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Due to all the work I have been involved with in Egypt over the past 2 years, dealing with the Desert Pearl Fiasco, I had the pleasure of being invited to celebrate the Queens Birthday at the British Embassy in Cairo.  I was invited to this prestigious event by Michael Lacey who is the Managing Partner of Denton Wilde Sapte’s Cairo office, these are the solicitors we have been working with to secure the apartments for all the investors left stranded by Worldwide Destinations.   The function was being held on the 18th June 2010, this enabled me to fly out to Hurghada on the Tuesday before and attend a few meetings.

I booked my ticket to Cairo on the Thursday, nothing is simple! I took my numbered ticket at the Egypt Air office (why they have numbers I don’t know as they don’t believe in queuing), waited in the queue for my turn, went through my flight requirements and when it came to paying was told I couldn’t pay with a card as they had no signal for the machine.  I had to go to the nearest cash machine to get the money and return to Egypt Air to go through the process again.

On the Friday morning, Ehab had a day off so was going to Dream Beach as he was taking me to the airport I had to go with him along with Tom.  As usual Ehab was treated like the King of Egypt and had the front 5 sunbeds reserved for us, I had to leave Tom in his capable hands he said “don’t worry Neil I will treat him like a son while you are away”.  I wasn’t sure whether I should be worried or not!

I arrived at Hurghada domestic departures and went through to catch my 1400hr flight up to Cairo, I had a meeting booked as soon as I arrived in Cairo.  I arrived at 1505hrs, straight out to be picked up and taken for the meeting, I received a call from Michael telling me the driver would pick me up from my hotel at 1800hrs and I was travelling with the CEO of DWS (time was going to be tight).  Well it would have been if my taxi driver wasn’t driving like a maniac, it had to be the scariest taxi ride of my life and I have been on a few.  The traffic lights in Cairo are for decoration otherwise my taxi driver was colour blind on top of this there was no air con and the boot flew open after a few minutes into the journey.  I arrived at the Marriott hotel at 1730hrs shaken but still alive and only 30 minutes before the driver was arriving to pick me up, I had a white shirt on that had turned black from the seatbelt, I looked very professional turning up at such an upmarket hotel.

I had packed my DJ in my suitcase so it needed a quick iron before putting on plus I needed a shave and shower.  I wasn’t allowed to take my own suitcase up so left it with the porter telling me he would be right behind me, why do I never learn!  I was waiting 10 minutes for my suitcase to arrive, couldn’t have a shower and didn’t have a shirt or suit to iron, I had managed to find and plug the iron in though.  Finally I was ready with minutes to go, so off I went to find my driver, easier said than done.  The Marriott in Cairo has two towers and I was to meet the driver in the car park of the Zamalek Tower, I couldn’t find it, after a few phone calls to Michael he navigated me through the hotel, the grounds, back through the hotel and finally into the car park.  There was Martin (DWS CEO) waiting for me, great start!!

We arrived at DWS’s offices just after 1800hrs to find the garden party in full swing, I was introduced to lots of people and as always in these situations you try to remember as many names as possible and end up remembering none of them.  After a few drinks in the garden it was into the coaches and off to the ball, several of the guests were commenting on how long they had lived and worked in Cairo without an invitation to this very special event ( I started to feel nervous as it was tuning out to be a very special invitation).  We arrived at the British Embassy and had to show our personalised tickets and go through airport style security just to get into the grounds.  On entering the Embassy we all lined up to have our photograph taken, the photographer wanted to take individual ones but Michael was having none of it and told him to take a group one.

After the photograph we went through the Embassy and out into the garden (WOW!) the whole garden was full of highly decorated tables and chairs with around 200 guests all dressed up for the occasion.  There was also a stage with a singer performing a couple of songs while we all found our tables for the evening.  I was on table 8 with many of the guests I met in the garden at DWS (time to try and remember some names) otherwise things were going to be very quiet.  After a welcome speech from the Honourable Dominic Asquith HM Ambassador to Egypt it was time for the food to be served, there was a seafood platter to start, it was then a bowl of soup before we were served a fantastic main course of beef, with mash and a selection of roasted vegetables.  There were bottles of wine on the table and the vino flowed freely, along with a free bar serving a selection of drinks.

After the meal the entertainment started and we were treated to some fantastic bands and solo singers, one in particular were called “Smash, Bang Boom” absolutely fantastic and all wearing black curly wigs they looked like the 118 guys.  There was a big dance floor that was full all night, even yours truly busted a few moves although it was very warm, mid Forties during the day and not much less in the evening.  I thought we were going to be inside with air con, not sat out in the garden.

During the night I was introduced to many influential people, Michael introduced me to Reena the British Council in Cairo who worked closely with the Ambassador who in turn introduced me to Dominic the Ambassador.  We had a very good conversation about the issues in Hurgahda and the Ambassador was fully aware of the situation as were everyone else in the Egyptian government.  Dominic was very keen to hear what we had managed to achieve over the 2 years and very pleased to hear we were close to a solution for many investors, he asked what the sticking points were and told me to let him know what he could do to help.  I was very pleased to hear that all the government officials were aware of what was happening and were all very keen to see it resolved.  I can understand why they can’t intervene too much as it is UK companies that have disappeared with the millions of pounds, not the Egyptians therefore they can’t be seen to be punishing or threatening the builders to resolve the issues and hand over the apartments for free.

The ball ended and I was ready to make my way back to the hotel and get some much needed sleep before my flight back to Hurghada when I was told we were going on to another venue!  Some of our party had drivers waiting with their cars ready to drive them home or as it turned out on to an open air nightclub halfway up a new hotel called The Fairmont.  I had by now drank more than enough so I was on water while the others carried on partying and drinking, by now jackets had been removed, bow ties were missing and we didn’t quite look as good as we did for the initial photograph.  At last the club was closing and it was time to head home or so I thought!

How wrong I was, when I arrived outside it was like a military mission in progress working out who was going to go in which car to someone’s apartment for more drink (I wasn’t going to get away with water any longer).  We drove through Cairo and arrived at the British Council’s apartment, the numbers had dwindled to just 7 but the ones still standing were the ones I needed to get me back to the hotel.  After managing to make one can of lager last a couple of hours, it was now 0530hrs and Martin was flying back to the UK at 0800hrs, so finally it was time to retire.  After leaving the hotel 12 hours earlier Martin and I arrived back at the Marriott the birds singing, the guards sleeping.

We said our goodbyes and as far as I know he made it to the airport and back to the UK, for me it was 2 hours sleep before travelling back to the airport for my flight back to Hurghada.  After checking out I was offered either a Mercedes taxi at 390LE or a Lancer for 190LE, I chose the Lancer, what I didn’t ask for though was Lewis Hamilton as a driver!  If I thought the drive from the airport was bad, this return journey was a whole lot worse, I have no idea why Egypt have never had a F1 champion driver.  We were doing 160Km through traffic as busy as London rush hour, we were making our own lane through the middle of the 2 lanes, I was breathing in thinking it might make the car slimmer as we barely made it through the traffic.  No one was safe even those crossing the pedestrian crossings they got a beep of the horn and told to get off the road, all that was missing was a handbrake turn in to the parking bay as the driver turned to me and said in broken English “safe journey sir”.  Safe journey?  I felt safer flying into Baghdad when I was in the RAF!