may 1 2006 : cairo, egypt, africa
This morning we visited the Museum of Egyptian Antiquities which was just a short walk away. This place houses over 136,000 exhibits and is really a pretty amazing place. There are so many artifacts that it has basically become impossible for the museum to do much with them other than stack them up out on the floors. Nine out of ten of the exhibits have no information and the ones that do are 3×5 cards typed out about a hundred years ago. There is so much to see that you couldn’t read much anyway.

Our visit started out by shaking off all of the “official” guides standing around outside. After that we passed through security where we were forced to give up our camera. There are no cameras allowed in the museum. Apparently the flashes cause damage to some of the artifacts. This bummed us out, especially when we later saw that every single person with a cell phone was busy snapping away picture after picture. I guess nobody has informed the authorities that phones now have cameras built in.

The main atrium as you came in was full of sarcophagi, which are basically huge stone boxes that the coffins went inside. These are the things you always see sitting up on a pedestal and glowing in movies like Indiana Jones. They were huge, usually about 7 feet tall and 12 feet long, and every inch was covered with engravings that are meant to protect whoever was inside for all of eternity. It didn’t last that long in most cases because of the grave robbers of ancient times, but some managed to hold on to the occupants for 5,000 years or so. The other things we found to be really cool were the mummies coffins. Because I have no better way of explaining these I’ll refer back to the movies again. These coffins are exactly like the ones you see in the movies in which it is usually portrayed as leaning up against a wall when suddenly the door creaks open and a mummy steps out with his arms outstretched. But these coffins were real and were remarkable. They came in all different sizes, a few were about 14 feet long, and often the mummies were packed in to a small one that was then laid in to a larger one.

The granddaddy of all the exhibits was of course the Tutankhamun Galleries. King Tut was a very minor guy who only reigned for 9 years about 3400 years ago. The thing about him was that somehow grave robbers never found his tomb and it wasn’t finally discovered until 1922 completely in tact. My favorite part of the exhibit was the photographs that were taken of the tomb exactly as it was when it was opened. These rulers packed everything they had with them in case they needed any of it in the afterlife. So what the tomb really ended up looking like was a cluttered garage. If you just glanced at the pictures you would think that the contents were just a bunch of bicycles, a few cardboard boxes, and a workbench. But actually it was gilded chariots, golden statues, bow and arrows, jewels, vases full of food and drink, thrones, and even beds that looked remarkably similar to our own. And tucked in to the corner was a huge sarcophagus, which had a couple of smaller ones inside it, until finally in the middle of it all was King Tut’s coffins. Again these were packed into each other smaller and smaller until you finally reached his mummy. Wrapped up inside with him were hundreds of pieces of jewelry and the coolest thing of all, his golden funerary mask.

Back out on the streets we found a place for Ali to get her hair cut. I went next door to an internet café, where I had to produce a passport in order to use the internet, and was just getting comfortable when Ali came walking in the door with her hair chopped off. It had taken all of about five minutes to get it done. I had sat down expecting the usual one to two hours, but I guess ten bucks doesn’t buy that sort of service in Cairo beauty salons.

We snacked at little local places throughout the day. The best was the felafel, which is a deep fried patty of mashed green beans and spices. Sounds weird, but wrapped in a pita with a little lettuce and sauce it is great, especially at about 15 cents each. Two of them and you’re full. We also had shawarma which tasted pretty much like a steak and cheese Subway sandwich, but was actually lamb.

We also walked over to a nearby neighborhood called Zamalek to try out a couple of different bars over there. We were hoping for a little atmosphere, but were thwarted once again and just found a couple of dark dungeon type places and we didn’t stick around long. The walk back was where it got interesting though. It was after dark now and the streets were packed with people. There were loads of little ahwas (coffee shops) where men were sitting outside smoking their sheesha’s (three foot tall tobacco water bongs), and playing dominos and backgammon. The nice thing here was that we had obviously wandered off the tourist track because we were suddenly being welcomed by everybody. This is something that we have sort of become used to recently, but in Cairo they see so many tourists that they don’t think anything of you. But in this neighborhood we were once again getting the “Welcome to Egypt,” “Hello,” and friendly smiles and nods from everyone. We sat down and had a tea at one of the outdoor places but couldn’t bring ourselves to order up a big smoking sheesha.

Egypt has a pretty bad reputation as far as how they treat their women, but for the most part we are left alone. However a few times throughout the day Ali gets long stares, whistles, and kissing noises directed at her. Despite the fact that we are walking together and she is wearing clothes covering her from head to toe. It’s not threatening, just annoying. The guys that do it seem like the most pathetic men in town, actually more like sexually repressed adolescents with an attitude than men.

may 2 2006 : cairo
This is what Egypt is all about. The Pyramids of Giza are the last remaining of the original Seven Wonders of the World and are truly incredible. And reaching them is almost as much work today as it was thousands of years ago. We caught a cab downtown and asked him to take us to the Pyramids. Along the way he started to ask us if we wanted to ride a camel. We said no just take us to the ticket booth. A few minutes later we were back to talking about camels and having him pretend to suddenly not understand what we were saying.

As we got to Giza, which is only about twenty minutes out of downtown Cairo, we thought that he had finally given up on the idea of earning a commission from a camel ride. Then he turned down a side road and pulled the car to a stop out front of a shop where a bunch of touts quickly pounced on the car and began to try and sell us a ride on any sort of animal with four legs. We had to scream at the taxi driver to take us to the front gate before he slowly backed out and drove us out of there. At the gate we hopped out and made a beeline for the ticket booth. Along the way a half dozen guys tried to sidetrack us with stories of better ticket prices. After finally making our way through the gate we found ourselves standing in front of the Sphinx and three magnificent pyramids. Along with one thousand other tourists and two thousand touts and hawkers.

It was cool to be standing in front of the Sphinx after seeing hundreds of pictures of it throughout our lives. But as has been written hundreds of times as well, it wasn’t quite as amazing in person. It’s way smaller than you would imagine and with the restoration work going on and the scaffolding piled up on the side it doesn’t make a very imposing sight. But still, with the pyramids standing tall on the hill behind it it’s hard not to be impressed.

Away from the Sphinx we were quickly able to get away from the crowds, as well as the vast majority of the touts. But for the entire day we were never able to let our guard down because of the crooks and con-men hanging around trying to scam a buck off the tourists. One scam that quickly grew old was having men approach us asking to see our tickets. They would claim to be security and would flash an identity card written entirely in Arabic. We’d still say no, but they’d continue on anyway insisting that our tickets weren’t valid for this special area around the corner, but amazingly for a small fee they could be persuaded to allow you in. Once that scam didn’t work they would try something else like trying to get you to exchange Egyptian pounds for American dollars. About this time a guy on a camel would have made his way over and begin asking you if you wanted a ride, why not, and did you realize how cheap it was. I’m sure we must have said “la shukran” (no thank-you) at least a million times throughout the day. We found that using Arabic worked much better and usually got a smile out of them as well. But despite all of the scams it really wasn’t that bad to deal with and we found ourselves walking around alone more often than not.

Standing alongside The Great Pyramid of Cheops we stared up nearly 50 stories to the top. Seeing as how we weren’t allowed to climb the thing we did the next best thing and bought tickets to climb around inside of it instead. After entering you climb up a 4 foot tall passageway for a little while before it opens up in to the Great Gallery which is a long hallway leading upwards at a steep angle. And finally you enter the King’s Chamber which is a big rectangular room with a large sarcophagus sitting at one end. The truly amazing thing about all of this is how perfect it all is. The angles are perfect, the stone is smooth, and the entire thing is fit together with so much precision that you can’t even feel the seams where the blocks come together, much less slide a knife blade between them. And this is pretty much smack dab in the middle of this gigantic pyramid meaning that the entire thing up to then must have been positioned perfectly as well. After standing around in the near darkness for a while we had had enough of the hot, stale air and made our way back out.

Next door to Cheops is the Pyramid of Chephren, which was actually the more interesting looking of the pyramids because the summit is still intact. Here we found a place a couple of blocks up in the shade to sit and people watch. This is where the real fun was. Our favorite part was seeing what people were wearing. Egyptians consider thighs, shoulders, and the chest to be immodest and shorts on men and women are also socially unacceptable. This is pretty much spelled out from page one of every guidebook about the country, yet somehow 9 out of 10 tourists failed the dress test. The best were the women wearing high heels, short shorts, and tank tops with their belly showing. We don’t know how they could go three steps in Egypt without feeling like a complete moron. Whenever someone is dressed like that you can watch every Egyptian woman within 100 yards stop and stare them down, while the men make their hissing noises and lude comments. We watched three local girls ask one totally inappropriately dressed girl if she would pose for a picture with them. The girl seemed confused but agreed. After taking the picture and walking away the local girls started laughing behind her back.

But the best entertainment of the day was watching the Tourist Police force in action. There were hundreds of these guys walking around all dressed in white and carrying machine guns. Ostensibly their purpose is to protect the tourists and the Pyramids, but their real purpose was to make as much money as possible off of unsuspecting tourists.

They would constantly tell tourists that they would take their picture for them. The tourist would think that they were Tourist Police so they must be okay guys and would hand over their cameras. Then after taking the picture they would ask for their baksheesh (tip) before giving the camera back. The tourist who seconds earlier thought he was just being a nice guy would dig out their wallets and hand over the money. They would also try to get in behind people as they took a picture. They would then tell the tourist it was okay that they took their picture, even though they weren’t trying to in the first place, and would eventually manage to get a little more baksheesh that way.

The Police on camels were really good at getting pictures of themselves taken as well, for just a small fee. These guys seriously did nothing all afternoon but rush from one picture taker to another. We watched one guy counting his money and couldn’t believe the wad he had accumulated. The Pyramid Tourist Police must be some of the most highly paid policemen in the world. They were just as bad as the rest of the con-men. Anyway, after all of that we got up and walked around to the opposite side of the pyramid from where the tour buses dropped people off. On this side there wasn’t one other person and we could almost fool ourselves into believing that we were the only people there.

Throughout the day I was offered large sums for the beautiful blonde girl walking with me. Most came from camel riders who started the days bidding at one million. One million camels or one million Egyptian pounds I’m not sure. By holding off until late afternoon I had gotten the bid up to six million but still felt she might be worth just a touch more, Ali comes from good stock you see. Unfortunately by the time we left I hadn’t gotten the higher bid and the market had crashed. I just had to accept the fact that I wouldn’t become a camel millionaire today.

At the end of the day we wound our way back down the hill, out the gates, and across the street to a restaurant that had the best view in town overlooking the Sphinx and all of the Pyramids. It was this little place called Pizza Hut. Our waitress here fell in love with Ali’s hair and immediately started running her hands through it. And every time she came by she would touch it gently and flip it up. She was so sweet however that all you could do was laugh about it.

After dinner we caught a cab back to Cairo. As we were getting in the car our driver started to tell us what a good driver he was and how he would be happy to take us on any tours we would like. He then proceeded to back out of the parking space and sideswipe the car parked next to him. The rest of the way to the city we didn’t hit another car though, which was nice. Back in the city we found the Stella Cafeteria which was described in the guidebook as a “rather rough male-only hard-drinking den.” They overstated just a bit and we found a grimy little place serving cold beer to a handful of drunken locals, including a woman who could hardly stand, and a very happy bartender who took a swig from his own bottle every time he opened the fridge. No place is too fancy for my Ali.

may 4 2006 : cairo
Continuing on the theme of nothing being too fancy for my Ali, we decided to change hotels yesterday. The place we were staying in was overpriced and shabby and we had heard about a brand new place just down the street. If we hadn’t been given the recommendation we would have never gone in. The entrance is through a small break in the buildings which leads to a dark filthy air shaft. There is an old elevator which doesn’t work, forcing you to use the stairway which is the sort of place you picture junkies shooting up. But when you reach the third floor, which is actually the fourth but the first floor is the ground floor here, there is suddenly good lighting, 16 foot ceilings, fresh paint, and nice wood floors. After filling out some paperwork in which I put down Ali’s occupation as bellydancer we were checked in to a one month old boutique hotel for $22 a night, a big improvement. Not to be confused with the Paris Hilton Hotel.

After that we went to see some more pyramids. But first we had to find a cab. On longer excursions like this you can’t leave the issue of cost until the end and have to do some haggling before you get in. We eventually found a guy who was willing to take us to Saqqara for 25 E£ (about $4.50). When we got to Saqqara we realized that finding a ride out of there was going to be a problem because there was hardly anyone there and cabbies weren’t just hanging around. So we decided to have our cabbie stay there and drive us around for a few hours. After some more haggling and a couple of Marlboros we agreed on a price of 50 more, or 75 E£ for the day.

The pyramid at Saqqara is sort of interesting because it is a step pyramid and heralded the start of the Pyramid Age. Something I wouldn’t have known previously is that all the pyramids were once covered with limestone that was carved and laid to give the pyramids smooth, white surfaces. But over time the limestone was removed from them and the stone burned for lime leaving us looking at essentially the rough frame of the pyramid. After walking around Saqqara for a little while we hopped back in the car and drove to Dahshur. Here there were absolutely no people. The Red Pyramids interior was open to the public so we scrambled up the side and into a very long, small corridor that angled back underground. At the bottom you could sort of pretend you were a 19th century explorer, surrounded by the dark, damp space and small mice scrambling and squealing along the walls. The next pyramid was the Bent Pyramid but there was no road so unless you wanted a camel ride or to make the mile long slog through the soft sand you had to settle for some long range views.

After that it was back to Cairo to find some dinner and a drink. Our cabbie had been doing a great job so far in that he hadn’t stopped at any little stores or tried to earn a commission of any sort. But on the way back he finally gave in to temptation and began trying to renegotiate our deal. Now he wanted 100 for the day. We were on the highway and he began slowing the car way down, as if normally people get nervous that he will throw them out right then and there if they don’t agree. We stuck to our original price and pretended to be hurt by his sudden change in attitude. He continued on but pouted the whole time. One thing about traveling in Egypt is that you really need to have a backbone and be able to say no rather forcefully to everybody.

At the park gates the car would be stopped and we would be questioned by the military who would then demand a 5 E£ “military fee.” A stern “NO” and they wouldn’t say another word about it. The other people we had to constantly say no to were the guys who stood at the entrance to the sites. They stand there and act official asking you for your ticket, but they aren’t official and are really just tour guide touts trying to get your tickets from you so you have to listen to them and chase them around while trying to get your tickets back. Basically an intimidation practice that probably works for them a few times a day. Of course this goes on right in front of the Tourist Police who stand there and don’t say a word so that they’ll get a kickback at the end of the day. When I write it down now it sounds like it is just one big hassle, but it’s really not that bad.

Back in Cairo we walked around town a bit more. We ate at Felfela’s take away shop which is a famous little place. We ordered our normal felafel and stood back to wait. The felafel are coming out of the kitchen so fast that generally all they have to do is grab them and hand them over to you, like cheeseburgers at a McDonald’s. But after ten minutes we still hadn’t gotten our food. The guy who puts the orders together told me five more minutes, and after twenty minutes he said two more minutes. After at least 100 other customers had gotten their food he finally handed over ours. He obviously had some sort of problem with me. It was a bummer to have our first really negative encounter, and with a little fast food punk trying to fashion himself after the Soup Nazi.

Walking around Cairo is an experience. They installed traffic lights in 1980 but never really learned how to use them. So at pretty much every intersection they have traffic cops directing while the traffic lights blink yellow behind them. The thing is, to cross the street you don’t wait until it is clear, you just step out in to traffic and play Frogger across at least four lanes. Step in front of a car, stand there squeezed between a speeding bus and a taxi then hop to the next lane, wait, wait, go, sidestep, wait, go.

Also, a lot of times you are forced to walk in the streets because of the number of window shoppers on the sidewalks. Window shopping is the unofficial national pastime. Shoe stores are a big hit, but the clear winner of the window wars are the shops selling cell phones. At every single one there will be twenty people standing three deep just staring up at the display of phones. Some people look as if they’ve been there for hours, drool running down their chin. We’ve been gone from home now for quite a while so we don’t know what the state of the cell phone industry is there, but it seems to be the most important thing in the lives of people everywhere we go these days.

may 6 2006 : alexandria, egypt, africa
Yesterday morning we packed a backpack, left our other bag with the hotel, and headed for Alexandria on the Mediterranean coast. We were starting to feel a little too familiar with Cairo and just needed a day away. The train to Alexandria was three hours and only cost about three dollars. We booked ourselves in second class and were happy to find that we actually received seat assignments. They make a big production of announcing that the train is an air conditioned train, which may be important at certain times of the year but not right now. However, that didn’t deter them from cranking the air up and dropping the comfortable outside temperature down to just below zero. The ride up was nice, but the view was a little less scenic than we’d anticipated. Nearly the entire way there were grubby little brick shanty towns alongside small plots of one acre crops that were fed by a garbage filled creek.

Alexandria looked strikingly like Cairo from the train station. The cities here just sort of wrap themselves around you so that wherever you look you see dirt colored buildings and streets busy with people going about all sorts of business. The guidebook said there was a distinct lack of mid range accommodation here and they weren’t kidding, so we started going from hotel to hotel trying to look like we belonged while simultaneously trying to get them to drop their price for us by about 80%. Nobody could quite manage that but we eventually did settle in to a nice place with a view down the alley to the ocean. We really didn’t have any plans and there weren’t a lot of tourist sites jumping out at us screaming to be seen so we just went for a walk along the waterfront and through town. The vibe here was a little different than Cairo. We seemed to draw a bit more attention and were welcomed to Egypt more often. The buildings and the promenade along the water were interesting.

Everything looks as if the heyday of Alexandria came and went about 75 years ago, like it was a playground for the rich at one time, but they had all stopped coming. Just a block in from the water though things livened up a bit. The streets were covered with stands selling everything from sunglasses, to pastries, to prayer mats, to popcorn. We stopped at one particularly popular looking café and ordered some tea and a sheesha, the big water bong tobacco pipe that everyone here seems to enjoy so much. I’ve never been a smoker and was a little nervous that I’d make a fool out of myself by taking one puff and coughing uncontrollably. Fortunately I managed to avoid that embarrassment. The tobacco had a sort of cherry black licorice flavor to it and was actually pretty nice. Ali even took a couple of tokes. Just a few years back that would have been unheard of but apparently these guys are starting to relax their rules on women smoking just a little bit.

Walking around town a little more we came across the Spit Fire Bar which turned out to be this cool little hole in the wall place where seemingly every ex-pat, oil company executive, and marine to ever pass through Alexandria has stopped for a cold beer and left their business card or a sticker plastered to the wall. We had a couple drinks there while watching an Egyptian soap opera with English subtitles. The young girl was in love with her doctor but of course her parents forbid her to see him, we’re not sure how it all turned out. And while we were out we of course had to stop for a pizza. This time an Egyptian style pizza, which was called a pie and actually sort of resembled one. It was really good, but tasted more like an Australian mince pie than a pizza. We even went so far as to put ketchup on it.

This morning we walked around town some more until we finally found our way back to the train station. Back in Cairo we found the sky was dark and it felt like there was a storm on the way. We checked back into our hotel and went out to dinner. By the time we came back outside it had gotten lighter out, but it was now hazy and had a weird glow. We quickly realized that it was a sandstorm that had blown in. The buildings down the street were just a hazy outline and the street vendors had all pulled out tarps to cover their wares. Not a very enjoyable time to be out on the streets. No doubt the girls wearing full veils were feeling pretty smug as they strolled along past the rest of us coughing and covering our faces. No, actually everybody was just walking around like nothing was happening, which was weird.

An observation about cabbies in Cairo, they never stop smoking, but they always offer you a smoke as well.

may 7 2006 : cairo, egypt, africa
Not much happening today. Our prop was supposed to arrive and we were supposed to take the train down to Luxor. Of course, our prop is now stuck in customs and we are stuck in Cairo. The dealer says it’ll be out tomorrow so we’ll see.

We also just found out today that an article I submitted some time last year just appeared in Latitudes and Attitudes magazine. Two magazines this month, we’re on a roll. Blue Water Sailing May 2006.

Speaking of magazines, we received a full copy of the Latitudes & Attitudes magazine. It is no wonder that people think we are crazy for doing this. I honestly can’t stand to read these sailing magazines anymore. They are so full of horror stories and ridiculous “tips from the pros” that I can’t help but laugh.

Lats & Atts is supposed to be the fun, don’t take yourselves too seriously cruising magazine. Yet they are just as bad as the rest of them. First off, they fill a page every month with a piracy report, which in the dozens of magazines I’ve seen has never contained one incidence of a cruising sailboat being attacked by pirates. The latest issue talks about a cargo ship in Bangladesh being followed by three boats filled with robbers that never came closer than 50 meters away. Scary. What does that have to do with cruising?

Then there is an article by a guy that I just really can’t understand. In order, the article talks about how he absolutely wouldn’t let Jamaican authorities confiscate his 9mm handgun while he visited their country, scaring off an alleged mugger by brandishing a collapsible baton which he just happened to have handy, and finally having a conversation with friends in which he says, “We couldn’t understand how the world could be so crazy and full of violence. I still don’t understand to this day.” Umm, do you think it might have something to do with people carrying 9mm handguns and collapsible batons with them wherever they go? What’s the old saying? Go looking for trouble and trouble will find you.

The next article was about spare parts. If we had packed even a third of these “essential” spares on our boat we would have sunk right there at the dock in Florida. The first six in the list constitute an entire engine as a spare. Then of course you need five rebuild sets for each toilet onboard. Five! That would mean ten toilet rebuild kits for us. If we need to rebuild our toilet ten times what we really need is some Pepto Bismol.

You also need three of every size and type of screwdriver. Very good advice since apparently screwdrivers can’t be found anywhere outside of the United States. Instant glue. Well, alright I’ll give the author that one. As much black electrical tape as you can carry. Again, this must not be available anywhere else. Personally I’m still on my first roll.

The list has a total of forty-five items to check off and then states, “This is of course just a partial list.” Well I must say, Ali and I are in a whole lot of trouble. Considering that we could only check off about four items on this partial list of necessary spare parts and tools, I’m not so sure we should go any farther. It’s no wonder the average boat owner never leaves the dock. According to the magazines we are all under-prepared for the horrific dangers in store for us out at sea.

And I know that no sailing magazine will ever publish anything I write again if I keep ragging on them, but take a look at those advertisements in the Lats & Atts article. When we were preparing to go cruising I remember thinking that we needed all sorts of special gear because of these sorts of ads. Special shoes for sailing? Does anybody really wear shoes when they are sailing? Then there’s the baseball cap, oops I mean “sailing” cap, with “built in spring loaded retractors to hold your glasses firmly in place…” Come on, seriously? Do you really need all of this crap to go sailing?

may 8 2006 : cairo
Still in Cairo. We should have known that things wouldn’t work out as smoothly as we had planned. Nine days ago when we ordered the part we were told we would have it on Sunday, which would have been seven days. The order was placed the same day and being optimists we figured that there was a good chance that it would make it to us in five. And since it is a twelve hour train ride to Luxor we decided to just wait it out in Cairo instead of leaving and coming back to pick it up. Obviously we were wrong and it turns out we should have gone to Luxor days ago. We have been promised that the part will be released from customs tomorrow though.

So after spending a few days in a no frills hostel we decided to splurge this afternoon and spend a night in a five star. We seem to have a knack for getting huge hotel rooms lately. When we got to our room today we found it had two single beds instead of the king we had reserved. Back down at the front desk they upgraded us to a junior suite. But when we got to that room we found it was a smoking room and with how much they smoke here in Egypt it really reeked of it. So back down at the desk again they finally found us a different suite, complete with a kitchen. Amazingly I wasn’t able to convince Ali to cook us soup and tuna fish sandwiches though.

We visited the Khan el-Khalili bazaar which was pretty cool. It’s a huge area of narrow winding alleys absolutely packed with tiny shops selling a little of everything. The dirt streets were a maze that was fun just to wander around aimlessly. It’s amazing that this is truly how the locals here shop. How they could ever find what they are looking for we’ll never know. We found a table at a tiny café and had some tea. Next door was a fuul stand that was doing a brisk business. Everybody seemed happy that we ordered some as well. One guy insisted on showing us the proper way of eating it. He pointed to these little yellow fruits and indicated they were really good. I popped one in my mouth and he had a startled look on his face. I guess I was only supposed to take a small bite of it. It was some sort of pickled lemon and he found my puckered up face hilarious.

