Cairo at its best

There are many valid reasons to dislike Cairo, and sometimes we do. Last night was not one of those times.

In a slightly-belated celebration of Valentine's Day, we schlepped across the city to Mena House, an awesome colonial-era hotel right next to the pyramids. The balconies of the rooms boast one of the most surreal views in the world; we could never afford it, so accomodation wasn't our aim. This hotel has the best Indian restaurant in the country, the Moghul Room. It was so nice to eat Indian food again! The food was great and plentiful -- we have enough left over to have a second full dinner today! Sadly, the restaurant did not have a view, but we strolled in the gardens afterward, and they did.

Such an elegant location is, of course, rather expensive. (Cheapest wine: $100. We didn't have any.) I felt like a poseur, surrounding by well-heeled people our parents' age, but we had dressed up a bit so maybe no one noticed!

The second great thing about the night out was our transportation success. Even though our meal wasn't cheap, we scoffed at paying $7 each way for a taxi. So on the way we took the metro and a bus, and on the way home we took an even more ghetto microbus. The Egyptians surrounding us thankfully took little notice, and it was practically door-to-door service. Total transportation bill for the night: $2.