Corinne's 2007 Egypt trip. Page 1

Corinne goes back yet again for more saucy adventures in the desert.

For once, Corinne is properly dressed !

Well, this morning I had to get up at 04.15. Gasp. There was a traffic jam at Cruseilles on my way to Geneva airport even as early as 06.30 ! The flight from Geneva was delayed half an hour, then the flight from Zurich by 45 minutes. The flight therefore arrived an hour late in Cairo where Esmael, my trusty taxi driver, was waiting for me. As I followed him to the taxi a man passed by and remarked in a loud voice "Nice tits" ! He was quite right too, although it's the first time I've ever heard this particular form of Islamic greeting.

It took an hour and a half to get to the Intercontinental Pyramids Park Hotel, which turned out not to be half as good as it looked on the internet. A 5 star hotel, situated right next to a busy flyover, with naff concrete architecture and in need of considerable refurbishment (Hmmm... sounds rather like Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris). The pool was nice though, but by this time of the evening it was far too cold to even think of using. After an exceedingly bland buffet in the main restaurant, I returned to my room but had to call an engineer to fix the a/c which wasn't working. He pulled a bedside cabinet aside and jiggled the spaghetti of bare wires which protruded from the wall and it started working. It looked thoroughly dangerous to me.

Next morning the smart young businesswoman was ready for her day's meetings... One of my first meetings was with Abdul, the saucy chap who had leaped on me 2 years ago. The company was situated on the the 25th floor of the Nile City Towers, from which there was an excellent view over the Nile and the city. Abdul was on his best behaviour this year which came as a considerable relief.

Corinne prepares for her day's meetings...

Next day required another very early start as I had to go to Heliopolis. The first company was closed and the janitor told me the boss had gone to Luxor, without leaving me any message. Well, in this part of the world this is quite normal so I continued on to the next. After a successful day I returned to the hotel after a hair-raising drive along the dark and crowded ring road. I had a quick dinner and fell into bed quite exhausted. As one can appreciate from the photo, foreign business travel and working conditions can often be very difficult and stressful.

Corinne is a real hit with the secretaries...

Next day I was up again at 06.00, still exhausted and managed another day of meetings in Cairo and Heliopolis. Today wasn't too bad as everyone with whom I was supposed to be meeting was actually there ! By late afternoon it was time for a little culture since I hadn't actually had any of this since my last visit to Egypt (and, even then, I hadn't exactly gone overboard had I ?).

All work and no play for Corinne ???.

So, after 3 hard days of strenuous meetings, back I went to the Intercontinental. No time for a swim coz tempus was unfortunately fugitting at a great rate. If you don't know what that means, ask the Pontiff. Apparently he speaks latin.

Me and my trusty taxi driver, Esmael.

Here I am with Esmael in front of his little old Toyota which has 350,000 kms on the clock but which he lovingly keeps in excellent condition, although the front passenger seatbelt doesn't work. Since I'm too tall to sit in the back I constantly cringe with fear as we zigzag around the terrible roads in Cairo. Esmael is a very kind and respectable married man, with two children. I changed out of my smart white suit and into a t-shirt and jeans and off I went to the Pyramids which were situated just a couple of kilometres from the hotel.

Never mind the Pyramids... I DO love riding a camel !

There I hastily negociated a one and a half hour camel ride for 300 Egyptian pounds, which included the entrance fee of £ 50. I rode the camel while Abdul the guide (why do almost all Egyptians seem to have the same name, I wonder ? Perhaps St. Abdul was the patron saint of lechers) rode a horse. The hassle began immediately. Abdul said he would be very nice to me if I would be nice to him (now, where have I heard that one before ?). First stop was the big Pyramid (Cheop's place I suppose) and we were in a hurry as it was closing for the day. I scrambled through the very hot and humid tunnel to the room in the centre and then out again as fast as I could, not wanting to have my toe seized by the bony fingers of a pharaonic ghost.

Abdul tries to tamper with his tourist.

Back on the camel I ended up getting something else seized by the sticky fingers of a pharaonic guide... I was told that I was very beautiful and he suggested we ride off for a while together on his horse behind a saharan sand dune. . I managed to fend him off by appearing totally innocent and unable to understand what he was getting at. He eventually became worried that he'd gone too far and begged me not to tell anyone when we got back to the camel stable. I laughed and said it was ok. I had a sense of humour all the same and had heard it all before. I returned to the hotel, had dinner and went to bed as early as possible.

Off to Luxor for the weekend !

The big advantage of Arab weekends is that they start on friday morning, unlike in the rest of the world when they start 24 hours later. That they also end 24 hours earlier is an unpleasant fact that I have chosen to ignore in a conscientious effort to live in harmony with the Christian and Moslem ways of life while visiting an Arab country. I had to wake up at the un-allahly hour of 03.30 to get to the airport on time for my flight to Luxor which departed at 06.30. It was the usual chaos with baggage porters trying desperately to grab my bags, and, presumably, whisk them away to sell to the highest bidder.

The flight was on a very large and comfortable Airbus which was completely full. At Luxor it was hot and sunny and I took the shuttlebus for £ 6 to the Movenpick Hotel on Crocodile Island. I unpacked in my room, X 03, which was situated in a grass hut in the middle of a sub-tropical garden on the banks of the Nile. First stop was the pool, which was very nice but a little chilly. It was a pool with large overflow with view over the Nile and the crocodiles cruising along at periscope depth waiting for some fool to go swimming. I then had lunch outside but it was very hot (37 degrees) under the parasols and the mixture of smoked salmon and chilled white wine, along with my lack of sleep, indicated a siesta.

I got up at 16.00 and went to see the concert by the Nile which was supposed to last until sunset. The concert turned out to be piped classical music at such a low volume that one could hardly hear it. However at least the birdsong was beautiful as the sun slipped below the escarpment the other side of the Nile and its rays left the sails of the feluccas to the encroaching darkness. Poetic stuff eh ???? And before anyone asks, no, I did NOT pinch that line from a travel brochure.