Wednesday, March 21, 2018

Good Guides, Taxi Drivers & Cairo Streets

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Our Cairo Guide

When visiting foreign lands, it is always helpful to have a good guide. They know the way around, they know what is best to see and understand the local customs. A good guide can make a huge difference in how good a visit is. Our trip to Puglia in Italy was made so much more because we discovered Green Italy Travel, and on the Nile Cruise, we were assigned a great guide,
Michael who spoke almost perfect English, and spent five days showing us around Luxor and Aswan. By the end of the cruise he was more a “friend” than a guide, and he added much to the experience. Here in Cairo we have perhaps the best guides; our Nova Scotia friends who have lived and experienced Egypt for 10 years, and know not only where to take us but know us well enough to know what we will enjoy.

Usually our friends have managed to arrange for their driver to take us around to visit the sites and experiences here in Cairo, but today they were busy, and we were feeling adventurous, so we went off on our own. Our friend, knew a taxi driver who is usually available in the area and she arranged for him to pick us up, take us the 45 minutes into downtown Cairo to visit the Gayer-Anderson Museum and the ancient mosque beside the museum. He offered to wait for us and then bring us home, all for a set price (Egyptian taxis have no metres).
A Cairo Street

Now going any distance on Cairo streets is an experience! The average distance between vehicles is perhaps 18 inches and very few cars are scratch and dent free; most have damage on every body panel. A normal two lane road supports four lanes of traffic and most drivers ignore the lanes, driving anywhere they want and swerving and changing lanes constantly, blasting their horns to warn others of their intentions. Our cab driver today was calm, consistent and steady. He stayed in his lane, signalled directional changes and went with the flow of traffic. Regis gets nervous when being driven in strange places (She likes to be in control), but even she felt comfortable with this driver.



Michael (our guide in Luxor & Aswan) & Regis 

Cairo Street

Cars, people, buses, everywhere . . . .

Our Cairo Taxi Driver

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