Enroute to Cairo

This trip to Egypt has deep meaning for all of us. Mom has Egypt on her To-Do list ever since we were children. The first time I heard about it was when we were still living in Hong Kong. She had these coffee table books with beautiful pictures of the pyramids, the old 7 Wonders of the World or what the illustrators would portray them to be. She read the stories to us, more than once. Then as we grew up, those books would appear here and there once in a while. Even though mom has a long list of places to visit, we believe Egypt has always been on the top of her list.

About couple years ago, the idea of taking her to Egypt started. We figured it would be a great birthday present for her when she turns 70. Then slowly, it dawned on us that we might not be able to wait until she actually turns 70. We should take her while she still can walk at a reasonable pace. She is 68 this year. Even though she seems to be physical capable at times, we can definitely see a slow deterioration of her strength for longer period of physical activities. So when this deal from Gate1 Travel came up in the summer, we decided it was time to fill this dream for her.

I wouldn’t call Egypt a child friendly travel destination and it would also be very difficult to organize for everyone to travel at once now that the clan has grown to 14. We decided we all would leave our spouses and children at home on this trip. Only the four of us siblings and mom would go on this adventure. It wasn’t easy to leave young ones at home but I think all our spouses understood the meaning of this trip. I think the last time we did this as a family of five was probably 15+ years ago.

For our flights, Brenda, mom, and I would fly from LAX to JFK. Vanessa and Dennis would meet us there from Minneapolis. Then we took the long haul flight with Egypt Air from JFK to Cairo. Our flight was 5-6 hours from the west coast to JFK and then another 10+ hours from JFK to Cairo. Here is a picture of Dennis at the Delta lounge drinking up before the long haul (one of the fringe benefit since he travels just about as much as I do for his job so he is an Elite member of the airline frequent flyer program).

We knew it was going to be “interesting” since we did obtain our trip at a bargain price. So setting a low expectation upfront helps!!!

This Egypt Air flight on this particular day from JFK to Cairo was probably one of the oldest airplanes I have ever flown. It was a good thing we were in such a great mood. We laughed at the broken seat table, the lack of alcoholic beverage (none was onboard regardless of class of services). Otherwise, it’s rather depressing. All I could say is we BELIEVE in FAA to have screened this plane to ensure all the engines are there and in operational conditions! There was no single entertainment monitor for each seat. You have the overhead TVs and showing outdated movies (especially after I just came back from another international flight). This one is far under par!!! It was pretty sad that our coach bus seat was in better condition than our flight seat!

Dennis in Egypt Air seat
Dennis in coach bus seat

We left on Tuesday and arrived on Wednesday mid-day with the remaining of the day to rest up. We certainly could use it. We were in much better shape after a decent shower.

At Cairo International Airport
All cleaned up in front of our Oasis Hotel pool