After landing, our first taste of Egypt was confusion over the Visa system. I spoke with one of the flight stewards who said you don't need them so save yourself the $15 per person... Unless you want to go out of Sharm, say to visit the pyramids, then u do need one each. So we got in line, bought the visas and trotted thru security, not really knowing if we had bought the right thing, or whether we actually needed them!
Our first encounter with the Egyptian sense of humour (good we've been told) was an old guy checking passports... He took them all and sang some weird song whilst checking them. As he finished each one he pretended to hand it back to Connor and then whipped it away at the last minute... Leaving u with your hand out looking a right pillock. All in good humour though...
Sam sorted us a taxi at the airport after some haggling with the locals, I hate not being prepared for such situations (I would have booked in advance but paid more), so Sam's northern side came out and sorted it.
The driver haggled us to 150LE which is less than £15 so we agreed, loaded the bags and got on our way. The sun was coming up by now and gave us a gorgeous view...
Our driver was a comedian too and enjoyed telling us how he had only been driving for 3 months and ONLY had 8 accidents in that short time. This was while we pulled into the path of some oncoming minibus...
He joked about the football too...
"four one" he said laughing and apologising....
"not funny" I replied tersely trying to keep my best stiff upper lip in place & wondering if I could short change his tip ("baksheesh" is the local term for tip, and they are not shy in asking for it).
The hotel was very quiet, we were the only ones checking in, but the place was fully booked the desk clerk told us. Despite this they gave us two great rooms with pool views and situated near the restaurants and main concourse. We took the upstairs room & the twins got the downstairs one, both have fridges, air con, comfy single beds and decent bathroom with shower. Basic but functional.
Sam wanted to jump in the pool (bear in mind it was 6.45am local time... 4.45am back home) so of course we dumped the bags, got changed, told the twins and then jumped in... I thought everything would be warmer here including the pools, given it's supposed to hit 40+degrees... Lets just say it was refreshing, actually nice after the long journey from Sunbury.
So we were feeling pretty pleased so far: no delays, roomy plane, cheap transfer to the hotel and good rooms. Things are looking good!
Next on the agenda was breakfast... More on that soon.
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