Yes, it was pretty safe in those times. I have been to a few places that were a much bigger security concern than Egypt. I was in Cairo in the early 90s and it was not good but not scary yet.
I landed in Damascus, Syria on the bright sunny midday of July 3, 1988 for a meeting with Al-Furat Oil (Shell) and Saipem (Italian) to start prelim thoughts on a subsea pipeline from Latakia, Syria to Taranto, Italy. I was detained at the airport for 24 hours without explanation. They rifled through my bags, smashed my Sony Walkman and ruined a few cassette tapes. I was escorted to the Hilton Hotel and placed under house arrest and restricted to the hotel grounds only. The US had no diplomatic ties to Syria. No embassy or consulate. The US worked through the Swiss Embassy on my situation. The proposed sponsor of our project was Jihad Kaddam, the eldest son of the sitting VP of Syria. I had met him several times in Dubai and Holland. He and his entourage came to the hotel. I was told that the USS Vincennes had shot down an Iranian Air commercial flight from Bandar Abbas to Dubai killing all 290 people on board on the morning of July 3rd. Kaddam had made arrangement for the "Swiss" (US CIA officer) to get me out of Syria once my passport had been retrieved. After a Swiss diplomatic flight to Amman, quizzed at the US Embassy for a day and I then caught a flight back home to Dubai. In 1989 I was granted the right to carry two 10 ten year passports with completely different numbers. I have had two passports ever since.
Trip was during Ramadan, and remember going into the bowels of the Khan Khalili Bazaar while the sun was still up and no people around. Dark when we left a business and couldn't believe how things had come alive. Wow, just wow. Also got to visit Sadat's tomb while there, and stand next to a pyramid. Overall, a fantastic trip, that you couldn't pay me to take now.
