Cairo, January, not sure what day or date allready,
Feels like Ive been here a month already, the flight on new years is already becoming a distant memory. KLM did a surprisingly good job, sitting on planes is shit, there is no way around it. But if you do have to sit still for that long having a choice of 40+ movies games and other stuff that you can start and stop helps, so does having a hostess that doesn't look like your grans boot serving you, if they manage to look like they enjoy it too and give you free alcohol to the point where they start looking reasonably attractive then they're doing a good job in my books.
Despite all plans to head into Amsterdam on the way and take in the sights the thought of getting a few hours sleep prevailed and we checked into a Yotel, space capsule thing designed by the same guy who made the BA first class seats apparently. Lots of buttons and as such lots to go wrong, couldnt turn the lights off so after a brief condescending conversation with a bored staff member she eventually came to show me how to flick a switch, but alas i'm not that dumb and she looked like a dick for talking down to me, how can you over design something to the point that you cannot turn off the lights? Crap.
I had been psyching myself up for Cairo airport and expected to get mobbed but didnt even get offered a taxi, in fact Cairo in general has been a surprise. People are freindly and its safe pretty much everywhere I've been through so far, there are armed tourist police everywhere and most say hello and seem interested in you, made me very suspicious to begin with but I think it is genuine.
The roads are a different story. White lines are meant for going down the middle of the car, or to be driven through the gaps or some other rule im yet to understand. We rode 40km's through town to the Pyramids and back and it was like bunch racing with cars instead of riders to top that off you have people, horses, donkeys and carts, piss, shit, dogs, cats (alive and dead) and kids to avoid at the same time. Its like a game of frogger that will really hurt when you get it wrong.
Cairo is dirty, but you can tell that some good downpours of rain could change it drastically, i haven't really appreciated that the rain we get in B.C and the Uk actually does a good job of cleaning up too. Doesn't mean im missing it though.
Did the sights, pyramid, camel ride, museum etc, find it kinda wrong that these ancient kings built these great tombs for themselves and in the name of history that all gets pulled apart and put in museums showing the whole thing, mumified bodies in various states now in glass cases far from their choice of resting place - isnt there laws againts grave digging? Same thing in my book.
Have now moved to the Hotel that we are begining the tour from, met some of the riders and started fixing bikes - pretty interesting mix so far, one sweet Titanium cross bike, most in good shape or new, some not really up to the job, and one muppet who brought a beat up commuter that out of the box I had to spend a couple of hours on to get it to go in a straight line....stoked that ill be spending the next 4 months looking after it. You can't polish a turd.
internet has been a bit of a mission, typed an update for the blog twice and twice it dissapeared in front of my eyes, I know what my dad feels like now - hes pretty good at that.
we have another day of getting supplies and getting the trucks ready then we head out, sounds like the first few weeks are going to be hard organisationally then it settles down, all the guys who have done it before hate Egypt and cant wait to get on the boat to Sudan. Information is on a need to know basis at the moment, and I dont need to know - which is just fine with me. Its been a weird transition from it all being my stress to sitting back and saying ask someone else, Alex is laughing at me for wanting to get up every minute and sort stuff out, its a habit thats harder to break than you would think, but its not my stress so im trying to do what I need to and let the rest happen.
Staff dinner tonight and I think it will be a bit beer fueled, the guy in charge of the trucks clearly doesn't like that driving gets in the way of his drinking habit, he's done this more times than he can count and has opinions on everything, think he is gonna be alot of fun the whole way, in his own words, 'if we have a problem with any of his staff or him come and talk to him and he'll tell us exactly which way to fuck off.'
The tour website will be getting daily updates by sat phone so if your interested in whats going on more regularly than this read that at www.tourdafrique.com, I have to write an entry once a week so will be on there often enough.
Feels like Ive been here a month already, the flight on new years is already becoming a distant memory. KLM did a surprisingly good job, sitting on planes is shit, there is no way around it. But if you do have to sit still for that long having a choice of 40+ movies games and other stuff that you can start and stop helps, so does having a hostess that doesn't look like your grans boot serving you, if they manage to look like they enjoy it too and give you free alcohol to the point where they start looking reasonably attractive then they're doing a good job in my books.
Despite all plans to head into Amsterdam on the way and take in the sights the thought of getting a few hours sleep prevailed and we checked into a Yotel, space capsule thing designed by the same guy who made the BA first class seats apparently. Lots of buttons and as such lots to go wrong, couldnt turn the lights off so after a brief condescending conversation with a bored staff member she eventually came to show me how to flick a switch, but alas i'm not that dumb and she looked like a dick for talking down to me, how can you over design something to the point that you cannot turn off the lights? Crap.
I had been psyching myself up for Cairo airport and expected to get mobbed but didnt even get offered a taxi, in fact Cairo in general has been a surprise. People are freindly and its safe pretty much everywhere I've been through so far, there are armed tourist police everywhere and most say hello and seem interested in you, made me very suspicious to begin with but I think it is genuine.
The roads are a different story. White lines are meant for going down the middle of the car, or to be driven through the gaps or some other rule im yet to understand. We rode 40km's through town to the Pyramids and back and it was like bunch racing with cars instead of riders to top that off you have people, horses, donkeys and carts, piss, shit, dogs, cats (alive and dead) and kids to avoid at the same time. Its like a game of frogger that will really hurt when you get it wrong.
Cairo is dirty, but you can tell that some good downpours of rain could change it drastically, i haven't really appreciated that the rain we get in B.C and the Uk actually does a good job of cleaning up too. Doesn't mean im missing it though.
Did the sights, pyramid, camel ride, museum etc, find it kinda wrong that these ancient kings built these great tombs for themselves and in the name of history that all gets pulled apart and put in museums showing the whole thing, mumified bodies in various states now in glass cases far from their choice of resting place - isnt there laws againts grave digging? Same thing in my book.
Have now moved to the Hotel that we are begining the tour from, met some of the riders and started fixing bikes - pretty interesting mix so far, one sweet Titanium cross bike, most in good shape or new, some not really up to the job, and one muppet who brought a beat up commuter that out of the box I had to spend a couple of hours on to get it to go in a straight line....stoked that ill be spending the next 4 months looking after it. You can't polish a turd.
internet has been a bit of a mission, typed an update for the blog twice and twice it dissapeared in front of my eyes, I know what my dad feels like now - hes pretty good at that.
we have another day of getting supplies and getting the trucks ready then we head out, sounds like the first few weeks are going to be hard organisationally then it settles down, all the guys who have done it before hate Egypt and cant wait to get on the boat to Sudan. Information is on a need to know basis at the moment, and I dont need to know - which is just fine with me. Its been a weird transition from it all being my stress to sitting back and saying ask someone else, Alex is laughing at me for wanting to get up every minute and sort stuff out, its a habit thats harder to break than you would think, but its not my stress so im trying to do what I need to and let the rest happen.
Staff dinner tonight and I think it will be a bit beer fueled, the guy in charge of the trucks clearly doesn't like that driving gets in the way of his drinking habit, he's done this more times than he can count and has opinions on everything, think he is gonna be alot of fun the whole way, in his own words, 'if we have a problem with any of his staff or him come and talk to him and he'll tell us exactly which way to fuck off.'
The tour website will be getting daily updates by sat phone so if your interested in whats going on more regularly than this read that at www.tourdafrique.com, I have to write an entry once a week so will be on there often enough.
posted by Markos at
7:43 a.m.
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