EP 106 The new Cairo with Belle Jackson, avoiding a rainy holiday & things left in Ubers

You've booked a holiday to Egypt, but the Grand Egyptian Museum's (GEM) opening has been postponed...again! "All is not lost!" says podcast host and Egypt aficionado Belle Jackson, who is just back from Cairo.

Belle shares her top three things to do in Cairo, including the best Egyptian museums and neighbourhoods, essential experiences and answers the age-old question, is Cairo safe right now? For more of Belle's travels, see https://www.instagram.com/global_salsa 

And we have a winner of our tropical Thai holiday giveaway of four nights at Avani+ Khao Lak! Thanks to Avani Hotels & Resorts, who generously offered this prize to our listeners to celebrate our 100th episode! 

And finally, our tip this week is how to avoid the rainiest places in the world (unless you love a downpour!), and we cover off the craziest things people have left in Ubers.

Chapters

• 1:14 Siem Reap with Kirstie
• 3:35 What you've left in an Uber
• 9:11 Best things to do in Cairo
• 32:57 The winner of our Thailand holiday giveaway with Avani Hotels & Resorts
• 33:00 How to avoid a rainy holiday, with casino.org

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

Welcome to The World Away. Travel tales to inspire your wanderlust. Welcome back to The World Awakes. We hope you've enjoyed our winter series where we replayed some of our best episodes after the last six months. So the reason we do that is so that we can focus on our own travel and also bring you back insights into the places that we go around the world. We are walking the talk, people. And it means we can package up also some of the best episodes for you in the winter series, and we do that for the summer series too. And don't forget that you can also always go back and take a listen to all the other sort of inspiring and travel interviews and pluck out the places that you want to hear more from, because there are now 106 episodes for you to listen to. Yeah, amazing.

SPEAKER_01: 0:53

Yeah, so good. So as Kirstie, you've just mentioned, we've both been back on the road. So Buckle up, because I'm going to give you an update on Cairo, where I'm just back from. But first, I mean, tell us a little bit about your travels over the last four weeks, Kirsty.

SPEAKER_00: 1:11

Yeah, so I went to Siem Reap, where we stayed at this stunning property called SC City Angkor Bayavani, which is about a 10-minute drive from Angkor Wat, which is just... I mean, to be that close and stay in this just gorgeous, luxurious property and be so close is just... you know, I was so privileged to be there. And then we went to Korong, which is to an all-inclusive private island resort called Songsa. So this is a gorgeous little private island off the coast of the mainland of Cambodia. And it was an island, it's actually an island off an island. And this tiny little island was actually completely covered in rubbish 20 years ago. And a woman, an Australian called Melita Kulmandis actually bought the island for€15,000 And she's transformed it into Cambodia's first dedicated marine reserve. And it is like you literally, when you're there, you feel like you are the only person. It feels like your private island. It is just remarkable. So we will talk about that later on.

SPEAKER_01: 2:14

I love that story. It's such a great story. And you're going to tell us some more about those places in more detail in upcoming episodes. So stay tuned. But first... We have some super exciting news. We have a winner for our Thai giveaway, our Thai holiday giveaway. So just... We're so excited. Just to recap, celebrating our 100th episode. Yes. And to help us celebrate, Avani Hotels and Resorts generously gave us a tropical holiday in Thailand to give away to one of our lucky listeners. Four nights at Avani Plus Khao Lak. There were transfers from Phuket Airport, breakfast and dinner, and a Muay Thai boxing class as well, which just shows, you know, when in Rome and all of that sort of thing.

SPEAKER_00: 3:05

Yeah, absolutely. God, I'd love to do that. And if you are listening on playback and you're not listening, you know, as we're going to air this week, then there will obviously be other giveaways at a later date too. So make sure that you follow us on Instagram at the World Awakes podcast. And we'll also put a link in the show notes because then you can make sure that you can, you know, enter other competitions. So keep listening to the end of this episode to find out who won that fantastic tropical holiday.

SPEAKER_01: 3:33

Right. So, Back into it, kicking off, we have a list of things Australians are leaving in the back of Ubers on their travels and at home. And if you ever felt bad for leaving behind a bag, a backpack, headphones or a phone, don't because a whopping 5,485 Androids and more than 3,000 iPhones have been left in Ubers in the past 12 months.

SPEAKER_00: 4:00

The stats also show that Sydney is the most forgetful city in Australia, followed closely by Melbourne, or at least those who were in Sydney or Melbourne at that time. And we're also most forgetful on Saturdays. I wonder if it's because alcohol's involved. But some of the most unusual things to be left behind included a Steve Irwin toy and an esky full of crabs and, get this, a sword. And$1,200, I don't know how they know this amount, but obviously had it written on the front, but$1,200 worth of meat and a raffle winning and a vibrator. They were among the things that all of them found.

SPEAKER_01: 4:46

Oh my God, I love that. Other unforgettable forgotten items include the keys to somebody's Lamborghini. Impressive. Hair extensions, which is a little bit eerie. A kung fu belt and a clown had misplaced their nose. There was also a cooked chicken, a bachelor's handbag. A bottom denture, which is going to make eating the cooked chicken kind of tricky. A massage table. How do you get a massage table behind? They're huge. A cat scratching post and an electric donut maker. So I don't know who's carrying around an electric donut maker, but... I need to know, Kirsty, have you ever left anything in an Uber?

SPEAKER_00: 5:29

Look, I don't actually, I don't have no fun stories about this. But my hubby did actually leave his phone behind. once, which I've hit him up about all the time because he never leaves anything behind. He knows where everything is. He even knows where everything of mine is. So it was really funny when he did do that. Well, not funny, haha, but not for him at the time. But we didn't see it again. So when saying that, it was years and years ago and it was sort of quite early in the Uber days and I can't remember him trying very hard to get it back.

SPEAKER_01: 5:59

Oh, my God. You guys are like not human, are you? Because I cannot believe that you've never lost anything. I mean, I am appalling even now. But my family is like just in shock constantly. I did leave my phone in an Uber one night. It had fallen out of my bag. And this is where I lose a lot of things like this. Things fall out of your bag. You don't see it on the floor in dim light when you're getting out. You know, you've got a black phone and a black car interior. I find that really tricky. I was jumping out of Southern Cross Station. Amazingly, the driver came back to where he dropped me and returned it, which was just phenomenal. I could actually get it back. But the same thing happened. happened to me on a flight. I was going to KL airport and the next passenger found it. Again, black phone, black seats. The guy jumped in and realized that it was, you know, sitting on my phone. Found it, contacted me, and then he never sent it on to me. This thing was... I knew who he was. He was a pilot for a low-cost carrier. And I stalked him. Please return my phone. Please return. And he just never bothered to send it back to me. He said, oh, yeah, totally. I'll send it back to you or I'll be flying into Melbourne and I'll drop it off. Never dropped it back, the mongrel. But, I mean, actually, if you do, I think that things have changed a bit now. If you do leave something behind, you can call the driver directly because you've got their number. Otherwise, you can roll the dice and go to Uber's help page and you tap the activities Select the trip and scroll to find lost item. Then you can reach the driver there as well. Of course, this doesn't actually work if you don't have your phone.

SPEAKER_00: 7:34

Yes, yes. And you actually reminded me of one story, but it's not on an Uber, but when you were talking about on the plane. So I actually, at the airport, I actually was on a plane and I had my ear pods and And the plane was a really bumpy ride and they flew out of my handbag and they went flying up the plane ride. And so I tapped the person in front of me and said, oh, have you got my AirPods? Can you see if they're there? And she was like, no, but I saw a lady up the front, further up, pick them up. So I sort of had this trail of trying to find where they were. And then at the end, I said to the woman, can you just tap that other lady and ask So we had this kind of recession of people tapping people saying, hey, you've got her AirPods. And this lady's like, no, I don't. These are mine. And she claimed they were hers. So what I did is I took my phone up to her and I said, can you just open them? And I'll just hold my phone out. And she opened them and it said, Kirstie's iPod, Kirstie's AirPods. So she got busted. So she had to give them back to me in front of everyone. And it was rather embarrassing for her. But there you go. So it was that story. But back to the Ubers. And moral of the story is if you're in Sydney on a Saturday, double and triple check before you get out of an Uber.

SPEAKER_01: 8:58

And don't nick Kirsty's earbuds.

SPEAKER_00: 9:12

This week, I'm interviewing Belle about her recent trip to Cairo. Belle's a frequent traveller to this North African nation because she's actually married to an Egyptian, anyone that didn't know. And she always finds a way to experience something new. So this trip wasn't any different. And so kick off, Belle, by telling us the best way to get there.

SPEAKER_01: 9:34

You know, I'm just going to make one point. I met my husband after I moved to Cairo. I didn't I didn't go to Cairo because of him. I was living in Cairo, learning Arabic and working as a journalist. And then I met him. So everyone thinks, oh, you just took it on because you took on your husband. No, no. All right. A love affair started with the country, not the man. But look, yeah, so what it does mean is that I've got family back there. So we go back every year and spend varying amounts of time. Normally, we will fly through one of the Middle Eastern hubs. So whoever's got the best price between Qatar, Emirates and Etihad, and then jumping on from there. But this time, this year, we were booking late. We were booking in school holidays. So we had to get a bit creative because the cost of the airfares were absolutely punishing, of course. So we flew up to KL, up to Kuala Lumpur with AirAsia. Then we picked up an Emirates flight that went up to Dubai and Cairo and I mean, really, because the point of this is that the leg, as you get out of Australia, that Australian leg is always phenomenally expensive. Once you're out of Australia, the fares drop. I mean, the Emirates flight from Dubai and on to Cairo is, you know, is through the floor. So it was a little bit of a schlep, but it saved us about$1,000 on each ticket. So that is generally how, I mean, best possible scenario is just flying Melbourne to Dubai, Dubai to Cairo. Yeah. Yeah, that's the best way of doing

SPEAKER_00: 11:03

it. So it's one of the world's largest cities. So tell us a bit about, I mean, does it feel that way when you're there? Does it feel like really bustly and busy? It

SPEAKER_01: 11:11

is. Look, Cairo is big. It is actually mind-blowingly big. And I love this stat and I always share it. So Cairo, Australia's entire population is the same size population. as Cairo's population, about 26 million, which makes Cairo about the third or fourth largest, sorry, the fourth or fifth largest city in the world behind Tokyo, Delhi and Shanghai. So what that means is the traffic is awful, like notoriously awful. And as a result, Egyptians are terrible timekeepers. You'd hate this, Kirsty, but you never know what it's going to be like. But it is terrible. It is vast. It can easily take a couple of hours to cross the city. I've been in traffic jams at one and two o'clock in the morning. I have to say we were back in summer and in summer the city actually empties out because it's It's hot. So everybody nicks off to either the Mediterranean or the Red Sea. So one of the benefits of being there in summer is that you've actually got much less congestion. But on an everyday working day, you really feel the size of that city. And it ranges from, you know, you've got the pyramids at one side of it. You've got medieval Cairo in the middle. And then you've got... New Cairo, which is, you know, because Cairo is a lot like Delhi in that you have different levels, different tiers of wealth from, you know, extreme poverty to extreme wealth. So, you know, you do have those beautiful new parts of the city that are being built that I personally actually don't like spending a lot of time at because it's kind of like going to a shopping mall in Australia. So just more dancing fountains and... And that sort of thing. But yeah, so it does have all of those different layers. It does have a very upmarket modern section as well as those fabulous historical sections.

SPEAKER_00: 13:12

And besides, you know, obviously sort of having that juxtaposition and going amazing experience of seeing that really extreme variation. Yeah. What are some of the other things or what are the things as sort of as an insider, what are some of the things that you just, if I was going to go there, that you would be like, okay, these are like three things that you absolutely have to do?

SPEAKER_01: 13:34

Three things. Oh, gosh. If you're going in summer, you have to drink all the mango juice because I am obsessed with fresh mango juice. That is the essential. Whatever you do, you've got to drink mango juice while you're doing it because the mangoes are phenomenal in Egypt, not like anywhere else in the world. Right. Okay. So fueled up on mango juice. I mean, the reason why everybody goes to Cairo is, of course, for the pyramids, the Great Pyramids of Giza. Giza was a separate city and it's now just turning into this big, gigantic mush of Cairo. So they sit on the outskirts of the city, which is kind of weird because in the time that I've been traveling there over the last sort of nearly two decades, you're finding that the city is encroaching and almost encircling parts of the pyramids. So like those new developments that I've mentioned, they'll have names like pyramids view, you know, like a building estate or something like that, which is like, yeah, right. You can go and have a look at the pyramids out in your backyard, you know, which is phenomenal.

SPEAKER_00: 14:41

And do they literally have views of the pyramids, obviously? There

SPEAKER_01: 14:45

are places that look onto the pyramids, like there's residential areas that look onto the pyramids. The older ones around one side that are Traditionally, we're quite a slum area, and that's where you'd go to rent your camels and carriages and horses as well, because one of the great things to do is to actually hire a horse and ride around the pyramids. And we used to do it at night. It is not safe. Can I say, don't gallop through the desert at night around the pyramids because when you do it in daytime, you think, oh my goodness, I could have killed myself. But it is an exhilarating thing to do is to ride around the pyramids. That side of it, people are from some of the lowest socioeconomic stratas of Kyrian life and they look at the pyramids. Phenomenal. That is being bulldozed and being built out now and you're seeing a lot more development in that in that area. So your three things to go to the pyramids, to go to Cairo, I would say pyramids. I would put Shara el-Waz, which is medieval Cairo, and I'll come back to the little later on. And then the museums, because the museums are intrinsically connected to how you understand and interpret the country.

SPEAKER_00: 15:58

Amazing. And so on those museums, let's just talk about them. So the Grand Egyptian Museum, Well, Gem, everyone, I mean, we've been hearing about this for so, so, so long and about how, you know, when it's going to be opening and what's going on in there and what's in there, really. So what's happening with that?

SPEAKER_01: 16:20

Well, yes. I mean, look, 20 years it's been going on from the time they started building planning the site for the Grand Egyptian Museum. So many things have happened that it's been delayed. You know, they've run out of money. They've had different countries, like Japan has sunk a lot of money into it. The first time I did a tour, like I've been there three times now and the first two times they were both hard hat sites. So like, you know, you had to put a hard hat on before you went in to explore it. It officially was supposed to open the first week I was in Cairo and the fifth of the 5th of July and serendipitously I thought fantastic I'm going to be there during the opening and then it got paused yet again like there's been so many times this has happened this time is because of course the ongoing war in Gaza so You know, when it is officially going to be opened, it's the world's largest collection of Egyptian artifacts. And it is also the world's largest archaeological museum. So, of course, the Egyptian government wanted to open it with all of the pomp and glamour that you would expect. They wanted to be able to invite heads of states from all over the world because, you know, the ancient Egyptian artifacts have so many connections with things like the British Museum, which has quite a significant holding, and then, of course, in New York as well. But who's going to go there at the moment when there's bombing happening in the country next door? So they postponed it until it is another one of those casualties of that war between Israel and Palestine. So it's physically finished. Everything is up and running. I did go in and check out what was going on. The two things that are not going to be shown and is not going to happen until it's officially opened is the artefacts of Tutankhamun, which is, you know, his lavish coffin, his death mask, his pure gold death masks, his little finger covers, you know, all of the phenomenal jewellery in that cache when it was discovered 100 years ago. Yeah. And the other thing is the solar boat of Chops, which used to live beside the Sphinx. So they haven't opened yet, but the rest of the museum is all open. And it's just beautiful. Like, it's honestly absolutely beautiful. If you have been to Egypt before, of course, everybody always went to the Grand Egyptian Museum. to the original Egyptian museum, which is a gorgeous old pink building in the centre of Cairo that everybody's gone there. What I did notice going back to do a recce for you, Kirsty, was, oh my God, there's no aircon still. So it is like phenomenally hot in that museum. And also it has always had a real problem with being curated because I've always said it's like an iceberg, nine tenths of what the museum, holds is down in the basement and hasn't been brought out to show the light of day for, you know, for a hundred years. And what is up is often very poorly explained. The Grand Egyptian Museum, the new museum, is beautiful. The explanation is gorgeous. It's got loads of interactive stuff, which is great for engaging kids in there as well. It's a holy, modern, completely beautiful building and it's a delight. But what it is part of, and this is what makes it also so significant, is it is part of a pyramids precinct. So it's only, as the crow flies, two kilometres from the pyramids. And eventually, and you can see it being constructed, there will be a walkway between the two. And from what I'd heard from some of the architects years ago, there was going to be an underground, a subterranean walkway and shopping malls and stuff, because who are you if you don't like a shopping mall? And I've got to say, Egyptians do love a good shop. So eventually what you will have is you'll have the pyramids, which themselves are undergoing significant change that are Grand Egyptian Museum, you'll be able to walk or ride between the two of them. And all of the services that are being built around it, and that means things like new hotels are cropping up everywhere. They're clearing out a lot of the slums. Not necessarily a great thing. It depends on who you ask. Of course, the people who are living in those slum areas pretty much don't want to get cleared out of where they are. But, you know, that has been one of the problems that people have always said, love seeing the pyramids. hate being chased by the camel touts because as the old question goes it's free to get on a camel the question is how much does it cost to get off so um yeah because nobody wants to be sitting on the top of a camel and then having to haggle for the price to get down again so um Yeah. So when you go into the pyramids themselves now, what you will notice is that there are new gates as well. The horses and camels are still there, but they've been moved away into another area. And they're really cracking down on that sort of, you know, that touting for trade as well. There are two main new restaurants. Well, Nine Pyramids has been there for a couple of years. And the first time I went there, I think about two years ago. It's low slung. It's around to the back of the pyramids in an area that you pretty much wouldn't go to normally. What it does have is a view of the nine pyramids at the Pyramids of Giza because you've got the three big ones. You've got the queens. You've got in total there are nine there, and that's why it's got that name. Really beautiful place to go. In the summer, you would go in there for breakfast and just watch the land grow and the changing color as the sun really takes off over the pyramids. And it's an absolutely beautiful place to sit and eat. And the other is called Khufu, named after the greatest, the largest of the pyramids. And I've eaten lunch there before. I would recommend eating breakfast there. Phenomenal. Like you are sitting there in front of the Grand Pyramid. And yes, a lot of tourists go. Also, a lot of Egyptians go as well. You do still need to buy your ticket into the Pyramids complex. And then you can jump on an e-bus like this. Now they're trying to make it a greener possibility. So they've got electric buses that run in a new hop-on, hop-off circuit that goes around. So you've got the Sphinx to the different of the pyramid And yeah, so that's really changing how we are interacting with the pyramids as well in preserving it, but also giving a better experience for travellers.

SPEAKER_00: 23:18

Okay, so Belle, let's just clarify, what are your top three things to do in Cairo?

SPEAKER_01: 23:25

Yeah, look, okay, I did want to add a couple of things to my top three. So it's not really a top three, but, you know, stay with me, especially regarding the museums you can visit in Cairo because they're so important. So we've already covered off the Grand Egyptian Museum and the original Egyptian Museum, but the other significant new opening or newish opening is the rather clumsily named National Museum of Egyptian Civilization. So if you are looking for the golden mummies, this is where you're going to find them. It's a new build that opened in 2022 near the Citadel. And here you'll find the 20 mummies, including Ramses II. This is the guy that built the colossi or the giant statues of himself at Abu Simbel, amongst other places. And the first female pharaoh, Queen Hatshepsut. So that is a phenomenal museum. It's absolutely beautiful and well worth a couple of hours in there. And it's not overwhelming as well. And the others on my top three things to visit would include a walk through Coptic Cairo. And this is the birthplace of Christian Christianity in Egypt, which still has about a 15% of the population is Coptic Christian. So here you wander through these tiny mazes and beneath a tiny, tiny church is a place where the Holy Family is said to have sheltered on their flight to Egypt. So it's just an amazing little microcosm in its own right and absolutely densely packed. It's a neighborhood densely packed with churches and there's a couple of museums and just this... Tiny little labyrinth. It's really, Coptic Cairo is fabulous. And the third thing that I mentioned earlier and didn't go back to, which I put on my list, is an afternoon and an evening walk in Chara El Moez or El Moez Street, which is right beside the Cano Calili market. So El Moez is the main thoroughfare of medieval Cairo. So you're walking between these thousand-year-old palaces and hospitals, schools and mansions. I would go in the afternoon. as entrance to those mansions and palaces closes at 4pm. And then after that, I go up to one of the rooftop mango cafes for a cold mango juice, because essential, and wait, because at dusk, all those monuments are flooded with coloured lights for one of the most beautiful displays in the city. So a walk through here is absolutely unmissable.

SPEAKER_00: 25:47

Amazing. And so just on a day-to-day basis, when you're cruising around, how are you, are you back to our old Uber friends? Are you obviously not leaving your mobile phones and Ubers, but what are you doing? Are you getting the Ubers around or how are you, what's the mode of transport given? I mean, obviously, I don't know how, if Uber would be a great option given the traffic that you mentioned before.

SPEAKER_01: 26:13

I know, yeah. Well, look, there is a massive metro scheme you'll see across Cairo being built, which eventually will link up with the airport with key destinations. There's also a metro station right opposite the Grand Egyptian Museum, and that is going to be phenomenal because that's built. You'll just see these metro towers. It's going to be a... What do you call an above-ground metro system? And that is going to be linking the whole of Cairo up over the next few years. When that happens, it's going to be great. There is already a metro train system that runs that is very heavily used. So, you know, you can use that as a tourist. I was using Ubers. I don't use the taxis anymore. They're really not that popular. safe, I don't think. I mean, I travel a lot of the time I'm on my own, like I'm solo when I do a lot of my exploring. So I do use Uber in Cairo. It's also got DD runs there as well. So what it means is you can simply use your regular account. So there's no mucking around with foreign currency, you know, using your credit card or anything like that. You just pay through the app like you normally do at home. It is phenomenally cheap. So my trips across the city are which might be like 45 minutes in across never more than a few dollars and always tipping the drivers, not in the app, but outside the app. So a cash tip is preferred because people are really doing it tough in Cairo, in the whole of Egypt at the moment.

SPEAKER_00: 27:47

So lastly, tell us a bit about rating on Smart Traveller and also, I mean, you know, outside of Smart Traveller, how safe it sort of feels to be, you know, to be, I mean, obviously for you, it's a bit of a different experience because you have family there and, you know, you know the area really well. But for people who are wanting to go right now, is it something you would suggest and is it an option? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01: 28:15

Yeah, the rating for, the Smart Traveller rating for Cairo and the Nile all the way down to Loxo, Aswan, Abusunbel, so the main tourist areas, is at level two, which is excise level. exercise a high degree of caution, which is the same as France, can I point out? It actually, the US just dropped their travel warnings against Egypt again just recently as well. So there are some areas like North Sinai, which is on the border of Gaza and Israel, is of course a total red zone, a no-go zone. But honestly, you know, it would be rare that you would have tourists going there anyway. So you would stay well away from those areas. Look, I had no dramas. I mean, Egyptians are devastated by what's happening in the country next door. You know, they've been taking Palestinian refugees since 1948. So they are well aware of what's happening there. But Look, the thing that Egypt relies on for its foreign income, there's two things. The first one is the Suez Canal. Hello, Houthi rebels. Can I say, you know, this is such an important revenue raiser for them. It's the connector between Europe and Asia. And I'm sure that there are listeners who have cruised through the Suez. So that's not really doing a whole lot for it. The second highest earner of foreign income in Egypt is tourism. And nothing kills tourism faster than war. So it sounds, you know, ridiculous putting tourism and war into the same sentence. But tourism is what feeds one in 10 Egyptians. So yeah, it's not great for them at the moment. And look, I have to say, Egyptians are very aware of this. You know, they appreciate the tourism industry. They genuinely love tourists. I was walking into Karnakalili, which is the fabulous medieval souk, 700-year-old market. It's like a labyrinth. It's a warren. I just love going in there and drinking tea and just seeing the, you know, the crazy Nefertiti people. heads and, you know, the little belly dancers outfits that you can buy because, you know, there's always going to be some guy that pulls out the racy, lacy red one and says, Madam, you need to buy this. And I'm like, I really, really don't. Thank you, darling. But yeah, so I was walking into Kana Khalili the other day and this woman says, oh, welcome to Egypt, she said in Arabic. Welcome to Egypt. We missed you. And I was like, oh, I miss you too. And sometimes you just like you just have a woman run up to you and start kissing you on your cheeks, especially after the revolution when there was almost no tourists there and the country was really suffering. They would just come up and give you big smackers on the cheeks and say, thank you for coming. And you're just like, oh, gorgeous. I mean, seriously, the pleasure is all mine. So, you know, they've had hard times, but while it's you know, while this war continues in Israel, they're going to continue having hard times. But it's really lovely to really feel so welcomed. And I do feel safe when I'm traveling there, even, you know, before I understood it so much as I did. Yeah. I think there is a genuine concept of Arabian hospitality that is still existent in Egypt.

SPEAKER_00: 31:25

Amazing. I love that story. Thanks so much for your insights, Belle, into Cairo. And you can see more on Belle's website, which is globalsalsa.com. And we'll put a link to her website and Instagram in the show notes and also on our website, which is theworldawaits.au. If you'd like to help support our production costs, you can buy us a coffee at ko-fi.com slash theworldawakes. That's ko-fi.com slash theworldawakes so we can continue to bring you inspirational travel interviews with the world's best.

SPEAKER_01: 31:59

And right now to the news you've all been waiting for, our winner of the Thailand holiday is...

SPEAKER_00: 32:09

Peter

SPEAKER_01: 32:10

Hop...

SPEAKER_00: 32:11

Thank you. Yay, yay, yay, yay. And thank you so much to Avani Hotels and Resorts who generously gave us this tropical holiday in Thailand to give away. How exciting. What an amazing prize. Peter wins four nights at Avani plus Khao Lak with transfers from Phuket Airport, breakfast and daily dinner and a Mai Tai boxing class.

SPEAKER_01: 32:34

Huge congratulations to Peter and a big thank you to Avani Hotels and Resorts and also Barking Owl Communications who've made this fabulous giveaway possible. So we'll be contacting you, Peter, as this episode drops. And for those who are listening on playback, follow us on Instagram for our great giveaways at the World Awaits podcast.

UNKNOWN: 32:58

Music

SPEAKER_01: 33:07

Our tip this week is for those who hate the rain. So if you're wanting to avoid a drenching well on holiday at this time of year, then stay tuned because casino.org has analysed 45 cities and given them a downpour score based on the calculated rain odds based on five different key climate factors over a 10-year period. So rainfall volume, they counted the number of rainy days, the humidity, the cloud cover and the likelihood of thunderstorms.

SPEAKER_00: 33:35

And for the many thousands of Australians who are heading to Bali between now and the end of August, when this downpour score applies, your chance of getting drenched is one in five. While in Siem Reap, it's 97%. And because we just came back from that, I have to say, it did rain. But thankfully, like most places in Southeast Asia, it does sort of just only rain late in the afternoon. And I don't mind that because it's so humid. And then you just get a bit of a downpour and then you're back into it. And also, we When we were there, the boys went out in quad bikes and we were cruising around some gorgeous little villages. And look, not the best way to try and see it when you're getting completely drenched, but they absolutely loved it in the rain. Oh,

SPEAKER_01: 34:21

that sounds too good. Ho Chi Minh City experienced 65 rainy days between June and August, which was the most on this list. That is rain two out of every two or three days. You were just there as well, weren't you, Kirsty?

SPEAKER_00: 34:34

Yeah, I was and we also rained on. So, yeah, we were only there for two days, but yep, got wet. And again, but it was just really late in the day and it wasn't a huge downpour. So, yeah, it wasn't too bad. But how about Egypt, Belle? What was it like when you were there?

SPEAKER_01: 34:49

Well, yeah, it is currently high summer in Egypt and it is hot, hot, hot between 35 and 40. And then it was actually getting hotter the week that we left, it was going into a heat wave. So above 40, but it's a really, really phenomenally dry heat. It is the desert after all. It gets even hotter in August and it's getting hotter every year as well. They tend to get their rain in winter. And even then though, it's a few centimetres. So the only umbrella you will need is a sun parasol. But in comparison, some other places that you'll get a drenching are Mumbai with an 87% chance of a soaking and the Maldives at this time of year isn't much better at 86%. Do you really need to worry if you are just spending your whole time underwater? Does it matter if it's raining?

SPEAKER_00: 35:36

Yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01: 35:37

Asking for a friend. Colombo, Phuket, Bangkok and Orlando are also pretty much guarantees of needing a brawley.

SPEAKER_00: 35:46

Yeah, and look, I'm surprised Auckland isn't on that list because you basically need to get around in full wet weather gear and gumboots at this time of year. I mean, seriously, it's just like not even a short tropical downpour because it's definitely not tropical. It's buckets down all day long. So I would personally avoid Auckland in wintertime.

SPEAKER_01: 36:03

Oh my goodness, I lived in Dublin years ago and I was out hiking most weekends. And can I say, if you didn't get rained on, it was a surprise. But on the flip side, try Dubai, Los Angeles, Johannesburg and Rome if you want to stay dry. We were basically on the opposite ends of the spectrum there, weren't we? You are nearly 13 times less likely to get rained on in Dubai than in Siem Reap. So choosing your holidays wisely. And Broome and the Gold Coast are amongst the driest locations in the entire index and both within Australia. So in fact, you are more likely to stay dry there than in Bali or Fiji. So there's a reason to holiday at home. And we will put a link in the show notes to the full list.

SPEAKER_00: 37:02

Next week, I'm interviewing Michael Jensen and Brent Hartinger, who've lived in more than 30 countries and travelled to more than 60. They run travel blog Brent and Michael Are Going Places, which has amassed an almost cult-like following for those wanting to know what life is like as a gay digital nomad. They chat highs and lows and give some top tips for those who want to live a life travelling the world.

SPEAKER_01: 37:28

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