Day #9: November 12th
I counted 28 new mosquito bites on my left wrist when I woke up. Darn, if only I had taken a bit of time to do some research before my trip, I would have read that the Nile region is very much a mosquito infested region. Oh well…
I got up at about 5:30am, right when the sun started to show its nose out. Good timing for a morning wee wee and peaceful awakening. No one else, or rather nothing else is already awake. The world is mine.
Ramadan had said last night that we would sail off at 7am today. Yeah right! It is 8am and no one is awake yet. What a pair of sailors the two of them make!
9am, finally we go. Seems the wind decided to be shy today...we take close to two hours to make it to Kom Ombo, instead of the 40 announced yesterday. Big deal. As long as I am on a boat, am ok.
We park doc the felucca right at the food of the Kom Ombo temple. I say Good bye to Bob Marley, and Ramadan walks with me until we find a tuk tuk that will take me to the micro bus station. Next stop, Luxor, the first and main city of antique Egypt.
The negotiating with the micro bus driver is tough. I cut his price in half, from 100 EL to 50. He finally agrees. I had read on some blog that a slightly longer distance used to run for about 20, before the dramatic inflation hit Egypt. So i assumed 50 would be about right today. Yeah right. The actual price was 30. Darn!
I am always amazed and at loss of understanding, when taking this kind of bus anywhere in the developing world. Each and every time, the driver leaves the engine running forever before departing, but waits until bus is fully loaded to go right across the street and fill up at gas station...and put air in the tires. Why not do it before???!!!
On the way, i learn something perhaps useless, but interesting: the exact width of a pickup truck is equal to three camels put next to each other. How do i learn that? Ask me and I will send you the photo. ;0)
Later on, we have to switch bus. One coming from Quena unloads its passengers, and ours does the same, and we trade buses. So comes the moment to pay for the full ride so the two drivers can pay each other. Usual process I have gone through multiple times. So, when one passenger collecting money from all the others asks 35 pounds (instead of 30 because we are a couple of people less than full load), i do the exact same thing i did once in Borneo, i insist on paying the same price as the locals. The driver is pissed as we had negotiated 50. I dont care and hold my position strong, using my weak Arabic, and making everyone in the bus understand that there is no reason why i should pay more than others just because I am a foreigner. He refuses, and so do I. What the hell?! Discrimination! In the end I manage to pay 40. Win win, but only after strongly persisting with the new driver.
I dont mind paying more for some touristy things or souvenir shops (that is, until i know that actual local price), but for public transportation, where as a foreigner i receive no extra service or comfort, out of the question.
We finally make it to Luxor, well, since the bus continued to Quena, i actually got dropped at a cross road, near a little canal, surrounded by gorgeous bougainvilliers, red, pink, white, and orange. The minute I stepped foot on the ground I could feel the energy of the place. What an energy!
I knew i was far away from the guest house i wanted to stay at (Happy Land Hotel), but after 3 days on a boat, and several hours of bus, i just wanted to walk and discover the city on foot. I hadnt walk 100 meters when a guy on his motorcycle stops at my level and tells me to hop on. Kindness out of nowhere. Refusing would not only be dumb,but perhaps insulting. Random, selfless, acts of kindness should not be refused, especially when travelling, as one never knows what they can lead to. But it was a perfect ying and yang synchronicity after the discriminatory event in the bus. I smile.
The guy has no clue where i am going but figured giving me a ride would shorten my walk. He drops me off several kilometers later. I want to thank him by giving him a big mango I had saved (financially worth the bus ride), but he refuses and takes off. No word exchanged. Just kindness and smiles.
I keep walking. Discovering Luxor is magical. The Luxor temple is an open air easily observable museum in the heart of the city, gigantic, and part of the city setting. Jaw dropping.
There is actually a 3km alley of 1800 sphinxes connecting downtown Luxor to Karnak temples. Spectacular, and this in the open just like any city tramway tracks.
On a little bridge above the alley and in front of the main Luxor temple, at sunset, i stumble upon another of these sweet potato cooking stall. I cant hold it. I am starving. I stop and order a big portion. The guy, named Mahmoud, serves it with sugar on top. Delicious. And so I spend a bit of time chit chatting with Mahmoud who so happens to be a former dive master from the Red Sea.
That was the perfect way to enjoy a sunset on one of the most ancient cities of the world.
Off to find my guest house I went. Happy Land Hostel. And that’s just what it was. In the middle of the city, in a small street filled with school kids flowing back home. The owner’s name is also Mahmoud. Seems like that name has been tagging all along during my trip thus far.
I spent the rest of the evening wandering around the streets of Luxor, loving that city more and more.
Day #10, November 13th
Today I really saw Luxor’s beauty full power. Beyond anyone’s imagination. The Valley of the kings, Karnak, Luxor Temple by night...speechless. Comparable to Bagan valley or Shwedaggon Pagoda in Burma or Angkor temples in Cambodia. The “grandness’’, the architecture, the energy, etc... After seeing such place, impossible to see museums. Why see a compilation of remains/leftovers in a souless room when you can see the real thing. And well, after Sulawesi’s Toraja’s death culture, I never thought I would ever be AMAZED by any other death focused culture. But the tombs in the Valley of the Kings are beyond anything I had ever seen before. No word was able to come out of my mouth as I was walking through them because of how impressed and in awe I was.
What a day! Luxor is THE city not to be missed.
Day #11 and more...
A big taxi driver named Mahmoud tried to lure me into another tourist trap as I am walking away from the Go Bus office disappointed about the fact that the next bus out is so many hours away. But hey, everything happens for a reason. So having time to kill, I hop into that taxi to get to the other side of the city and try and find a micro bus instead. I wanted to make the best use of my day.
And that’s where I met this guy named Adam. A waiter in one of the southern red sea resorts. A really cool guy, also waiting for the next micro bus to depart. He is going to Marsa Alam, and me to El Quseir. Such an interesting guy to travel with and learn more about the region and the culture.
When in El Quseir, I felt like I had arrived at the end of the world, sort of. Tiny town, dead quiet. I still had to walk a good 3 KM before finding the only hotel in town. Beautiful building with a Moroccan Riad wooden facade like. But inside, as dusty as if the place had not been open for 20 years. The owner is this really cool young guy involved in interesting social projects in town.
Deception of the day, the ferry is not departing thursday but friday. My first feeling is slight anger and frustration. Spending 3 full days in this hole. No way! Ha! I totally changed my mind after walking around and seeing how incredible this place is. And well, I also managed to line up a few dives for the next two days. So not a bad thing after all.
When evening arrived, I found this great little paillote restaurant on the beach. So I got myself a nice shisha and a fresh juice, reading my book to the sound of the ocean singing good night to the sun. And to my amazement, a big white desert fox strolls by, back and forth, probably looking for some food leftovers. A beautiful feline with a long puffy tail. Size between a fox and a big dog. Impressive and beautiful at the same time.
The town being a former italian phosphate mining town, I assumed it would have some decent italian food heritage. Hehe! Not really apparently. The one pizza place I was able to find made decent pizzas, but nothing out of this world. But its two owners, Mohamed and 3amada, quickly became my best friends in town. I spent every single evening til my departure just hanging out with them on the porch of this shop, sitting on a wooden broken chair, people watching, and chatting about culture, life, and family.
Mohamed and 3amada. Both chefs at a high end bakery factory. Explaining to them that to me the best country in the world is the one of the moment i am at each moment, living in the present. Made me realize that the kindest people i have encountered are usually the ones with whom i have been at my kindest as well.
There definitely was a reason why I ended up getting stuck in this town for more days. To enjoy the little things of life even more.
The dives were decent dives, but nothing that impressive. After diving in Indonesia, it is so difficult to be impressed. Though, thanks to the absolute lack of professionalism from my dive master, I managed to do a few dives below 40 meters deep.
The ferry from Hurghada to Sharm El Sheikh and the ride from Sharm to Dahab were quite some adventures. One involving an interesting retired Saudi guy, and the other involving trying to negotiate a cab for myself and 3 chineses. Ha! But I shall not say more here. Gotta keep some more stories for when we meet in person.
Dahab…
Dahab, on the Red Sea side southern Sinai is probably one of the coolest hippy/bohemian/dive towns I have ever seen. Such an incredible vibe and people from all over the world. Mostly scuba divers and free divers. It reminded me a lot of Pokhara in Nepal.
The hostel I stayed at Simbad, was just perfect. Exactly what I was looking for. And the first dive center I walk to, well, I could not have found any better. I definitely made lifelong friends at Mirage Dive Center. Andy, Nada, Peter, John, Nour, Huda, and more. My four days in Dahab went by to fast. I knew as soon as I got there that it would be hard to leave. Especially after hearing the stories of all the foreigners there who had come on vacation, but then returned and just settled there.
In Dahab, every body rides a bicycle, so you bet I loved that place. Heaven on earth! Restaurants selling all kinds of food, europeans and local, at cheap prices.
Diving in Dahab was not amazing in terms of fish, but in terms of coral, it was incredible. We went to a few spots which were just incredible. Andy is such a great diver instructor. I actually managed to further my diving with a couple more certifications. So I am now officially a certified Advanced diver!
And well, the Sinai, or at least what I saw of it, is just unbelievably beautiful. I love mountain landscapes. Thats for sure one thing I will miss the most from Morocco, the Atlas Mountain range. But Sinai made me want to return just to hike it. The light the sun casts on it at sunset, is perhaps as unique as the sunlight in Morocco’s northern Sahara desert. Magical.
A good thing I did not actually hike Sinai, given that the same night I was back in Cairo, a suicide bombing happened in northern Sinai, killing hundreds of people. Yet another drama caused by religion.
Egypt definitely surprised me for reasons that I had not expected. It is a country I would for sure recommend to everyone. But please, do not try and squeeze the traditional touristy places into a short amount of time as you will miss the greatness of it all. Make less stops, but longer ones. I suppose that advice goes for any place in the world. But in Egypt, there are so many places on the tourist tour and people usually tend to speed through them, that most of what they end up bringing back are photos, but no real soul to soul interaction with the country and its people.
Oh, and the last saturday’s Islamic cairo morning walk with Greg and Dorte was like travelling back through the past. These two are experts of every single piece of history and architecture in that part of the city. I cant believe I actually was lucky enough to tag along on their morning walk.
Leaving Egypt was hard. I dont thing there is one single thing I regret from my trip. Not one. So much went through my mind during that trip, between having just ended a very interesting mission with MTC, backpacking through such a country, having just said Good Bye to my life in Rabat, getting ready for my very first photo exhibit in Marrakech, and transitioning to Benin for yet another very challenging adventure in a new country. Many sleepless nights back to back, with all these feelings and emotions tornadoing in my head...
Here are the photos of my whole trip: https://www.flickr.com/gp/52537245@N00/PRoGU2
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