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We finally arrived at the Luna Hotel which is right downtown. We picked it for it’s location and also because we got a 10% discount for booking over 15 days and a 10% discount for paying in cash up front. They let us check our room before we checked in which I thought was great. It was voted the 3rd best hostel in all of Africa in 2004 (we are used to 3rd world conditions, this is pretty nice). Our room had 3 single beds (we paid extra for a private room), a chair, a closet with a big mirror, 2 nighttables, a private bathroom with a shower and an air conditioner. I think they threw in a “quiet” room for free because we are staying so long. Our total was $408 for 26 nights (88LE a night) plus 15LE for airport parking fees. They asked to keep our passports overnight so they could photocopy them (and while I hate handing over my passport I’ve done it before in other hotels, so I thought it was ok) When we tried to pay after seeing the room of course, they didn’t know anything about the discount and told us just to go to sleep and talk to the manager in the morning. We bought some water to brush our teeth and went to sleep.
9/6
The next morning our plan was just to familiarize ourselves with the area, exchange some money and get some food. We were still pretty jetlagged with the time difference (we’d been living in Japan for 3 years, it’s a 5 hour difference, and emotionally I’d just left all my dance sisters). We got up and went out to check in with the hotel officially. The staff was super friendly, like they were the night we arrived. We asked if we could pay all the money we had on us (because our limit was restricted at the airport) and pay the difference later-they said no problem. They also told us to be careful on the street. They gave us a mini-currency lesson-don’t confuse the 50s!! And they reminded my partner that on the street I was his wife, not his girlfriend. They told us not to talk to anyone who spoke to us because they are all street hustlers “if you give them 1 word, they will give you 10.” They reminded us we didn’t have to be kind to everyone.
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