The alarm went off at o'darkthirty this morning; actually it was 5:30 a.m. but it seemed a rude time indeed. We have ferry tickets on the "fast" ferry to the Sinai Peninsula and Sharm el Sheik this morning hoping to eventually land in Dahab by evening. Eric moved out of his comfort zone and agreed to arrive only 1 hour early for the ferry (not his usual 2 hours), I think it's a great breakthrough for him (or the Luxor 10% beers he had last night made him more open to the suggestion -- you make the call)! By 6:45 we were on the street waving for a bus/taxi to get us to the port about 7 kilometers away -- definitely farther than either of us wanted to walk with our packs!

Once there the scene was general bedlam, something we're getting used to here in Egypt. There were hundreds of people milling about with what looked to be little direction or sense about what to do next. We walked around waving our tickets and someone finally pointed us in the general direction we needed to go. Queuing in Egypt is not the polite exercise you've experienced anywhere else. People just push in front of you no matter that you might already be in the process of your transaction, it takes a little getting used to, but we pushed on -- literally. We got our boarding passes and went through the X-ray machine and now there were only a few hundred feet between us and our boat. Of course, no Egyptian experience is complete without someone asking you for Baksheesh (bribes, money) for doing practically nothing. Here it came, as I was told I had to put my backpack on the storage cart, the man who moved it from my back to the cart beside me (so close I was touching it) asked me for a tip. I'm becoming desensitized and just looked blankly and walked away!

We were both impressed with the quality of the boat, the seats were cushy, the salon was clean. This is a first for us in Egypt. There was a safety video, another first and then a great underwater video with amazing footage of hunting and mating rituals of different fish and underwater life. Woohoo, this could be a really good passage. Then about a half hour into the trip, things began to go badly. Having taken the ferry from Wellington to Picton, New Zealand we had experienced rough crossings, but this was something else. This boat was smaller and the waves were hitting hard. Easily half of the passengers were using the handy bags being given out by the Medic. I looked over at Eric and I think even he was regretting his last Luxor beer last night. The air conditioning began to give way which made for more sick people and then one woman was rushed to front of the cabin because she had passed out cold. At one point, she began convulsing and we were really concerned for her. I've never seen a case of seasickness so grave. I'm just thankful that Eric and I are not prone to this and everyone made it off the boat in one piece.

This was only the first 3 hours of our odyssey because we had another 100 kilometers to negotiate to get to Dahab, but we still needed to make a stop at the Egypt Air office in Sharm to try to make a change to our itinerary. After being offered a taxi ride for 50 Egyptian Pounds to make the 3 km trip we found a bus driver who would do it for the more sane price of 5 per person - still more than it should have been. 40 minutes later, and we're on a waiting list for the flight to Casablanca, Morocco with no guarantees or confirmation. Better than nothing. We'll be sure to keep checking back.

Across the street we have lunch and meet an Italian who speaks Arabic and is actually also on his way to Dahab so we try to convince a taxi driver to take the three of us to Dahab for 100 pounds. He wants 200 and we're not budging. So we part ways Eric and I find a taxi to the bus station and begin the 2 hour wait for the bus which will cost 11 pounds each. We are not there more than 10 minutes before we are being offered a ride in a taxi for 30 pounds each for 6 of us to share the ride to Dahab. There is a fellow from Paris traveling with his girlfriend from Hungary, Eric and me and another couple we did not meet. The fellow from Paris - Adrienne - and Eric begin negotiations, when the Italian we met earlier shows up. (Remember, Eric and I are perfectly willing to wait til 2:30 and pay only 11 pounds (roughly $2US) each for the bus, so the negotiations are all in our favor at the moment.) After a lot of back and forth negotiations, Adrienne, Eric and Clemente (our new Italian friend) have convinced the taxi driver to take the 5 of us for 100 pounds!

A deal is struck! 20 pounds per person, we pick up our packs and begin to walk to the taxi, when all of a sudden ... we are surrounded by the tourist police several Egyptians and the man who runs the bus terminal. Everyone of them are yelling wildly that we can't leave the bus will be here in 10 minutes and this taxi driver cannot take us to Dahab. They tell the taxi driver it is illegal for him to make this deal with us at the bus station. The tourist police (who do indeed carry guns) keep the taxi driver from letting us get in, but another taxi driver who is a friend of the bus agent is allowed to continue trying to negotiate with us. Welcome to Egypt my friends. 20 minutes later, many rounds of arguing and yelling, the new taxi driver agrees to our price letting us know the original man we were negotiating with was "mafia." I think our original taxi driver just forgot to give Baksheesh to the right person at the bus station! Oh the excitement!

Another deal is struck. Our bags are actually on the car and we are off. But wait ... as we pull out to get gas, the original bargaining taxi driver follows us and tries to convince us to come with him instead. The drivers exchange pleasantries :) and we remain in the car. The deal is finally final. Now, having made the drive from Sharm el Sheik to Dahab, which is a lot of desert and dust, I can't imagine fighting over the opportunity to drive that stretch of road. All in a days work I suppose!

We arrived in Dahab, and our taxi driver had the audacity to ask for baksheesh, I think I'm going to have a lot of opportunity to perfect my blank stare and walking away act! Let's hope I won't need it so often here in Dahab.

Until we meet again, keep your minds open to all possibilities!

val