We spent most of today on buses. We left the ship at 5.30am to get the 6am bus to Aswan where we arrived at 10.30. Four and a half hours on a cramped bus with no air-conditioning, fortunately it was so early that it wasn't really uncomfortable just a bit warm and sweaty. We killed a few hours in Aswan in an internet café before getting our next bus at 3.30pm to Hurghada which is on the Red Sea coast, we arrived at 1am.
The bus dropped us off near the centre of town as the bus station was a good 4km out, we had decided that we would sleep on the beach as our ferry to Sharm El Sheikh would leave at 8am and we would need to buy tickets two hours in advance of the sailing time. We got a mango juice, much cheaper here than anywhere else so far and started looking for ATMs to withdraw some money for the next few days. Apparently we were in the wrong part of town for banks and in asking directions we ended up meeting Mahmoud, who ended up driving us to a trusted ATM and waited while Djalma withdrew the money. When he found out that we were planning to sleep on the beach he offered us a place on the deck of his yacht which was in dry dock. We accepted his generous offer but when we found out that the ferry wasn't running (it happens more often than not), he took us to the us station to check the bus times and took us back to his place so we could sleep there instead. It was totally out of the blue and so different to what we have experienced in Egypt so far, very heart warming.
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| From Hurghada, Egypt |
We arrived at his house at around 2am, his Belgian wife Julia and his two young children Ahmed, two and a half and his baby brother, eight months old were waiting for him and welcomed us into their home. I was so tired from all the time on the buses even though I had slept most of the time, I struggled to keep my eyes open, but the baby was gorgeous and smiled a wet, toothless, chubby grin almost constantly. We sat and talked for about two hours his mother and brother who lived above them coming down for something to eat at 3am, it was too late for me but they made us so welcome that it made me feel a bit rude refusing the food. After a much needed shower (they all seem to be much needed these days) we went to bed. Mahmoud and Julia slept in their children's room, giving up their bed in their air-conditioned room for us.
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