So… I’m going to Egypt eh? It started as usual on Thursday evening by me failing to limit packed stuff to half of my 80l backpack. What really a man needs in Egypt? OK airport drop-off said it had little more than 15 kgs.
Friday in Prague to arrange some things and ofc I drew JR to the put because I’ll be cursed to Sakara beer for next 10 days.
I must say I never really got into a long line on any airport. This time… 90 minutes and hell I even did my check-in in advance on the internet! NVM you need to drop-off your „cargo“ anyways. That’s a lesson. And 2 drop-off desks for 10+ flights is just not enough rly.
Lucky me… there’s snow all over better part of Europe, my plane got delayed by waiting for some others, means enough time for me to buy usual bottle of Bacardi as disinfection to battle any possible Pharaon’s Revenge. So instead of 21:40 plane took off at 22:50. IDC, I would have hours time to spend somehow in Cairo before Sinai bus leaves and there’d be still many of those left anyways… And they were!
So our captain was saying „we’re sorry for our delay, the reason is we’re waiting for another plane coming from Milan with a delay“… „we’re waiting for papers for our flight“… „I need to chill out a bit before we take off“… Just use your imagination.
I can’t sleep on a plane. No, never! Somehow… So those night flights are killing me. You actually can’t get anything better with Czech Airlines from Prague to Cairo than with arrival at 2:20 local time (well with delay this time at 3:35). Means infinite insomnia for me with consequences. It isn’t any kind of flight-sickness or –phobia, just the constant noise around and my constant curiosity about checking how far we got. Well… the fact about flying 11770m high by 880 kmph speed and surrounding temperature not crossing –70 degrees isn’t helping.
„Dear passengers, welcome on board of Czech Airlines flight to Cairo… … with captain Mivvy.“ „OMG! Are they serious? Do we really have captain named Mivvy or is the stewardess just joking?“ Well we did. It was a Czech version of that family name. Two cartoon characters just popped in my head! First one was Inspector Gadget, second Disney’s DuckTales’ character Gyro Gearloose, both of which in Czech version had the same name. After split of a second a completely other character from DuckTales was there inside my head – Launchpad McQuack, who else.
OK we arrived on new Terminal 3 in Cairo. Actually if I remember right we landed at Terminal 2 anyway but airport bus took us really far J. Not really very different from Terminal 2 but well… new one, fine with me. Time spent: 10 minutes (awesome).
Getting out of the airport in Cairo is a big deal. Hard to explain to anyone who wasn’t in any country with orient influence before (I guess it’s not limited to Islamic countries).
- „Taxi sir?“
- „No, thank you“
- „Which hotel?“
- „No thank you, I don’t need taxi“
- „Where you go? Taxi sir“
- „NO THANK YOU! I’m taking a bus“
- „No bus, taxi sir“
and it goes on for many minutes and this conversation actually repeats itself with every one and each of them for many times J After 6 tries and during my 7th I convinced them I really wanna go by bus and some guy with some hotel minibus took me to Terminal 1.
So this time I really made up my mind that I’ll go downtown with public bus. There’s actually lot of information on the internet about public buses from / to Cairo airport and none of those every show useful at all. My reason was I managed to get to the airport last time with a public bus for 2 EGP which is a challenge. And I failed this time again. Even though according to official Cairo Intl Airport web page there should be a new service – Airport bus downtown (35 EGP which is still lower than any taxi after long bargain).
I actually got to the bus station at Terminal 1. You ask, they lie if it’s good for their business (always). OFC you can’t tell if it’s a lie. You ask about public bus, they say „no bus“. If you ask on public bus stop, no, they are not stupid, they say „bus gone“… „when next bus“… „many hours. Taxi sir?“ And there you go again. And do you think any closer knowledge helps? No way! „no sir, bus 356 starts at 7 am, sir… no sir bus 400 gone, 3 am… next one? Tomorrow, sir“ Well he was right with 356, about 400 I can’t tell but you’re just doomed to be at their mercy. „Taxi sir? Taxi cheap!“
I know airport taxi is everything but cheap in Cairo lol! Well, here we go:
- „how much for taxi?“
- „where you go?“
- „downtown“
- „which hotel, my friend“ (see? Now I turned into a friend now)
- “no hotel, I’m going by bus to Dahab”
- “OK 80 egypshn pounds” (they really pronounce that in a funny way)
- “forget it”
- “but my friend it’s cheap”
- “no it’s not cheap, last time a went for 35”
- “no possible sir” (w00t? Now I’m sir again?)
