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John and I headed for the train station early this morning at 6:45 am. This station had no English anywhere and Arabic numbers are different so I memorized some figures from license plates (had both Arabic and our numbers) which kind of helped us find the train number. We asked around a little bit and finally found what platform we needed to be at. This one guy stated that he didn't have a ticket (we didn't either) and was just going to wait to see how the trains looked, since the ones there were very run down. So we just waited until the train approached. Here in Egypt tourists are only allowed to take one overnight train, which costs $100 each for 14 hours. We thought that was a little much and did quite a bit of research and supposedly there is a day train tourists can get on with the locals and it would have air conditioning and first class seats for $15 (can't buy these tickets at the station as a tourist, only online but the website didn't work). That's what we were expecting. Since we could only buy the ticket on board we were willing to at least stand if it was full. I guess we have been spoiled with trains and everything we researched about this train is outdated. The train pulled up and was already full, and 99% men (we thought Cairo was the first station) so we unwillingly got into one compartment and then decided to walk farther down. While doing so, we looked at each other and decided we were not that desperate to get to Aswan today and could not bare 14 hours of fully crowded trains with small windows. Walking back we noticed another train that looked a lot nicer so we put a hop in our step to check out where it was going. Unfortunately it was going in the other direction and it was pulling away and no way was I jumping on the train with my backpack (locals do though, just picture a scene from an action movie where someone jumps for a door of a moving train and the other person reaches for them to save their life). There was one more train but that one was even worse and I'm pretty sure homeless people lived on that. So we decided we had enough of the train station and headed back to the hostel to figure out other options. Flying (again..) to Aswan was our cheapest option so we booked our flight. Luckily our hostel gave us our room back and we settled back in. Both of us were initially very excited to leave this crazy city, so we didn't leave our room much. We watched a couple movies and just went out to buy some meat pies for dinner. The last 4 days consisted of Egyptian fast food, since that's all we can find. We both cannot wait to be able to cook or at least have more Egyptian style restaurant food. Luckily it's very cheap and does the trick!
Today John and I headed out to the Bazaar to get some souvenirs. Over the past few days here, I have been getting lots of stares and attention mostly (I think) because of my blonde hair (since I'm the only one with hair exposed) and my legs showing even though I had long shorts on. So today I decided to cover up, head scarf, long dress and a sweater. Even though I was boiling with all that on, in the 35 degree weather, it was worth the outcome. People stopped looking at me so much and looked at John instead, because he was still wearing shorts and you don't see that anywhere here. After our 30 minute walk through the crazy streets of Cairo we made it to the bazaar. It wasn't much of one and we couldn't get a good deal. The shot glasses looked like they have been laying there for 5 years! Once at the end we were about to turn around when a nice man approached us saying that there is another area where you can buy stuff directly from the factories. We weren't sure about this guy at first, but he told us numerous times he wasn't looking for money, he just wanted to practice English and tell us some history about Cairo, since it was a passion of his. So he took us around a little bit and explained some interesting history and even showed us some buildings that we obviously would have overlooked. Then we were guided to one of the souvenir factories and met a local worker who made boxes out of wood, camel bone and shells from the Red Sea. He explained to us the difference between the real and fake ones. Egyptians get the real ones and the fake ones get sold to the tourist market. We didn't buy one and kept walking around with the guy. We walked around a real Cairo neighborhood, which was quite dirty but that didn't bother us. Since it was almost lunchtime we politely told the guy that we appreciated his time talking to us, he shook our hands and wished us a pleasant stay. It really made us happy that he took the time to guide some random tourists around, not wanting a dime. (We got a good first impression and that's why we went with it). Egyptians seem to either just want your money or genuinely want to just talk with you, which makes it difficult to read them! One thing we couldn't get off our mind before heading back was one of the boxes. We traced back our steps and found the shop again. Even before he wanted to talk about the price he invited us to have some tea at the shop, Egyptian hospitality! After the tea and some nice chats we talked business. We didn't want to rip the guy off because you could tell the work he put in to them. So we bargained a little bit and were able to shed $2 off the price but knowing that the money is going to him and his work we didn't mind paying $10 for an amazing souvenir! (It is a good memory and better than something from the bazaar). The rest of the day we relaxed in our lovely air conditioning room, I don't think I would have survived without it. Cairo is nice and has a lot to offer but it is just a little to chaotic for us!
The highlight of Cairo includes a visit to the Pyramids, and so Ashleigh and I headed for them after breakfast - it's a must see place, and one of the seventh wonders of the world! Instead of booking a tour, we decided to find our way to the pyramids by public transport. We had no idea which bus was going get us to Giza (the neighborhood) so we asked a friendly local. He yelled at each bus as it passed until it was the right one to Giza. We got on, crossed the Nile river and arrived in Giza. Here things got interesting. There were a lot of microbuses, none of which had a sign, so again we had to ask a local which one we should take. He yelled at a few bypassing ones and sure enough found one right away. It's only down one road, but traffic was terrible and thick smog was hanging around. We got to a junction 30 minutes later, where we got off to walk the rest of the way. A tout came up right away trying to sell us a tour, many more approached, as we got closer to the entrance. Right before walking up the hill to the entrance gate, a group of men told us to turn left (claiming that to be the entrance). When that many people want you to turn left, you go straight and don't turn left! That part lead to a huge area with horses and camels (so yes they wanted us to take one of their rides around). Anyways we got to the real entrance (not hard to miss since the pyramids can already be seen from a distance), bought our tickets (ISIC savings are great!) and went in. We decided to walk a loop around the great pyramid (the biggest one), climbed up on it a bit and then headed down towards the Sphinx. The pyramids are amazing structures, and we stopped many times to admire them. (It was hard at times because of all the touts trying to get us on their camels or horses). We had some fun with it though. I tried to reply in different languages to throw the touts off, but they knew enough of every single one to respond. There really was no way to get rid of them, so we just got used to it and shook our heads often (The last thing we wanted was to ride around on a camel again, after our uncomfortable ride experience in the Sahara on the other side). The Sphinx was quite cool as well, much smaller than we had imagined but with the pyramids in the background it was a perfect photo. We walked back up towards the Khefre pyramid (second biggest), and we liked it the most due to the top still being well preserved with a smooth surface. We decided at the entrance that we wanted to go inside this one to check out the tomb. We had to leave our camera behind (tip mandatory), crawled through a small passage downwards, and then upwards before reaching the room with the tomb. It was nothing, just an empty room with an empty tomb. We were a bit disappointed, but it was neat to walk inside the pyramid nonetheless plus a workout. I guess all the cool artifacts were at the museum which we had seen yesterday. At this point it was very hot, and we were ready to head back. We walked towards the exit slowly, took some more pictures, stopped to be impressed a few more times and then made our bus journey back. It went a lot smoother, since we were yelling at the microbuses this time and found one right away. We picked up some meat pie for lunch and were thankful for the air conditioned room. We didn't leave it for a few hours, and only after drinking a few liters of water.
Luckily the room had no windows so we got enough sleep and woke up to a nice breakfast. Since it was already pretty hot outside, we decided to give the famous Egypt museum a chance to avoid the heat. It took us some asking around to find the place, but Egyptians are so nice and helpful. We met a guy on the way who chatted with us for a bit. He had been to Canada for a massage therapy seminar. We thought for sure he wanted us to go with him to a shop or something, but he only said if we are ever meant to meet again in the neighborhood, he would have us over for coffee. That was that, and we went into the museum which was not busy at all. Apparently it would take close to a year to see each artifact in this place, if only taking a minute to look at it, but we knew that would not be the case for us. We had researched some highlights that we wanted to see, so we avoided all the guides trying to convince us the museum would take us hours to see and after an hour we were done. We saw what we wanted to see, the highlight was the solid gold mask of a pharaoh, the statue of Khafre and just being amazed by all the objects that were on display (we glanced at the mummy room but were a little creeped out). After seeing so many roman artifacts this was definitely a nice change, and we were glad to have visited the place, but would not spend days in it. On the way out a group of school girls came up to us asking if they could have a picture with us. The girls lined up beside Ashleigh one by one, the boys were on my side and all the friends took pictures with their camera phones. Other bystanders thought we must have been celebrities. We grabbed lunch from a chain fast food place and cooled off in the A/C. Since we were pretty tired we decided not to do anymore sightseeing for the day, picked up some fresh fruit and vegetables and caught up on the blog. The city itself seems overwhelming, it takes good timing to cross the road, drivers are terrible or talented depending on the definition or driving skills, and garbage is everywhere. All these things might seem shocking at first but we got used to the new place instantly. A fully armored tank with soldiers on top, that is sitting across the street still seems odd, but people walk by it as if it wasn't there and so do we. Again as the locals like to say: Welcome to Cairo!
The last few days have been very relaxing. Ashleigh and I went snorkeling again, this time to the lighthouse area which has coral reefs extending deep down. It's fascinating every time we go. Since we have been working out almost every day, we have also been eating very well. We tried a few different local restaurants, the kind that belong to one guy and his family. It's the best way to eat in Dahab. The waterfront restaurants are overpriced and we don't like supporting touts that ask us to come in every time we go for a walk. Our favorite place is owned by a friendly guy who makes the biggest Koshari, a typical Egyptian dish consisting of a mix of rice, macaroni, spaghetti and lentils topped with a tomato sauce and fried onions! Just writing about it makes me hungry. The meal is accompanied by a small salad, chicken in a potato sauce, fresh bread and a couple sauces. It fills us up every time and we share one of these! Other good meals include the falafel sandwich & the Egyptian pizza, both very delicious. Unfortunately our time is up in Dahab and we are sad to leave this laid back town. We drove to the airport around 10pm got there at 11pm, checked in and waited...the clocks went back in hour at midnight so we waited some more since our flight was at 12.05am. Then it was delayed by 45mins, so once again, we waited some more. By the time we got into Cairo it was well past 2am. The driver from the hostel picked us up, and kept us up by telling us all about the sights along the way. The hostel is near the center and is quite nice, we are pretty sure we are the only guests here at this time. It was a very late night but we had nothing planned for today anyways. Welcome to Cairo!
Today John and I did our usual morning routine, eat breakfast then sit by the pool. We have definitely enjoyed all this relaxation but we figured it was time for us to actually do something. So after lunch we got some snorkel gear and went snorkeling around the fish bay reef. Since I am not a huge fan of seas it took me a couple minutes to get used to breathing through the snorkel. But after my breathing slowed down I was good to go. Another reason why I didn't want to try scuba diving, wouldn't want a panic attack 12m deep! The reef was absolutely beautiful and we saw many fish that I have never seen before. Luckily John had seen lots of them scuba diving so he could point them out to me and I could finally know what all these fish were, that he was talking about! We went for another workout at the gym and then walked 1 km to our favorite local food area. We ate falafel's for $1.10 each and we were quite full afterwards! Everyone checked out of the dorms today, except for us and no one else new came in. It was nice to have the place to ourselves and we attempted for a while to watch a movie, but it didn't want to work. So we just hung out and each had a dorm room to ourselves as it is a separate male and female dorm.
I am officially PADI certified for open water dives! The exam was pretty straightforward and I can now scuba dive to 18m in most places in the world. But for now, I needed a break from the water and the learning, so we laid by the pool for most of the day. The weather was perfect, clear skies, high temperatures and a slight breeze. Ashleigh is very tanned, and I have some catching up to do. We found a german bakery in town, and have enjoyed some delicious pastries once in a while. Still going to the gym as often as possible and today (September 22nd) we took a long walk all the way out of town to a small lagoon that is famous for kitesurfing. During our walk out, we realized how low tourism was at this time. We passed many empty restaurants, resorts and half finished construction sites. The part we are staying in is the busiest one and outside of it, Dahab has the feel of a ghost town. We checked out the surfers pulling off stunts and wiping out before heading back town. We tried an Egyptian pizza for dinner, it was quite good and filling. These days are flying by, and we feel relaxed (it will probably stay the same for the next couple days, but we will try to post some more pictures at least).
I started the Open Water PADI course with a long morning in a classroom watching videos. I was glad to be out in the water by 3pm. I went over some basics in my first confined dive near the shore. All went smoothly, but I wasn't quite ready for an open water dive right after. Anyways, the instructor took me with anyways (the other diver was on her last open water session). Breathing under water is something else, and once we were down around 12 meters deep, I started to panic. My mask seemed to fall off & my breathing was way too fast, luckily my instructor calmed me down and once I gained my breath back we continued the dive. I didn't have a chance to appreciate the marine life much since I just wanted to go up (we did see a big eel, I remember that). It was a rough first day, it could only get better. Since I was breathing too fast I used up most of my air in 30 mins and had to ascent with the instructors alternate air source (good practice for the first day, switching the regulator deep down). The second day could only be better. I finished the readings ahead of time, so I could spend more time in the water. We went over a couple more things in the shallow water and all went well, almost everything...I knew I would have to take off my mask under water and breath for a good 30 seconds before putting it back on & clearing it. It took me a good three tries to somewhat accomplish this, without drinking too much salt water and coughing it out of the regulator. The second open water dive went a lot better though. We went back to the coral reefs called fish bay. It was amazing how much aquatic life one could see, ranging in all kinds of different colors. Our highlight was spotting a seahorse (the cool looking clownfish, box fish, lion fish are abundant, but impressed me the most instead of a small seahorse). All night I was thinking about how I would master taking off the mask underwater and putting it back on tomorrow. I woke up tired, but had to get through a few dives today. I flew through the last few chapters and had aced all quizzes so that wasn't a problem. The confined dives went pretty well, and I did manage to take off the mask under water, swim 15 meters and then put it back on & clear it! It wasn't the best, and I knew I had to do it again later during the open water dive, deeper down. The other skills are all great to know but did not give me any major trouble (such as switching between air sources, ascending with no air 6 meters, establishing buoyancy so I don't sink or go up). That's why I didn't mention them as much. All were great and fun to practice. Since it was my last day, I would have two open water dives. The first one went to a place called the lighthouse. We went down as far as 16 meters and swam through some big coral reefs. It was amazing how much we saw and I really got to appreciate the under water world. We would return to this place and further venture into the reef in the afternoon. There were too many different types of fish (half of which I can't remember) and the corals also were beautiful. I enjoyed the last dive very much and am now done all dives! The mask came off one last time and went back on smoothly, finally! All that is left to do is write the final exam tomorrow, wish me luck! Ps: Ashleigh laid by the pool for three days (she did work out daily at the gym though ;)
We woke up for a buffet breakfast and clear skies. The town has a very nice feel during the day. The mountains make for a good backdrop and across the Sea of Aqaba we can see Saudi Arabia clearly. One of my dreams has always been to Scuba Dive and here is my first good chance. We went to the PADI dive shop that is connected to our resort to talk about some options. The instructor was very nice and I will be starting my Open Water PADI diving course tomorrow :) He tried to convince Ashleigh to join, but that wasn't going to happen. I am very excited to start and got a big book to read! It feels like I'm back in school. A nice perk that comes with signing up is the free stay I'm getting (but it's cheap anyways). Afterwards Ashleigh and I went to the "biggest" grocery store in the area. We couldn't find too much but got enough for a few meals. The Main Street was busier, but the whole town still has a dormant feel to it. All shop owners try to get us into the stores, but we didn't feel like shopping today. Since it was getting very hot, we decided to cool off by the pool before heading for lunch at a small local restaurant. A Swedish guy who has been here a few times showed us the place. We shared a meal and the plates kept coming out. It filled us both up for a very good price. In the evening we decided it was time to start our workout program while here. Since we get to use a nearby gym for free, we might as well get in shape. The workout was great and we both needed it! We cooked dinner in our dorm kitchen and relaxed for the rest of the night. Today John and I finally said goodbye to Europe after being here for five months. We packed up our bags and headed to the airport. After an hour and a half metro journey, we made it. Everything went smooth checking in, but I had a bit of trouble at passport control because of my new passport. They had to scan me out with my old passport that had the edges clipped because it's cancelled. The guy was so confused on why I had two passports, but luckily they let me leave Turkey! With the leftover Turkish Liras, we bought some Turkish delight candies, one thing we hadn't tried yet! Of course it was overly expensive, but it made my wallet a lot lighter! Due to heavy traffic on the runway (probably 15 flights trying to leave at 2 pm), we left late but arrived right on time in Cairo. The 2.5 hour flight was good and included a great lunch! We arrived in the Cairo airport and headed for our transfer. We didn't think we would have to get our Egypt visa here, because we are going to the Sinai peninsula which is visa free. After asking a couple times no one knew about it so we just paid the $25 visa to the bank (which was weird getting a visa from a bank with "VISA $25" written on the window.) After we finished that we walked to our gate. Cairo is a pretty big international hub, but it was deserted, almost scary quiet. We headed on to Sharm el Sheikh and were greeted by a driver from the hostel. After a very fast hour drive passing through multiple military checkpoints, we arrived at the place. The dorms are in an apartment with its own kitchen and only 8 beds. Perfect for us. It is part of a larger resort so we can use the pool, private beach, and get free breakfast for only $6 a night! We chatted with a few travelers when we got in before we settled in for the night! |
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