I am not sure ….. but I think I am starting to become a little more “Egyptian” ….. I think I may even be “looking” more Egyptian.

By popular request, I have included some photos in the blog now, including the back issues. I have learnt how to do that but not how to add captions – if I find I can do that I will add them later.

Happy New Year to you all. The Eid continues here, and Coptic Christmas is still a few days off, but the 25th December Christmas and New Year have been and gone. Our part-time travelling companion, Maryann, has also come and gone and returned and now left and is safely tucked away in Brisbane again. She came back to Cairo for one night on the 30th which gave us a chance to hear of her adventures “up the Nile”.

Our Christmas was not your usual Brisbane affair. We enjoyed Christmas Eve here in our hotel, choosing that over offers to go to various Cairo venues. The Christmas celebrations here tend to be on the eve rather than on the night. The hotel put on a delightful four course dinner with special decorations and superlative service. There was also a special organist cum singer who could play almost anything in the vibrant “belly dancing” style so typical of the Middle East. We are somewhat “institutions” here as I don’t think that anyone else has ever stayed here for so long. I am reminded of the “Colonel” from Falty Towers. But we receive wonderful service now, well above the norm.

On Christmas day we went to Saqqara to the tomb and pyramid area. This was the original site of the pyramids – where the first prototypes were built. There are also loads of tombs and the area is far more interesting than Giza. Saqqara is some distance south from Cairo but from it you can see the Giza pyramids and the Dahshur pyramids. Dahshur is the site of the “bent” pyramid where the original slope of the walls proved to produce too high a structure, so the upper part was built with a lesser slope.

A new museum was opened at Saqqara last April and we had a guided tour from an archaeologist of that and of the site, going into one pyramid and some tombs. All a wonderful experience.

That night we attended a Christmas service at a small church in Zamalek. The church is beautifully decorated with a series of mosaics and is a fine merger of the Middle Eastern and Italian styles. I was struck by the fact that, for the first time in my experience, I did not sweat at a Christmas service – the beauty of the northern hemisphere.

We went from there to “a leading hotel” nearby and had a delightful dinner at an Italian restaurant within the hotel. The food tasted great and the atmosphere was delightful, but I say “leading hotel” because I do not wish to defame their reputation when I discuss the food poisoning I “scored”. A mild illness, but one that lasted until New Year.

My debility did not prevent us from visiting the Manyal Palace later in the week. This was the home of King Farouk and involves a house that is being restored, gardens, a hunting lodge (complete with scores of stuffed heads – from animals who were rendered “stuffed” by the King), and a private mosque. We received some extra treatment there also, enabling us to see some special areas – we now understand how a King’s bathroom works.

From there we went to the Citadel, perched high above Cairo with the best views in town. An old fortress, and including a couple of mosques, this is one of the gems of Cairo. I had not seen it before but Cathy had been a couple of weeks ago. None the less, as we have so often found, on a second visit we find more to the places than our first visit suggested.

Before Maryann’s departure we celebrated at one of our favoured restaurants where we had some good and bad fortune. The good news was that only two of the three of us suffered from food poisoning and Maryann was the one who missed out (Cathy and I made the same menu selection). That was especially important because Maryann had to leave on the long flight home the next day and I would hate to think what that might be like as sick as we were.

I went down first, possibly because I was still recovering from Christmas night but I quickly dehydrated and was fortunate that Cathy was able to nurse me with electrolytes etc., but by morning she was herself sick and we spent New Year’s eve taking it very quietly. By the 1st January we were pretty much back to normal although still a little weak due to effectively 36 hours without food. Hopefully, we are over it now and will not suffer a recurrence. I must admit that this was the most severe food-borne illness that I can remember suffering and for a while there I could see myself spending the New Year in a hospital.

I have been in the Middle East for a total of 16 weeks since November 2005, and have had three trips to Indonesia, the most recent lasting 6 weeks, and this is the first case of the Pharaoh’s Revenge in all that time. We have really been pretty fortunate with illness while travelling and it was far better to be sick in the convenient environment of our hotel than while on a tour. Both episodes were associated with “better class” establishments and whilst we were adhering to our “anti-food poisoning” protocols. I guess it goes to prove that dining at a 5 star hotel or restaurant is no guarantee of safety.

At any rate, we are back firing on all cylinders now and the events have become but travellers’ tales. I have been away from Brisbane for all of November and all of December now, and will not return until early February. With just 22 standard working days left, it has come down to programming each and every day for maximum impact, so I expect that the remainder of my stay will fly past.

We have, by and large, enjoyed our holiday season so far, complete with the remains of slaughtered animals on the footpaths, and have a good idea of what the “silly season” means in Egypt.