Monday, December 14th. (Brussels, Paris, Cairo, Giza)
We were traveling with American Express Travelers Checks and had been AMEX card holders for years. Back then American Express ran a lot of TV commercials that showed Americans getting into trouble in other countries and the friendly folks at the AMEX office coming to the rescue. So we asked the front desk to direct us to the closest AMEX office. Unfortunately, it wasn’t nearby. We had to take a trolly to get there. But when we did we were told that we needed to go to the British Airways office. Where is that, exactly? Just across the street from the Galaxy Holel! Arrrgh!
We took the trolly back to the Galaxy and easily found the British Airways office. We must have looked right at it when we left earlier.
At the British Airways office NOTHING WENT WRONG. (We thought you might enjoy a little contrast.) They happily exchanged our London-Cairo tickets for new tickets from Paris to Cairo? How do we get to Paris? They gave us free tickets from Brussels Airport to Paris. The new tickets were marked “Involuntary rerouting”. What a win! (Don’t get too used to that.)
Incidentally, one of our favorite authors was Hunter S. Thompson. There are many crazy quotes attributed to HST, and many of them are probably misattributed. He was supposed to have said, “I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence, or insanity to anyone, but they’ve always worked for me.” Another of our favorites is, “It never got weird enough for me.” Maybe one of the reasons we made this trip was to find that mystical time and place where it finally gets ‘weird enough’.
So, the tickets are all sorted. The only problem at the immediate moment was this: The Paris flight would leave in 55 minutes. The bus to the airport takes about 30 minutes, and one leaves every half hour. It would be unreasonable to believe we could make it in time. But this is not a reasonable story, is it? Somehow, we made that flight.
This might be a good time to discuss veracity. If your faith in our story is still unbroken at this point, you’re a real trooper! Sit tight, it’s gonna get weirder. We ourselves look back on the pile of receipts and copious notes that Kent has kept from the very beginning of our company (GoWell & Kent, Inc.) and we find it very hard to believe that we managed to pull all this off without serious physical injury, or, at the very least, an extended stay in an Egyptian Jail. But we have all these receipts, and all those notes, and many photos taken along the way. This really happened.
We must have felt, after the harrowing 24 hours we just endured, that we deserved a special treat. So we had a sumptuous lunch at Maxim’s in the airport. We paid $90 for that lunch in 1981 (which is worth $315, in today’s Frogskins!)
After lunch it was time to board the flight to Cairo. But first was a brief walk through a metal detector. It might have been brief, but alarms sounded and a Gendarme got very nervous. He patted David down and found a folding knife in his pocket. “You can not take that on board. Give it here!” “Can I get it back later?”, David asked. “No! It is confiscated, Monsieur! Move on!”
We walked through the metal detector and just before we walked away from the security area David happened to notice his pocket knife laying in a bin that was within arm’s reach. He actually stole his confiscated knife back before we headed to our plane.
The scene at the Egyptian airport arrivals terminal is best described as pandemonium. Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore. There were soldiers everywhere, including machine gun nests behind piles of sandbags. This wasn’t at all surprising.
Just two months earlier, on October 6, members of the Egyptian Islamic Jihad assassinated Field Marshal Anwar Sadat, the 3rd President of Egypt, during the annual victory parade. During the brutal two-minute attack Sadat and ten other officials were killed, and twenty-eight more people were wounded. The motive has been debated, but it most likely stemmed from factions who opposed Sadat’s peace initiative with Israel relating to the Camp David Accords.
Though it may sound counter-intuitive, we felt safe. Who’s going to try anything with this huge military presence? Outside, there were more soldiers and people running around yelling, horns honking, and everywhere you looked were dozens men, teens, and even some children begging, selling souvenirs, and offering services like tour guides or taxi rides. One of their favorite techniques is to hand you something – a bracelet, a good luck charm, a small scarab – ask for money, and refuse to take it back. Eventually (certainly not the first day! – we learned to smile politely at the adorable urchin, carefully set the sacred object on the ground, and walk away.
We picked an empty taxi and hopped in. “Take us to the Holiday Inn Pyramids in Abou El Hool Al Siahi!”
We didn’t have to say “step on it” because ALL Egyptian drivers, but especially taxi drivers, only use two things in their cars: the gas pedal and the horn. The 23 mile ride took about 40 minutes. It was the craziest $5 taxi ride of our lives. The driver sped through narrow streets and alleys, just barely missing assorted pedestrians on foot, riders on bicycles and motorcycles, people leading donkeys and ox carts loaded with cargo, people riding donkeys, horses and camels. And throughout it all was the constant blare of car horns and the cacophony of people shouting and animals braying. We were sincerely in fear for our lives, not from a car accident, but from having read stories about Middle Eastern drivers who run over someone along the road. Crowds can gather, seeking immediate justice, and may kill the driver and/or the passengers who caused the death of their relative or friend. We looked at each other with a mixture of wonder and terror and said, “Well, MAYBE it just got weird enough for me!”
By the time we arrived it was dark and we were ready for drinks. After check-in, the bellhop took us to our room and opened the blinds. It was pitch black out there. We were disappointed. Where’s the pyramid view we were supposed to get? We had tipped $3 to get this far, so it was worth asking him as he started to scurry out the door. He walked back to the now open window and pointed. “It is just there”, he said. “Where?”, we objected, “We don’t see anything?” This time he pointed UP. “Right there!, he insisted, a little irritated. We looked up. WAY up in the sky we could see the stars. The blackness we saw WAS the pyramid, which wasn’t lit at night. There, 449 feet high, was the top of the Great Pyramid. It was so massive that it blocked out the sky.
With more than a little bit of awe, we headed to the Scarab Bar to close our day.
According to Google reviews, the two-star Holiday Pyramids Inn establishment maintains its charm in 2025:
“The structure was rundown, with dilapidated and foul-smelling rooms that were smoky and extremely noisy. The rooms lacked basic amenities like towels, and everything was filthy—from the floors to the furniture. Communication with the staff was also frustratingly difficult, as they did not speak a word of English, making any issue harder to resolve.”
“Extremely filthy room, employees smoking and partying with loud music on reception at night. Never seen anything like this.”
We slept like two Dead Pharaohs that night.