For some reason I never quite finish writing about the end of my trips. I suppose I return home and a) people know I’m safe and blogging is thus obsolete, or b) I’m back home and writing about things is just not the same. Like so many things in my life, I am not a finisher. I stumble at the last hurdle, call in sick at the last 100 metres.
But since I’m going away again very shortly, I may as well give you a little advice about Egypt.
When travelling back to Cairo from Dahab, or presumably any red sea area, I would NOT recommend you take the overnight bus to save time/money. Primarily because no one thinks it polite to switch off the stupid television which blares away with songs all night. But also because in the moments when you do catch a couple of z’s, you are rudely awoken every two hours after the toilet stops by a conductor who wants to see your ticket again to make sure you haven’t snuck on to the bus at that stop.
Even that after a while you become accustomed to. You just have your ticket in your hand and in a half groggy state you stick out your hand.
That doesn’t work when an uniformed soldier gets onto the bus. You try and hand your ticket and he speaks to you in Arabic. You swear, pretty badly, it has to be said, and he pricks up his ears and curtly demands to see your passport. Then you’re hauled off the bus and made to grab your bag from the holdall area and made to stand outside in the pitch dark at 4am. This is with all the other passengers, so it’s not personal. Apart from the seeing the passport thing.
An Alsation is called to the bus and I presume it does some sort of spot check for drugs or other contraband material you might be taking out of the area. After about 20 minutes in the freezing cold you’re allowed back on the bus, to pass the rest of the night in yet more fitful bursts of sleep. Then you land in Abbassiya bus station, miles from anywhere at 6am. Nothing is open and you don’t have a hotel booking so you wander around aimlessly for a little while.
Did I ever mention in previous posts that Cairo never sleeps? Someone is always awake, trying their hardest to make a Guinea anywhere they possibly can. 2am in the morning and the fruitstalls are still wide open. I don’t know who comes to buy from them at that time, but as I say, the city literally never sleeps so I expect there is some business to be had.
It’s all coming flooding back to me now, those last few days in Cairo. I’m quite impressed with my memory. There’s a whole bunch of things I did – go to the world book fair, hang around with an Egyptian family for a night and be completely roasted by them. Visit the AllStars mall. Tons of stuff. But that was January. And now we’re in July.
The next journey is Canada and America. Not an adventure. A journey to recapture my soul and nurse some wounds. I hope the North Americans are ready.
littlebaggage 