Summary of Egypt

Better just start with a summary (in the style of a high school friendship book) of the 7 weeks in Egypt before I forget it:

Best thing brought: Inflatable pillow, sunglasses (otherwise my eyeballs would have dried up by now).

Worst thing brought: Comb

Best thing bought: Burka

Worst thing bought: Taxi ride without knowing the price first

Most surprising: Ginger Arabs (really, orange eyelashes and brow on one guy)

Typically Egyptian: A man with a callus on his forehead from praying saying "nice bum"

What's ok: Cat poo in piles on the stairs of an apartment building

What's not ok: Eating with the left hand

What works: Juice bars, fresh mango or pomegranite juice a day. A brilliant system of dish washing.

What doesn't work: Any government organisation during Ramadan

What I learnt: WD40 is the Nectar of the Gods, I also learnt that all those letter 'r's that I leave off the end of words actually get used where a word ending in a vowel is next to a word starting with a vowel... so I can say: "Chinar and Canadar ae countries with cas." and I still use the correct amount of 'r's.

What I learnt to do: Cross motorways, lane by lane... don't like it, but I do it.

I knew I was in Africa when: I used my lovely precision slanted edged bevel tipped eyebrow tweezers to remove small stones from my flip-flops.

Your men-folk

Since joining forces with Mick, Nick and Nick... Ok, well becoming extra luggage on their journey South, my readership seems to have risen from 3 to about 40. So for the benefit of the majority here are a couple of photos you your lads.

The Nicks were last seen riding off into the desert at Wadi Hafia the Sudaese boarder town... they were well prepared and on a mission to get through Sudan as fast as possible to reach Ethiopia where beer is sold. Mick is sitting next to me at the internet cafe. But that is a dull photo so I'll upload one taken a couple of days ago on a fallucca sailing down the Nile. His plan is to hang out in stupidly-expensive Khartoum for a bit while some bike parts get sent through.

Sudan: bloody expensive

The night before we got the boat to Sudan I was starting to feel a bit foggy. Like my head was filled with cotton wool. By the time we got on the boat I was dizzy and spacy. I put it down to the once-a-day malaria medication kicking in. I had a mental night of being a bit of a drama queen (sorry Mick) and in the morning totally lost it. The boat was only half full but the 300 passengers and all there luggage seemed to take up all available space. Loading and unloading was a hassle but the guys got all their bikes and kit on and off without loss. They also got through the malarky that is customs and immigration while I floated about in a daze on the spongy concrete floors and watched my peripheral vision bend and warp. I'm still taking the medication, hopefully it was just my body adjusting. If it happens again I'll stop. I can not afford to go through that again.

The 'road' was soft sand, it was really difficult to maneuver. one of the Nicks stopped in front of us with his super-duper brakes and Mick's bike couldn't brake fast enough so we had to go around crossing ruts in the sand. We both came off - into very soft sand at a very slow speed - checked the bike, fine, checked ourselves also fine. It was then that my head started to clear (fast) and decided it was better Mick didn't have the additional 80kgs weighing him down. So asked him to drop me off at the train station and I'd buy him a drink in Khartoum (capital of Sudan, half way down a really huge country). The front wheel of his bike still could do with a few improvements, so he decided to get on the train too.

2 nights and one day later we are in Khartoum. Most of the North is barren desert, occasionally there are settlements of mud brick houses, children riding about on donkeys, men in ridiculously white robes and women in colourful saris, litter of torn plastic bags. Everyone smiles, everybody seems to genuinely want to help, share, welcome, joke and befriend.

So really in Africa now. Haven't seen a fully functioning toilet since crossing the boarder. The one in the train was too foul to take photos of. I have a pretty hard stomach for these things but I was gagging. The train was cramped and very dirty. There are a lot of thing I need to adjust to. The biggest problem that I'm looking at is the cost of living. from what I can see prices are equal to Europe. We just checked into a hotel to get a good sleep and so I could clean my clothes and scrub up before contacting the volunteer organisation, it is 55 US dollars for a twin room. This internet is 2USD per hour... how am I going to survive on only 100 USD per month?

erm... in Egypt, still

We're in Aswan, It's on the map below about 1 cm below where I was where the red line ended in Luxor. After all that effort to get here for Friday. The once-a-week Monday boat that was going to go on Saturday due to end of Ramadan holidays is leaving Wednesday due to end of Ramadan holidays... that's tomorrow. Mick and I have caught up with the two poms, one of which is Welsh and both of which are called Nick (and I now know it is 'whom' not 'which' and am making an educated decision to not sound too much like a twat).

So stuck in Aswan for 4 days, there are worse places to be stranded really. We have been making the most of our time by doing touristy stuff. Nubian museum which was fantastically modern . I learnt that Nubains are a rather large group of people who live in both Egypt and Sudan so are the only people who do not have get Visas for Sudan. We did some fallucca boat sailing even swimming in the Nile - just the once but well worth it, no crocodiles. Visited an old monument they are always placed really high on hills, this one surrounded by a swarm of antagonistic children (it is comments like that which means Mick can not put a link from his site to mine... he's a primary school teacher). We also went for lunch in the house of a Nubian village chief, it was adorned with stuffed crocodiles (that's where they went). I learnt that the Nubian culture is alive and thriving on hash sales and fallucca boat commissions. We have watched sunsets, drank the last alcohol I'll see for months and that the guys will see till Ethiopia, met other travelers, chilled out, ate bad breakfasts and waited for our boat.

The skin on my face and arms has turned that horrible orange-pink colour that is not a tan, more just a look of a blush on jaundice. I look like an Australian. I'm going to have to get used to it. I'm rationing my sunscreen. I won't be able to buy any in Sudan.

The lost and found update: Mick's lonely planet not stolen, the Italian was waiting by his bike. Mick's Tank back (containing the list of useful stuff that keeps getting longer): officially missing, he has the paperwork to prove it. Nick's bike seat stolen a couple of nights ago: officially missing. a missing report takes a couple of hours... a stolen report takes a few days, a lot of forms and a few interviews. Cases of Egyptian theft is incredibly low.

So we are off to Sudan tomorrow, no really, I mean it this time.

Map of travels so far

I notice that other more fancy travelers seem to have maps of their itineraries on their websites and blogs. So to keep up with the Jones' here's mine. I don't know where I'm going (except down the Nile to Sudan tomorrow,) but this is where I have been.

Ridin' Pillion

Wow, this whole motorcycle thing is fantastic. The freedom of not depending on public transport opens worlds of possibilities. Mick introduced me to a lovely ex-pat couple living in Cairo who took us out horse riding around the pyramids and put us up. We linked up with two poms who are heading to Capetown for charity ( www.cotswolds2capetown.co.uk geeze, does everybody have a website these days?) .

So we set of from Cairo, It was awesome flying down the motorway at 80miles per hour.

Unfortunately, due to the heat the spindle had fused to the bearings on the front wheel (the stick that goes through the middle of the wheel had over heated and the turny bits got stuck to it) . The poms kept going to stick to their deadline.

Fortunately, Mick had caught it early and had two spare sets of bearings with him, easy to fix, and there was a petrol station along the way where he could work in the shade.

Unfortunately the spindle (the stick bit that goes through the front wheel) couldn't be removed... also unfortunately I was giving mechanical advice, two hours of hitting and putting with no results.

Fortunately, the problem wasn't fatal and we were pretty close to a large town with a mechanic. If we took it slow it wouldn't be a problem

Unfortunately, the sun set.

Fortunately, Mick has a tent, cooker and food. We camped on the edge of the Sahara by the Red Sea watched shooting stars. Set off early the next morn.

Unfortunately, the bearings gave and the bike couldn't work.

Fortunately, a large truck stopped after only about 10 mins and picked us and the bike up.



Unfortunately, it needed to turn off, so dropped us off at a random sisha bar in the middle of nowhere.

Fortunately, they instructed an officer to stop traffic for us. Which he did.

Unfortunately, The guy they stopped was a bit of a weirdo and he charged us the price of the over night train from Cairo.

Fortunately, he got us to a mechanic who fixed the bike in only 3 hours. (what happened there was a whole other world of incidences that could extend this list, but long-story-short... Bike fixed.)

Unfortunately, while transporting the bike a bag was lost, it was Mick's tank bag that contained Ipod, camera, maps, motorbike passport vital to all bike travel, his new testament bible written in Scots. He spent most of the 3 hours in a car scouring the motorway for it, and another couple of hours in the morning on the bike.

Fortunately, we had a day up our sleeves to make the once-a-week boat to Sudan, so got a nice hotel and had a great meal and a good look around the the beach town (Hurgada, spelt differently on every road sign). In the morning (after getting back from searhing the moterway again for the bag) Mick remembered we had taken the phone number of the weirdo guy, so I got the hotel reception to call him to see if he knew where the bag was, He said yes, it was in Hurgada next to a main petrol station, the receptionist drew us a map.

Unfortunately, it took a couple of hours to find out this was a miscommunication... that seems to happen when Egyptians realise that it is nicer to tell you what they think you want to hear, rather than the truth.

Fortunately, Mick had packed his Motorbike documentation un a separate bag so he still had that.

Unfortunately, by this time it was midday, hottest time.

Fortunately, we had enough time to get to Luxor if there were not too many delays

Unfortunately, there were boarder police every hour.

Fortunately, when we got to the Nile the boarder police turned into a two van, 8 person private escort that whizzed us through all checkpoints. We got to Luxor before sundown in time for a lovely boat trip on the Nile. This is where we are now.

So all ended well. I have managed to stock up on everything I need for Sudan. Started taking my malaria medication, and am looking forward to the ride through Northern Sudan. All my luggage seems to fit on the bike and create a lazyboy chair at the back. We must join a convoy leaving Luxor at 6.30am tomorrow. Due to problems in the past (attacks on tourists from extremist groups) all movement of blankies (that's dutch for honkies) in this area is closely monitored.

Got My Visa!

Things can really change in a day. After I made that last post I took the letter I had printed out to the Embassy. They said that it was from the Ministry of Higher Education and I needed a letter from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, so I still had to wait a month for that to come through. I noticed that people were taking me more seriously when I mentioned my husband more and more (it was my husband who got the letters, my husband knows people in the Sudanese govenment). So I walked out the door, away from the men in brown uniforms and onto the street. Then I walked in another door, past security and up the stairs... I went and found a man in a office with his own desk wearing a grey suit. I explained that I was sent up to process my Visa, he sent me to the right office (litterally over the heads of the brown unform men who had refused me), I mentioned my husband a lot who by now had become an offical. The Visa was approved right away, right in front of my eyes. Yay.

Also I got chatting to other travelers littered about the Embassy. I found out that the price of the boat to Sudan down the Nile is not as expensive as I thought it was, overland seems better, slower, but better. I met Mick a Fifer (a man from the Kingdom of Fife in Scotland). We went to the American university bookstore where security takes passports. They asked Mick 'Is this yours?' refering to me, he admited ownership. He bought a Loney Planet Africa... commoney known amounst honkies in these parts as the bible. it was nicked 10 minutes later by a dodgy Italian who didn't look so dodgy when he asked if he could photocopy a few pages.

Mick is heading down to South Africa by motorbike, he asked me if I wanted a lift to Khartoum (a wee 2250km south), I of course replyed: 'Hell yes'. He also has a blog: www.mickrtw.blogspot.com/ I did mention that my backpack is about half my body weight. He seems to think that is fine. He met two other motorcyclists heading the same way, so I think the idea is to link together into a crew... It's almost like I've joined a motorcycle gang.

I don't think I have ever posted the volunteer organisation I shall be working for: www.svp-uk.com just thought you should know.

Often people on the street call out as I walk past, normally 'hello' and 'whereyoufrom' Star once got: 'your legs, horse.' said as a compliment. when we were in Luxor one sunglasses seller asked me 'why your freind so angry' in response to star's netural facial expression 'because she's been hassled' 'ah, she get more hassle because she more pretty'. So this evening I got 'where your hair?'

Getting a Visa part 3

Day 7 of the visa application process. the Volunteer programme has got the Ministry of Higher Education in Khartoum to send a letter of authorisation to the Visa department here. Hope that works.

I popped back to Alexandria for a night to pick up my stuff and say hi to Jake and his girlfriend Sara. Also to say goodbye to Star who I have been traveling with foor the past 2 weeks. Now I'm back in Cairo for as long as it takes. I have checked in to a cheap hostel, the kind where there are no locks on the doors so you lock your backpack each time you leave.

Getting a Visa Part 2

Day 3 of the Visa challenge I was waiting for the NZ Embassy to create a letter of recommendation for me. The Egyptian receptionist had a lot of problems interpreting my birthplace (Palmerston North, I'm glad I wasn't born in Papatoetoe or Maungatautari). She told me to go to the 8th floor of the Cairo World Trade Centre, they had just moved the office there a couple of days earlier. I asked if it was in the same building as the Australian Embassy she said yes, which was good as I had it marked on my map.

