Leaving Hotel Oasis, Giza | Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 62) 08D19

Final Hours at the Hotel Oasis | Leaving Cairo Tonight

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

Once I reached my room, I was shocked to find out that they gave me a much better room this time. I felt bad because I would be leaving in a couple of hours and got such a nice room, but when I stayed longer for the first time my room was not so good.

My room was on the second floor and quite spacious. There was a balcony overlooking the resort. The washroom was big with a huge bathtub and a standing shower. This is the kind of room you want to stay in and relax, but I had to leave shortly.

I had to rush to finish my shower, organize and pack my only carry-on bag, so I could be ready at the lobby at 8:00. What I didn’t realize was that someone gave me the wrong information and my airport pickup was not until 10:00.

When I was in the lobby and saw no one, the employees at the counter told me I was scheduled for a 10:00 pickup with some other people. I got upset, as I was rushing the whole time to be here at 8:00 and now I’d have to sit and wait for another 2 hours.

I asked for my tour guide and explained to him what had happened. He apologized for the wrong information and offered me the keys to get back to my room (I already checked out), but I didn’t want to go back to my room again.  He was nice enough to stay with me for the rest of my waiting time and offered me tea and snacks. I asked only for tea.

We sat for the next couple of hours and talked about our trips and various other things. I was more than pleased for his nice gesture and spending some time with me, which he didn’t have to do – yet another example of Egyptian hospitality.

Before 10:00, I saw other passengers gathering in the lobby and we finally left for the airport. I looked at the hotel Oasis for the last time and it will remain in my heart for a long time.

Lenovo Chromebook Duet or Lenovo C340 2-in-1 Convertible Chromebook

Is The 11.6" or 10.1" Chromebook Better? | Lenovo C340 2-in-1 Convertible Chromebook Vs. Lenovo Chromebook Duet

Which one is a better option for travel and day-to-day needs: the 10-inch or 11- to 12-inch Chromebook Convertible Laptop Tablet? Today, I will answer this from my own experience, without going into too many tech details.

When I first bought my Lenovo C340 11.6" Hybrid Convertible Chromebook, my purpose was to make it a travel laptop and use it here and there, mostly when I don’t want to move my main Windows 10 Asus ASUS ZenBook Flip S UX370UA laptop.

However, 11.6 inches felt big, at least for me, and I was not using it daily as I was expecting to. It just sat there on one side of my kitchen counter and I kept charging it once in a while to keep the battery powered.

Then one day I was at Best Buy to get a set of earbuds. I accidentally saw the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 10.1-inch Chromebook. It caught my attention right away because of its smaller and eye-catching design.

I came home and did some research. I was convinced that this is what I have been looking for and ordered one the same night.

Both the Lenovo Chromebook Duet and the Lenovo C340 are hybrid convertible 2-in-1 laptop tablets. The Chromebook Duet has a detachable keyboard, which the C340 doesn’t. However, the little 1.6-inch difference in size makes a lot of difference in terms of portability and convenience.

The Lenovo Duet is so easy to carry and slips into any small bags or backpacks without weighing you down, so much so that I am using it a lot more than the C340. The Lenovo Duet can sit on a tight and challenging space so I feel comfortable using it anywhere and more often.

The Lenovo Duet also looks very high end, although its price isn’t. It offers a lot more practicality when you’re traveling and don’t want a bulky or bigger laptop or tablet.

I am surprised that now I use my Lenovo Duet more often than my Lenovo C340 and I am happy about my using experience. Currently, I am working on a review of the Lenovo Chromebook Duet and I will publish it on my YouTube channel shortly.

Outdoor Patio Restaurant at the Khan El Khalili Bazaar | Cairo Downtown to Giza| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 61) 08D19

Cairo Khan El Khalili Bazaar Patio Restaurant | Through Cairo Downtown | Khan El Khalili Bazaar to Hotel Oasis in Giza

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

We all gathered at a restaurant and sat in the outdoor patio in the Khan El Khalili Bazaar. I met some people from other tour groups and we talked about our Egypt experience. Our tour guide joined us as well.

I only ordered mint tea. I liked Egyptian mint tea so much that I was having that almost daily.

There were other restaurants on the same row and all of them had outdoor patios. One funny thing I noticed was that some employees were shouting and fighting for customers to get into their restaurants. Sometimes I even saw them grabbing customers by the hand and pulling them onto their premises, so the next restaurant couldn’t get them.

It was an evening I would remember forever. Hot, humid Cairo weather with an invigorating gentle desert breeze, crowds, chaos, smells from the restaurants, and the thought that I was leaving Cairo in just 6 hours … they all made for an unforgettable and eternal experience.

