Chaos has descended on my home country of Egypt
I live in Scotland but have just returned to my home country, Egypt, for a few weeks after three years away.
While my family, who live in the Nile Delta, has told me about the many changes since the uprising in Tahir Square – including how dangerous Egypt has become - it was quite shocking to see the lawlessness first hand.
The moment I walked out of the doors at Cairo Airport the chaos Egypt has descended into was there, right in front of me.
People were parking wherever they wanted in front of the Arrivals Terminal. The 'I'll do what I want' attitude was stunning.
Luckily a fellow passenger from the plane took me into Cairo in their chauffeur-driven limousine. Had that not happened it would have taken me hours to find a taxi and get out of the airport in the mayhem.
On the way to the depot where I was going to catch an 'ojara' a seven-person Peugeot taxi, in the early hours of the morning, the chauffeur pulled into a petrol station.
The queues were phenomenally long. I knew there were fuel shortages, but what unfolded in front of me was shocking.
The filling station was about to run out of diesel and three people started fighting over the last couple of litres.
When I say fighting, this involved knives and swords. Friends were drafted in and in the end there were around 50 people involved.
I was dropped at the massive ojara depot and quickly found a car which had enough passengers going the same way to depart.
The fact the extremely cheap fares had risen by about 40% I could take, but once out of Cairo the dangers of the new Egypt hit home again.
The ojara was travelling on the Agricultural Road out of Cairo a multi-laned motorway which stretches all the way to Alexandria through the Nile Delta.
Just a few kilometers out of the city traffic started appearing driving the wrong way down the motorway at high speed.
This is now, apparently, quite normal. The police have no power and the military is not equipped to deal with it.
As I landed I was told the government had been locked out of parliament by the military. And this morning is the first day of the two-day presidential vote. There is bound to be conflict.
The words I most remember Hosni Mubarak saying when he stepped down were to the effect: "Just wait and see what comes next," in just three hours in Egypt I've already seen what people THINK democracy is - and they've got it so wrong.
Ahmed Salem will be writing an exclusive blog for 7DAYSinDubai.com and 7DAYSinAbuDhabi.com from his family home in the Nile Delta throughout the elections in Egypt
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