the blue horizon

The next morning I was to catch the bus to Dahab but instead it went like this. To taxi driver: "Do you know Turgoman Bus station?" "Yes yes get in." I get in. We start off in the wrong direction. "Where are you going?" I ask. "Tahrir" the reply. "La La, Turgoman" "Where?" "Turgoman" Confused look. I get out my phrase book, "Turgoman mahhattat al-baas." Confused look. "Al - Baas, Dahab" "Oh! Oh! Turgoman" "Naam Naam" What should have taken 5 minutes took 30 and i missed the bus. I got the next one 5 hours later. On my previous crossing of the suez canal is was dark so i didn't get to see anything. This time around it wasn't much different. I couldn't see the canal until I noticed what i thought was a building but it moving across the desert. It was the bridge of a ship and that all i saw. Once in Dahab i stayed at the same camp as three weeks ago. I set out about do...

I arrived in Cairo on the Train from Luxor. Probably the best train journey I have been on not that I've been on many. I had heard a lot of Bad things about Cairo. Those who I had met in Istanbul who had just come from said that they we relieved to be in a more relaxed environment (read how i felt about Istanbul ). The LP listed countless scams that I would probably be exposed to. Hotel Touts and Taxi drivers would mob me as soon as I stepped out the door they said. After two months of traveling through the Middle East I thought that I would be prepared for what ever faced me. However nothing prepared me for what followed. Nothing. Not a word. I almost felt disappointed. Trying to find my hotel provided me with my first hassle. I found the street easy enough but walked the length of it a few times before i found the right address. I had to ask about a dozen people before I found the first evidence that the place existed, the sign on the reception desk, down a corridor, on the sixt...