CAIRO - Tomorrow.
 

I'm flying direct Melbourne to Cairo in about six hours. I turn on CNN and see death and destruction all around - but that might be more CNN than Cairo. I arrive midday tomorrow 11th.

Is there anyone on the ground there who can tell me the latest? I'm staying Kempinski - intending to.make repeated visits [between bouts of jet-lag] to the Egyptian museum.

Nah, I'm not scared. I've been to Egypt three times before - but I do like to arrive mentally prepared. Any extreme no-go areas?

The BBC has been reporting & showing scenes from Cairo, it doesn't look so good. See http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15235212, it talks of the curfew now imposed and mentions some areas around the city where the conflict is.

The health health ministry said a total of 174 people were injured in violence during a Coptic Christian protest in central Cairo today, which saw a curfew imposed on the ...
http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...t-23-killed-in....

Not there but have been there during dodgy times including
tourist murders in Luxor/Valley of the Queens worst I have ever seen for travelers.Always have done fine staying OUT of the city center and crowds of any kind in tourist enclaves/hotels along the Nile until things settle after curfew which usually happens fairly quickly.

I always monitor my consular advisories travel.state.gov

Register with my embassy and insuremytrip.com so no worries.

Good luck odds are great you will be just fine if careful.

I always have been.

Stay safe on both land and water! We eagerly await details.

I have no information, sorry. I came here myself looking for information. I had finally convinced my husband that booking a very last minute trip to Egypt and Jordan with an admittedly over-priced small tour group was a good idea. Now we're on to Plan B ... except I have no Plan B.

Safe travels if you are on your way.

Guns, searches, horror! Arghhh, my gawd, things are clear;ly terrible here! Everywhere I look some poor creature is being dragged off for interrogation, there are men with rifles everywhere...

Oh, that was Melbourne airport...

I'm in Abu Dhabi now after a fifteen hour flight from Oz. I guess we'll all find out together in about five hours.

By some miracle I slept twelve of the fifteen hours - no pills, amazing, but I'm in that jet=lag oonfusion, just the same. Dogster walks into walls, the usual hopeless bumble.

I'll be your on the spot reporter, live from the Cairo Krasnapolski. If I were you, I'd ignore everything I say.

Be back soon.

Dogster, keep all of us informed. We will be concerned about you. The Kempinski should be fine, but don't go wandering about looking for interesting people to talk to. The stuff on tv today was scary. Stay on a high floor.

dogster - LOL!!! You definitely going in with the right attitude! Stay safe - but have fun. And please report back!

Do keep a low profile--- recruit short palanquin bearers.

A note from the G.M. of Kempinski Nile Hotel:

A Mr. Dogster was carried in mumbling incoherently about Coptic riots. He mentioned Fodor's repeatedly. 'Tell them I'm still alive,' he screeched before we threw him out of the hotel. The Kempinski does not welcome guests of his calibre.

Mr Dogster was last seen being carried over the heads of the crowd as they shouted 'Kill the infidel'. They were all headed to Tahrir Square where, apparently, there is a large bonfire with his name on it.

I don't know where he ended up.

CNN reports:

A thin, mongrel Australian was attacked, barbequed and eaten by protestors in central Cairo today. Only sketchy details have emerged.

Just don't wear your "I heart Mubarak" t-shirt. If you dress like a pharaoh you will look almost identical to Ramesses II and the local will worship you.

<i>...If you dress like a pharaoh you will look almost identical to Ramesses II</i>

http://tvo7i.wikispaces.com/file/vie..._II_mummy2.jpg

Gee, thanks pook. lol

Just joking! You are more of a Omar Shariff type.

Yes, I'm often mistaken for Omar. In fact, when I checked in yesterday several people asked me for my autograph...

So far, not a whisper of discontent - although I've not left the hotel. Jet-lag crept in and wiped me out. Consequently, I've been awake today since 4.00 a.m.

I'm off to the Egyptian Museum in an hour or so. I love that place. I'll report from Tahrir Square.

Well keep us posted while keeping yourself safe.

Oh dear, what a fizzer.

Not a riot in sight - just wall to wall Russian tourists waddling around the museum dressed for the beach. Someone has to tell these overweight, pasty, blank-faced women NOT to wear those itsy-bitsy shorts that clamber excitedly up their fat bottoms, intent on disappearing into the nearest dark crevice they can find.

I have photographs.

Of course, the Egyptian Museum is mind-boggling - as it always has been. I'm pleased to see there have been no renovations since 1923 - nor any attempt to make it user-friendly. Ahh - Egyptian tourism...

The Egyptian Museum seems to be a tunnel through which all tourists must pass. The utter lack of interest and enthusiasm from the patrons is quite extraordinary. They slog after their guide, bored and irritable, just longing to get out.

Soon they do, to be shlepped to the Pyramids on the next part of their Egyptian ordeal.

"The European tourists,' said my driver 'aren't interested in antiquity at all. They just want to see the Pyramids, then go swimming.'

'Pfft,' he added.

Yup. Pffft.

Just take care

I can see I'm going to have to write this report properly later... but, truly, really, sincerely, there just ain't nuttin' to fuss about. Cairo rolls on, just as it always has - and always will.

Local reportage about the recent Coptic 'problem' is very interesting indeed. Everybody I speak to seems to think there are other forces at play; nobody can understand why two religions who have been living side by side for a zillion years should suddenly combust.

But I'm just a tourist. All I can do is tell you what I see - which is nothing. A lot of evidence of what has happened, but absolutely no indication that it will re-occur.

