I arranged for a late morning ride from the hotel to the airport on the 28th for an early afternoon flight. This time I was able to see more of the city: It’s crowded with people in narrow streets and wide boulevards. Vibrant, colorful, noisy and active. So many different cultures living side by side! I have to come back to Istanbul with more mobility; there is just so much I did not have a chance to see and experience. The palaces and Princess Tower are open to the public and I would have liked to explore a little of Istanbul’s neighborhoods by foot, ferry and tram.

Istanbul airport had security checkpoints to get into the airport and baggage check, then more security to get to passport control. I had a light lunch in the business class lounge and then walked to my gate. I found a seat and settled in to wait to board. A couple of pretty young Egyptian women approached me, looking for someone to carry a bag onto the plane for them. I said no – there are a lot of warnings in the US about that sort of thing – but they must have found someone else to do it, since I saw them distributing things to other passengers. I guess it might have been safer than I thought. Presumably they had to go thru the same security screening that I did.

It was mid afternoon when the plane left Istanbul. The airline attendants asked each passenger if they would be eating – It’s Ramadan and many people were fasting. I was not fasting and so had my first taste of a traditional Egyptian Ramadan drink – kakade, Egyptian hibiscus iced tea. It was not as bitter as some hibiscus syrups I’ve tried nor was it too sweet. It was lightly floral and nicely refreshing; I can easily understand why one would enjoy it as the first beverage after not drinking all day. 

It’s about 2.5 hours flight time to Egypt from Istanbul. Flying into Cairo, I was struck by the many hues of sand that I could see, the buildings made from and colored by sand with the flecks of green, dark brown and yellows in a sand colored landscape. The land seemed a bit unreal; I felt as if I were looking a quilt or tapestry of browns and greens. The plane did not go to a terminal gate upon landing rather the plane taxied and parked a good distance from the terminal and a shuttle came out to pick up passengers. Apparently, business class gets first transport in the shuttle, since no one else was on that first shuttle to the terminal. I highly recommend the Egyptian “Meet and Greet” service! Since there were few people on the shuttle to the terminal, it was easy for me to see and find Ahmed, holding a placard with my name on it, once I got to the main floor of the terminal. I gave Ahmed $25 USD for a visa and he swiftly obtained a visa for me with the right stamp – much less frustrating than the online experience. The business class priority sticker on my bag meant that my luggage arrived about 5-10 minutes after we left the immigration area and we breezed through customs – I had nothing to declare. All of this was made even easier by the fact that we were not competing with the people from economy for attention or resources. I did feel a little guilty for about one second. A hotel shuttle van was waiting outside to take me to the hotel; we dropped Ahmed off by a lot where his car was parked and then the shuttle driver took me to the hotel. There is a lot of construction in this area – New Cairo: partially excavated areas, concrete structures awaiting completion, garden areas in bloom and and in the planting stage (I wondered about how are they watered and what happens if there is a sandstorm). This area is going to look very different once all the construction projects are completed. New Cairo is going to be the administrative center of Cairo and Egypt once it is finished. The old city is just too old and too crowded for the government to operate easily.

My hotel is a much needed oasis of quiet after my travels in Europe and Turkey. The view from my balcony: