Blog

Yesterday's news started with scaring information, namely that in this hostile Egypt, police is waiting outside the cybercafe to take me with Peter who knows where and there they would eat us. And all of you who were trying to convince me not to go to those dangerous and hostile countries, homeland of Moslem fanatics and terrorism, said to yourselves: "I knew it would happen sooner or later."

And it is true. Our today's experience was really horrible! First of all you should know that in Egypt the drivers greet themselves with lights from far away (this is especially true for desert roads). When we actually meet we honk, say hello with hands and make a wide smile with all the seven teeth. But today it was discouraging all the way from the early morning. Many of the people we met at seven a.m. on the road between the oasis of Dakhla and Kharga didn't react on our greetings at all and our logical conclusion was that those were religious fanatics, maybe even terrorists. As we further on greeted and waved with hands to the peasants, working on fields, they raised their hands and waved with sickles towards us. Did they want to kill us? Certainly! We can actually be very happy to have escaped alive! The others were just nicely smiling to us. What is wrong there? Oh, they have to be undercover terrorists! On two check-points the officers didn't say the customary "Welcome to Egypt" before asking about our origin, near future goals and number of passengers in the car (many times they ask if we are only one in the car). Our conclusion is that they are Amerophobs or Moslem religious fanatics who hate tourists. Probably by now you have got the idea that moving around Egypt is a serious and dangerous task. They can eat you alive and then they burry your bones in the sand.

We tried to overcome the Kharga check-point and wanted to go straight to Luxor. The road is closed due to safety reasons and we had to turn back and head some 230 kilometres to the north to Asyut in the Nile valley. Asyut was out of our plans but a pleasant surprise. Since we're talking about a terrorist nest (it's at least what Hosni says) you can't go even to the back room without police escort. On city entrance we got armed escort and moved around the centre between two (sometimes four) police cars. it was so amusing; we were driving with lights (the blue ones, all the others were switched off, of course), sometimes with the police siren, we were honking, I even turned on my car alarm siren, everybody let us pass… we were very important! They were very nice, they guided us around town, we went to eat something, then to the internet (where we spent three hours, they brought us tea and cigarettes for Peter, they even browsed for a while), then to the supermarket and finally to the police club where we spent the night, very well fenced so all of us could be relaxed and happy. We, because the terrorists couldn't get to us to eat us, and the police, because we couldn't get to the terrorists to give them information and arms. Only the terrorist weren't happy – if there are actually any.

Today we finally arrived to Luxor while changing some ten police escorts. Some fifty kilometers from the goal we also met Oliver and Sandra who are unfortunately again without their brand new digital camera (they bought it a week ago) because it mysteriously disappeared yesterday on the route from Asyut to Luxor.