Middle East 2022

Flight delayed a half hour but had sent hotel my local number so we were in contact as I had booked and paid for them to arrange a transfer to the hotel.. Driver met me outside the airport. The Spring Hotel on the West Bank seems perfectly lovely and these are the nicest family you can imagine. My faith in people is restored. Welcomed by Momid the son of the owner and I requested a glass of tea with fresh mint. and then the manager Ashraf who is the owner's nephew and runs the place came along.

I sat down with Ashraf at 9pm and discussed the sights I really wanted to see. He got on his phone and within a few minutes he arranged a custom private tour. He hired a taxi driver to take me around all the West Bank sights and bring me home. Then a rest and a wonderful buffet lunch at the Crocodile Restaurant next door (also owned by the family) before a ride across the Nile with a private boat which was for my exclusive use for the rest of the day. In the afternoon, as mentioned later, another driver was mine for the afternoon on the East Bank. Dinner was a la carte at the Spring Hotel's own restaurant for an extra charge.

The hotel was in very good repair in the public areas and only a few defects in the room, but it was all in good working order. The best thing was the genuine care they took of their guests without ever getting the sense you were nothing but a source of money to be extorted. At one point he said The East Bank is full of homeless people in the streets and scammers at the sights and he wants to protect his West Bank guests and allow them to enjoy the more peaceful life on his side of the river. He was especially caustic about Cairo, considering it a blemish on his whole country's reputation.Leggi altro