Goodbye Egypt!

---

We are at the Sharm el Sheikh airport waiting for our flight to Cairo. We have about 4 hrs layover in Cairo, then we fly to London. No wifi here at the airport departures (there was in arrivals so don't know why no wifi now), and there are flies buzzing around. That's one thing I won't miss about the Middle East, all the flies! My legs are covered with bites of some kind but thank god they are not itchy.

Last night we had an excellent grilled fish dinner at the hotel. It was grilled fresh sea bass in a really tasty sauce, accompanied by rice, grilled vegetables and arabic bread. The cats hanging around the hotel got the leftovers. We then went for a walk and found ourselves at the shop where we had bought the pants and t-shirts earlier in the day, and the shopkeeper directed us to a place for Turkish coffee and a sheesha, which we enjoyed. We had the apple flavour like we did previously. It was better than the other night but I don't think quite as good as at the Cave Bar in Wadi Musa (Petra).

We were sitting right over the water, and we watched these amazing fish swimming around. They were kind of roundish shaped and had long feathery fins and I think were after the many small dark minnows that were also swimming about.

On the walk back to the hotel we were joined by a young Egyptian man named Adam who chatted with us all the way back to our hotel. He is from Luxor. He didn't want anything from us and didn't want to sell us anything, he just wanted to chat. It is easy to be suspicious of people, especially when so many do want to sell you something or want baksheesh (tip), but I think it's important when travelling to try to expect the best in people, rather than the worst. Of course you have to be careful and aware of your surroundings, but if you always assume friendly local people have ulterior motives, you will miss out on genuine human interaction.

I was awake early this morning so I found an app that fixed a problem we were having with the iphones and ipad. We were having trouble accessing any websites because of pop ups, but the app seems to have worked. Inshallah!

We had another tasty Egyptian breakfast at the hotel. The scrawny cat was there this morning expectantly waiting for his tuna, so Susan went across the street to pick up another can. We fed the cats a couple of cans of tuna yesterday (mostly the skinny cat).

We got picked up at 9 am for our ride to Sharm (same driver as our day tour to St. Katherine's, along with his little daughter Habiba). Once at the airport we passed through the numerous security checks there are at Egyptian airports. We went through a screening as soon as we got in the door (large bags through the scanner, small bags searched, shoes off, walk through the scanner, then frisked by a female attendant). We checked in, dropped our large bags off, and then went through another identical screening. I wonder what they think you can pick up in the 50 or so feet in between the two screenings. This time I lost a guava juice box I had with me (it got through the first screening), but they let us keep our refillable waters (after we drank some). I won't be surprised if we get frisked again when we board the plane, as happened on one of our other flights.

I forgot to mention that when we arrived in the Sharm airport on Monday we were also screened on the way out (who screens you when you are LEAVING the airport?) The big luggage went through a scan and the small bags were searched. They wanted to know what a particular wrapped up item was (a limestone carving we bought at the Worker's Village in Luxor). Nobody cared about it when we boarded the plane in Amman or Cairo, but for some reason they cared about it when we were leaving the Sharm airport. Strange.

We are waiting at the gate now, and unfortunately the one little cafe that is open doesn't have hot drinks so Turkish coffee will have to wait for the Cairo airport. Then it's on to London!

Ok, now at Cairo airport. No wifi here either, but we did buy 1 hours worth for each of our phones earlier. We didn't get frisked on the plane (that happened when we were flying Royal Jordanian Airlines from Cairo to Amman and they said they didn't trust the Cairo security. We got frisked at least 5 times while we made our way through security for that flight).

No Turkish coffee available at the Cairo airport, can you believe it? We were forced to have a Sakara beer instead, along with our baguette sandwich (I wanted falafel but no falafel either, jeesh). We are waiting for the gate to open and I see we have to go through another security screening. That means bags searched, take shoes off, go through scanner, get frisked. Sigh.

---

Photos

Dinner at the hotel
Beautiful fresh fish, rice, roasted veggies, Arabic bread and tahini. Delicious!

Susan and sheesha
Apple flavoured

On the drive to the Sharm airport
I'm photobombing Susan and Habiba.

Forced to drink beer instead of Turkish coffee!
It wasn't our fault!

Comments

[[e-mail]]

Welcome home where ever u r about now, really enjoyed the great blogging and amazing photos also hope to see u both in Vancouver before Xmas.. Hugs

[MJ Milne]

Please let us know when you get home, safely! Love, Marilyn xoxo