The bus to Cairo was overbooked so we had to play a bit of musical chairs to get seats.
At the 2 or 3 stops made when we got off and came back on someone else had taken our seats and refused to move. Being able to speak absolutely no Arabic we couldn’t do much about it.
Finally we found our allotted seats which were occupied by 2 sleeping men who showed absolutely no desire to wake up.
“Errrhmmm.”
“ZZZzzzzzz”
“Excuse me.” A poke.
“zzzzzz….”
A harder poke. All we got in response was a mumble and him rolling over.
“I know you awake.”
A fat lady from across the isle interrupts, “Hello”
“Oh, Hi. These are our seats and they are in them.”
“Oh yes I know, You know what?”
“What” I asked.
“I was in a bus once.” I listened in eagerly, “and someone was in my seat.” This was it she was going to help us, “and they didn’t move.”
‘Yes, yes’ I thought, “And then what did you do?” I asked.
“What?”
“What did you do about it?”
“About what?” she asked.
“About the man in your seat.”
“Oh nothing he just didn’t move.”
After that fat lot of help someone else came and gave the men a good shove, yelled at them in Arabic and they got up and moved somewhere else.
At the bus stop we went to a taxi driver, “Youth Hostel thanks.”
“Oh I am sorry the youth hostel closed down.”
“Ok the other youth hostel.”
“Oh yes well it is dirty and no one goes there but I can help, I can take you to a very good, very cheap hotel.”
“No thanks” I said knowing full well how dodgy the taxi drivers are.
On the bus we had met an English man called Terry and he explained to us about how someone in Dahab had organized someone to come and pick him up and take him to a hotel in central Cairo. We decided to tag along seeing as we had no set plans and getting a taxi was such a trying experience.
“Hello, welcome, what’s your name, where you from?” Terry’s tour guide greeted us.
After the pleasantries and bargaining we had ourselves a deal for a room.
“Ok come with me” At this Hannah shuddered quite a lot, “I have a taxi for us.”
At the Taxi the ‘friendly’ guide comes to us, “You have to pay for the Taxi.” Well actually Terry has already paid for the Taxi”
“Yes but he only paid for himself not for everyone.” Not wanting to make a fuss I just stood there. “its 30 pounds for you, 15 each”
“I am not paying more than 15 for us both sorry.”
“No 30.”
Still not wantinig to make a fuss, I just stood there silently contemplating whether to get another Taxi and another hostel somewhere else. Finally he relented and graciously said, “Ok 15 then I will pay the other 15 myself, out of my own pocket, with my own money.”
“Oh you’re too kind” I replied.
Once at the hostel I handed the Taxi driver 15 pound. He didn’t take any from the guide. Dodgy fellow had tried to make a profit from us 2 times over. First by making Terry pay and then by charging us twice the price, to double his profits. I instantly didn’t like the slimy bastard.
But seeing as we were there and quite exhausted after our bus ride we agreed to stay there anyway. He tried to get us to do some of his ‘cheap’ tours but we didn’t knowing he was ripping us off. It baffles me how people like that don’t realize that if you do a good deal people will talk and then more people will come to your hostel and then you will get busy and get more business and you will be happier knowing that you are making other people happy as well instead of being a lying cheating person and trying to trick people out of money. Only thing I can think of is that they don’t actually like the tourist infidel and it gives them lots of pleasure being horrible to them. Something probably not good for someone in the hospitality industry.
There were many instances where he tried hard to rip us off, so many I cant even remember half of them.
“Would you like a drink of water?”
I look around suspiciously, think about it for a bit wondering what the scam is, “No thanks.”
“OK your loss.”
“How much is it?”
“4 pound” he mumbled in return.
It was 2 pound for 1.5lt but he was trying to sell us a glass of what I suspect was tap water for 4 pounds.
“Free breakfast.” He also said.
Nothing is for free so I was instantly suspicious. This time I had no reason to be so skeptical; there was breakfast in the morning. It consisted of stale bread and used tea bags and a bit of out of date jam.
That Terry and I went for a walk. Hannah was feeling sick so she didn’t come with us. We wanted to get to the river Nile to get our first look of such a famous river. Only problem was there was a main road separating us from getting near it.
“How do we cross this?” I asked Terry.
“I have no idea there seems to be no let up.”
“They are absolutely crazy flying past this fast and so close.” I observed.
“Oh I know.”
“Oh look there is someone crossing now, watch how he does it.”
“He is going to die!” We watched on horrified as a lady just steps out and enters the fray without even considering what she was doing. Cars started honking even more than usual and whisking past her missing by inches swerving all over the shop trying to avoid her. She gets across unharmed and unfazed.
“I think we just have to step out.” I stated.
“Ok you go first I will follow you.” He said.
I took a few big breaths, shook my head, limbered up, stretched, made to go hoping that Terry would go out first thinking I was going out and then I could follow him. No such luck he didn’t fall for that scam so it was up to me. I stepped out petrified and ran back to the curb as a car came whiskinig past barely missing me.
“Oh that was so close.” Terry pointed out.
My heart rate was about 220. “Yes quite, wasn’t it.”
Seeing as I had nothing to lose except my life I tried again in what looked like a little break. I got half way without opening my eyes just praying that the drivers could see in the dark that I was there even though Egyptians use the lights soly to flash other drivers coming in the other direction and not to see in the dark, go figure. Half way I looked at the oncoming cars and watched with pleasure as the parted for me. I was a god, and they were the Red Sea and just by standing there I could part them at will. Still I jumped forward and scrambled the rest of the way across.
“Oh that was fun.” I said still trembling. I couldn’t fool myself, I wasn’t really a god?
Terry looked quite breathless himself.
“Now we have to get back later.”
“Lets not think about it.”
By the end of the night I was an expert. I was dashing between the traffic without a care in the world, having the time of my life.
“Terry we should cross that road again just for the rush.”
“Oh no thanks Mika.”
Near the end of the night I was getting quite fearless. I didn’t even stop at the curb. I just walked out put my hand out in front of my indicating to the cars that I was coming and that they should move for me. I got a bit of a fright when two cars converged on me and came together getting closer and closer. I had to stop turn to the side with my feet. The car in front whisked past hitting my belt which was hanging down protruding the most in that direction while the car behind thumped into my camera hanging from my back. It was a bit of a wake up call that’s for sure.
“Did you see that!” Terry asked.
“Both of them touched me!” I screamed.
“I know it was crazy!”
I couldn’t say much for a bit after that.
No one I tell seems to get the picture about how crazy it actually was. They just say ‘oh yeah right sure Mika you are still here so it couldn’t have been all that bad’.