Egypt - 9 October 2010 (2)

Border to Marsa Matruh

We waited by an office where someone with four stars on his epaulettes and looked like a young Marlon Brando was playing computer games on a small console.  His henchman, a very thin David Niven look-alike, kept hold of our passports.  Ruth was determined not to lose sight of the passports, so she followed him wherever he went.  An even younger Marlon Brando came up and tried to chat, but David Niven drove him away.

We were waiting for our bus.  As we waited, people came through and continued walking until a “taxi” came to whisk them out of no man’s land.  Still we waited.  At least the sparrows sang to us, perched on the metal writing in the wall above.  I think they used it as a nesting site.

At long last the bus appeared.  It was very small, compared to the buses we had enjoyed in Tunisia and Libya.  Our luggage went on the back seats and we squeezed inside.  Barry had to sit on a suitcase as there were not enough seats.  We popped out at passport control and showed the visas which had been stuck in our passports.  These cost $25, so I was really pleased that I had changed some money with Sue and had the required dollars.  I let Ruth go ahead in the queue, so I was last through as usual.

Then we had to squeeze back into the bus for the drive to customs.  We put our baggage on the conveyor and I was last again.  When it got to my turn, they switched the conveyor off, leaving all my stuff trapped inside.  I was not happy as anyone could have taken my handbag.  I complained and someone virtually climbed inside the scanner and got my stuff out.  It was never scanned, so I could have taken anything through with me.

Then the bus was loaded properly, with the luggage being put on the roof.  At least it would not fall off, but they tied the ropes so tight to secure them, that we were worried that the cases would be damaged.  Even with the cases on the roof, the bus was still extremely small and cramped, making it difficult to read or write on the go.  The final stop was when we had to flash our fully visaed and stamped passports to a group of people who came up to the bus.

Throughout this long process, Werner kept saying that he needed to go to the loo.  Ruth kept telling him that he would have to wait five minutes.  After we had completed all the border formalities, they seemed to forget him completely.  We drove all the way to another war cemetery which Heuly wanted to see because a relative of one of her friends in Australia was buried there.  Werner was desperate to get out by then.  Vic was really great and looked after Werner as he crossed the road to find a suitable spot.  He had some time as Heuly had to find the grave and get someone to take a photo for her friends.

After that we headed to a café to get some Egyptian Pounds.  We were very relieved to discover that we could change our surplus Libyan Dinar there.  I changed D120 for E£522.  We were told that it would be just twenty minutes to get to the hotel, so we went straight back to the bus.  But then we were told that it was 150km to Marsa Matruh and our hotel, so we jumped out of the bus and dashed back to the toilets, which were not that bad.  Then there was a delay because our driver, another Mahmoud, had taken the opportunity to have lunch and we had to wait for him to finish his meal.  We finally set off, but it was not long before the he did a u-turn and returned to the café.  He had left his mobile phone behind.  Fortunately he got it back, but all the delays meant that it was dark and late when we reached the hotel.

Some very short people helped Mahmoud – himself not very tall and looking extremely young – to unload our cases from the roof.  I was scared that they would drop my case.  As it was, Mahmoud extended the dragging handle and used that to lower it down, even though the handle was not designed to carry the full weight of the case.  Luckily, I had been leaving a trail of skirts, blouses, nighties, t-shirts and books behind me, so the suitcase was not as heavy as when I had set out.

After putting our bags in the room, Caroline and I went downstairs for dinner.  It was now Saturday and my last full meal had been the previous Saturday, so I really needed to eat something.  I had omelette and chips, which were nice, and some vegetables, which tasted really horrible.  It was an expensive meal, coming to E$60 with water.  I probably ate too much as my tummy had a set back afterwards – or perhaps I had just caught my second bug.