themed refrigerator magnets. I paid way too much for some bite-sized candy bars and sat down in the same uncomfortable gray metal free farting chair as in the non-lounge below and patiently waited for my flight.

The talk with Jack had illuminated on thing that I had wondered about. I stayed at a quite fancy hotel that was proud about how fancy it was. After all, the soap came in big, sculpted bars of two sizes -- you get what I mean. Why then, I wondered, was there no clock in the room? Jack clued me in when he asked me "Have you noticed how frequently the power fails? You absolutely can't trust an electric clock if you must be at assembly on time."

That was it. The hotel had no clocks in the room because they would be wrong most of the time. So much for fancy hotels. It hardly mattered -- a safari was in my immmediate future.

*** Thursday, 29Jun06 ***
my flight stopped briefly in Karthoum, Sudan and went on to Nairobi where I quickly caught my connection to Johannesburg.

I arrived in Jo'berg at tennish and was exhasted. There was only one hour of jet lag but very few hours of sleeping. Still I wasn't so dazed that I didn't notice Judie and Ken Kesson and other friends from the trip to Bali arriving in the immigration section of the airport.

From here on in, I would be noting my impressions with a camera. The results can be sensed from the video below.