Advertisement
Published: November 3rd 2008
Edit Blog Post
It has been a long time since I last posted, but it has been a long week, to say the least.
After getting settled into the dorm, we decided to take a short trip to the Red Sea town of Dahab. We left Thursday night. This requires a note on Cairene cab drivers. Aside from the fact that they are mostly insane drivers (think LA except pedestrians dont have the right of way and lanes are basically non-existent), you also have to go through an arduous bargaining process. They will overcharge you if you are unaware if how cabs operate here. One blatantly admitted that he was adamant about charging a high price simply because "you white, you rich." The meters are either "broken" or simply do not exist. Furthermore, most cabbies do not work with a company, they simply purchase a car, go through a registration process, and then hit the streets, so there is no structure keeping them in check. Once you are here for some time, you begin to know how much cabs should cost. For instance, getting from my dorm to campus, a fare that should run about 5 pounds, the first few interactions with a
cab driver might go something like this:
- How much?
--30 pounds
- How about 20?
--25
-ok
Now, this interaction plays out more like this:
- How much?
-- 30 pounds
- No. 5 pounds.
--How about 20 pounds?
- Get the fuck out of here.
Its that simple really. It can come off as being combative and insensitive, but it is far more disconcerting, to me at least, that you can be the unwilling victim of a blatant sham. Anyways, after negotiating a fair price for a ride to the bus station to depart for Dahab (8 pounds was the decided, and fair, price), we quickly realized that the driver had absolutely no idea where we were going. After having asked 4 or 5 people for directions, we gave up and called our friend (already at the station) to ask someone who speaks both Arabic and English to give our driver directions. After a couple of these conversations (the last of which ended in yelling) he finally admitted that he had no idea where he was going, to pay him, and to find another cab. We did as we were told and got out,
found another cab (who was honest when he said he knew exactly where it was) and arrived at the station with only 10 minutes to spare. We met with our friends, who told us that guards at the station (who spoke with the first cabbie on the phone) yelled at the cabbie for being dishonest and for not following his directions. He also said that the guard was going to personally hold up the bus for us.
This experience is not uncommon, and has happened nearly every time that we take a cab somewhere that is not a regular or recognizable location.
So after all this, we finally boarded our bus, which was large and (relatively speaking) luxurious. After a ten hour bus ride through the Sinai Peninsula in the middle of the night, we finally arrived at Dahab, just in time to see the sunrise behind the mountains. We were met by a van from the hotel we were staying at. The man who runs the hotel, it ends up, is a very good friend of one of our RA's, so our RA made the reservation for us and, because of this connection, we were treated like
royalty. The fact that we were picked up at the bus station was an example of this, as it is against their policy to pick up guests from the bus station. Furthermore, the owner was at work 2 hours earlier than he usually shows up to personally welcome us, ordered breakfast when we wanted it, and in sum, pampered us. His name was Ahmed, he was young and spoke excellent English.
Dahab is very similar to Laguna Beach in California, except much smaller and less crowded, although the majority of people there were tourists (including the British who, to use their own terms against them, were a bunch of wankers). In the last couple of years, it has emerged as a cheaper and more relaxing substitute for Sharm El-Sheikh. It was beautiful, to say the least, and refreshing to get away from the New York-like aggressiveness and smog of Cairo to the relaxing and clean Dahab. The air was clean, so much so that one could see the mountains of Saudi Arabia across the Red Sea.
We spend our 2 days there relaxing on the beach, swimming, snorkeling, and eating 3-course meals for under 10 dollars. The hassling, however, was as pervasive as it was in Cairo. We spent one night dancing at some bizarre rave-venue and the other night drinking Stellas on the beach and trying to talk to the employees in our broken English/Arabic, all the while exchanging cigarettes. They tasted the wonders of American Spirits and I got a taste of Cleopatras (smoking filters taste better). I probably learned more in those few hours than I did an entire year of taking Arabic.
I have to get going now to go smoke some shisha - I think. The bus ride back deserves a post of its own, as it was so utterly bizarre and frightening, so I’ll write about that tomorrow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.083s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 9; qc: 53; dbt: 0.0367s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb