Friday, May 15
Traveling to Safaga
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At about 2am we stopped for a bathroom stop at the same truck stop that we visited on the way to St. Catherines. Elizabeth suddenly remembered that she left her washing on a line back at the Dahab campsite. We talked to Sameh, he said that he would phone the campsite and if they found her things they could leave it to be picked up by the next tour group arriving. She would have to get by until then. She was missing her towel, bathing suit, skirt and shorts.
When we got back on the bus I tried sleeping on the floor of the bus using one of the mats so Elizabeth could have a whole seat. The bus seats were not very comfortable to sleep on. We also got a bag breakfast of bread, jam, cheese (I was starting to hate this cheese!) and potato chips for now or later on. By the time we were crossing the Suez cannel, it was 5am and I couldn't sleep anymore. At about 11:45am we arrived in Hurgada. Sameh said it was developed by Germans so one will see a lot of German signs. From my question he said that because of the shootings in Luxor the investors withdrew their investment money and that is why all around the Red Sea coast we see hundreds of resort developments partially finished and no one working on them. At Hurgada we stopped at a restaurant while the bus took the cook shopping for lunch and dinner. We visited some of the stores. Elizabeth asked at one of the stores for a towel, but they were asking 30 to 40 LE for a towel and she didn't want to spend that amount for it. Even though there were almost no tourists the storekeepers did not go down very much in price.
At about 1pm we arrived in Safaga. We stayed at a beach side camp. It was very hot and dry. Elizabeth couldn't swim as she didn't have her bathing suit, so she suggested visiting the town for one. We went down the road towards the town and passed a number of shops. We looked in some of them but didn't find anything interesting. We passed by a perfume shop and the shopkeeper suddenly dashed out. He enticed us in the shop to show us some of his perfume. We said that we were not interested, he then said that it was only 20 LE for a one ounce bottle of pure perfume. When we still showed little interest he lowered down to 15 then 10 LE, for his first customers of the day. I could believe it as we didn't see any other tourists other than us. Elizabeth asked if his price still held if we came back, and he said yes. We then went around to other shops, didn't see anything so we went back to the campsite.
We had a lunch of bread, watermelon, cheese slices, meat slices, vegetable salad and cucumbers. I went swimming to cool down. My back was very red from the previous day snorkling and was sensitive. I bought a Stella and relaxed by the beach with a book. Elizabeth came back a bit later with a bottle of perfume and a small blue scarab The shopkeeper gave the '1001 nights' perfume to Elizabeth for 9 LE and included the scarab for good luck. I was impressed with it, Sameh said that it was a very good price, so I decided to go back with Elizabeth and get one for Yukari, and she thought about getting one for Diana. The shopkeeper charged 10 LE for each but gave us another scarab with each bottle. Elizabeth bought 'Cleopatra' and I bought 'Aida'.
We went back to the campsite, relaxed until dinner, which was at 7pm. Supper was quite good today, being a tomato sauce dish of some sort. As I didn't get much sleep the night before I went to bed by 8pm, most of the others went to bed earlier then usual.
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Saturday, May 16
Safaga to Luxor
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We got up at 5am because we had to join a convoy. Due to the attacks on tourists all tourist busses must be accompanied by armed soldiers to travel between cities in the south. The tourist police set up convoy schedules between the different cities. If a tourist vehicle does not meet a convoy starting at a traffic checkpoint, they are not permitted to travel until the next convoy starts. Native traffic is unrestricted. The interesting thing is that the convoy vehicles are not kept together, they can pass each other. There were several traffic checkpoints along the way so I presumed that is how they are controlled, but that would not stop any terrorist who could stop the bus between checkpoints.
Breakfast was the usual eggs, bread with jam and cheese, tomato salad and tea. We started the convoy at 6:30am. About 30 vehicles were on this convoy. I didn't see the police vehicle though so it must have started well ahead of us. We stopped at a rest stop half way to Qena in the middle of the desert. Toilets costed 50 piasters (20 cents). A small bottle of coke was 4 LE, in the city it was typically 1 LE.
By noon we arrived in Qena, a city of 3.5 million. It didn't seem that large, maybe because it seemed that it was filled with large dingy apartment blocks from the desert to the banks of the Nile, creating a very dense city. Evidently the city was not considered safe so we were not allowed to stop. Traveling to Luxor we noticed along the river bank a lot of farmer huts where they store the hay on top of the roof. The plots of land were very small and intensely cultivated, and look like there were a lot of work spent on irrigation. Traveling from Qena to Luxor, I did not notice any area that was not cultivated, this explains why there is virtually no wildlife left on the Nile valley. They even make dome style houses for pigeons, which are popular in Luxor in restaurants.
When we arrived at Luxor Sameh had the George (the bus driver) drive around and Sameh pointed out some sites, telephone central, souvenir market, duty-free store and banks for money exchange. We then continued to our campsite. This was in the middle of Luxor, a combination hotel and campground. He pointed out that he paid 10 LE for each of us for the camp spot and the hotel would charge 25 LE for each person for their rooms. He said that we were welcome to use the rooms if we wanted to. This night though no one took advantage of the option, as the day was not as hot and we were feeling like a group. The site did have a clean swimming pool and most of us took advantage of the pool.
Before lunch was ready Elizabeth and I went down the street. We wandered in the native's market for a bit. They were selling most things, and Elizabeth wanted a towel to replace the one she lost. We had difficulty in explaining to the shopkeepers but a small boy came by and tried to help us, more than we wanted him to. He took us to a storekeeper who brought 2 towels. Elizabeth bought a colorful one for 8 LE. We had to leave to meet for lunch and with difficulty we got rid of the boy. We paid him 50 piasters, although he was insistent in getting at least 1 LE. Lunch was rice, noodles with a vegetable or meat sauce.
After lunch a man came into the campsite. He was selling counterfeit copies of the International Student Card. He would take the our passport and a filled out form and create the card charging 40 LE for the work. Considering that at many Egyptian sites the difference between a student and non-student admission is 10 LE it would not take very long to make up for the cost.
Elizabeth and I then went to the tourist market. All around 'Kalesh' drivers were asking us to go on a ride, for 2 LE or 1 LE to the market. Kalish are horse drawn carriages that are for two people, but I've seen 4-5 natives use them. These was a dearth of tourists and I saw almost no-one using them. At the market everyone spoke English. We even tried to speak French to get rid of one of the store keepers but that backfired, he spoke better French then we did. Chara said that she would speak gobbly-gook, made up words and that kept them away, until they figured that you were making it up. I stopped in a gold shop and ordered a small gold cartouche with Yukari's name in hieroglyphics made as a broach. It would cost 200 LE and would be ready that night. The storekeeper brought tea in for us while we talked of different things (in English of course). When we left he was insistent on taking us to his brother's or cousin (I'm not sure which one) shop. I thought he said it was a gold factory that showed how they make the Jewelry, but it turned out to be another papyrus shop.
This papyrus shop had prices posted on every piece like the shop in Cairo. The shopkeeper though said since we were friends don't look at the prices and just look for a piece. The prices were very high though. We told the shopkeeper that we have already got a papyrus and that we didn't need another one. He was quite persistent dragging us showing different ones asking which one we liked. We were slow in selecting one so he started lowering prices in selected ones. I showed a bit of interest in the one of Tutankaman's wife giving Tut a gift. This he showed that the gold paint glowed nicely. He was asking 250 LE according to the sign. He lowered it to 150 LE for us, then 100 LE, the 80 LE then 50 LE. When we tried to leave the store he lowered it down to 40 LE. At that point I figured that I might as well buy it, as it was nice. We politely refused anymore and left. We then continued through the market noticing how quiet it was. Even though it was 6 months after the tourist shooting, there were very few tourists and the shopkeepers seemed desperate for customers.
We stopped by a t-shirt shop and ordered t-shirts with Diana and Michael's name in the front in hieroglyphics in a cartouche. These we ordered for 120 LE for the two. It was fairly expensive as the letters have to be sewn on one, by one.
We returned to the campsite by 4 pm in order to meet the group for a tour of the Karnak temple just outside of Luxor. We had another guide going though the temple with us. She showed the ceiling, huge rocks, but a lot of them collapsed with an earthquake at about 1000AD. She showed the entrance where, when the temple was half covered with sand French soldiers wrote graffiti on the walls. When the temple was flooded with the Nile the hieroglyphics on the walls was washed out, due to the softness of the sandstone. At the end she showed the obelisk next to the lake in that if you walk around counterclockwise 3 times it brings you good luck, 7 times marriage and children. I walked around seven times just for the heck of it. The interesting thing is that LETS GO said one should walk around clockwise not counterclockwise. Which one is right?
At the temple there was a photographer who asked if we wanted a group photo. Several of us said yes, me included. When he was taking the photo I noticed that he was holding the camera crooked. I didn't say anything, but was expecting to see him take more then one photo. He only took the one.
After the temple tour some of the group wanted to visit the duty free store, especially Matt, an Australian, who laughed like a donkey sometimes but was an amusing guy. We stopped by at 6:30pm and the duty free was not open until 7pm. We got off the bus and went to the market. I stopped and picked up my t-shirts that I ordered. The telephone central was next to the market and so I tried Canada Direct with no answer. One of the group said that she managed to get hold of them, so I figured it was just busy.
When we walked to the duty free shop we encountered an Egyptian asking if we can buy some alcohol for them for his sisters wedding. We refused, not knowing whether it was illegal or not. We did know that Muslims are not to drink alcohol so there are no liquor stores in Egypt for the locals. |
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