'Welcome to Alaska'

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(Yes I do know I can't spell) Where to start....I can't even think of good title at this point. The flight to Sharm el Sheikh was suprisingly full of tourists considering the time of year, well I was surprised.; even more so when we got into the airport and had to queue (well I call it a queue, the other nationalities who don't enjoy queuing as much as the British began pushing around) for about an hour just to get to customs due to the hundreds of peoples from nearly all the cold parts of the world. And when we got there I was really disapointed, having had dreams of a passport with pages full of cool looking visa's, all I got from a bored looking Egyptian official was 2 postage size stamps and a 'next'. Oh yeh, I thought I'd lost my bag again, for those of you who I went to Spain with.
At this point things fell apart, Dave and myself had picked out a nice sounding hotel to stay at....not booked mind you, just picked out of our Lonelyplanet...just to have the taxi driver we were debating price with say 'it's closed'; but nicely he decided to take us to his cousins place and rip us off for the privledge. Sharkey Bay was actually worth the $(Egyptian keyboards don't have a British pound sign, so this is my substitute)10 a night we wer charged. You get a nice little 2 bed hut, with bathroom, overlooking the sea; and I free breakfast of eggs and fuul (which Dave wouldn't try)...also it was right on the beach...result! Needless to say after a days laying in the sun reading my book I was burnt, terribly terribly burnt...apparently factor 40 doesnt protect me, so the next few days were spent wearing my Indiana Jones hat. We also made fiends with an Egyptian shopkeeper named Aiden, who hooked Dave up with...well something to relax; and he seemed really friendly and chatty...and due to Mido and Ghalli loved Tottenham, and despite constantly telling him we didnt, believed we came from there. Next night however, when we went for a chat, he revelaed his agenda ...'you come with me to Cairo and help me get visa'...we ran away lol But according to his texts, yes Dave was stupid enough to give him his number, he's waiting for us in Cairo.
Our first encounter with an Egyptian bus station went suprisingly well, we bought our tickets, identified our bus, and bought two cups of chai (tea)...which ending up costing us $1 each, and the owner of the cafe started pretending he couldn't speak English when we confronted him. My faith in Egyptian honesty wavering we then had to pay a burly looking baggage protector L.E (Egyptian Pound)1 just to putr our bags on the bus....though from the look he gave me when I faltered in getting my money out singaled that something bad would happen to my Backpack if I didn't pay him.
Dahab bus station was a scrum of touts forcing us into their bakkies (pickups) to take us to their respective Beach Camps. We ended up chossing Penguin Village after being offered a free taxi ride their if we chose it, result on a budget liek mine. For $1.50 a night pp, we got a good sized double room, admittedly with communal showers and toilets, but again right by the beach. Lonely planet, not living up to its repuatation at the moment promised a friendly and helpful Jimmy...who in Dave's and my opinion was a prick! Who kept asking us 'Hey where are your girls...you need a f**k guys' which probably annoyed me due to it truth (god I hope my mother doesnt read this). Dahab itself is stupidly laid back, with miles of beach camps and cheap resturants; unfortunetly ruined by a shopping area behind which resembles a Spanish resort....complete with hundereds of touts beckoning you into their shops. One got me, and after a couple of cups of tea duirng the negotiations I ended up buying some Egyptian aftershave for $12...I hated myself for days. That was the last time we went near that street, instead I sat by the sea becoming addicted to Turkish coffee (50p a cup)....oh and making friends with one of the little street cats..he was wicked. Even so I was a little dissapointed by how western and tourist Sharm and Dahab were, but I suppose it was a good settling in period for such along trip. By the way...Egyptian Beer ranks as follows...1-Sakkkara, 2- Heineken (brewed in Egypt), 3 - Stella (not The same) 4 -Luxor....I'm not wasting my money lol.
Another Bus journey, Egyptian buses really are quite good, another few miltary checkpoints, Egyptian security really is quite thorough. I got to use my ISIC card for the first time, saving me 75p on entry to the St Katherines Protectorate. Driving through the first real desert I have seen was quite surreal, and beautiful in it's own way.....what was truly amazing were the odd Bedouin villages dotted about the hills of the Sinai with the numerous camels. When we arrived the bus driver literally threw us off, right outside or camp luckliy, Fox Camp....the first place we decided on staying at that we actually ended up in. Fox is very Bedouin, eating sat on the floor along with the locals...it was very good; and the lack of Scorpions pleased Dave very much.
To buy supplies we visited St Katherine City (apparently everything built after the Israeli occupation of the Sinai in the 70's is called City, no matter how small) which was very deserty, and remote...oh yeh and, as you might have guessed, tiny; and then set off to scale Mt Sinai, 2285m in the footsteps of Moses. Unfortunetly it all went a bit Pete Tong when we realised we had no idea where the hiking trail was, and were forced to take the gently sloping camel trail; which ment that the inumerable camel drivers could follow us offering their beast of burden until Dave gave in. So whilst I hiked up, Dave took a camel 3/4 of the way..ironic as he was wearing his rucksack with his camel pack (full of water i might add, whilst I had a puny water bottle); to was pretty easy to be fair, and being a hardened postman I barely broke a sweat. That is until the 3000 steps of repentence, carved straight out of the mountainside by a repentent monk; they were the killer, my legs were jelly by the top. It was worth it though, just the thrill of my achievement (ok it was a small mountain, but it was my first), but also the view...what a view, a beautiful panorama of the mountainous deserty Sinai at sunset...truly awe inspiring. As was the Chapel built around the stones Moses carved the 10 Commandmants from; ok a little blind faith required...but what religion doesnt require that. After the trek down I apologetically missed a traditional dinner and Bedouin sing song, and crawled to bed at 8pm; physically exhausted.
The next day we decided to visit the Monastery of St Katherine, before our bus at 12-30. Whilst amazing on a epically Biblical scale, the 4th century Monastery was ruined for me by the 50 coach loads of tourists that had descended down upon it. All the same I got to encounter the burning bush, supringly uncharred and healthy, where I deposited a written prayer into the crack of its encompassing wall...as is the fashion; and got to see a most beautiful example of a greek Orthodox church....the Byzantines certainly splashed out on the Chuches.