Day 4, today I went to the World Trade Centre, 8th floor, only an African bank. So I popped into the Australian Embassy, a lovely comfortable reception brimming with flyers and information. They helped me find the New Zealand Embassy in one of the Twin Towers about 500 meters up the road (you can see how the receptionist got the address wrong). The New Zealand Embassy (first NZ ground I have set foot on in 8 years) was sterile, cold and unfriendly. I had to talk to the receptionist through a phone (like in prisons). Wait 10 mins in the minimalist cell white room. Then she then asked me to pay $45 New Zealand dollars which is 16 UK pounds... or 3 night accommodation and food in Egypt. Ridiculous. If I need anything else I think I will go back to the Australian Embassy and try my luck there. Almost makes me feel guilty for saying that I'm Australian when I know I'm going to have to maintain a stern approach to persistent husslers (don't want to give NZders a bad name for not being friendly)

So 11am onto the Sudanese Embassy (the opposite of the NZ Embassy, with cats, families and officials high fiving each other as a greeting in a decrepit building on the other side of town), was told my application needed to be processed by head office in Khartoum. so a minimum of 1 month wait. This is because my supporting letter was from a volunteer agency and it is a volunteer Visa rather than a tourist visa. I asked if there was anyway the process could be sped up. He said 'wait a minute' and 4.5 short hours later I was asked to come back after the weekend on Sunday.

Here is one travelers Sudanese Visa story from last year if you are interested:
http://www.geekeasy.com/travel/journal/addis_ababa3.shtml

Blogs are also a good way to get grass-roots, uncensored information:
http://sudanwatch.blogspot.com/
http://coalitionfordarfur.blogspot.com/



Till now I have been hanging out with a friend from the TEFL course called Star. She returns tomorrow for Alexandria (I may pop back with her to pick up my bag... It's been 3 weeks living out of the same day-bag). She is a stunning 5.8' blonde dutch lass, when we walk down the street together we look like an escaped Elf and Hobbit. She managed to get her Egyptian Visa extended in only 3 days by saying "my HUSBAND who is an OFFICIAL is flying in TONIGHT so we can go to Alexandria, he won't ALLOW me to travel alone because I am PREGNANT." The well stressed sentence contained a lot of concepts they understood, after saying that the Visa was no problem.

At the Sudanese Embassy they already know my Husband is a teacher and I need to meet him in Khartoum. I must remember next time I make up a husband to give him a better job.

Getting a Visa Part 1

I'm back in Cairo with a goal to get a Visa for Sudan.

Yesterday I went at 2.03pm... 3 minutes after close. but it was not a total waste of a journey as I discovered that I needed $100 US dollars not $85, and they do not accept Egyptian pounds or plastic.

Today I got there on time, with the correct money, invitation letter from the volunteer programme, four passport photos with head scalf (just in case), four passport photos without head scalf (just in case) passport, 2 photocopies of passport and two photocopies of my Egyptian visa.

So I discovered what I now need is: letter of reccomendation from my Embassy and a letter of invitation from Sudan. They didn't seem very impressed with my Uk letter of invitation so I think I might doctor that a bit, give it a letterhead, cut it down to one page, print it out on fancy paper. Already ethics are bending.

hagglers, hustlers liars and touts

Luxor sucks. It sucks because it doesn't represent the energy, vitality, honesty and genuineness abundant in other parts of Egypt. Everyone is a scam artist and everything an effort.

I have just spent an hour writing all this when my hard drive shut down... Another reason it sucks. I wrote of how many days it has taken to post a couple of parcels, of the valley of the kings and other overpriced tourist traps, of bad ethics and chats, of scams an harassments.



Sabrina and Za'imah have gone down to Aswan, Ryan has departed for London. Star and I head back up on the overnight train to Cairo tonight. I have been accepted to teach English in Sudan. So I need to get back up to the delta to pick up my stuff, sort out medical and get a Visa... Which an be anywhere between immediate to up to two months. I hope to be in Khartoum (Sudan's Capital) by the end of the week.

I am trying to minimise expectations for Sudan. If I try and imagine what life will be like there I know I will just be wrong. I am avoiding delusions that I will change anything. I know if there is any changing, it will be me. I realise that there will be times I'll have to pass bribes, or adjust my ethics for specific situations. I also realise that many people will not be grateful for my presence and see me as a representation of the rich and hypocritical West.

So I've been reading up a bit on Sudan. It is the largest country in Africa, almost landlocked. The major problems are in an area the size of France called Dafur over to the west side, and at the boarders of most of their neighbors who they have managed to piss off (not Egypt or Ethiopia at the moment). Dafur has been in the news a bit lately. The AU - African Union (kind of like the EU but poorer and more corrupt) have sent in troops to sort out the problems, but they are tiny (7000 soldiers) So there is a move by the UN to send in troops, but the government is having none of it. Anyway, better explanation on: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/Africa/default.stm

it is one of those countries with masses of displaces people, widespread starvation, corruption to the core and problems so immense it just feels hopeless. I honestly have no idea how I'm going to deal with being faced with this.

