Egypt 2011

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Finally turned on the news last night. Internet never came back on, so no information there. Luckily, CNN was still broadcasting in our hotel room. Chaos in Cairo and Alexandria. Tanks in the streets, mass demonstrations, looting and roaming gangs in the suburbs. Reports of protesters and security forces killed. Mubarak appointed his former chief of Egypt's security service as Vice President, a position that hadn't existed for a number of years. Fears of the old guard staying in power have sparked the continuing protests. It was predictable to me. Yesterday's jubilation about the revolution seemed premature.


Cell phone service returned, so I called my mother (who the hell knows how much that call is going to be) to tell her we were alive. She was, of course, relieved to hear our voices and said she would call T's mother to let her know. Next I called the US Embassy, registered T and I with them and asked for advice. They were pretty noncommittal: "Talk it over with the missus and decide if you want to leave the country." The embassy worker, who was Egyptian, ended our conversation with this ominous warning, "If you decide to stay, lock yourself in your hotel room and don't open the door for anyone." We were to leave for Sharm El Sheikh tomorrow, by way of Cairo. The hotel's front desk staff told me that Sharm El Sheikh was quiet (he spoke with friends there), but Cairo was a mess. Like every other Egyptian, he apologized for our inconvenience due to the events. It appeared deeply sincere, hoping that we would see his country in a positive light and that we wouldn't leave with our tourist dollars. The final kicker of the night was the news that tickered across the bottom of the TV screen: "Delta Airlines has suspended all flights to Cairo." Our airline had hightailed it out of the country and effectively stranded us.

T and I talked about our plans. We began to wonder if leaving Egypt early was a good idea and if so, how to do it. We went to bed planning to go to Sharm El Sheikh tomorrow. There we would call Delta and figure out when and how to get home. Sharm El Sheikh had an international airport with flights to Europe. Worse case, we thought it would be easier to put something together there than it would be in Cairo.

The morning we woke to news that nothing much had changed. The Egyptian museum had been broken into. Pictures were shown of the old wooden and glass display cases shattered, it's artifacts broken. Priceless Egyptian art lay fractured on the museum floor. Later we would learn that two mummies were beheaded. Madness. Also, 1000 prisoners had escaped from a prison outside of Cairo, killing guards in the process.

We took a taxi to the airport. The city was quiet, nothing out of the normal save for the roadblock downtown and a tank parked on the street. We unloaded our bags from the taxi and walked to the ticket counter. The Egyptian Airlines ticket agent was polite and apologetic. Our flight was delayed two hours. We'd miss our connection to Sharm El Sheikh in Cairo, so he was checking our bags only to Cairo. As with all Egyptian security, we breezed right through, no fuss about shoes off or computers out of bags. Turning the corner into the gate area was the first realization that things were about to become difficult. It was packed with hundreds of people, mostly westerners, some Asians, a polylinguistic group all doing the things that people do when they aren't going anywhere for awhile: playing cards, reading, filling in crossword puzzles, napping in uncomfortable chairs. T and I were able to find the last table with two chairs that wasn't occupied. It was right next to the bathroom; a blessing or a curse? We made a little encampment and waited for our plane.

As time passed, it became clear that no flights were coming or going. Through the windows we could see the planes as they stood unmoving, shimmering like a mirage through the sunbaked heat that rose from the tarmac. Sitting at our table I wrote in my journal: "It's 10:15am, not a flight has come or left yet. I'm curious to know what we'll find in Cairo, if we make it to Cairo. I have great doubts that we'll see Sharm El Sheikh today, if at all. In fact, it will not surprise me if we spend the night here, on our little 2-top, next to the bathroom. The only TV is playing soccer, so no news of the outside world. I should have brought a shortwave radio. As T said, at least we'll have a story to tell."