Daves quote of the trip...'Lets get a minibus, it'll be comfier than a bus'. I was sceptical after having encountered African minibuses in South Africa; and rightly so as I spent the journey with my chin touching my knees for the entire 8 hour journey...my only joy was the knowledge that 6ft 7' Dave was suffering so mcuh more than me lol. The highlight of the trip had to be a punch up between two passengers which resulted in a 30min stop at a police checkpoint, where AK47's were pointed at the two culprits until the sorted it out. All was not a loss though, during the journey I taught myself Arabic numerals using my bottle of mineral water as a reference; so now I now I'm being ripped off everywhere we go...though I havn't found telling them I know helps at all.
Again we were literally chucked out at our destination, Midan Ramses in Cairo. Let me just say, Cairo scared me. The constant 24 hour traffic of a city of 20million is unbelievably noisy, which isnt helped by the lack of traffic signal and lack of want to slow down being replaced by constant beeping of horns and swerving evertime some gets to close. Crossing the roads is fun, at first I was forced to shadow the locals and use them as a human shield but towards the end I was crossing unaided.....a feat believe me, when crossing the road mean stepping between gaps in a never ending stream of traffic...and instead of cars stopping, just beeping at you until you jump out of the way. We got helped across the road the two armed policeman once, who stopped traffic by unholstering their weapons....a good deed I thought, until the one 'helping me' refused the let go of my arm until I gave him Baksheesh. Apparently L.E 1 wasn't enough, and as we walked down the street they mock aimed their guns at us whilst laughing away. All the same Cairo was brilliant, as was Pension Vienna where we stayed....apart from the windows letting in the full volume of the 24 hour traffic...my trusty earplugs finally had a use.
We didn't see anything in Cairo, as we were just there to sort out my Fedex parcel, and our banks. Apparently you need to tell your banks you are travelling overseas, or they stop your cards after one use in a foreign atm; mind you, Barclays of Cairo didnt tell us this, they were useless....Barclays in England told us this whilst we cringed as the phone call ate $1.50 a minute. I cried as topping up destoyed my carefully protecxted and religiously followed budget. Food was the best part of my first visit to Cairo....Shwarma and Kushari are both amazing...as is Turkiosh Coffee, the addicition grows. The worst bit, probably mine and Daves arguement over his use of....relaxent...4 or 5 a day....druggy. Daves description of Cairo is probably the best...'Cairo is nice, bit grotty, and interesting...but everyone stares at me'; this was fairly accurate but I would have added..'it's f*****g annoying being asked where your from, what england like, being told england is great, and then being ushered into the speakers shop every minute of the day'. To be fair it's not that bad, and we are getting better at jst walking away...though Dave still insaists into being dragged into the conversation.
We left Cairo by train at 7-30am, from the suprisingly small (considering it's the main station for a 20million strong city) Ramses Station. I, thanks to my trusty ISIC card saving me $2,60, payed $5.40 for a first class ticket on a 11hour journey; in a wagon which was comfier than Richard Bransons Virgin 1st class....for those of you who have stolen a few hours in Virgin first class like me. The journey itself was weird. In contrast to the modern, western Cairo the agricultural towns of the lush and fertile Nile Valley (which is unbelievably green compared to the harsh desert hills that border it on both sides) which look, from afar admittedly, fairly backward. It was interesting though, to watch the local populas tending their fields with hand and donkey...oh they love their donkeys in the Nile Valley.
What do you picture when you picture Luxor? I know I pictured a town that was well off, clean, and modern due to tourist money. But, thankfully, as we stepped off the train onto a dingy, run down station this view was dashed. Our hotel, the aptly named Grand Hotel in Islamic Luxor, is what te Americans would describe as a roach motel; however at 75p a night, $1.10 if you count a very nice breakfast (only if Hassan cooks it though...everything his little brother cooks has the taste and texture of burnt bread). The owners Siad and Ali managed to organise us a guided tour fo the West Bank Monuments for $12.50...which in fairness is less than we would have paid...but still I was angry as he literally forced us into it; however it turned out to be alright and we got a free ride on a motorboat over the Nile...and introduced to an amazing Kushari Cafe. The most famous of Luxors monuments..ie the Valley of the Kings, ...of the Queens, and Hathesphuts Temple were really dissapointing. Probably through my own personal ignornance of the whole Ancient Engyptian thing, and also due to our guides vague descriptions of the above..never really delving into any detail...though I suppose he had to be quick, the rushing around pissed me off aswell lol. All the same, the vivid colours that have survived for 1000's of years and the Ancients ability to actually carve these things out of the moutnain side was amazing in itself; even if I lacked the historical knowledge to understand these thingas properly. Apologies for the lack of photos, but as the outsides are merely desert and tunnel looking entrance and you are (rightly so) not allowed to take pictures inside the tombs for danger of damaging colours it seemed a bit pointless...especially as they take ages to upload.
Probably our most excting night of the trip was last night. It started off with Dave wanting western company and us heading off to the Kings Head Put, and ended with Dave wanting more relaxants and us ending up in a horses stable drinking tea and negotiating prices...stiking of manure. It was great being right in Egyptian life, if not a little scary being surrounded by men in a dark alley with no one else about. Note to self - stop following Dave when hes in search of drugs, especially when we get to Nairobi. Oh yeh, one the doped up fellow stable dwellers uttered my favourite quote...'Welcome to Alaska"...'Alaska?'...'Yes Alaska...it's nearly as cold as there here at the moment'....you have to understand its 20'C here...although apparently about 20'C less than summer so you can understand the confusion.
Well thats it, our it'll have to be as it's taken nearly an hour (50p's worth) to write and I'm tired.

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Photos

Sharkey Bay beach
First ever Camel....I was so excited

Sharm el Sheikh
Nice View

Dahab
view and Dave...not stoned...yet

Dahab
and Saudi Arabia across the Gulf of Aqaba

St Katherine City
thats it.....

St Katherine Monastery
Massive, Biblical

Mt Sinai
2285m on a camel, whilst I walked....numerous words come to mind which i can't repeat

Mt Sinai
Talbot boys at 2285m....not quite like the India trip but all the same

St Katherines Monastery
The Burning Bush....without the burn marks

Valley of the Kings
Model of Tombs....an arty picture..so I thought I'd add it

Statues of Memnon
Actually of a different Pharoah, but so called due to having a hole in their stomachs which when the wind blows through makes a scary noise. Scaffolds are to repair a Roman attempt at repair

Temple of Hathesphut
Temple of 'Hot Chicken Soup'

Luxor, from the Nile
Luxor, boat, and kid whos job was apparently to sit thier and ask for 'baksheesh'

Luxor Skyline
Taken from rooftop of our hotel, whislt eating Hassans awesome breakfast

Comments

[jon]

nice camel
Did u see the pyrimids on ur travels? and which country u going to next.

[Jaques]

T here. hows things. Just been reading ur journal. hopefully big roy will have you back to do a presentatation on it! Just to fill u in that Pumba has been expelled for getting sophie mcclaren preggers! To dave;hope u dont have to share a bed at any point with dalts, to dalts: miss spooning, good work with getting rid of beggars in Eygpt. I know a little bit about harrassment as Leroy'll tell u. Its not funny! Talbot love always T