Another day, another bus trip

Saturday, October 4, 2008
Luxor to Hurghada. Egypt

The Red Sea

Well, today like many others started early. We were out of the hotel by 0720 so that we could meet up with the convoy to Hurghada. The bus we use keeps getting smaller but so does the group so that is ok. The road to Hurghada is a repeat for us. We did take this route a few days ago on our trip from Cairo to Aswan, however we travelled this road in the dark so really had not seen it before.

There really was nothing to see. The convoy once again was about 40 - 50 vehicles long. Not a lot of opposing traffic and we seemed to take up the entire road. The area we travelled through is mostly desert but today I did notice the odd women dressed in very bright clothes tending animals along the way. At one of our stops the buses were greeted by several women and children dragging around little goats, donkeys and camels for the tourists to play with. The camels were about as tall as me. One donkey even had a little goat riding on its back.

Really it was an uneventful 6 hour ride. When we arrived in Hurghada we noticed a big difference from the other areas of Egypt we had visited. Hurghada is a lot more commercial and had a much more European feel to it. The Hard Rock Café is just across the street from out hotel and you see a lot of signs written in Russia.

There are a lot of hotels and resorts in the area but we did not explore the area too long before heading out on a little excursion. Five out of the 11 of us headed out to the desert to take a quad bike ride through the sand towards the mountains to watch the sunset. I think the last time I was on a quad I was twelve so I was happy to see it was throttle and brake control only.

Yeah I am in there somewhere.

One of the random trees we came across

I was also very thankful I stopped to grab some sunglasses (or as the Aussies have convinced me to call them…sunnies). Basically for 14 kilometres I was staring into the sun with the desert sand flying at my face so I would not have been able to see much without them. It was a very nice little ride. I am not so sure I am cut out to drive a quad in the desert but the one time I almost completely went over I was able to pull the bike back and stay on four wheels.

I almost look like I know what I am doing don't I?

It took a few washings to get all the dust out of my clothes but all in all some fun memories in Egypt.

A little dirty but I had a lot of fun.

A view of the sunset.

On return to the hotel to wash the dust off and then head out for some dinner we learned very quickly that the hotel had no hot water. I guess there is something wrong with the water heater and they are not too quick to fix it so there is not much hope that there will be hot water tomorrow. Anyway, we did some shopping as well. Everything is open so late….many until 0130. I must say that the entire time that I have been in Egypt there is always harassment from shop owners to come in check their shops but it was complete over kill here in Hurghada. I could not walk 2 feet before someone else would be in my face. I never really felt uncomfortable walking alone until I got here and after one shop owner thought that since I had seen so much of the country, I also needed to try sex with an Egyptian man before I left, it became even more uncomfortable. I think there will be some Egyptians who think Canadians are the rudest people on the planet but it is true that they don’t usually take it personally when you ignore them and walk by.

We had a nice group gathering later that night at the Hard Rock Café. It seems that we get a 10% discount at most restaurants we go to….however there do add 22% tax and service charges so it really does not make that much of a difference.
Tomorrow is going to be a great day. We get to spend it out on the Red Sea.

Julie