Day 15 - EGYPT - (7/2/2009)

So I FINALLY make it to Cairo... Only 36 hours, three airports and $375 later. Man it has been quite the... um Day? So to recap a little. I woke up at 3:00am ish July 1st, and got to the Dubai international airport around 4:15/4:20 ish. After not making the 6:00am or 3:00pm flights to cairo I start trying to figure out where else I could fly to so to spend as little as possible on a real ticket from there to Cairo. I looked at flying into three different cities in Saudi Arabia, two in Pakistan, one in Sudan/Ethiopia/Jordan/Israel/Omen/Iran/Yeman. I tried all over the place, and the cheapest I found was from Tehran, Iran but that price quickly jumped an extra $100 within 30 min. So now it's around 8:00pm and I've been in the staff ticketing section for 16 hours checking loads and calling my mom and trying to figure out the best route to take which was starting to look like skipping Egypt and just taking the wide open flight to Osaka, Japan at 3:10am July 2. After hours of more planning and failing, i decided to call it all off and just head to Japan right then and end my trip early. So now I'm talking with the ticket agents for Emirates airlines and they say they can't issue me a ticket based off the ticket I had because it was a ticket under Qatar Airways and had the city Doha to Cairo... Anyways thats whole arguement is complicated to explain to people who dont already know about this stuff so lets just say Emirates let me enter their country using the first half of my ticket but now wont let me leave using the second half which is now inflicting me costs of probbably having to pay for another hotel... So now im flippin out on the ladies, and just want to go home but my mom says how about I get myself to Doha so that I can use my ticket without any questions or problems... This is where the 376 dollars comes in. I end up buying a ticket from Dubai to Doha which is only a 40 min flight JUST so I can try to standby out of that country. yay... It was 1:50am July 2nd when i bought that ticket... I've been at the airport for 22 hours. At 5:55am I depart to Doha, Qatar and get a nice 30 min nap in. The sun is out by now. Now in Doha there is a flight to Cairo at 1:oopm. I am now chilling out at the Doha International Airport for another seven and a half hours. Oh by the way, we left Dubai at 5:55am and arrived in Doha at 5:30 am lol. After much standing, napping, walking, and more napping the Qatar transfer guys got me on the flight to CAIRO! They were such a huge help and it was a really good change from the damn Emirates.
I land in Cair at 4:05pm.
I need a visa to vist Cairo which I am able to pay for on arrival at the airport but I soon find out I need cash to do so... so security at the passport check hold on to my passport and let me out to access an ATM. On my way back in, I guess you aren't allowed back in the airport once you leave, I get bombarded by security asking me why im walking back in, or at least I think thats what they were saying since it was in arab... So anyways i pull out my notebook, which has all my info and receipts and phone numbers and maps and well stuff I need, to show the men my atm receipt and that i had to get cash to pay for my Egypt visa. THEN THEY SNATCH MY NOTEBOOT OUT OF MY HAND and wouldn't give it back and were like trying to treat it as my passport and walking around talking to the other security men and im like "hey give that back, that's not my passport I need that, the other guy has my passport, i was just getting money to pay for my visa" and im kinda freakin out. they start askin me where my passport is... omg I just told them... anyways i tell them again and say to follow me and i will show them. so the guy still has my notebook and were walking and i finally get my passport back and show him, he gives back my notebook then im off to get my visa and go through the customs check.
ok past the airport and out in the real world. great now come the flock of tourist helpers and all that fun stuff.
hmm anyways, after telling people to back off and leave me alone, i sit and figure things out. i catch a taxi and start checking if any hostels have any rooms, all the ones i wanted didn't and all i wanted was one room for one night so i could relax and figure out my next plan in peace. so now im in the Hotel Indiana. Its $55 but I really dont care, its a nice huge room with AC and so tonight i rest, eat and make reservations for a cheaper place for the rest of my time here in egypt. Man still can't believe I made it. If you could have gone through all the shit i went through the past day and half... man.
ok well im out.
I plan on being in egypt through the 12th, and then go through all this again on my way to Japan. bah can't wait to get home, kinda.
byee

Day 15 - EGYPT - (7/2/2009)

Cairo, Egypt