travel diary – day 405
day 401 – after a lazy day we were ready to get moving again. we got some cash and checked out of the hotel. we caught a taxi down to the aqaba ferry terminal where we planned to get the boat to egypt.
when we arrived there was a long wait for the ferry. we ended up talking to other tourists and eventually got onto the ferry. then there was another long wait for the ferry to actually leave. we spent more time waiting (or waiting to leave) than we spent for the actual ferry ride.
when the ferry arrived, surprise surprise, we had to wait more before we were allowed off. finally, we got off the ferry, collected our passports and a group of us pooled our resources to get a share taxi to the beach town of dahab.
dahab is very touristy and it reminded me of thailand, but it was a nice little town. the food was cheap and the view was great. christina and i had a beer on the beach to celebrate our arrival in africa.
day 402 – christina and i had a nice breakfast and went for a long morning walk along the esplanade. the whole town is only about a kilometre long (spread along the foreshore). so it was easy to get around the place and see everything.
christina bought herself a white summer dress and i bought a copy of ‘a clockwork orange’ by anthony burgess. we went for another walk in the evening after it had cooled off.
day 403 – we had breakfast and played chess in the cafe. we had an evening bus to cairo, so we had the whole day to sit and relax. we spent the time playing chess, checking email and reading.
in the evening we went to the bus terminal and got on the bus to cairo.
day 404 – in dahab, we’d talked to the hotel owner and booked a hotel in cairo. he told us that the hotel would pick us up from the bus station. when we arrived there was nobody to greet us. tired and grumbling we got a taxi into the city. the driver wanted to take us to his “recommended” hotel, but we ignored him and went to a place we knew would be decent.
we checked in and i was dead tired from the overnight bus, so i slept for a while. in the afternoon we went into the city to look for a shopping mall that is supposed to be good. we couldn’t find it and instead had to avoid a scam shop (after getting into a conversation with some local guy).
we saw the nile, went back to the hotel and asked the hotel owner about good places to go. he told us about a good computer repair store and sunglasses shop (for christina). we bought sunglasses and i put the computer in for a reformat.
day 405 – in the morning, christina and i went to the famous egypt museum. upon entry we were told that we couldn’t take cameras … despite the fact that every egyptian was walking around taking photos on their camera phones. i got shitty about the whole thing and yelled at a few people. however, it was pointless, so we checked our cameras and went in to enjoy the museum.
the museum is fantastic. it is a big warehouse and is easy to explore. the king tut display was cool and we got to see the famous tutankhamun mask (nifty). the only thing we didn’t see was the mummy exhibition, which required a separate entry fee.
the museum was crowded, so we went downtown. we had lunch and looked around a bookstore. in the afternoon i returned to the hotel for a small sleep, after which we went to the cafe street and i had a beer.
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