Inquisitiveness, persistence and luck saved us. I went back to the ticket counter and ran into three Americans who were in a similar predicament. Through them I learned of a flight, non stop, to Sharm El Sheikh on Memphis Airlines that left in 30 minutes. I chatted with T. The $300 US dollars that the ticket agent wanted for two tickets was worth it. Back at the ticket counter, the Memphis Airlines supervisor saw my Egypt Airlines ticket and wouldn't sell us a seat. "It's a very bad thing for us to do if you have a ticket with them," he said, unexplicably. T wasn't with me and they hadn't seen her, so she tried to buy the two tickets. They wouldn't sell to her either since she didn't have any bags to check and they suspected that she had a ticket on another airline. She was less discreet with her dissatisfaction. "Asshole" she said as she walked away.

The very real prospect of spending one or several nights on the airport floor, next to the soon to be foul smelling bathrooms was facing us. Going back to the hotel seemed the better choice. At the Egypt Airlines counter we asked to cancel our tickets and get our checked bags. Amazingly they said yes. Even more amazing, they had our bags to us within 15 minutes. We saw the Memphis Airlines supervisor and told him that our tickets were cancelled and we wanted to buy a ticket to Sharm for tomorrow. I was certain he would say no and he did. "Today!" he said, "You go today!" This was laughable. The plane was to leave in 5 minutes. Egypt moved at the same pace that much of Africa did: glacial. But a whirlwind, surreal, planets-were-aligned sort of way our bags were checked, $300 changed hands for two tickets ("free" printed where the price of fare should be), we passed through security and found ourselves riding on a bus, across the tarmac to our waiting plane. T said that she wanted to see our bags loaded on the plane, wishful thinking with sarcasm. Then, zooming by on a tug went our two lonely bags, right up to the plane and in the cargo hold.

We walked up the stairs and boarded the plane, dazed by our improbable luck. We had to be the two most fortunate people in Luxor. This intoxication of joy and luck disappeared as soon as I realized what we just boarded. It was an ancient DC-3. The interior was worn, water stained, scuffed and torn. I wondered if a similar neglect was directed at the craft's mechanical systems and engines. It was a dinosaur that reminded me of the ancient American automobiles from the 40's and 50's that are found in Cuba, still running only by some miracle of necessity. It had crossed my mind as we taxied and took off that perhaps our sheer will of determination had shifted our fate from a few uncomfortable nights on an airport floor to an unairworthy plane that would not arrive in Sharm El Sheikh. The flight was uneventful, but we realized that we were in the last two seats of a full plane, two seats reserved for crew and next to a visibly agitated deadheading pilot who wanted the entire row for himself. The landing was among the smoothest I've experienced. In 45 short minutes we were away from the chaos and uncertainty of Luxor and in Sharm El Sheikh, just an hour and half later than we would have been if the country was not in the throws of a revolution.

Arriving in Sharm El Sheikh and our hotel we found a part of Egypt completely untouched and unbothered by the events east of here. Alexander burns, Cairo convulses, but Sharm basks benignly in warm sunlight. Thousands of eastern Europeans and Russians were here unbothered, smoking, eating, drinking and sunning themselves. No tanks, no teargas, no riot police. I welcomed the security, but wondered if we were dancing on the deck of the sinking Titanic.

Our plan, so far, was to stay through Thursday. Our tickets home were booked through Cairo on Delta. Cairo wasn't happening; couldn't get there if we wanted to. Domestic air travel shut down and the trains had been stopped in the government's attempt to halt protesters from streaming into the capital. My plan was to book a flight out of Sharm El Sheikh to Europe tomorrow and pick up Delta to the US. The Embassy is advising all US citizens to leave Egypt now. I talked to my mother who said that the US is sending planes to Cairo to evacuate US citizens tomorrow. Internet is still out.

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Photos

Nile River
Views from our hotel, the night before we left Luxor. Despite the adventure, there wasn't much to photograph on our journey to Sharm El Sheikh. So, some Nile pics.

Nile River
Peace and serenity on the Nile. A contrast to the chaos that was happening especially in Cairo and Alexander, but also Luxor.

Nile River
Our last sunset in Luxor

Luxor Airport
A poor quality picture. I wanted to take a pic of the hundreds of people in the gate area, but after hearing about protesters being killed, I wasn't certain how tolerant security at the airport would be.