El Rehab

Now that we are back in Cairo and settled into our new apartment, let me tell you a bit about our place. We live in El Rehab, a gated community, about 25kms northeast of downtown Cairo. A gated community here is a little different from gated communities in Australia or America. El Rehab is a city built on 10 million square metres!! It still very much under construction, but when completed will be home to approx. 200,000 people. So not your average gated community. Having spent our first in Egypt living in the noisy hustle and bustle of downtown Cairo, it is a refreshing change to live on the edge of the desert.

The view from our old apartment in downtown Cairo.


The view from our new apartment in El Rehab.


We made this move because of the new American University in Cairo (AUC) campus. AUC has been in the heart of downtown Cairo since 1919 and now almost 90 years later they have a brand new facility being built 30kms away in the desert, though it is only 4 1/2 kms from El Rehab. Classes will begin at the new campus next week, though Dave has already been on the campus everyday for about 3 weeks, facilitating a lot of things for his department.

New York - Cairo

Our last 24 hours in the US was spent in New York City. Our home for the night was The Pod Hotel, a cute, hip little place that felt a little like we were staying in an Ikea ad. We took the concierge's advice for dinner and had a fantastic Indian meal at Indigo Indian only a block and a half from the hotel. The maitre d' (owner??) was a very helpful and friendly Bangladeshi man who took great interest in where we lived and what Dave was doing in Egypt. He then proceeded to tell us a little of his 'story' and his idea of helping children in the world. We think he was talking about blindness caused by nutritional deficiency, but his accent was SO thick, that we are not really sure what he was saying!!

After our lovely dinner we walked a dozen or so blocks to Sardi's. Sardi's was once the favoured haunt of Broadway stars, producers, et al, and has walls covered in caricatures of famous patrons. We got talking to some people in the bar, one of whom was a fascinating, non-kosher Jewish man (by his own admonition) with whom we proceeded to discuss religion AND politics.

Our flight back 'home' went by pretty quick and we had an easy time thru immigration and customs, but that is where our good times ended. We had one of our worst taxis experiences (thus far) getting home. I won't go into all the details but our driver managed to go miles out of the way and ended up stopping to ask directions about 8 times. He was fined as he picked us up, which we think was because he stopped in a no stopping area. We agreed to pay his fine, which we understood to be 20 Egyptian pounds (about $4) but outside our apartment he was saying it was 10 x that. This is where the language barrier becomes so acute. We paid the exorbitant fine plus the fare just to get rid of him, but we've learnt our lesson and next time we fly into Cairo we will have our own driver/taxi prearranged and waiting for us.

USA

We are now in the last few days of our vacation back in the States. Our trip has included some 'business' but also lots of 'pleasure'. We spent our first few days enjoying the wonderful hospitality of Dave's old friends, Bill & Nancy Motyka, in New Jersey.

One day was spent in NYC where we took in a hilarious show on Broadway - The 39 Steps,

followed by a wonderful dinner at the Palm restaurant. One unexpected site while in NJ was a baby black bear. It was in the woods but real close to the road and took us by surprise.

Next we spent 2 weeks in Miami with Dave's family which included the chance to celebrate my mother-in-laws' birthday with her. While in Florida we took a couple of days and went to Fort Myers with my mother-in-law. Fort Myers was our jumping off point for relaxing on the beaches of Sanibel and Captiva as well as taking in the winter homes of Thomas Edison & Henry Ford. The beaches were beautiful and the Edison/Ford homes and grounds were gorgeous.
And of course, no trip to Miami is complete without some time spent at South Beach!!

After leaving Florida we spent a fast and furious few days in Louisiana getting our taxes done and packing up a few more things to ship to Cairo. We were able to catch up with a few friends while in 'cajun country' but time was certainly limited, so I'm sorry if we missed you.

Hello

Welcome to my new blog. I trust that you will all enjoy reading my posts as we travel around this 'not so lonely' planet. My hope is that you will learn something new about this wonderful world we live in, and the weird and wonderful people that call it home.