The Western Desert and Goodbye to Egypt

Assuming all goes well at the Sudanese border tomorrow this should be my last post from Egypt. I am now back in Aswan awaiting the ferry that will take me up the Nile to Sudan.

Anyway after a few relaxing days in Dahab, I went back to Cairo to sort out my visa for Sudan and was pleasantly suprised to receive my visa very quickly and efficiently in just a couple of hours. I wasn't quite so pleased at the US $100 it cost me though. I had given myself a few days to sort out the visa and now found myself with a few spare days on my hands and rather than spend them in Cairo I made a trip out to the western desert and the oasis of Baharia.

Baharia itself is not such an exciting place, one the attractions being a hot spring, which is actually just a petrol powered pump spurting out hot water. I'm not entirely sure why this is thought to be a tourist attraction. But Baharia is the base to do a trip out into the white desert and spend a night under the stars. I set off with my guide Ahmed in a rather dilapadated 28 year old 4x4. Somehow the jeep made the journey into the desert and as I watched the sun set Ahmed cooked us a great meal. After dinner over a shesha he told me his tail of woe; his wife has been ill for six months. This in itself didn't seem to upset him too much, it was more the fact that in all this time he wasn't having any sex. After the sun went down the stars came out and the desert looked great lit by a half-moon.

The next day I made the journey back to Cairo and then straight onto the night train to Aswan. I have enjoyed my time in Egypt, but have to say it can be hard work at times putting up with the hassle. It seems to slowly wear you down. It is a shame that, although there are only small number people in this country trying to hassle or scam you, they are the ones you seem to meet most. I have been told that this will not be the case in Sudan so I look forward to leaving tomorrow with a sense of relief and excited expectation.

Feluccas, Luxor and Dahab

After three days confined to my hotel in Aswan, I was thankful to be feeling well enough to get out of the place. I hopped onto a felucca for which I was to spend the next two days and nights. Also on board a couple of chilled out Aussies and a Kiwi (Attila, Stu and Jenny), a grumpy German couple (names not important), our rather mad Felucca captain Mohamed, and his mate who funnily enough was also named Mohamed. In actual fact about every second bloke you meet in Egypt is called Mohamed (and I'm not exagerating) and the ones that aren't are generally called Ahmed.

The two days on board the felucca were very peaceful and relaxing, Mohamed cooked us great meals and in the evening we set up fires by the riverside while bongos were played the shesha was passed round. On the second day we pulled up by the riverside and I was entertained by a bunch of kids given their donkey a wash in the Nile. The poor donkey lay down and played dead as the kids dragged it down the bank into the river and then dragged it back out of the river back through all the mud again.

The end of the felucca trip seemed to arrive way too soon, and for the next couple of days we were ferried around a bunch more temples in Kom Ombo, Edfu and Luxor; you can check out the photos if you're interested. By now I was suffering from what is known as temple fatigue and didn't take in the grandeur of the magnificent ancient monuments, the one exception being the Karnak temple in Luxor which most people seemed to agree was the best of the lot. I spent one night in Luxor and have to say it as unpleasant as Aswan and I was glad to get the bus and head to the backpackers Mecca that is Dahab.

The overnight bus to Dahab was an event in itself taking seventeen hours, in cramped uncomfortable conditions, to get there. The journey would've been much quicker except for the numerous ID and ticket checks that went on. There are lots of checkpoints on the roads in Egypt, and Egyptians are very restricted as to where they can and can't travel in their own country, with very few being allowed into Dahab. Although this is not so good for Egyptains, it is good for the travellers as it means Dahab is not full people hassling you and trying to rip you off.

Dahab, on the Sinai coast, seems like paradise after the bustle and hassle of Cairo, Aswan and Luxor. I have the spent the last three days chilling out relaxing and doing plenty of scuba diving. The diving here is great and with it being low season the dive sites at some locations have been deserted. This is a great place to hang out and do absolutely nothing, which is exactly what I intend to do for the next few days.

Aswan

Only a week into my trip and already I have managed to fall ill. My own fault really as I wasn't being particulary fussy about where or what I ate, and came down with a bout of the trots. I was due to leave Aswan a couple a days ago on a felucca (an egyptian sail boat) but didn't really fancy the prospect of having to hang my arse over the side of the boat every five minutes so I have spent the last couple days recovering in Aswan. Luckily there is a pretty good hospital in Aswan with english speaking doctors and I have got some medication and am well on my way to recovery. With any luck I will be on my way again tomorrow. Getting ill is generally part and parcel of going away on a trip like this, although I had not expected to fall ill quite so soon. It can be a pretty miserable experience at the time when you are on your own in a foreign country but it usually only lasts a couple of days and once you get better you pretty much forget it ever happened.

As you have gathered I've now left Cairo and took the overnight train to Aswan. I have visited the Aswan Dam which wasn't particulary exciting and the Philae temple, which was fairly interesting. The next day I had to get up 2:45am to join a convoy escorted by armed police to make the three hour drive to Abu Simbel. I'm not sure why this convoy has to leave so early or indeed if an armed convoy is that necessary since once we were on the road it was every minibus for himself and if you were too slow you got left behind. Abu Simbel is a very impressive temple with four large statues outside and lots wall carvings inside. The temple was actually submerged under Lake Nasser when the Aswan Dam was built, and I have no idea how they managed to fish it out and plonk it an island. Anyway I was very impressed with the temple and for my money it was better than pyramids.

In the evening I returned to the Philae temple for a "sound and light show" which I went to with rather low expectations and was pleasantly surprised. The temple complex looked great lit up at night. You can see the photo above; click on the photo to see more pictures.

With the sights done there isn't much else to do in Aswan, so it has been a pretty boring place to be holed up for the last two days. The hassle here is a bit worse than Cairo, and you have to haggle for absolutely everything including such things as buying a bottle of water or getting internet access. I must say I won't be too sorry to leave.

Cairo

I have been in Cairo for four days and have to say despite the hassle, congestion and pollution and I have really enjoyed it. I arrived at the airport late in the evening and after breezing through immigration got a cab into town with a complete psycho of a taxi of driver, although to be fair to him he was driving just like everyone else. Getting a cab Cairo is quite a scary affair. You really do fear for your life at some points as lane markings and traffic lights appear to have no significance whatsoever and road users appear completely oblivious to any other traffic as they tear around at 80 mph.

The people seem to be genuinely friendly and welcoming here. In fact you can't walk ten meters down the road without someone saying "Welcome!". You do get a bit of hassle, well quite a lot of hassle, as I was expecting but I have to say it's not really that bad and if you say no a few times they do leave you alone and don't get at all aggressive or nasty as I have experienced in other countries.

I have of course been to Giza and seen the pyramids which were spectacular. They are right on the edge on Cairo and the smog filled city does make for quite a strange backdrop. I also visited the Egyptian museum which is literally packed with artifacts but unfortunately also packed with visitors and noisy school children. They have some mummies on display here, it is quite eerie to see bodies that have remained intact for thousands of years.

I have spent today discovering the joys of trying to get a visa in Africa. I need to get a visa to visit Sudan. On visiting the Sudanese consul I was told that first I would need a letter recommendation from the British consul. Luckily the British consulate was just over the road so I spent two hours queuing here to find out that the British consul doesn't issue letters of recommendation but for a small fee of 200 Egyptian pounds (thats about 20 quid) I could get a letter from them saying they don't issue letters of recommendation and apparently that would do the trick. By the time I had finally gotten this letter the Sudanese consulate had of course shut. I'm booked on a train to Aswan tonight but it looks I may be returning at Cairo some point to continue this saga...