For those of you that have been to the Egyptian Museum the closeness of the destruction is kinda scary. If you face the museum, the office blocks directly on the left were completely gutted. There was obviously a serious fire, right next door - less than a hundred yards from the museum. The area directly in front seems now to be a construction zone - for what I don't know, so Tahrir Square seems about a third the size it was before.

If the Museum is anything to go by, tourism is returning with a vengeance. I'll be in Luxor tomorrow - the hotel prices there are rock-bottom so perhaps all those porky Russians went to Sharm instead.

The Kempinski is a classy hotel, only open twelve months and absolutely recommended. They do good upgrade, too. My unexpectedly palatial suite is a rabbit-warren of bliss; if you include the loo[s] it has eight rooms, three toilets and two bathrooms... rather more than I need. I'll force myself to cope.

AND, brilliantly, there is none of that tiresome hovering for a tip - at all. Which, in Egypt, is some kind of modern-day miracle.

My Nile Deluxe room here - well, one of them:
http://www.kempinski.com/en/cairo/Pa...AndSuites.aspx

Wish you safe travel and enjoyable time in Cairo - the area of down town with demonstrations let you feel that there is unrest in the whole city but this is totally not correct, I live in Cairo and everything is ok here, It is a big city and all tourists are safe here and do their tours together with their travel agencies and tour guides and they are very safe.
All the best

Glad all is well in Cairo. Take a look at the deposed and then undeposed and then redeposed head of the Egyptian museum's website www.drhawass.com. Pretty clear what matters to him.

Don't cast aspersions at your fellow tourists. Any attention to the old should be applauded.

I love dear Zahi - the most relentless self-publicist in creation. Did you know he, <i>personally</i>, discovered everything old in Egypt?

It became a game to spot the Hawass in EVERY documentary about Egypt. I'm sorry our own Egyptiana Jones has gone. I must send him a letter.

Marija, I agree with your final comment, I'll never be nasty about porky Russians again. I'm just jealous.

Thanks dogster for your on-the-ground reporting. Maybe there's hope for me yet that I'll make it to Egypt soon. I've wanted to visit that country since I can remember and I haven't made it yet. I think it's time to get serious about the planning. It sounds like now might indeed be a good time to visit. Wonder how quickly I can pull this trip together?!

That's quite the room you have.

Yes Sharona, You will enjoy so much in this trip, I wonder when you will start planning.!!
Good Luck

dogster and all others - just to be clear - the building you refer to next to the Museum that is burned out is the old NDP (National Democratic Party) building. It was burned in January in the Revolution. This one had nothing to do with the recent problems. We are starting to get as interesting a city line as Beirut has. :)

My pleasure, sharona. Hotel rates are way down now and it appears that you probably won't die... two very good reasons to visit.

Oh, and there's all that old stuff. That's pretty good too.

The only thing I'd suggest is some research: I pored over my Egypt books before I left and spent quality time with David Roberts and his wondrous lithographs - it's already paying off.

The discovery of Tut.Ankh.Amun's tomb is a particular passion of mine - it was great seeing all that now-familiar stuff [again] in the Museum here. Oddly, in the Tut room, the single object that got the least attention when I was there was the famous golden mask. Too familiar, I guess.

I'll be wandering Karnak tomorrow. Having been here four times before, I'm simply picking the best of the best and concentrating on that. Before, I wanted it ALL - now I'm selective, focussed - and slow. It's better.

Heya Casual - we were posting simultaneously. I knew it was burnt in Jan - but I didn't know what the building was. Thanks for the big clue. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Sharona, if you want some fun reading in preparation for your trip, check out the Amelia Peabody series written by a University of Chicago Egyptologist:

www.ameliapeabody.com

(Look for me in The Ape Who Guards the Balance!)

I love the Amelia Peabody books!

have fun and behave...

Yes - and no.

Luxor is a whole other thing. Jimmy Central. The usual. Three room changes in 20 hours. It began in a $85.00 room at the Pavillion Winter Palace - the cheap version of the famous hotel. Now, quite by accident, I'm in a $1,300 [a <i>night</i>] suite at the real Winter Palace. How? It's a verrry long and completely ridiculous story.

I'm gonna abandon this post now. The mega-felucca awaits.

www.nourelnil.com/photo_gallery.htm

And you'll have to wait for the trip report. It features the many bananas of Luxor, stale sandwiches and humiliation. Alas, it may be too filthy for Fodor's.

Have fun dogster and look forward to your take on the dahabiya - which one are you on? The El Nil or the Malouka?

Meroe. There aren't enough touristas to run all of them at present.

Final word: NOW is the time to come to Egypt.

"Final word: NOW is the time to come to Egypt."

I'm really, really trying! I'm cross-eyed from all the research I did yesterday.

Thanks Marija for the tip on the Amelia Peabody series. Looks like I need to get cracking as there are 19 of those books. Very cool that you are in one of them. I just downloaded book 1.

Dogster, please please post a specific report when you return. We are going Cairo and Luxuor in December and will be on Meroe sister felucca the Assouan.

Dogster - I thought I posted this already - maybe I'm loosing my mind :O

Anyway - if you are coming back to Cairo and have time - would LOVE to meet up for a beer somewhere and have a chat. Let me know if, when, and where. CC

Will be looking out for a full report upon your return as we are booked for Egypt in January!

Hey, from mid-Nile

no time - but it's go-o-o-od. laurie-ann, you made a fantastic choice. You can relax.

CC -- you posted your previous invite on the now deleted "Egypt is dangerous " thread. No reason to doubt your mind (that I'm aware of).

The "Egypt is dangerous" thread got deleted? Serious? (Chuckle-chuckle!)

Thanks for letting me know I wasn't completely nuts Marija,
and dogster - awwww! dang! maybe next time.