Today I was again offered quite a number of camels for Ali, as well as being continuously told what a lucky man I am. It’s such a pleasure to constantly have Egyptian men ogle my wife.

may 9 2006 : cairo
It’s two o’clock and we have made 7 phone calls since ten this morning, yet still have no idea what is really going on with our prop. From what I can gather the part is in and somebody has been dispatched to retrieve it. When he gets back to the dealer he is going to be sending a shop assistant across the city to deliver it to us. If all of that works out and we actually get it today then we have changed plans a bit and decided we really need to get back and check on Bum. We’ll have been gone eleven days already and only done half the traveling that we had hoped to do. So now we’re thinking that we’ll get back and sail a little farther north to Hurghada where it should be easier to travel inland from.

may 10 2006 : port ghalib, egypt, africa
We made it back to Bum after a bit of an interesting bus trip. First off, we received our prop yesterday around four o’clock. We went straight to the bus station to find out what time we’d be heading home. The ticket girl told us the bus was at 11 p.m. Here in Egypt there is some sort of strange rule in effect that foreigners are only supposed to travel on specific buses that travel in a police escorted convoy. That would have been the 11 o’clock bus. We asked her what time the local bus ran and she said 6:30. There is a little loophole that says foreigners can travel on the local buses if there are less than four of them on each bus. Apparently this is all in an attempt to keep deaths of tourists to a minimum in case of a terrorist act. An entire busload of dead tourists can have a bit of a negative impact on the almighty tourism dollar, while the death of just four will hardly make headlines. Anyway, we booked ourselves on the 6:30.

Everything was going smoothly enough. The two large men in front of us on the bus had graciously brought their seats all the way forward for us which meant I could then almost fit my legs in the seat. About three hours into our 11 hour journey the bus suddenly screeched to a halt on the shoulder. The bus drivers assistant jumped off and ran to the back and opened up the engine compartment. The next thing we heard was “fggjaabhf!” followed by a scream from the back of the bus. Soon there was a stampede towards the door and we hustled off the bus with the crowd. We quickly figured out that there was an engine fire, more of a flicker than a fire, and it was promptly extinguished. Nobody seemed too concerned and the men made a line along the shoulder to relieve themselves and begin chain smoking. We thought at that point that there wasn’t a single English speaker on the bus, but then a guy approached us and told us in halting English that they were sending a replacement bus that would be there in three hours. Not the best start to our journey home.

A bus eventually made it to us and we were back on our way around one in the morning. When we got to the last town before our stop things got a little weird again. We were waiting for at least half an hour to get going again when there was a commotion outside the bus. One of the passengers and the bus driver were about to come to blows. Listening to a heated argument in Arabic is pretty exciting stuff because they become so passionate about whatever they are arguing about. Without understanding a word you can pretty much make out the entire exchange. It seems our bus driver had some personal business to attend to and the passenger was a little disturbed seeing as we were already four hours late. Calmer heads prevailed before it came to blows however, which was a little disappointing since we had the camera ready and such good seats for the fight.

As we got nearer to where we would be getting off, the bus passengers sprung into action. Without us saying a word they began to ask us where we were going and trying to figure out who knew what we were talking about and could take us there. A nice guy who was working construction at the marina finally figured it out and made it clear that we should stick with him. The bus pulled over in the middle of nowhere, but there was a small van waiting there. We got in along with a few guys from the bus and they drove us right to the outside resort gate. When we tried to pay them they declined and waved us off with a “Welcome to Egypt.” Nice guys. No matter where we go there is always somebody like that who wants to take us under his wing and help us out for no reason other than to do us a favor and make sure we enjoy their country.

This resort complex is set so far out in the middle of nowhere that when we came walking over a mound of dirt towards the front gate the guard stepped out of his booth and put his hand over his eyes like he thought he was seeing a mirage. I think he may have even shook his head to clear out the cobwebs before refocusing on us. I’m sure we are the first guests to ever arrive at the place on foot.

Back at the marina we found Bum looking pretty sad. There had obviously been a dust storm or two and she was completely covered in dirt. The dinghy was totally flat but still floating somehow, like a big dirty garbage bag. And our Egypt flag had torn loose and was flapping wildly by one corner. Overall she looked like she’d been abandoned years earlier, not eleven days.

We rinsed the boat off quickly and Ali went about getting us squared away inside again while I got busy with my new favorite tool, super glue. Within minutes I had the dinghy patched up and full of air again. The props go on this afternoon and then there is only one other problem that needs addressing. Our starter battery for the starboard engine has died on us. We charged it but it was dead again 12 hours later. I don’t know anything about batteries but I think I need to check the water level inside the cells before officially declaring it dead. If that doesn’t work then we’re going to snag one of our house batteries to use for a starter until we get up to a decent marina with some actual services, or at least a town available.

may 12 2006 : luxor, egypt, africa
Today we got to see the best and the worst of Egypt. Our original plan was to get farther north before traveling inland again, but the weather wasn’t looking good for sailing and instead we started out early this morning for Luxor. To begin our journey we walked out of the hotel/marina grounds and struck out across the desert. It was about a one mile walk to get out to the road. When we got to the road we stuck our hand out at the first truck to go by and he immediately stopped and picked us up. He drove us another mile or so to the large traffic circle on the main highway where all the traffic headed anywhere starts from. I tried to give him a little money for his trouble but he waved me off and then stayed nearby while we approached a share taxi about a ride to the next town north, El Quesir.

The share taxi’s are a great deal. They are little beat up station wagons that they cram about ten people into to drive from one town to another along the coast. There are only about six towns along the Red Sea coast of Egypt and they are spaced out about every 40 miles or so apart. Our timing couldn’t have been better and within a couple of minutes of showing up we had ourselves a full car and were on our way. The taxi was in really rough shape but there was a battered copy of the Koran on the dashboard so I figured we’d have a good safe ride, and we did.

As we got to El Quesir one of the other passengers told us where we were, and you could tell he seemed concerned that maybe we didn’t know where we were going. We told him we were trying to get to Luxor and suddenly everybody in the car repeated “Ahh, Luxor!” As if it was a big relief to all of them. They all then started talking amongst themselves about our destination and agreed that we had gone to the right place. They dropped us off at the share taxi station and we paid the driver a whopping $2.50 for the 45 minute drive.

At the station a few different people started trying to help us out. You could tell they didn’t see a lot of tourists and wanted to be as helpful as they could. A couple of off-duty police officers told us that we couldn’t go straight to Luxor from El Quesir and would have to travel farther north to Safaga first, before turning inland to Luxor. This wasn’t a big surprise since Egypt has all sorts of strange travel restrictions for foreigners, and so we went about finding the quickest way to Safaga. There was a bus at 11 but since it was only 9:30 we decided to take another share taxi. After first being ushered to a fancy van and being told they would take us for 100 E£, and us telling them we would pay 8 each, we found another beat up station wagon who would take us as soon as he filled up the car.

By about 10:15 not another person had shown up wanting to go to Safaga so we told our driver that we would just go next door and take the bus instead. That’s when the owner of the car came up and started haggling. They weren’t about to let us go off and take the bus, and in the end we struck a deal for a ride to Safaga all by ourselves for just 20 pounds ($3.50 USD). Gas is ridiculously cheap here, about 75 cents a gallon, but still we couldn’t figure out how they could possibly make a decent profit on a fifty mile one hour ride for $3.50. Along the way our driver had a couple of arguments with the road block police officers who apparently didn’t like the fact that there were two foreigners traveling by themselves, but he managed to get us through.

At the Safaga bus station we found out we were just in time for the bus to Luxor. The bus ride was pretty typical and after about 4 hours we finally got to Luxor. A few miles before we got to Luxor the touts started to get on. There were five white folks on the bus, and the touts started to come up to us asking if we were going to Luxor and where we were staying. Ali and I told them it was none of their business and they pretty much left us alone. Then the bus stopped and announced that this was Luxor. We got off the bus and had a look around. I knew right away we were not at the Luxor bus station, or really anywhere near it. There were a dozen touts yelling in our ears trying to get us to go to their hotel. You’d have to be a complete idiot to actually take these guys up on their offer since they are going to earn a large commission that is going to be added directly to the price you pay for your room.

Anyway, Ali and I were yelling “la shukran” at the guys while trying to get back on the bus and demand that they take us to the bus station. The bus driver wasn’t hearing any of it though and actually started driving off while I was hanging on to the door. The second the bus had disappeared the taxi drivers started in on us. We were so pissed off at this point, having just been dropped off in the middle of nowhere but in the middle of a huge scam, that we walked away from all of them and back up the road fifty yards to where there were some police officers directing traffic. It was quickly very clear that these guys were in on the scam just like everyone else. They basically tried to get us to take a taxi to town at a ridiculously inflated price. Ali and I kept up our bitching though and were eventually put into a little local bus and the bus driver was told to take us to Luxor Temple. Of course fifty yards down the road two touts jumped on the bus and started right back in on us. Ali kept her cool through it all and politely told the guys thank you, but that we weren’t interested.

The bus then dropped us off and told us that the Temple was just around the corner. At this point we didn’t believe a word they told us but got off anyway. As we got out these two touts jumped off and followed us again. We must have said no thank you twenty times by now but they didn’t care, they just wouldn’t stop hounding us. As we walked away Ali turned around to them one last time and very politely said, “Look, we said no thank you, we just want to walk by ourselves.” That’s when one of them suddenly screamed, “Piss off! F@%* off!” Right in the middle of the busy street. I turned around and told him to F@%* Off! and he started towards us like he wanted to fight. We didn’t back down at all and when he realized we weren’t going to, he stopped and continued yelling at us saying what terrible people we were. I asked if we were so terrible because we weren’t interested in staying in his hotel, or what? Him and his friend finally gave up and walked away and left Ali and I alone for the first time since the bus had dropped us off out in the country.

That experience along with the experience from dozens of other touts we met along the road to town made us realize exactly why Egypt has such a bad reputation among travelers. The people in this town are the rudest and most disgusting we’ve met anywhere. We endured more hissing and rude comments, most made right in front of the Tourist Police, and eventually found our way to our hotel. We braved the labyrinth one more time to go out for Macca’s, the only place in town you won’t be hassled, before calling it an early night.

We found these kids just being kids, which is something we haven’t seen a lot of lately. All the boats were homemade out of different garbage; the black one was made from a flip-flop.

may 13 2006 : luxor
We’ve found it, finally, the armpit of the universe. Luxor is easily the worst place we have ever been and all Egyptians should be ashamed that it even exists. Does that sound a little harsh? Luxor has this horrible reputation and we have officially learned for ourselves that it is well earned. The people here are the most disgusting human beings we’ve ever come across. Everywhere we go Ali is leered at and the men make comments to me such as “You a very lucky man,” or “Beautiful!” or “100,000 camels for your wife!” It might sound flattering when you read about it, but when you are simply walking down the street, or examining a 5,000 year old temple, or trying to make a phone call, or eat, or just do anything at all, it really isn’t flattering it is just about the rudest thing that a person could say. And they all know it too. They just love to get a reaction out of you. The stupidest part about it is that we try to show them respect by wearing long pants and shirts that cover ourselves up, despite the fact that the temperature is well over 100 degrees and wearing all of these clothes is about the dumbest thing we can imagine.

Anyway, this morning we went out early and walked across the street to Luxor Temple. We were instantly amazed by the place. It doesn’t have all the hype and the mystery that the pyramids have, but it is incredible all the same. The temple entrance is flanked by huge statues of Ramses II and a 25 meter high obelisk (the second obelisk was stolen by the French in 1835 and has yet to be returned). Inside you feel transported back in time. Carvings cover nearly every inch of the walls and in many places the color is still on them. And there is a Hypostyle Hall which is a hall with 32 giant columns towering above you. It really is beautiful and quickly became our favorite attraction in Egypt. This despite the fact that around every corner is some idiot that points to a cordoned off area and tells you it is okay to go in, all the while holding their hands out for baksheesh. They are tough to ignore. Luckily there are Tourist Police everywhere who just turn a blind eye to everything in exchange for their cut of any profits.

After that we walked down the street to find a microbus to take us to Karnak Temple, which is just a little van that runs around town for 25 piasters (about 4 cents) a person. The taxi drivers of course insist that the buses aren’t running today and they will take you for 10 pounds (40 times the price). Of course there are a million microbuses so it would be pretty hard to believe them. We hopped in a bus and squeezed into a seat at the back happy to be off the streets and amidst the always friendly local riders on these buses. One guy sitting next to us made a point of showing us the correct place to get off. He was also getting off there and pointed us in the direction of the ticket office. Ali and I were walking away and were talking about what a nice guy he was and how nice it was to finally meet a friendly local when he yelled over to us “100,000 camels!” Meaning of course that he, like everybody else in this town, had been ogling my wife and couldn’t resist making a comment. By this point it seemed that Ali may as well have been wearing a bikini around town for all the dirty attention she was getting.

One interesting feature about these two temples is the Avenue of the Sphinxes that runs from Luxor Temple to Karnak Temple about 1.5 miles away. There is a section about 200 meters long that is still pretty well intact at the Luxor Temple and another small section at the entrance to Karnak. In between, there are still remains of many of the Sphinxes lining the road right in front of local shops and homes.

Karnak Temple covers 100 acres, it is huge. Once again though the most impressive sight inside is the Hypostyle Hall. This one contains 134 gigantic columns covered with intricate carvings. Across the top there are still the remains of many of the huge blocks that used to be the roof. On the bottom of those blocks the colors are still vivid since they haven’t been battered by the sun for thousands of years. When we arrived at the Temple there were probably 1000 tourists roaming the grounds. A half an hour later as the clock struck twelve the place was empty. The tour buses had all left and it was eerily quiet inside. The only sounds were the shuffling of feet from the “come in this off limits area” guys. It was awesome.

While in Luxor we had been planning on doing something a little different. One thought we had was to take a hot air balloon ride. We stopped at a payphone to call a couple of the balloon operators in town and were immediately besieged by guys who wanted to help us call London. Uhh, no thanks. Then immediately upon hanging up the phone they asked us for our phone card. Uhh, no thanks again. It’s relentless here, you get no relief from this sort of thing. Here is how my conversations with the balloon operators went.

“Hello, I was wondering if you had any openings on a flight tomorrow morning?”
“Yes sir, what hotel are you staying at?”
“Oh, that doesn’t matter how about you just tell me the price of the flight.”
“Yes, of course sir, what hotel is that again?”
“Why do you need to know my hotel?”
“So we know where to pick you up.”
“Well if I book a flight with you I’ll be sure and let you know.”
“Of course sir, is it the Radisson?”
“No, could you just tell me how much a balloon flight cost?”
“Perhaps it is the Luxor Inn?”
“Wrong again, seriously could you tell me the price of the flight?”
“It must be the Pyramisa then?”
“Okay, thanks for all your help, I’ll get back to you about that.”

After going through that same exact conversation with multiple operators we just gave up on that idea all together. It really would have been cool, but it just isn’t worth the hassle.

may 14 2006 : luxor
After two nights in Luxor we couldn’t get out fast enough. We started the day by walking down the street to the local ferry dock. Along the way I was briefly thinking how much better things felt today. We walked about 100 yards without getting hassled once. Then we walked by a bunch of boat boys. They want to get you to take a feluca(sailboat) ride on the river, or a motorboat to the other side. But of course a simple “no thank you” isn’t enough. They follow you down the street constantly harassing you. “Feluca? Why not? Maybe tomorrow? Maybe later? Where are you staying? What is your name? You want a motorboat? Cheap price, know how much? Why not?”

After a block they finally realize that you don’t want a ride so they throw out one last comment about your wife and then run off. After three identical run ins within fifty yards I finally lost it and spun around on one guy. He quickly turned and started speed walking in the other direction and wouldn’t stop while I yelled at him. Apparently they don’t mind harassing you but if you raise a commotion they worry that the Tourist Police who are standing all over the place might be forced to actually step in and do something. Two of his friends then approached, one of which had just done the same thing, and tried to calm things down and pretend to now be our best friends. We walked away from them and made it to the ferry. What a relief. The minute you get around normal everyday locals who aren’t trying to get something from you, you can finally enjoy the place. No filthy comments, no disgusting stares, no harassment, just a bunch of people going about their everyday lives.

