Egypt: Day 1 - Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel & Spa

I usually fly in and out of Dubai in the evening or very early in the morning so I have never really had the chance to view islands of ‘The World’ from above. This time I saw them, and managed to take a photo soon after takeoff from Dubai International Airport. The flight to Cairo via Amman with Royal Jordanian was smooth. It was already evening when we reached Cairo skies. From above, I could see the city spreads out to the horizon. And the minarets. Yes, the thousands of minarets which are lit up in neon green, a common sight that serves as a sign for the faithful where the nearest mosque is to them. Beautiful...

This is going to be a beautiful experience, I said to myself.

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I met up with JC who arrived within an hour or so after my arrival at Cairo International Airport. We took a taxi straight to our hotel, Le Meridien Pyramids Hotel & Spa, which we had chosen solely for the reason that it’s the second nearest hotel to the Pyramids. The nearest hotel is Mena House Oberoi Hotel but that's way out of our budget.

It was late at night when we arrived and only the hotel was lit up. The surrounding area was totally dark apart from some street light.

Me: I can’t see any pyramids from here. Are we not supposed to be near the pyramids? Didn’t we purposely book this hotel because it’s supposed to be close to the pyramids?

JC: Yeah, we should. Maybe they are on the other side of the hotel?

Check-in took quite a bit of time. Maybe our room has been given away because we arrived late? Maybe they have trouble locating a twin-room for us? Not sure if I remember putting a note about this when I made the booking. Eventually we were brought to our room by a porter. We had booked the cheapest available room, a ‘City View’ room instead of a ‘Pyramids View’ room, which is more expensive for the obvious reason.

I took a peek out of the window. There’s no city view. It’s dark all around. It's probably around midnight. The city was already dead.

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JC got up and opened the curtain on the windows. North African morning sunlight burst into the room.