I'll be in Khartoum, the capital city that is well away from the Dafur and the boarders. Actually I'll post a map. I'll also post some photos, it is so dusty here that it is almost impossible to take photos without ghost orbs in them. It sounds like Sudan is going to require a lot of patience. The lonely planet guide warns of a lot of red tape... Like needing a photo permit to carry a camera, and even after obtaining the photo permit there are restrictions... I wonder if toilets are one of them. I got made to delete a photo of a sleeping police officer here, I don't think I will risk that kind of thing in Sudan, they would confiscate my camera.

Photos

Just managed to upload another lot of photos. Not only does this internet cafe have a USB port on one of it's computers, but it also has a CD writer that they were kind enough to plug in for me. So I'm all up to date with photos now.

I realise that I may end up in some sort of Muslim hell for attempting a pin-up pose in a burka but if I was worried about hell I would be worried about breaking the first 4 commandments.

I only had the mohawk for about 5 minutes. I am getting a slight idea of my natural hair colour. I always presumed it was strawberry mouse... But what is coming though now is just brown... Except four odd patches at my temples and by my ears which are distinctly ginger. If I was to grow a beard it would be ginga.
The first toilet is from the TEFL school. I thought I'd post it because of the vastness and curvature of the butt-cleaning tube function. The prominent position was, at times, inconvenient.

The second toilet is from the first class section of the train from Cairo to Alexandria. The peddle at the bottom opens the slanted front and water pours down across it. The jet of water for butt-cleaning comes from the small metal tube at the back. I don't know how it was turned on... it was all too smelly a place to spend to much time investigating.

Never ride a camel on a full bladder

So I have finished my course. As part of it we were booked into a trip to the Red Sea. It has been a fantastic and luxurious contrast. We stayed in a tourist town called Sharm el Sheikh. The great thing about a tourist town is that it is totally geared for the needs of tourists. Snorkeling, beautiful beaches, restaurants, no clothing restrictions, four star hotel, stunning pool, sunscreen sold in the corner shops... Corner shops. It was all such an incredible escape. The not so great thing about a tourist town is that is is very expensive. Even though the hotel was paid for, nothing else was. A restaurant meal was around 6 British Pounds. Which is cheap if you are in the UK but expensive compared to the 2 pounds I would pay in Alex.

So I spent a bit of time under an umbrella by a pool and on a beach. I finished Wuthering Heights. Attempted to start the last of the mohecians... After two days I'm still not off page 3. I took my Padi certificate but didn't do any diving... too expensive. I did go snorkeling, saw loads of amazing fish including a puffer fish, a clown fish and a sweet fish about the size of my big toe.

With others from my course I went into the desert on night ride with quad bikes. I didn't drive because I'm a big girls blouse. I was on the back of Star's bike. Star has ridden motorbikes and snowmobiles a lot so was happiest at the back of the convoy where she could gain a lot of space then catch up by jumping and turning through the sand. I was happiest at the back too, cause if I fell off there would be no one behind to run me over. It was loads of fun. We stopped between rock formations to listen to the echo... We attempted to quack like a duck because that apparently doesn't echo. Didn't work. Popped into a Bedouin camp for a cup of tea and shisha.



The night before last I climbed to the top of mount Sinai, Where Moses saw God and received the 10 commandments. I went with Ryan, Za'imah, and Sabrina and 10 grumpy Russians and about 150 other tourists. Like Moses I walked most of the way barefoot. Unlike Moses it was because my plastic shoes were cutting in and in the cool of night it was just a lot more comfortable. We left the hotel at about 11pm drove to the mountain started climbing through a gauntlet of camel guides at about 2.30am and reached the summit in time to see sunrise. Brilliant. I got a camel ride down, I'm still walking like a cowboy. I also managed not to break any of the 10 commandments while I was there. It's the first 4 I tend to break, not any of the big ones.

I'm now in Cairo. Looking into options for what next. I left my large backpack in Alexandria. I think I will go back and get it tonight (about a 3 hour train ride). Then return to Cairo tomorrow. I will join Star, Ryan Za'imah and Sabrina to Luxor (another tourist town half way down the country on the Nile) by over night train tomorrow night. That will mean if I get a volunteer position in Sudan I can head directly south. Jake got work in Alex, Jackie left for Paris, Max is on his way to Turkey.