{"id":276,"date":"2005-04-12T05:00:25","date_gmt":"2005-04-11T21:00:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/http:\/www.nargalzius.com\/blog2\/archives\/2005\/04\/2005_04_12_0500.php"},"modified":"2005-04-12T05:00:25","modified_gmt":"2005-04-11T21:00:25","slug":"egypt-day-01","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/archives\/2005\/04\/12\/egypt-day-01","title":{"rendered":"Egypt: day 01"},"content":{"rendered":"

WARNING: these posts have not yet been proof-read. It’s difficult to find decently priced internet connections here. The actual<\/strong> posting time of these entries is April 22, in Jerusalem – in the Olive Tree hotel… with free WiFi!<\/em><\/p>\n

2005.04.10<\/p>\n

\n\"\"<\/a>\n*Pilgrimage Day 1*\n<\/center>\n\n

Day 1<\/h1>\n

The trip<\/h2>\n

Starting from Manila, we left the house at about 3am to get to the airport for our 6:30am flight. We had mass right there in the lounge.<\/p>\n

The flight from Manila to Doha<\/em> took about half a day, and with Egypt being 6 hours behind, we arrived at around lunchtime, where we had to transfer planes for another 3 hour flight to Cairo. I guess what I said about Cairo being one of the places we’d visit was a severe<\/em> understatement.<\/p>\n

Cairo, as far as we’ve seen (Heliopolis, Giza, etc.), is pretty barren and “aged.” It’s like there’s so much flat space that should be developed… and the existing structures are pretty worn-down. The colors most of the structures use are very warm-toned. I guess what I’m getting at, is that in an extremely biased perspective, I really feel like I’m in an urban desert.<\/p>\n

Aside from the hotel and airport, we haven’t really been inside any other buildings to tell if the whole “barren, warmn, aged” thing was culturally intended, a government thing, etc. The traffic, dirt, old worn-down buildings and smell<\/strong> remind me of the congested areas of Manila proper.<\/em><\/p>\n

The hotel<\/h2>\n

We’re staying at Ramses Hilton,<\/em> which is supposed<\/em> to be a 5-star hotel, but I beg to disagree considering the amenities available. But it’s not a big deal since lodging shouldn’t matter in a pilgrimage… but I do<\/em> care about false advertising hehehe. There isn’t even a friggin’ safe<\/em> in this room, where the hell am I supposed to leave my Powerbook while I’m out for the day?<\/p>\n

Dinner<\/h2>\n

Our first real meal in Egypt was dinner spent in a place called “Peace AbouZeid Restaurants”<\/em> (at least that’s what the sign said). The food was good and Pia got a small birthday surprise.<\/p>\n

Thank God for Ecto, as I’m able to write this stuff offline and just upload it when I get the chance to connect.<\/p>\n

And some trivia, Giza is the capital of Cairo, which in turn is the Capital of Egypt. Don’t ask me why, it just is.<\/p>\n

Miscellaneous<\/h2>\n

Currency here is the Egyptian Pound, 7+ of which, is equal to a US Dollar.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WARNING: these posts have not yet been proof-read. It’s difficult to find decently priced internet connections here. The actual posting time of these entries is April 22, in Jerusalem – in the Olive Tree hotel… with free WiFi! 2005.04.10 *Pilgrimage Day 1*<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4],"tags":[380,920],"class_list":["post-276","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-egypt","tag-pilgrimage"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nargalzius.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}