Well I don’t wanna get into too much details, I managed to get it to 40 in like 5 minutes and considering 2 years inflation… I said to myself WTH let’s go.
Taxi drivers in Cairo can’t speak English. It’s interesting they can if they need to. They know… . Eerrrr numbers. And few other words like you see above. So it’s difficult to keep up any conversation during the time you spend inside the taxi. This guy was complaining (in Arabic) all 20 minutes it took us to get there. I don’t need to understand to Arabic at all and I can tell exactly what he did J “Rich tourist coming to Cairo, giving me only 40 pounds, I have a family to feed, I’m poor…. Just use your imagination again.
Just few last minutes it changed and he started in English (well he tried his best). And he started with “well, friend” 40 egyptian pounds for the car plus 15 pounds for the ticked (entry payment for every car entering airport area, taxis included according to Lonely Planet guide) and gimmeh some tips, 2 dollars?” “W000000T?” OK, I gave him 50 EGP in the end.
In case it is not obvious from the text, everything above happens with a large smile. Yes on both sides J You can think anything about them inside your had but keep your good mood all the time, that’s the only way how to survive. And it’s only a game after all.
Dahab internet information speaks about bus from Cairo going from Abasseya station at 8:30. Used it two years ago, was a safe play. But according to some internet pages (and Lonely Planet is vague about this really) there could be a 7 am bus from Turguman bus station (for last few years completely renovated under shopping centre CairoGate). Was worth the risk and bus really was leaving at 7:15. One hour less to wait FTW! And even though it sounds weird a bit, there WAS a cold time in early-morning Cairo so the opportunity to wait inside – priceless.
It takes approx. 9 hours to get from Cairo to Dahab through Sharm, they did not devise any shorter way yet even though there is a direct road to Nuweiba and they should cut maybe even 3 hours from that instead of going around all Sinai. The time is still boring. I loaded my phone with whole Harry Potter: The Deadly Hallows audiobook and that should do the trick. You don’t know how lucky I was! On Egyptian buses (at least on longer trips) passengers are entertained by movies. You can take a bet your movie will be an Arabic (usually Egyptian) comedy in Arabic with Arabic subtitles J This time? NO. The minute we left Cairo and took of into the desert between Cairo and Sues, driver played a different audiobook for us.
You know muezzin singing during Islamic prayers? Big part of that is reading from Q-ran, well singing from it. Imagine that inside closed space of a bus at a volume 9 from 10. And we’ve got the pleasure to listen to Q-ran singed audiobook for more than 90 minutes J Turning my phone’s volume to the roof and fact my headphones were big and closed type really helped. The morning religion part was exchanged with usual Egyptian comedy in Arabic (no subtitles this time) which was followed by some action movie with lots of shooting and dead people (that was a new one!). But I didn’t really payed attention to either. THANK YOU Jim Dale and J.K.Rowling!
Egypt is in fact a socialistic regime and (ofc) a police state. After terrorist attacks in Dahab in 2006 the security especially on Sinai is very strict. I must say, since my last visit during May of 2008 it’s weakening. We were used to 10+ controls of our visas and passports at checkpoints starting with first right before tunnel under Sues Canal and ending with last right above Dahab. The first one included taking all passengers outta bus and forcing even foreign tourists to get most of their stuff out of their bags to check it. No happening anymore! Counting that, we got only 3 controls between Cairo and Sharm (2 of which included passport controls on foreign tourists) and 2 other between Sharm and Dahab (only 1 of them included passports check).
Second thing is… it’s really hard play or local people to get to Sinai. Every time I went to Dahab from Cairo by bus 3 or 4 (or even more) locals were throw out of bus for some (or any) reason. This time it happened at the very last checkpoint above Dahab but it did! Some 5 or 6 guys were checked really well at every control, taking them out for many minutes but they came back every time. Not at the last one, they kept 3 of them (to play with I bet, but dunno).
The important fact about Dahab is that it is a really long municipality. It’s outstretched along the shore between sea and mountains. So in the end, after you arrive by bus, you left with your bargain about transport. Else it is few kms walk. I like those pick ups in Dahab anyway and I took ride with two more tourists from South Africa for same camp for 20 EGP all so not bad after all.
Next part: in Dahab finally.
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