Unfortunately that only lasts about ten minutes. On the other side it starts right up again. We’ve found that the best thing to do is to walk away from the area with all the touts, find a café, and order a tea. Once they realize that they could be missing out on other business while watching you drink tea they leave you alone. After tea we walked down the street and flagged down a taxi who we were then able to get to take us where we wanted for about 1/5th the price the guys by the dock were quoting. Our first stop was to the Ramesseum. It was already after noon so there was absolutely nobody there and after shaking off a couple more tour guides we had the place entirely to ourselves. The Ramesseum is another temple similar to Luxor and Karnak temples on the other side of the river. Lots of amazing carvings and huge statues. The real difference here was the background. The mountains that climb away behind the temple are covered with colorful homes and ancient tombs.

Next up was the Valley of the Kings which is where the New Kingdom pharaohs had their mummies buried. In order to attain eternal life they believed that their names and their bodies must continue to exist. For this to happen they had these elaborate tombs built into the hillsides where they thought nobody would ever bother them. There are dozens of tombs in the valley but only about a dozen are open to the public. We once again found that we were the only people there and were able to explore the tombs on our own, except for the two tomb employees in each one who are there to protect the tombs from thieves and picture takers. Again we were encouraged to take pictures in exchange for baksheesh, despite the signs posted everywhere asking you not to because of the damage the flashes do to the pigments in the paints. The tombs were beautiful, and totally different than anything else we’d seen in Egypt. We wandered through a few of them and then made our way back to the ferry dock and across to Luxor.

Anxious to spend as little time as possible in Luxor, we headed for the train station to catch the 5:00 train to Aswan, about three hours away. The temperature in Luxor was 104 degrees every afternoon and waiting outside at the train station was brutal. And to make things worse the train was over an hour late. At 10:30 we finally rolled into Aswan and set out to find a hotel. One thing about Egypt is it has fine tuned my haggling skills. You need to haggle for everything from a bottle of water to a hotel room. Being the summer season, which is obviously the off-season here, getting a good price on a hotel room is pretty easy but takes a little patience. We were shown five different rooms and it took nearly an hour, but at the end of it we had our $90 room for $35 and were pretty pleased with ourselves.

may 15 2006 : aswan, egypt, africa
Today we took a taxi over to Philae Island to see the Temple of Isis which is the highlight of Aswan. The island is on Lake Nasser which is a lake that was formed by the damming of the Nile River. Egypt apparently had gone ahead and drowned the temple forever by building the dam, but UNESCO stepped in, recovered and relocated the entire complex at a new island that they formed to look exactly like the previous one. The temple was nice and had a few rooms that had some amazingly intricate and surprisingly intact carvings inside, but the true draw of the temple is the setting out on the island.

When we arrived there we bought our temple tickets and then walked down to the dock to try and find a ride out there. The water taxi drivers know they’ve got you on this one since there is no alternative but to take their ride out there. They quoted an outrageous price and laughed at my counteroffer so Ali and I just found a spot in the shade and had a seat. About five minutes later a small tour group arrived and we approached the guide and asked if we could catch a ride out with them. He was happy to help and just asked that we tip the driver when we returned. Chalk one up for the tourists.

Later in the afternoon we just set out to walk around the town. There is a big shopping bazaar running for nearly a mile through town and we checked that out. Unfortunately we found that the men here are as bad as in Luxor and made it impossible to just walk around and enjoy the place.

We did find a really nice local pizza joint today. Ali and I ordered up an Egyptian style pizza, three bottles of water and two cans of pop, all for $5. Meanwhile we watched as local after local came in and each ordered their own Western-style pizza. The weird thing was that it seemed as if it was taboo to share a pizza. A family of five came in with three kids under 8 years old and each person got their own pizza even though a kid couldn’t possibly have finished more that a quarter of it. And not one person ever took their leftovers to go. We couldn’t quite figure out what was going on with all that. No cold pizza for breakfast tomorrow, come on.

“Welcome to Alaska!” I don’t know which Egyptian said it first, but if he could have gotten a penny for every time it is said he would be the richest man on earth.

may 17 2006 : port ghalib, egypt, africa
Yesterday we had plans to take a bus farther south nearly to the border of Sudan to visit the temple at Abu Simbel. There were organized trips available that made the four hour ride in a van at 4 a.m. visited the tomb for two hours and drove back the same afternoon. We weren’t looking to go that route and were going to take a local bus down and spend the night instead. We got to the bus station in time for the 11 o’clock bus but were told it was six hours, not four, and that it wasn’t air conditioned. It didn’t take long to decide that twelve hours of that in two days, all to see another temple, didn’t sound to appealing.

After that plan fell apart we decided to see if we could get home instead and went to the train station to find out. It looked like we might still have time if we could catch the train to Luxor that was waiting on the track. I went to the ticket booth and was told that we could only ride the train at 6 a.m., 6 p.m., and 8:30 p.m. That was hours away, and besides, it got us to Luxor in the middle of the night. So we walked over to the information booth where we had met a nice guy the day before. He told us no problem, just take the train that was here now. He even took us to a different ticket guy where we bought our tickets. Then as we were about to go through the gate a police officer saw what was going on and came rushing over. There was a heated discussion and it was finally relayed to us that we couldn’t take this train because there was no security onboard. We assured him that there was nothing to be worried about, but he wasn’t hearing any of it. He’d rather we took our chances wandering around Luxor in the middle of the night than take this train in the morning. We got our money back for the tickets and checked back into our hotel an hour after checking out.

The sad part about these towns is that we are so turned off by them that we hardly wanted to venture outside. We preferred to stay locked up in our room rather than go out and face the unpleasantness that awaited us outside. Any other place we’ve ever been and we would have been happy to waste away the day sitting at a streetside café or visiting some obscure attraction. Instead we rushed out for pizza, then back to the room for bad movies on one of our two television channels. Lame.

It is about 150 miles in a straight line from Aswan to Port Ghalib. There are no straight lines however, so this is how we spent our day.

6 a.m. Catch the train to Luxor (32 E£)
10 a.m. Take a small bus transfer from town to our bus (10 E£)
11 a.m. Leave Luxor aboard our non-air conditioned bus (40 E£)
4 p.m. Arrive in Safaga and catch a microbus van to take us to the taxi stand (3 E£)
4:30 p.m. Join a share taxi station wagon loaded with 9 passengers headed to El Quesir (10 E£)
6 p.m. Transfer to another share taxi to take us to Port Ghalib (20 E£)
7 p.m. Arrive back at the boat
Total cost for the 6 legs involved in the 13 hour trip, 115 E£, or $10 USD each.

That’s a long day. But it was actually sort of fun. The people we meet every time we are traveling like this are always the nicest and friendliest, especially once they realize you know what you are doing. The share taxi guys try to hit you up with their special taxi line as soon as you walk in. They assume you are a rich frightened foreigner and they offer you your own bus for just 100 E£. Once you laugh that off they show you right who you need to go to amid the dozens of waiting cars to catch your 5 E£ ride. The guys who took us the last leg back to the boat earned a bit extra since without us even asking them to they drove off the main road and took us the extra two miles across the dirt road to the boat. It’s nice how every time we come back here expecting to have to hike the two miles somebody takes care of us and makes sure we get right to where we need to go. There are definitely two distinct types of people in Egypt and we’ve met a lot of both of them.

may 20 2006 : port ghalib
We are so bored by this marina. There is nothing to do here and yet the strong north winds have trapped us. We’ve got mysteries onboard the boat though that have managed to keep us busy. The strangest mystery is why Ali’s clothes are self destructing. She wore this t-shirt yesterday that she had gotten in Sri Lanka and only worn once before. After wearing it to bed she woke up this morning and was making herself tea when she looked down and saw that there was a hole big enough to stick her hand through right on her stomach. It looks like Freddy Krueger visited her during the night and slashed it open with razor blades. And this isn’t the first time. Her pillow case had a similar tear on it a few weeks ago and at least ten other shirts have been found with holes and razor tears. Usually after they’ve been washed which always made us believe that it was just the harshness of the people doing the washing. The obvious answer seemed to be that there was something sharp on her side of the bed, but we’ve checked and haven’t found anything and she doesn’t have any marks on her body.

