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CAIRO, Egypt (Contributed by Pez)
"April 2004 - I had to catch the last plane from London to Cairo and arrived at Cairo airport at 1am. I tell you girls, if youre on your own and blonde and blue eyed please dont do what i did and go it alone!!
I had to use the bathrooms, big mistake! I was locked in by some 'attendant' who's only contribution to my 'toilet experience' was holding me captive until i forked up some dough.
After getting through customs i really had no idea what i was doing or where to go as i was meeting a friend in Dahab. I asked the taxi drivers to take me to Ramses Station but only after getting their assurance that there was a station to sit in and wait.
They dropped me off in the middle of Cairo at the 'station' where i was the only female with Arab men staring at me. Some even went so far as to stand within a metre staring.
Dogs were everywhere and large rodents that i have no idea what they were, were crawling all over the place.
Calls to prayer every 20mins didnt help and i sat in my sleeping bag in a plastic deck chair, glasses on, hood over my head in an attempt to hide. I the men that had seen me had called their mates down to have a look as more men arrived constantly.
UNFORTUNATELY....i had to use the bathroom. He offered to 'clean' it first. This involved picking up a bottle of disinfectant and throwing it over the walls and floor and then leaving it. No mop, no scrub....nothing. You could literally see the germs fizzling in the disinfectant. And dont get me started on the smell!!! He even charged me for the privilege.
Come 8am i was dieing for some Western contact and a bit of sanctuary from the ogling i had got for the past 6 hours and managed to hook onto 2 Australian guys who understood how i felt.
Never ever again will i venture into that country without a companion of some kind, preferably good 'ol Oz male!!!!
Take my advise, avoid at all costs!!!" Added 20 Nov 04