Today we went to catch the ferry to Nuweiba, which is a small port city in Egypt. The Lonely Planet book claimed that the fast boat left at 3PM, and the slow one at noon. In actuality it is the other way around! So we waited for a LONG TIME to get on the boat, and even longer to set sail. The boat station was a mess... to get a ticket and get on you must go up to buy a ticket, down to pay an exit fee, up to get your stamp and down again to get on the boat. With all of your gear of course! Everything was as far from where it should be as possible: you should be able to go from point a to b to c in a line, not up and down stairs!

The boat ride was pleasant and about 4 hours. We amused ourselves with some simple card tricks, and soon had a crowd of about 15 arabs around us. It looked as if many of them hadn't seen card tricks before as they were astounded by the results. They tried to duplicate the tricks but were unable, which further added to our "magic."

Men in the middle east act very different that I am accustomed to. I think it's because women are cloistered away from the general public. The men are very open and relaxed. Everything is sort of assumed to be shared (cigarettes, water, etc) but that's OK because everything is copiously offered. Children are adored and watched jointly by all the men around, who amuse themselves asking the children questions, gently teasing, and generally watching their antics. I watched a man drawing a mustache and beard on a 5 or 6 year old boy with a pen. I assumed he was the father, or an uncle or something, but in retrospect probably not, although the father/uncle/brother/whatever was probably around in the background somewhere. Both the kid and the older man were having a great time.

When we finally arrived, we couldn't figure out what to do. So we sat for a bit and watched what was going on (pretty much nothing, people were just sitting about). We finally asked how to get to Nuweiba an were told to go down a street. So we did. There was a military checkpoint. The men told us to sit and wait (for what we still weren't sure). At some point they bid us to stand and checked our passports and let us through the gate. What were they waiting for? we still don't know. Through the gate was a small taxi station and we got a ride to Al Waha Touristic Village for 515. The "touristic village" is a nice little seaside place with tents and small cabins. The tents were E10/night each ($3) so we got that. We should have closed the tent flaps, because at about 2am I got quite bitten by mosquitoes. We vowed to find some repellent or something. I finally got back to sleep but missed at least 2 hours of sleep to the little bastards.

We decided to poke around a bit and see what the town had to offer. The area is desolate, like a desert that was occupied for perhaps 10 years and abandoned before everything was even built. There are so many abandoned building projects... so many empty wells and parks, and the existing buildings are in poor repair. It's like the city is brain-dead, kept alive by the life support of tourism that flows through here (largely due to resorts and beaches). We failed to find ANY insect repellent anywhere! We did pick up some sunscreen, some shorts for myself, a really thin sheet for Norman, etc. Then we headed the other direction, to Nuweiba port, where we were told we could get cash advances from our credit cards. We had decided to take a PADI open water dive course and needed some cash. I finally got some, and Norman, with his poor American express, got the hotel to take the card and pass the proceeds over to the dive center (which just rents from the hotel). We got our student kit from the dive center and were told to read units 1 and 2 (120 pages!) by the next day, as well as doing the exercises. First homework I'd had in a while! We went to sleep rather early, after an excellent (and freshly caught) bedouin fish dinner. As close to a nice Mexican restaurant as it gets over here.

Our first day of PADI courses! Another mosquito ridden night but not so bad as we closed the tent flaps before sleeping. The videos and lectures were interminably long but finally we got to the good stuff. We spent plenty of time suiting up and choosing equipment. We hauled all this crap down to the beach in a wagon and put everything on there (a full tank is 25 pounds, with a 16 pound weight belt!) getting into the water was a relief since the suits retain most of the head and the stuff is more buoyant in the water (in fact you are balanced towards neutral buoyancy)

The first lessons in the water were pretty simple, getting used to establishing bouyancy, moving around, some basic communication. We moved on to learning how to handle some stuff that might happen to you, like replacing a lost regulator, etc. It was really every bit as exciting as they say it is. Coming out of the water was a let down, to feel the earth exert it's iron grip, to leave the comfort of the water. A poor trade that: hot sand for cool water, weightlessness for the back-burdening weight of the scuba gear. We turned our things in and hung out at the pool a bit, relaxing. Taking the course gave us the right to use the Hilton's facilities: sleeping and eating at Al Waha in the tent, and using a luxury resort by day! Off to bed early with a huge supper from the restaurant in Al Waha.

Cairo is even worse than I thought. When we arrived we were accosted by lying, thieving cab drivers. They claimed that the place we were staying was "closed" until the next morning and wouldn't we rather stay in this nice hotel wee knew about? They claimed that where we wanted to go was FAR away and would cost way too much money (only 5k away!). They demanded WAY too much money, etc. We only at the price we wanted when we walked away. A tourist policeman watched the whole thing but made not comment nor a move to protect us (I don't think he spoke English). He recorded our destination in a little book, I suppose just to keep track of the foreigners. The hostel is a fascist dump with silly rules, bad prices and an ill-tempered "warden". It is supposedly a "Hostelling International" hostel but was populated only by Egyptians, and old ones at that. I plan on contacting Lonely Planet and HI about this place!

No one here speaks English or appears to be able to read a map. Advice is usually wrong or contradictory place A directs you to B which directs you back to A. People in charge of things ignore us or brush us off. People who want something never leave you alone. Everyone wants something: money a souvenir, cigarettes, water, etc. This city requires that I be rude to it's citizens to stay sane, and I barely do that.

The pyramids themselves are in poorer shape than I thought. You must pay individually to see each one (540) and the insides are hideous caves a little more than waist high. A huge disappointment. It is hot, a little crowded, and miserable. We leave as soon as possible.

We leave for the comfort of a pizza hut, which is cheap and thoroughly enjoyable. We head back to the Sheraton to make some calls, then to Lufthansa to change my flight (I can't bear another Cairo day) but there are no flights to take, so we go back to the hostel, check out, and go to the train station. 3 hours later we are in Alexandria! (only 20 hours in Cairo)

Found my mosquito repellent today (really could have used that in Nuweiba). We really should have stayed in Sinai longer; it was hellishly expensive but we could have done some diving. Oh well.

The men in this country (and other Arab countries, I'd imagine) are in many ways like children. They make friends implicitly without conversation... they relish novel experiences. Norman showed them the same card tricks we showed on the ferry to Nuweiba so common among westerners. I've finally had some interaction with an honest-to-goodness Arab woman: her child was playing on the floor and I sat with it, and she allowed me to hold it and stroke his beautiful dark hair. She said nothing but I don't believe I have been in the presence of an Arab women before aside from walking past them in the street, etc. It is impossible to form some opinion of the character of these women... they are as inscrutable as the men are open and transparent.

Oh, and another thing: saw a Palestinian Liberation Organization office today while on the tram! Didn't know they kept regular office hours and all that...

Norman may leave soon (don't blame him; he'd like to see the sunny shores of Greece and leave the idle life here behind. It's all right for me though, I am tired of my travels and wish to be at rest for some time. I look forward to home with joyful and yet somewhat fearful anticipation. I have been so long gone that many things of my former existence seem pale and far away memories. I am sure that I can catch up to where I have been but I wonder if I want to? For what is the point of discarding one life for another (even if for a short time only) if I am to reclaim the old one again. I've always felt that forward is the only way to go, but experience teaches that some backtracking is often in order to get to a fitting end. The question is what to keep and what to throw away.

Went to bed early, intending on a nap but slept until midnight! So I tried to keep the momentum up and sleep all night. It was a bit fitful in parts but I made it until 7am.

Finally made it to Cairo... It's a pretty long bus ride, and let's say I shouldn't have eaten that Kung Pao pork a little while before going and leave it at that. The last bit was a ride through Cairo from the west to the east. This took well over 1 hour since the traffic is horrendous, even at 11pm. The airport made me wait until 2am to check in at the counter and check my bags. They checked my ticket and passport before letting me in the baggage checking area and x-rayed my stuff, etc. Then they checked passport and tickets at passport control. They checked the passport and ticket at the gate, x-rayed my things again, and then let me in. They checked my ticket, passport and the stub from my "immigration form" before getting on the plane. Cripes! Israel may give you a good going over but at least they only do it once and than escort you to your seat on the plane! There is little possibility of tampering since you have to have a ticket to even get into the airport (except the outer lobby).

Only a little (lot) longer. We take off soon and if it wasn't so cramped I am sure I would be able to sleep.