The other mystery is what is going on with our starboard engine. After we replaced the prop we went to fire up the engine and found the battery was dead. No big deal, we just jumped it and everything seemed okay. But the next morning it was completely drained again. So then we figured the battery was just three years old and had packed it in. We replaced the battery with one of our starter batteries as a temporary solution. But right when we started the engine the battery alarm started beeping sporadically at us despite the fact that the charging system seemed to be working. We shut that off and then today we made the huge effort to trek up to the town of El Quesir. The trip was made even more grueling because of my now relentless zeal for haggling until I’ve received the local price. We actually sat outside in the scorching sun for thirty minutes while the taxi driver and I played our little game. He eventually realized that we were serious about sitting there all day waiting for more passengers and he settled on our price. Saved ourselves about 40 cents there. We may be getting a little bit carried away.

Anyway, in El Quesir we started chatting with a local who turned out to be a tour guide, but insisted that we let him take us to the garage where we could buy a new battery. We were a little leery, figuring he would not be doing this just to be helpful, but in the end that is exactly what he did. At the garage they had the battery we needed and the old man running the place tore his desk apart looking for the price list, which we were then able to read to get the exact price. Surprisingly the battery only cost us about $50 and we hoped we’d be back in business. Back at the boat we charged up the new battery and then tried it out on the engine. Now the battery alarm was going off and we had a second problem. The starter battery wasn’t receiving a charge, only the house bank was charging properly. But the night before when we were testing everything with a friends battery both battery banks were charging fine. I replaced a solenoid and a couple of fuses but that didn’t do anything and now I’m fresh out of ideas. For the time being I rigged the setup so that it would bypass the solenoid and everything would charge. But that is only a temporary solution since the starter battery will fry if I leave it charging for too long that way. Bumfuzzled again.

The marina here is the worst we’ve seen in the entire world in one respect, the lack of a no wake zone. The entire area is going to be made into some sort of Venice of Egypt and is full of canals. The cruising boats are tied up along a concrete wall in one canal in front of the only hotel that is currently completed. Then there are dozens of commercial dive boats in a separate canal. The dive boat dinghies shuttle people back and forth to the hotel hundreds of times each day and do so at full throttle. The wakes toss boats all over the place. We know of at least two boats who’ve had their boats  rock so badly that their fenders popped out and their boats hit the concrete wall, scraping off plenty of paint. Numerous people have complained about it and I’ve sent two emails myself complaining about it to the marina manager. But nothing has changed.

So today I went to the marina office to pay our bill in anticipation of leaving tomorrow. I met the marina manager, Sherif, who asked me how my stay was. To be polite I just said “Nice.” He said, “No, not nice, you have sent me many complaints about the tenders.” I told him that yes, they had been a big problem and I thought he’d want to know since boats were being damaged because of it. Then he blurts out “I don’t believe you! Who has been damaged?” I said that he should go have a look at the boat currently sitting right in front of us, their boats paint had been scraped along a ten foot section. “I don’t believe you! Nobody has said this to me.” I told him they were probably just to nice to say anything and he repeated that he didn’t believe me. Now it was becoming weird. I didn’t care if he believed me or not, the proof was sitting right on the dock at that moment, but I didn’t appreciate being called a liar either and made that very clear to him. He eventually shut up about it, without promising to do anything about it, and then suddenly he was acting like my best friend.

The level of incompetence here is staggering. It took two and a half hours to complete our invoice. At one point one of Sherif’s minions came in with a sheaf of papers and gave us a little presentation. He explained how if we paid the weekly rate our cost would be $280,  and if we paid the monthly rate our cost would be $240. He then stood there quietly as if waiting for direction on which way to go with it. Uhh, I’ll take the $240 option, thanks. And off he ran to disappear for another hour. Meanwhile I got to listen to Sherif drone on and on about Islamic fundamentalism, Western propaganda, his dislike of Germany, and many other lovely topics all proclaiming him to be a man of the world. He even had a man servant who did nothing but bring him tea and empty his ashtray a dozen times while I was there. That was one of the strangest and most uncomfortable two and a half hours I’ve ever spent anywhere. We really won’t miss Port Ghalib Marina.

may 22 2006 : port ghalib
The weather just isn’t cooperating with us right now and we are stuck in Port Ghalib with nothing to do and nowhere to go. The wind has been howling at about 25 knots right out of the north for days now. It dies down after dark every night but by the time we wake up in the morning it is going full on again. Tomorrow is looking better so we’ll see what happens.

may 24 2006 : el gouna, egypt, africa
Yesterday, after waiting for what felt like forever, our weather window finally appeared and at five a.m. we were on our way north. It was 130 miles to Abu Tig Marina, a quick overnight sail. The forecast was calling for nothing more than five knots and we were a little disappointed when we found over 15 knots outside but feeling good with two engines again we just motored on through the wind and waves throughout the day making good time.

At around 2 a.m. the wind had died down to only 5 knots and we were looking forward to an early morning arrival. Then, while Ali slept, I watched the wind climb steadily from 5, to 15, to 25, to 30. Before the waves even had a chance to build I turned the boat straight west towards shore and a Plan B anchorage. Ali took over at 4 and woke me a while later to discuss our options. We were getting close to land and the waves had really flattened out but the wind was still howling.

We turned north again and stuck close to shore taking the inside passage between the reefs. Eventually we had to sail back out into unprotected waters and had to decide once again whether to anchor or press on the last 20 miles. We pressed on and got a nice surprise as the wind finally started to do what it was forecast to do. By the time we arrived at the marina it was 5 knots and one of the most beautiful days we’ve seen.

It was only an overnight passage but we were pretty proud of ourselves for managing to sail nearly the entire way in pretty strong winds without actually beating on the boat and ourselves. Thus maintaining our ability to say to other cruisers, “No, we really haven’t had to beat at all. The Red Sea has been a piece of cake.” Which is always fun.

Finally in a proper marina the first thing we did was give Bum a pre-wash rinse. It was incredible the amount of dirt that five months of sailing from Thailand to here could build up. Man did that feel good. The marina also came by and picked up our jerry jugs to get our fuel for us. In Port Ghalib they charged .55 cents per liter, here they do it for you and only charge .25 cents (about $1 per gallon). After that we met a couple friends for drinks at one of the restaurants along the boardwalk. The sign out front of the place had a happy hour special advertised, “buy 2 beer get one free.”

In true Egyptian style the sign was a scam. It said “beer,” but apparently only a specific kind of disgusting beer that nobody buys and that they don’t tell you about. But as usual, they didn’t like being confronted over their scam and gave in by giving us our free beers. In the end they tried one last time to screw us by slipping them in the bill. It really is a never ending battle here in Egypt.

may 28 2006 : coast of sinai peninsula, egypt
Right now we’re sitting at anchor in Mersa Hammam, just fifty miles south of Suez, having a tea, watching the sunrise, listening to the wind howl past at 30 knots, and watching dozens of flies bounce off the door trying to get inside with us. Just wonderful.

After two days in El Gouna marina doing pretty much nothing but washing the grime off the boat, we left for Suez. Our weather forecast looked absolutely perfect once again with not a breath of wind over ten knots the whole way. We were ready to leave by 7 a.m., but nobody showed up to the marina office until 9 and then the accountant, who is apparently the only person capable of doing the complicated math needed to figure out the bill for two days at $10 per day, wasn’t due until ten. Somehow we were on our way at ten o’clock and had a beautiful day ahead of us. We haven’t seen a cloud in weeks and it was no different this day. The wind was close to what was predicted and we motorsailed all day through the reefs, around dozens of oil rig platforms, and across the shipping lanes to the west coast of the Sinai Peninsula.

We stuck close to shore so we’d have a place to hide in case we had a sudden weather change. But things looked good and I woke Ali up for her first watch with our speed at 6.5 knots and the wind at 5. She woke me three hours later with our speed at 2.5 knots and the wind at 25. The worst part about this was the timing. There was a huge oilfield which ran from the coast straight out for nearly 6 miles right to the edge of the shipping lanes. In the dark the oilfield looked like a large city perched out on a peninsula. There was no way we could cut through the middle of it during the night.

