A first hello from a hot and blue-sky Egypt. Temperature is about 25 Celcius and wind is non-existent.
We are currently sitting in an internet cafe in the southern part of Ad-Dahar. We are waiting for a bus that will take us to Luxor. The bus trip will last about 5 hours.. we are prepared with lots of water. We will need it...
The flight went very well. We had prepared for lots of troubles on the Hurghada Airport, but it went very smooth. About 30 min after takedown we were out of the airport! After that we took a really worn taxi for about 30 pounds (Egyptian Pounds) to Ad-Dahar. After the taxi-ride we walked around trying to locate ourselves: looking for landmarks, street names etc. It was hard, even with "help" from city inhabitants.
We became really hungry after a couple hours and around 5pm we sat down in a little kebab restaurant.
After some food vi continued our mission. Shortly after, we met an egyptian (or rather: He met Us). He thought we should go to The Queen Hotel. 25 pounds he said for double-room. "Cheap" we thought and decided to at least check it up so we went there together with this egyptian. The room looked pretty good. But! When we should pre-pay for the room [not recommended] he wanted 75 pounds - he thought we must have heard wrong. We paid 5 pounds for the taxi and said good bye! He tried to trick us.
We then walked to the closest big road, about 100 metres away. By the road we recognized some of the hotels from our map. Yes! We booked a twin room at "4 Seasons Hotel" for the night. 65 pounds (for two). Pretty good. The standard was pretty good: balcony, shower, warm water and it was located very central. We got to sleep at about 7.30 pm.Wed planned to sleep one hour and then find some internet cafe to write in our travel diaries. But.. we were tired so we slept until the next day...
Started the day by just walking around the area, checked some shops, shopped some water, met an egyptian named Jimmy. Then we took a microbus to the bus station for the Northern Egypt Travel Company.. Now, we are sitting about 500 metres from the station in an internet cafe waiting for the bus to go. 45 minutes left. Hopefully it will not be too full.
Hope to write soon.
Update: The following text is written later the same day
Hello again,
When we came to the bus station they said we had missed the bus by 10 minutes. Even though we as at the train station in time. I guess the bus quickly got full. A bit frustrating. We asked around a bit and another bus should leave a couple of hours later. So.. we walked to a nearby cafe. In the cafe we found a pool table. Jackpot! I played 3 games 8-ball against the egyptian owner of the cafe. The egyptian won 2 of 3 games, but it was really fun.
At 2.30pm we where back at the bus station but then they told us that there where no buses any more this day to Luxor. This was bad news. We talked to a couple from Belgium and we where thinking about (together with them) to take an offer we had got from an egyptian: to go in his "special" taxi in a convoy at 5pm.
We didn't take that offer. Instead we took a minibuss to Quena (followed by taxi from Quena to Luxor). Tobias and I had to sit in the middle of the minibuss. Lots of egyptians around us. We had to hide from the police because egyptian people is not allowed to drive tourists between Quena/Luxor - Hurghada. It was a real experience sitting in that minibus and taxi. There are road signs but they are not followed at all. Cars honks all the time.. Almost constantly.
When we arrived to Luxor we finally checked in at Many Palace Hotel. 100 pounds (double room). We took their last(?) corner room with a very nice view of the Nile.
Hurghada, Egypt.
While waiting for a bus to Luxor Tobias and I visits a cafe which luckily got a billiards table inside. The match was even, but he won with two to one in games.