Gaming in Cairo

I don't know if it's a good thing or not, but I haven't done more than an hour of video gaming during our two weeks here in Cairo. I played Hotel Dusk on the DS during the train ride back from Aswan to Cairo and then promptly fell asleep.

We did however play a grueling 2+ hour long game of Settler's of Catan. Two hours long because we chatted, bickered and laughed in-between almost everyone's turn.

At least walking around the street and on the metro, I've never seen one person playing handheld games or anything. Not even iPods or any other MP3 music players. I'm not sure if it's a cultural thing or because stuff is really expensive to import or buy. Something that costs $120 in the U.S. could cost $200 or more here.

But with the end of our vacation coming up, I'm starting to think about things at home and how I'm going to cope with real life again. That does include gaming. I've been edging back into reading gaming news posts and checking out Xbox Live friend scores (damn you bcullers!).

We just have a few days left and I'm starting to look forward to having a video game controller in my hands, though honestly I haven't really missed it that much here. I haven't missed TV or movies either. That's good to know I can survive without my gaming habits.

Gamer Vacations (aka Someone Reads this Website)

Woohoo! Our first submission email!

I got an email from, of all things, airlinecreditcards.com that keeps a blog about travel destinations. Jessica Hupp posted up about the top 25 Gamer Vacation Destinations.

Some of the destinations don't make much sense (Beach rental?), so I'm not sure if 25 was just a magic number (though I probably would take a DS to the beach, so okay, you got me). But there are some real winners in here.

Penny Arcade Expo is definetly on my list of things to do. Especially since we have friends and family on the west coast to stay with. E3 would be nice, but I'm afraid my blogger cred will never get me into such an exclusive (especially since the recent format change) event.

So if you're planning this summer's vacation with the family and want to sneak in some gaming, suggest some of these but don't mention the fact that there is gaming there. That's a true Part Time Gamer tactic for ya. Always intend to get your game on, even in the most unlikely spots.