I asked my tour guide to suggest some dry Egyptian sweets to take back to Canada. I also knew some names of sweets from the Felucca cruise. The tour guide asked the restaurant to airtight-pack sweets such as Basbousa, Kunafa, and Baklava for the flight. They prepared those sweets in nice boxes in different layers.

We were ready to head for Giza to our hotel. We would go through downtown Cairo and I was ready to video some downtown Cairo clips.

We hopped in our tour van to head towards Giza and our hotel. This trip would give us an opportunity to see downtown Cairo. Normally it would take about an hour to reach our hotel, but Sunday traffic was especially bad and it took a lot longer.

Downtown Cairo looked like any other big city’s downtown, but with a lot more chaos and crowds. There were big brand stores, restaurants, and cafes with their glimmering lights and shiny invitations to go in and shop.

The streets were heavily lit. There was lots of traffic and honking horns. What made Cairo different was the heavy volume of people. It’s hard to imagine this type of volume if you are from another country. When we were up on the expressway, it gave us a good chance to see the streets full of people from above and I was shocked to see so many people here and there.

I especially noticed the density of people near every open market or bazaar every few blocks here and there. There were vegetables, fish, meat, clothes, restaurants … basically anything you can think of had open-air stores on the streets. I couldn’t understand how it’s possible to even buy anything when you couldn’t really move because everywhere was jam packed with people.

We were supposed to reach our hotel in an hour, but traffic slowed us down. I was getting worried, as I had to leave the hotel on time to catch my flight leaving at 01:50 tonight. We finally reached our hotel after an hour and a half.

I rushed to my room to get ready to leave for my flight.

Haggling at the Khan El Khalili Bazaar in Cairo| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 60) 08D19

Cairo Khan El Khalili Bazaar Tour | The Most Famous Ancient Market in Egypt

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

I started walking in the main lane of the Khan El-Khalili bazaar first to take some pictures and videos. Later, I would buy some miniature pyramids and T-shirts.

There was a bizarre variety of stores and products. I thought if I had time, I would spend 5-6 hours in the Khan El-Khalili bazaar going store by store, lane by lane.

While I walked, employees were calling to me from almost every store. Some of them were offering prices in dollars and shouting amazingly cheap deals. The amount of stuff and numbers of people browsing on the street were really amazing.

This place never sleeps. The more you go through the night, the more it gets crowded. I think this is a common pattern in the Middle East. People go out more in the night time than the day time. My guess is it has to do with the sweltering heat during the day. 

I was looking for miniature pyramids and T-shirts with hieroglyphics on them. This was the time to put my haggling skills to test. After hearing their prices, I offered prices so low that the first two stores told me I was being unreasonable. Then I tried a few more and had no luck. I thought they were asking too much, seeing me a foreigner.

One store had both T-shirts and a variety of colored pyramids I wanted and they were ready to haggle prices with me. After spending some time going back and forth on a total price, as I was buying good quantity, we agreed upon a number. They even wrapped those little stone pyramids, so they wouldn’t break on the flight home.

I was heading to the restaurant where our group would meet and have something to eat before leaving the Khan El-Khalili bazaar.

Khan El Khalili Bazaar in Cairo| Egypt Travel Blog: Day 09 (Part 59) 08D19

Cairo Khan El Khalili Bazaar | The Most Famous Ancient Market in Egypt

Egypt Travel Blog: 10 DAYS Egypt Explorer - Felucca Cruise & Red Sea

After visiting the Cairo Museum, we headed to the Khan El Khalili Bazaar located in the heart of Islamic Cairo, not far from the medieval walled city, the Saladin Citadel. We were asked if we wanted to visit the Saladin Citadel, but everyone passed on that. Most of us were too tired and wanted to go back to the hotel.

They say no trip to Cairo is complete without visiting the Khan El Khalili Bazaar. Merchants, both local and foreign, have been trading in the Khan El Khalili Bazaar since the 14th century. Khan El Khalili was originally built as a burial site. The burial site belonged to the Fatimid Caliphs and these were the people who founded Cairo in the 10th century.

Going to the Khan El-Khalili bazaar is like going back in time to an old Arab souk. It’s hard to think of something you can’t find in the bazaar. You will find almost anything you can think of. Colorful candles and lanterns, jewellery, perfumes, musical instruments, handicrafts, sweets, spices I never knew existed, statuettes, souvenirs, silver jewellery, t-shirts, galabiyyas, belly dancing costumes … what more do you want?

Here you can put your haggling skills to good use and you are expected to haggle. At some stores when I started with 1/3 price of what merchant asked for, they were looking at me like I was an alien!

Even if you don’t want to buy anything, walking through the alleys and experiencing a different world will make your Egypt trip worthwhile. It is possible to lose track of time and get lost in the maze of stores.

We were given an hour and a half to visit the bazaar and then we would meet at a restaurant to eat and have tea.