Egypt Log
So far Egypt is a bit less hassle than Sudan. The going ashore in small out of the way places is similar,
but nobody bugs you for stuff at anchor at least. There are tons of resorts and resort towns being built
so I guess the country is for sale? Build it and maybe they will come? Many of them are sitting empty or
half built.
The water is clearer than Sudan an noticeably colder as well! I went from a 3mm suit to a 5mm and still
get cold. The fish life is amazing, but the reef corals are dying. There are tons of dive boats along this
coast and it is unusual to have a dive site to yourself. The more popular ones can have up to 5 boats on
a small site so I guess I have to get used to sharing darn it:(
Dolphin reef was only ok diving, but swimming with dolphins 3 times was beyond description so well worth
the visit. Ask the local dive boats where to see them and when (mornings in the east anchorage around
8 or 9 but they are hunting then or 10 in the west anchorage and they are more playful then).
Now for land travel/hassle in Egypt... God what a place to deal with locals in a non positive setting.
Nothing here has a price and you must haggle for everything. Even if you sign up for a 5 day tour and
they cut it short a day on you and you are trying to get a refund you must fight and haggle over the
refund amount. It is one serious pain in the butt to get anywhere or do anything in this country!!! I highly
recommend organized tours (not really my thing) or you will be so exhausted dealing to get things done
you won't enjoy the actual stuff you went to see.
A typical example is trying to take a cab as a tourist. The cabs in Hurghada have meters that work just
great. Of course they won't use them if you are a tourist! I rode for 30 min in a cab with a local and it
cost 8 local or about 1.50 US dollars. I tried to get to the airport to pick up crew and the driver starts at
100 local in his first offer and finally we settled on 50 because I was in a hurry. Later I learned no cab
would consider less than 50 for this trip. One cab even ran the meter just to dick with me and it came up
7.50 local, which is far short of the 50 he charged me! The cabbies like to charge 50 minimum to drive
tourists from one terminal to the other in the Cairo airport and that is a 5 minute ride!
There is some neat stuff to see in Egypt if you can get past the heat and haggling. Obviously the Giza
Pyramids in Cairo are cool, but the inside is pretty boring. The Cairo Museum is nice, but poorly
organized and can be crowded. The river cruise on the Nile river stopping to see temples along the way
is really nice, but it is similar to a cruise ship (AC can be really nice in summer).
The suez canal turned out to be less than expected. To be honest it is pretty boring. We got lucky with
two decent pilots that were not too demanding and steered the whole time. The agency (Felix) we used
to do the transit was typical Egyptian (bargain for everything, get ripped off on both price and quantity of
fuel, failed to get a pilot to appear one day, etc.).
Mostly I hate to say we were happy to see Egypt disappear over the horizon.