Blogs from Egypt, Africa - page 295

On Sunday, November 27, I arrived at the International Language Institute (known hereafter as "ILI") to register and test for my Arabic classes, and search for more permanent accommodation while in Cairo. Security I was surprised to walk around the corner, spot the school, and see a guard with an AK-47 sitting out front. Apparently the number of foreigners there merits such attention. I must confess I have never gone to a school with an armed guard before. There seem to be four levels of building security in Egypt (in order of increasing security): * Unarmed private security guard out front: often asleep or reading the newspaper. * Unarmed private security guard with metal detector: also often reading the newspaper, and despite setting off numerous metal detectors, I never seem to get searched. * Uniformed policeman, ... read more

I had planned to take the early 6am bus from Saint Katrin village to Cairo. That way I would get in to Cairo in the early afternoon, with plenty of time to find a hotel, catch up on e-mails, have a decent dinner, and so on. But you know what they say about the best-laid plans... "I'm sorry..." I woke up at 5am, and caught another amazing sunrise on my walk over to the bus station. The bus was sitting out front, which I took as a good sign. I didn't take it as a good sign when the driver arrived, tried to start the engine, and it turned over and died. A quick consultation with the driver and another employee at the back of the bus resulted in the ticket seller walking over to me ... read more

Shane and I got up nice and early (5:00 AM) to catch our taxi to the Luxor Airport where we caught our flight to Sharm El-Sheik. At the airport, we met up with a family from Denmark who we met on the train from Aswan to Luxor. We ended up splitting a taxi with them from Sharm El-Sheik to Dahab (160 LE). They were a very interesting family - she was a nurse and had travelled all over the world working. I think he worked in aviation engineering. They had the most darling children - a boy and a girl around 8 and 10. They were so incredibly well behaved and sat quietly throughout the trip on the train and in the taxi entertaining themselves. The kids have been backpacking since they were wee little ones ... read more

We landed in Dahab, a seaside Egyptian town on the Sinai Peninsula, after a long day of travel from Jordan. We started in Wadi Rum in Jordan, drove through Aqaba, Jordan-Israel Border, picked up visa at Egyptian embassy in Eilat, through Israel-Egypt Border and a 1.5 hour taxi ride from Taba to Dahad. Dahab used to be a small seaside village catering to hippie travelers and scuba divers in 70-80s and has now turned into a big tourist hangout spot. We spent two days chilling by the sea and snorkelled around three pools - first time snorkelling experience for Alison. There are plenty of tropical fish to see underwater and the water is pretty warm. I spent an evening playing ping pong and drinking beer with the locals. Afer two days of rest in this beach ... read more

The most impressive feature in Cairo is crowd - its noise, movements and purposefulness, dirty rags, dusty roads, innovative vehicles, bright smiles, suspicious glances. We would just get out of agency buss after some tour and get lost in the masses. A fellow passenger once asked us “seriously, what you do when you leave the group?” Enjoying the freedom to roam on our own was not something any of them understood. Especially after the warning we got that even crossing the street was easier done by taking taxi then trying ourselves, unless we rely only on eye contact and sound of horns. We were told that between 20 and 25 million people reside in Cairo and that daily oscillations including commuters result in 30 million people. Luckily we had very competent guides because we came completely ... read more