Cairo - Chapter Five

Last day in Cairo and it was full of interesting stuff. I had a chance to check emails before my driver came to the hotel. He was suppose to arrive at 12:30 but he got there about 11 and said he was suppose to take me to see the Papyrus Museum on Tuesday. There is no charge for the museum so we could make the trip on the way to the airport. So I had an interesting one on one session with a guy that showed me the process of how the ancient Egyptian made paper out of the papyrus reeds. Pretty cool process. These Egyptians were pretty smart cookies back in the day. So then the sales pitch started and they would not let me leave the museum without purchasing a design. OK, I gave in. The the real drama started on the way to the airport. My driver gets a call on his cellphone and then he starts to cry. He says his father is being taken to the hospital and that he will have to go there after he drops me off at the airport. I asked “has he been sick”, evidently something out of the blue happened. He says his Dad will need money up front for the hospital to take care of him. I asked if he had insurance and he said “no insurance”. The driver named Mario, says that he will call his Mom who lives in Canada and see if she will wire him some money. She supposedly hung up on him. Mario in the mean time is wiping tears from his eyes with a Kleenex box in the front seat. I had cashed most of my Egyptian money back into US dollars at the hotel to get ready for my trip to London. So I did not have many Egyptian pounds left. He dropped me off at the terminal and said “Oh by the way, I need 75 pounds to pay for the toll gate to get out of the airport.” I said, “the guy that picked me up on Monday did not ask for money to get out of the toll”.  So I gave him 50 pounds and said “you will have to get the rest some place else”. Got my stuff and went into the terminal. Turns out he dropped me off at the wrong terminal. So at least there was a free shuttle bus to get me to the right place.

Now the best part of this story is the International Terminal is now my favorite place in Cairo. Not only did it have a Starbucks but right next to it was a McDonalds. Yes it was Big Mac time for Tony. After I ordered a No. One, I started wondering, do you suppose the burger will taste strange like the burgers in Benghazi……let me tell you it was two all beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickle on a sesame seed bun just like in Fishers. What a way to finish my experience in Cairo.