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A bit of Milk
A cat finishes off Justin's pasta. Cats are absolutely everywhere in the Middle East. "It's like I learned as a young guy on Western Avenue. You don't sell a guy one car, you sell a guy five cars over twenty years. But these guys they think they can go out and rob everybody blind, like no one's ever thought of it before. But they kill the Golden Goose."
Somebody needs to give Egypt a copy of
Glengarry Glen Ross , and quick. No country during this trip has had a larger negative gap between what we expected and what we've experienced. To call travelling here a hassle is a gross understatement. Even countries like Laos and Vietnam pale in comparison to the daily onslought of hawkers, taxi drivers and "guides" you must navigate in order to get around. Much of their economy is based upon tourism, which has suffered greatly in recent years. Some of this is undoubtedly because of terrorism fears, but part of it must also be that with all the locations in the world, one would have to be a masochist to choose Egypt twice. It seems as if nearly everybody you come across is trying to wring as much from each individual tourist as possible, in the most conniving and duplicitous way possible.
Bad Memories
The small memorial at the location of one of the bombings at Dahab There's also a palpable sense of tension and unhappiness in the air. The people seem extremely frustrated, and it isn' hidden. Of course, if you refuse to see their shop, they're "hurt" because they're only trying to show their "Egyptian hospitality" - the same kind of hospitality that awaits new fish in prison. As Tito, a hostel worker in Luxor put it, Egypt is where you come when you're low on hassle.
With that diatribe behind us, there are also some obvious reasons why one would come to Egypt. The first being the Red Sea, perhaps the most beautiful body of water either of us have ever seen. We spent two relaxing nights in Dahab, a quiet beach community. Of course, it's more quiet these days because of the coordinated attacks on April 24 that left over twenty dead, and many more wounded. Much of the frustration over the current situation in Egypt is being channeled into Islamic fundamentalism (if you want to see the sights, get here before Mubarak dies, because then it'll be up for grabs). While Dahab is still reeling, it's trying to return to normal. Grateful for the lack of any sights to see (except
Red Sea
An oasis of calm in Hurghada for Ghazala Bay), we spent our days wandering around the beaches, eating cheap and copious seafood, and doing some reading. We wanted to stay a third night, but at the last minute found out the ferry we had planned to take Wednesday morning was changed to Tuesday night. No reason or warning - just felt like it. Fortunately, we had just enough time for Justin to get in a scuba dive, while Chris snorkeled. The reef was spectacular, with a good sampling of fish.
It was a good thing we got a couple of beach days in, because the next stretch was trying. After negotiating a couple of taxi drives and a minibus (the level of headache involved in getting a fair fare cannot be described), we took an extremely choppy ferry to Hurghada (there were people throwing up all over the place, people). We got there to find an overgrown beach community, the Egyptian Cozamel. When we finally landed at a hostel, we met a young Egyptian man who told us he was married to an woman in Michigan and was desperate to get to America to "get her". He also wanted to know why the State Department
Bad Tourists
You aren't allowed to take pictures inside tombs at the Valley of the Kings - until the guard offers for one pound warned her not to come to Egypt. Since it became apparent that they'd never met, that his use of "wife" was a bit fluid, and that he wanted us to call her to ask why she was torturing him when we got back to the States, we were understandably weirded out. When we were leaving, however, in desperation he confided to us that it was a cover story. He was a Muslim from Cairo, who had lost everything, his family, his school, his job, because he'd converted to Christianity. He's hiding out in a hostel in Hurghada, because if the authorities find out, he'd be put in jail for at least seven years (although a Coptic we met later said he'd probably just be killed). He had some promises of help (from his "wife" and others) if he could make it to the U.S. but was having no luck. We looked into his pleading eyes, trying to calculate whether to tell him that a young "Muslim" man from Egypt has no chance of getting a visa to the U.S. And trying to figure out why we thought of Egypt as a moderate country like Turkey.
As we waited for
Nile Sunset in Luxor
If this doesn't make the front page, you're asking too much, TravelBlog the bus to take us to Luxor, we saw a group of ten men, at the center of which was a heated screaming match between two. We turned to ask the guy sitting next to us, a Coptic Christian from Luxor who now lives in Moscow named Marco, what the problem was. He chuckled, "They're arguing over 3 pounds (50 cents)" and shook his head. After our brief exchange, a police officer came over to ask why we were speaking in English, what we were talking about, etc. Marco explained that the authorities didn't like Egyptians interacting with foreigners, and asked if we could pretend to know him previously so he didn't get arrested. Needless to say, over the course of the five-hour busride, we had quite an enlightening conversation.
Luxor made Hurghada look like Disneyland. After making our way to the Princess Hostel (quite helpful, actually), we tried to purchase tickets for the next day's overnight train to Cairo. The clerk told us there was no train and to come back tomorrow. Later, we found out he was looking for a bribe. Yes, you have to bribe the clerk just to get a train ticket here. As we
Forest of Columns
The Temple of Karnak in Luxor wandered the streets of Luxor, checking out the Nile and the Luxor Temple, we were followed by a stream of taxis and horse carraiges, honking and yelling - "Where are you from? Do you know how much? Good deal for you."
The next day, we decided a tour would be the best way to see the multitude of sites on the West Bank of the Nile. With our group (which included Daniel, a Swiss guy who constantly talked to himself, laughing maniacally - at one sight, we even saw him posing for his imaginary friend's camera with a two-thumbs-up stance), we took in the Valley of the Queens, the Valley of the Kings, the Colossi of Memnon and Deir el-Bahri (where 62 tourists were killed in 1997). After we got back, and found that the hostel clerk had bribed enough to get us train tickets for the non-existent train that night, we headed to see the Karnak Temple. We won't bore you with historical details - if you're interested, check out
Wikipedia . And if you can't tell who did this entry from that copout, you don't know us.
We were a bit apprehensive to take our second-class seats
Obligatory Camel Shot
Trust us, he wasn't happy about it on the overnight train to Cairo, but it turned out to be much more spacious and pleasant than we could have imagined. We got into to Cairo at 8 A.M., bracing ourselves for the worst. But actually, the amount and volume of harrassment has gone down since we arrived in the big city. A mass of 16 million people, Cairo exhibits a cosmopolitinism lacking in the rest of Egypt. We've found the people and environment here much more manageable. The first day, we relaxed, catching a matinee of MI3 during the Friday prayers closures, and wandering along the Nile and the island of Zamalek at night. Today, we headed out to see the Pyramids and Sphinx (again, refer to
Wikipedia , you uneducated bastards). The Giza plateau, which is actually right in the midst of the city, contains three huge pyramids, six small ones and the Sphinx. This may have been Chris' happiest day on the trip, as she wore a constant smile, despite a major allergy attack. The pyramids are amazing, as big in real life as in imagination. We rode a camel to get the panoramic view (elephant-esque in comfort), went inside one of them (interesting but hot), and
Men of Mystery
Justin and Sphinx said "No, thanks" to five hundred touts.
Tomorrow, we fly to Nairobi. Since we don't know what the computer situation will be like there, and we'll be on safari most of the week, it may be a while until you hear from us. Don't worry - odds are we're fine.
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gooner get there soon
adam dale
you guys sound like your still having a blast, glad to see your both well. But Pizza Hut? Oh dear guys.....still we have been eating i the finest resteraunt Georgia has to offer. youll get my meaning when (if) the photos for here go up! Also, if you still have it we'd appreciate Farah's email as my journal took a battering in the Georgian downpours. Cheers guys, hope your loving Nairobi! adam and joel. x