So we sailed out to the edge of it and then turned straight north, dead on to the wind, to squeeze between it and the shipping lane. It took us four hours to beat through the next seven miles. But then just as the sun came up we were able to turn back towards land once again and even get a sail out. Once we got to shore things were slightly better with the waves beaten down a little bit by the shallow water and the winds slightly less because of the mountains lining the coast. After a few hours of this we reached a possible anchorage but decided to press on and were rewarded when the land jogged westward and really took the life out of the seas.

In the early afternoon we finally dropped anchor out front of Mersa Hammam which is a pretty pathetic sight. As seems to be the case all across Egypt, there is either housing for a thousand families or rooms for a thousand tourists. You can never really tell which since the buildings are never finished, just black shells with no roofs, windows, or electricity. Down the beach from these is a shipping yard with a bunch of building and hundreds of lights towering over it, two of which were turned on overnight. Somebody obviously had grand plans for this place located smack dab in the middle of nowhere.

Not long after settling in we had some visitors come by on a fishing boat. They saw our outboard and seemed excited as they tried to explain to me the part they needed. Like everybody does when speaking to somebody who doesn’t understand their language, these guys just repeated themselves over and over, louder and louder. Seeing as our Arabic is limited pretty much to hello and no thank you, we didn’t have much luck. I think I eventually got the point across that we didn’t have any spare parts for the motor, just the motor itself. I was then able to explain much more easily that we didn’t smoke cigarettes, and they were off.

At two this morning I made the mistake of waking up and having a look around outside. The wind was down to ten knots and things felt pretty good. I woke Ali up and we quickly raised the anchor and got underway. The anchorage was behind a flat spit of land and it didn’t seem possible that the wind could be blocked by anything, especially since it hadn’t been the day before when we came in. But sure enough, ten minutes after motoring out the wind was at twenty knots, and ten minutes after that it was whipping our faces at thirty. We pressed on, pounding through the waves for over an hour before admitting defeat and turning around. It only took us thirty minutes to fly back to the anchorage downwind and by four o’clock we were back in bed sound asleep as if nothing had happened.

may 29 2006 : sinai coast
We woke up this morning to fifteen knots of wind and decided to just go for it. About three miles out the wind had kicked up to thirty knots and it was feeling like an instant replay of the day before. The difference being that today it was light out so we could see just how bad the conditions were. Surprisingly they weren’t too bad at all. We spent the day tacking offshore, then back inshore, with a little motoring up the coast thrown in and by early afternoon we were safely anchored just twenty-five miles short of the canal.

Lately we’ve hit one of those rough patches in our trip where nearly everything on the boat seems to fall apart at the same time. And every single passage, no matter how short, at least three more minor things breakdown. In just the last month we’ve had the prop fall off, a problem with the starter battery, a fourth crack in the dinghy davits, a water leak through the port rudder post, and two hatches have started leaking again. Then in the last three days the stern rubrail has fallen off, all the fuel filters had to be replaced as the dirty fuel was choking our engines, and the bows are covered in oil courtesy of the rigs chugging away along the coast. Then of course there is the ever present dinghy leak. Seriously, if we ever get the urge to go sailing again after this trip I hope we’ll read this and charter a boat instead.

may 30 2006 : suez canal, egypt, africa
Yet another early start this morning. At five a.m. we began getting the boat ready to go; starting the computer, plugging in the GPS, and warming up the engines. The engines fired up and then the port engine died. I stuck my head in the engine compartment and gave the ball on the fuel line a squeeze. Right away I could hear air coming from somewhere, and that’s not good. At first I thought it was that the pre-filter hadn’t been sealed right, but then I found that the fuel line coming out of the back side of the filter was split. I don’t know what sort of fuel lines these are but they are all quickly turning to dust on us. We won’t be leaving Israel without replacing all the fuel lines, especially since so far we’ve been fortunate that the splits have been near the ends where I could just cut it off and reattach it. If the split happens in the middle I’m not sure how I’d fix it because we don’t have any extra fuel hose on the boat. That would be a fun Macgyver project. Anyway, a quick fix of the hose and an even quicker bleeding of the line and we were on our way.

The wind was a paltry 20 knots today, though directly from the direction we were headed. There is no doubt that we have tacked the boat more in the last two days then we had in the last two years. By eleven we were at the canal just in time to follow the northbound convoy in on our way to the Suez Canal Yacht Club. Yacht club is a pretty fancy name for what this place really is, which is a boarded up building with a bunch of moorings out front of it.

Our agent had apparently been calling on the VHF for us for two days and was happy when we finally answered him this morning. Our agent and his little helpers were waiting to help us tie the boat up to the moorings. With that done he came aboard and informed us that we’d be going through the canal tomorrow. Apparently there is a bunch of British warships coming through in the next couple of days and yachts aren’t allowed to transit on days that warships go through. In fact a few yachts were stuck here today because of the U.S. Navy submarine that came through this afternoon. That was pretty cool to see. The sub cruised by practically submerged just 100 yards away with a whole bunch of guys standing out on top of it. And there was a helicopter escorting it through as well which circled over and fired off a few rounds right in front of us just in case we had any bad intentions.

We still had about a hundred dollars worth of Egyptian Pounds and figuring that Israel might not be overly anxious to exchange them for us we decided to head to town and replenish our food stocks instead. It’s a good thing too, we were completely out of Twinkies and just about out of strawberry Fanta too. With that taken care of we headed back to the boat and worked on some fun projects there. Things like trying to remove oil sludge and seal up dinghy leaks. After that Ali warmed up some sausages and burnt some pancakes for dinner before we called it a night. Got a big day of canal transiting ahead of us tomorrow.

We’ve been talking a lot about our deteriorating clothes lately, so here is an example. These left the house this afternoon as a perfectly good pair of jeans and came back in the evening looking like this. Might have been cool in the late 80s, but I don’t think they’re going to work for me now.

may 31 2006 : suez canal
What more could a girl want than to have her husband take her, along with one Egyptian stranger, on a trip through the Suez Canal on their wedding anniversary? This morning our agents’ little helpers started swarming the boat. He has two guys who work for him and in order to maximize their baksheesh they make a point of only doing one little thing at a time. They were harmless enough though, and when you really think about the amounts of money involved (about $1 each) it’s almost comical. By eleven o’clock we had our passports back, our clearance papers, and all of our canal transit dues had been paid. Shortly after, our pilot arrived and we were on our way. It was time to put another cruiser myth to the test. Cruiser folklore states that Suez canal pilots are pigs and that you can expect your transit of the canal to be the least enjoyable experience of your sailing life.

Of course once again this turned out not to be the case. Our pilot was harmless. He lounged around in the cockpit while I drove the boat and Ali played her role as the subservient housewife, a role she doesn’t often play, but sometimes it’s just easier to go along. The canal itself is really about the least interesting stretch of water you can imagine. Low sandy hills stretch out forever and you just tool along in your little creek in the middle of it all.  The pilot didn’t really do a thing. Ali asked him not to smoke in the cockpit so he ended up only lighting up a few times out in the 20 knot winds off the side of the boat, he only accepted one can of pop and one aspirin, and he hardly ate any of the snacks we put out for him. He hardly talked to us at all but he sure did love to chat on the VHF, which is what he spent most of the day doing, and which was just fine with us.

At one point a group of fishing boats was passing us and he asked us if we had some water bottles for them. We just told him no and he relayed the information to them, which didn’t seem to make them too happy, but our pilot didn’t press us about it either. He asked us to go a little faster as well, but we were running the engines as hard as we wanted to already so again we just said no and that was the end of that. Overall it was just a long boring day of motoring through uninspiring landscape.

Eight hours later we rolled into Ismalia, a small town at the halfway point of the canal where sailboats have to spend the night. Ismalia was also where we dropped off our pilot and played out the baksheesh game. About an hour before we got in he asked me if I would have a present for him and then proceeded to tell me all about his wife and three children.

So when we finally got in and tied up I was ready for him. I handed him $10 USD and a couple packs of smokes. From the look on his face you’d have thought that I had just set a dog turd in his hand. No big surprise there, it’s part of the game. We already knew that $10 was more than generous. In fact even our Egyptian agent had recommended $5-10 as a good tip. He asked us to double his gift, we said no. He asked for five more, we said no. Out of options he turned and climbed off the boat without saying goodbye or thank you. I’m convinced that Egyptians have substituted the words “thank you” with the word “more.” It was a little disappointing since we had been so pleased with how the day went, but we quickly got over it.

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