My flight to Egypt was set to begin at a leisurely time of 1:30 in the afternoon. Three flights later, I would arrive in Cairo at about 9:30 in the evening. But I didn't put enough thought into what that would mean. I did actually download a bunch of information for Cairo, including the different districts that had accommodation information. But I didn't consider exactly where I would go, or how I would get there after 10 at night, when buses to and from the airport would have stopped. But I figured it wouldn't be too hard.
Then in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, the onward plane to Cairo had a problem and we were taken off the plane. A new plane was brought, but it all took an extra 2 hours and that meant that instead of arriving at 9:30, we now were arriving at about midnight. After immigration formalities, this had me trying to figure out where to go in the dead of night. Not a good thing.
But I had met another traveller on the plane and he suggested we share a cab into town. Unfortunately, he was a couch surfer and his accommodation therefore wasn't one that I would be able to just find another room to stay in. It still seemed that it would be closer to where I would find a place to stay than the airport was, so I took him up on it.
We went outside the airport and were immediately accosted by taxi drivers. We waded through them, and Brett started talking with this one guy (I stayed out of it because I really am crap at negotiating such things) and eventually got the price he wanted. We set off... towards an unmarked and therefore unlicensed taxi. My first misgivings set in. I had a hunch this was not going to go well.
We arrived in the area where he wanted to be and we got out. But neither of us had small bills. I gave the driver a fifty, and hoped to get 20 back, but he said he had no change. I decided not to make a fuss because I was tired enough to not really care too much over 3 dollars. But I had nowhere to go and there didn't seem to be anywhere in the immediate vicinity that would be a hotel or anything. So the driver said he could take me someplace. I told him that I didn't think that would work because he would take me somewhere expensive where he would get a big commission and that wasn't what I wanted. That brought a loud guffaw out of Brett. But the guy said he knew a place in the area called Heliopolis that was going to be 100 Egyptian pounds, about 16 dollars. At that time of night beggars can't be choosers and so I said that would be acceptable, figuring full well that it wasn't going to be 100. But in my mind I decided that I would go up to 200, and find a better place the next day. So I told him that I would go, but since I had already paid him 50 for the ride, I wasn't going to be paying him any more. He said fine. And then, despite my mind screaming at me that I should cut my losses at that point and figure out another way, that I was getting back into a taxi that wasn't really a taxi with a driver who wasn't really a taxi driver, just someone who could make extra money driving people to places, despite having read on Wikitravel that finding a place in Heliopolis that was cheap was pretty much out of the question, I got into the car and drove off with him again. He took me first to a hotel and went in to negotiate. And that was probably to negotiate how much the room would be taking his commission into account. He came back and told me that it was going to be 250. In retrospect I probably should have taken that room. But I didn't. It was over the limit I set in my mind. I asked him what happened to the 100 pound room he had mentioned. I figured that it was one of those hopeful moves that I have been vicitimized with before, where they take me to a place that is higher than what I told them with the idea that I would take it to get it over with and they would get the good commission. He said he would take me to a better and cheaper place.
So he took me to the next place. He went in to negotiate and came back, looking a bit glum. He said it wasn't 100 pounds. He said it was 17 dollars. I should have paid more attention to that amount. I should have made note of the fact it was quoted in dollars. But I was hearing what I wanted and that would work out to 102 pounds. That was fine, so I followed him into the hotel with my bag and up to the counter. It looked a bit posh, but I let that pass. At the desk the guy told me that yes, they had a room. It would be 70 dollars. “Seventy?” I asked. Yes, 7 – 0. I said thank you and I picked up my bags and left. The driver came after me, but I just said I was done and would sort it out. He followed my in his car for a bit down the street, but I just told him to get lost. Actually I only told him no when he tried to say anything. He drove off. And I began to wonder what the hell to do, particularly since I had told him I didn't want to go with him again since that was what I thought he was going to do. And he did.
I had seen a McDonalds from the car that was open. It took me a while to find it, but I eventually did. I got an ice cream and sat down to figure out what to do. Was I going to sit and try to stay awake all night and find somewhere to stay in the morning, or would I give it a go to get somewhere in the dead of night. I went to the information I had downloaded onto my computer and looked at where I could stay. There was a load of places downtown, and one of them supposedly had 24 hour reception. I decided to give it a whirl. I went out to the street and, with the help of a couple of the employees, hailed a cab that would take me downtown. It was a reasonably quick trip and cost less than the agreed upon price with the other driver to go twice the distance. Par for the course, I guess. I went into the hostel and, yes!!!, they did have 24 hour reception. And they had a room. I was saved. So at 3 o'clock in the morning, I got myself a place to stay in the heart of Cairo, that was reasonably priced. Whew!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment