Now that the original shock has worn off slightly, we have decided to try and catch the bus to Nuweiba, and then the ferry to Aqaba, Jordan as soon as we can. We’ve asked the hotel to try and get us tickets for the first bus tomorrow morning, but it seems there is quite the exodus happening here today, so we’re not sure yet if we will be able to catch that bus. We suspect that most people are heading back to Cairo, so hopefully there won’t be a problem. the schedules seem to have changed since our guide book was published, so we may or may not make the ferry connection the same day, which would mean a night in Nuweiba.

We’ve been told that some of the hotels have arranged mini-buses for their guests as obviously there are not enough regular buses running to get everyone out who wants to leave. There appear to be a number of people still hanging around the resorts, and the hotelier did try to get us to stay, as the worst has almost surely passed, but I would feel more comfortable to get to a quieter place. Not that Aqaba itself is necessarily quiet, but it’s more of a trade port than a tourist town.

So it means that we have decided not to do the trek to St. Katherine’s, or Mount Sinai, which is a shame, but not a huge deal for us. The biggest shame is really not being able to stay in Dahab. It’s such a API Call Errorbeautiful town, most certainly a tourist resort, but still quainter than the other tourist places we’ve been. API Call ErrorBeautiful clean clear ocean, nice sea breeze, not too hot… It also means we will have to wait until Turkey to do any diving, but again, not a big deal.

I think the worst is over, and we will try to get back on the trail as quickly as possible. Stay tuned in the next day or two, we will let you know when we arrive in Aqaba.

We’ve now finished our first day in Cairo. It is definitely different from anywhere I’ve been before. Somewhat intimidating, and yet also very interesting. We’re staying in the downtown area, just a couple of blocks from Midan Tahrir, where the Egyptian Museum is, and there is a huge variety of people around. We didn’t wander too far from the hostel today, and in the same blocks you could see people living in extreme poverty, and people who would qualify as middle class doing their shopping. On one corner, one side of the street was a restaurant which was as sterile and modern as any western fast food chain, and on the other side of the street, the building was crumbling, the sidewalk was covered in rubble.

There are three kinds of Egyptians when it comes to tourism. The majority, who are friendly to you if you ask for directions or look lost, but generally don’t much care about you; those who make an honest living in the tourism industry and want to make sure you have a good time; and the third, who seem to think you came here so that they could try to get your money without any service of value in return. Unfortunately, the last group is large enough to make walking around the streets a tiring game. On our first trip out, we were talked into a perfume shop, but after getting the hard sell, we were left alone when it became apparent that we were not going to buy anything. Having been caught once, you catch onto the pitch quickly, and become better at ignoring it. The downside is that sometimes you end up shrugging off people who are honestly trying to be helpful, which creates kind of a guilty feeling.

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