
2 Nov'08: Our flight left Chennai around 7.00 am & landed in Cairo around 1.30 pm local time. Food aboard Oman Air can was quite ordinary though we were served "Hindu Vegetarian" as specified at the time of booking.
We were received at Cairo airport by the local agents of Tour operators carrying Bosch banners for identification. Passport control was quick & efficient at Cairo and after collecting our baggage we wheeled out through an underpas


Located within walking distance from El Gezirah are the Opera House, the Egyptian Museum, the Cairo Tower. The hotel offers breathtaking views of the Nile, the Pyramids of Giza and the Cairo Citadel.
The panoramic and magnificent views of the Nile from the Hotel Room are best described in the phographs captured and shown here.
Dinner for the evening was aboard a stationary cruise boat named "Omar Khayyam" anchored on the banks of the Nile. It turned out to be a quiet & uneventful affair and there was neither alcohol nor any Egyptian dances on the menu as the name might imply.
Cairo by night is well illuninated and bustling with activity. The tall & slim Cairo Tower with soft illumination on the lattice exterior and colors continuously changing from Green to Purple to Red fires up your imagination. It has a revolving restaurant at the top which was the favorite dining spot of former President Gamel Abdel Nasser.
3 Nov'08: The day


Lunch was served at a Four Seasons restaurant. The vegetarians had a tough time finding something to eat and most of them were seen making a scramble for fried rice, fruit salad (both were in short supply) or desserts. Yoghurt was not on the menu and this made matters difficult.
Meanwhile the spouses had been taken on a sight seeing tour of Cairo and they lunched at an Indian restaurant "The Kandahar" and from reports received it appears they all enjoyed fabulous Indian food. The detailed descriptions provided by one of the spouses was mouth watering!
After lunch, confer


We returned to the hotel by 6.00 pm and after a bit of relaxation we departed around 9.00 pm for the night dinner cruise on the Nile Maxim. We enjoyed top-class service aboard the cruise, gliding past Cairo's illuminated skyline while we dined, with entertainment provided by a spectacular Belly-dancing and Tanoora folk dance. As we drifted along the Nile, the house band performed Western, Oriental and Arabic tunes. We returned a little fatigued & sleepy to El Gezirah past mid-night for a well deserved rest.
4 Nov'08: The MD's had a delayed transfer and hence were able to enjoy a relaxed breakfast. Some of us decided to smuggle yoghurt containers which came in handy during lunch. The MD's & spouses left simultaneously at 9.30 am - the spouses for the Museum tour & MD's for the Day 2 meeting at 4 Seasons. The morning meeting was brief - there were brainstorming sessions & presentations on how to increase the Diesel business. Then a brief address by yours truly to thank the Bosch Management for making wonderful & meticulous arrangements at Cairo. Mementoes in the form of Tanjore Plates were presented on behalf of Stanes Motor Parts Limited to Mr.Viswanathan & Mr.Ravi


For night dinner we were transferred to the Valley of the Giza Pyramids. It is an exquisite Bedouin Dinner and we were greeted on arrival by a convoy of camels, a dancing horse and a group of Bedouin musicians and escorted to a tent where tables are neatly arranged. The pyramids were artificially illuminated and looked romantically eerie in the starlit night. The weather was breezy and cool. Some were smartly wearing cardigans or shawls. A few ventured out on camel rides in the darkness.
A young not sufficiently experienced MC made his appearance and attempted to


5 Nov'08: This is our final morning at Cairo and we checked out after breakfast. The coach took us back to Cairo airport. There is a nice curio shop at the Duty Free and we shopped to our heart's content - papyrus paintings, models of pyramids & sphinnx, key chains,bottle openers, painted ceramic mugs & glasses, coasters etc. We once again traveled by Oman Air via Muscat. This time the transit time at Muscat lasted over five hours. More shopping opportunities were presented at Muscat Duty Free - liquor,dates & chocolates were the favorites.
We reached Chennai at 6.00 am on 6 Nov'08. The Grand Conference Tour to Cairo was over.
For more photographs log on to web album : http://picasaweb.google.com/ramakrishnan49/CairoVisit#
For Belly Dance on Nile Cruise log onto :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HRObvfbmteU
Excellent write up, Mr. Ramakrishnan ! Precise, frank and aptly worded. It was a pleasure reading it. Many people here ask me to brief them up on the Cairo trip. You have made the job easy for me; I simply have to mail this article to them !
ReplyDeleteRam Murthy,
Frontline Corporation Ltd;
Ahmedabad.
I think that that The Cairo is a great palce, so I will go to a travel agency in the mall called generic viagra, so I think that it is so nice, I want to get more photos like these.
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