I was at Egypt for business last week (15-19 May). Me & my colleague who is also my partner in life, went there for an exhibition. We took a 12 hours direct flight via EgyptAir. Everything went on smoothly: the flight was on time & the sitting were comfortable. Darling slept through the whole flight. He even skipped the meals. He always does that! He said he doesn't like airplane food. Actually, it wasn't that bad. Seen here, is my first meal: Chicken curry & vege with white rice, chocolate moouse & fruits.
Upon arriving at Cairo Airport, our client's tour agents were there to drove us to Alexandria in their private pajero. Alexandria or better known as Alex is the second largest city in Egypt. It extends about 32 km (20 miles) along the coast of the Mediterranean sea in north-central Egypt.
Alex has an atmosphere that is more Mediterranean than Middle Eastern ; its ambiance and cultural heritage distance it from the rest of the country although it is actually only 225 km. from Cairo.
You can witness this as you move from Cairo to Alex.
Weather was much cooler (30°C - 19°C) at Alex, with the wind blowing from the coastline. Check out the wave in the video. And hear the wind blowing.
We stayed in
Plaza Hotel, which is conveniently situated next to a shopping mall. 2 mins walk is all it takes to the mall. Along this stretch, there are numerous hotels. You have to careful which one you choose. If you're unlucky, you may end up with an unpleasant hotel. My client has booked a room with El-Haram, a 3-star hotel situated somewhere along the stretch, but he checked out immediately upon seeing his room. According to his complaints, there are no air-cond and the sounds from the bustle street below was annoyingly disturbing. Later, he checked into a hotel few mins down the road with USD90/night, happily.
Blessedly, ours was okay. A double bed room like this will cost you about USD80/ night : with air-conditioned, TV and mini fridge.
Strangely the egyptian do not use hair-dryers, a useful gadget to dry your hair. When I learnt that there is no hair dryer in the room, i panicked. [You see, i couldn't live without washing my hair daily. And every time after washing my hair, i must blow dry it. It has become a norm for me ever since i purchased my first hair dryer 7 years ago. So, i must have a hair dryer!!] So, I called the receptionist.
I said,
"Good afternoon. I am calling from room 602. There is no hair dryer in my room. Can you get one for me?"The gentleman replied ,"Unfortunately, we do not have any hair dryer here."
Couldn't believe my ears, I asked again,
"You don't have hair dryer?!"He replied, "We don't have hair dryer."
Realizing i heard the correct thing, disappointedly I said,
"It's okay then. Thank you."Hearing my disappointment, the gentleman said, "Wait, wait"
I waited a few seconds on the phone. I can hear him talking with his colleague in arabic.
He returned to the phone and said, "Oh okay, we have one hair dryer. This is ours but we do not use it now. You can have it. We will bring it to your room later."
I was thrilled,
"Thank you so much". I thought how thoughtful & considerate he is! A thumbs up for him for the excellent way of handling guest's request. :)
The rate comes with free breakfast buffet for two. This is my favorite food over there: Fried sausages with green pepper & onion with tomatoes puree. It's yummier if taken with a fresh croissant like this. :)
Unlike Malaysian who eat rice most of the time, peoples over here eat pastries. You can find all kind of pastries over here. Oh, and they love eating bread with dipping. If they were to eat rice, they would eat brown rice.
[My observation might be wrong, so correct me if you know them better]...to be continue...
Random Similar Post:
Police traffic at almost every junction of roads in Cairo.
Me on camel, darling on horse. It was tiring sitting on the camel! It looks alot easier to watch people ride on the camel than sitiing on it yourself.
View of Cairo from the pyramids.
My camel! :)
