Nuweiba - Cairo 18.11.2008

Originally we didn’t really plan to spent much time in Nuweiba. We changed our minds quickly though, after we arrived at Yasser’s place . It was simply too special a place not to stay for a few days. As a whole, Jordan was tiring and we convinced ourselves that we deserved the break. The last proper break we had was when Nadine was with us and that felt like ages ago. Since we cannot afford to take the chance of leaving the bikes unguarded at night it’s important to us that we always find a camping-spot where we can pitch our tents next to our bikes. Yasser’s place not only offered this, but also the sea next to our tents, a roof made from leaves which provided shadefrom the baking morning-sun on our tents, a most relaxing atmosphere and few people that we had to talk to. We ended up staying 5 days. Our daily routine (if you can call it a routine) consisted of getting up, having a swim in the sea, drinking tea (constantly served by Yasser), and of course real coffee (served by me), eating, sleeping and reading. I managed to nearly finish the whole “The Agony and the Exstacy”  on Michael Angelo’s life by Irving Stone. (I lost it at the Sudan Embassy yesterday with only a couple of chapters before the end) Urghh!!  We eventually left for St. Catherine’s Monastry at Moses’s mount Sinai. We arrived late-afternoon when the Monastry was already closed but took a little walk around it. We camped in the area and left the next morning for Cairo. On the way to Cairo we came upon a terrible accident scene moments after the accident. We stopped wanting to help by offering bandages but discovered that neither Christoph’s , nor my medical kit contained any. The scene had various disturbing sights but what stayed in my mind afterwards, and even now, was the little baby lying on the tar a couple of meters away from the wreck, not moving. I felt mostly feelings of empathy for the screaming mother and the father, but also a very strong hate and anger for whoever caused the accident. The people here drive like maniacs. Not so fast neccesarily, but with no consideration for anyone else or their safety. A little like the taxi’s in South-Africa. We’ve seen again and again how vehichle’s are passing at blind-spots. There are also no apparent traffic-rules. Everyone for themselves. Also here in Cairo is no rules on the roads. The one with the bigger car gets priority. We left the scene eventually and drove on in silence. I said some prayers for the family who’s lives had just been changed for the worse in an instant. I started thinking how unimportant and trivial most things are that we stress about everyday. How small my day to day problems are. I thought of  how previleged and blessed I was that the only person really close to me that I ever lost to death was my father, who was old and had a full life. We arrived in Cairo at sunset. After an hour of bumper-to-bumper traffic we finally made it to our hotel. The hotel would probably receive minus 2-stars if it were to be rated, but so do most hotels in Cairo if one is not willing to spent much on accommodation. We met up with Fathi who’s a guy that we met few days before in Nuweiba and became friends with. He has been most helpful to us in various different things. He is an extremely kind soul and it has been a blessing to have met him. Fathi is married to Ruth who lives in Germany, although he himself has never been to Germany. (They met and married in Egypt) He first has to pass the basic-German language test before they would allow him to set foot in Germany. The poor guy failed the test yesterday for the 8^th time in a row. The test costs him over 100US dollars everytime, which is a huge amount of money for the average Egyptian. Even more so if you earn your income from fishing a couple of  fishes everyday. I feel most sorry him. I told him that there are other ways to get into Germany if one is really desperate.  : ) I did my visa-application for Sudan yesterday. They told me that I will receive the visa the same day. I decided to wait. I ended up waiting the whole day until they told me at 16:00 that I should come back the next day. I will not get into the details of the frustration and irritation and hostile feelings I had after I’ve wasted a whole day waiting in their  dirty hole which they call the visa-department. On the way back to the hotel I stopped to study the street-map at the Metro to orientate myself when a well-dressed man came up to me and asked me where I’m from. I told him that I’m South-African. He then asked me how I was doing, in broken Afrikaans. I was obviously very surprised and delighted. He invited me to his office for tea. His office turned out to be an up-market shop selling oils and papyrus and some antiques. He gave me the tea and wanted to know if I might be interested in buying some oil. I politely said no thank you. He then kept on asking me over and over and over if I’m sure, if I want to know how much it is etc etc. I told him no about 100 times but he just wouldn’t stop. I wanted to explode. Eventually I told him what an ass he was for pretending to invite me for a tea but actually just wanting to get me to buy his stupid oils and papyrus. I told him that I didn’t want it, even if it was for free. After all this he still asked me for a 1 Euro coin to put under his desk “as a souveigneer” What a joke. I returned my half-drunken tea and left in even more frustration than what I felt when I left the Sudan-embassy. This was single-handedly the most shameless man I’ve ever met. I found my way back to the hotel only to find a most depressed Fathi, who again had failed his German test. Christoph also apparantly had a very frustrating day behind him. He’s had such bad luck on this trip concerning his computer and internet and GPS and anything that works with electricity it’s really ridiculous. Concerning electrical things that has gone wrong he could write an even longer post than the already long posts he’s been writing up till now. Anyways, yesterday was a frustrating day for all three of us. We decided to go for a beer which was a good decision. I received my visa today and enjoyed a walk in the area despite all the noise. This city is something else. Markets, street-shops, garbage everywhere, noise, chaotic traffic, street-cats, camels, donkeys, horses, cockroaches,  extremely disgusting toilets without toilet paper, (they use their left hands. No jokes) beggars, people throwing their prayer-mats out on the pavements to pray at Muslem praying hours. 5 minutes on the street offers endless different impressions. All in all, very chaotic. It very much reminds me of Bankok. Although we’re enjoying the all-in-all experience of the city, myself and Christoph are both looking forward to getting out of here, to have some peace and quiet again. We’re hoping that Sudan might offer this…