"What do you mean the ferry's not working?"
Trip Start
Aug 11, 2005
1
14
149
Trip End
May 22, 2006
Suez,
Egypt
Friday, August 26, 2005
An early start this morning at 5:45am was needed to properly pack our rucksacks, have a quick shower, and get downstairs for breakfast at 6:30. We needed to be at the ferry terminal at 7:00am, one hour ahead of our scheduled 8:00am departure, and we were going to walk the 800m or so from our hotel to the ferry terminal. Needless to say, we must have received fifteen to twenty solicitations from taxis offering to take us to the terminal. We were stubborn in our money saving way and declined each and every one of them, walking the full distance with both of our large bags a small day bag each in about 15 minutes. As we got closer, we could see many people milling about. We knew that at the very least we were at the right place. I guarded the backpacks and Tamalyn took the tickets with her (that we hoped were valid as they purchased by our trusty hostel manager in Cairo) and walked to the ticket counter looking to get the directions as to how we were to proceed.
From where I was guarding the bags, I could see that Tamalyn was getting nervous at the ticket counter. He lower lips started to quiver, and she pointed to the tickets. She walked gingerly away from the ticket counter, and was heading in my direction, with tears streaming down her face. As she came up to me, she sobbed "The ferry is cancelled due to the inclement weather. Sniff, sniff. We can't get there until Monday on the high speed ferry. Sobbb, Sobbb. We won't be able to dive." She was crying uncontrollably. Shit, this was to be our first major setback and a big test of our ability to deal with the unexpected.
I had to remain calm so that at least one of us would try to think rationally. It's not that I am the one who is always rational. It's just that Tamalyn beat me to the "What the hell are we going to do? Things are spinning out of control..." mindset, so I couldn't go there now. I returned to the ticket office to find out what our options were. The ticket officer said we could wait until Monday when the ferry might be able to sail, or, we could get a full refund if we took the tickets back to the agent from whom we purchased the tickets, or at least, any of their branches in Egypt. My first reaction was "Oh shit, Mr. Ramadan will never give me the money back."
Lucky for us, the ticket officer had also provided us with the name of the issuing ticket office (Mena Travel) and the local branch's phone number in Hurghada. We had purchased the tickets in Cairo thru the Pension Vienna, at Mena Tours, but unfortunately for us, we were not going to be going back to Cairo, at least not during the day. There was a local Mena Tours office here in Hurghada, but they didn't open until 9:00 am. We walked back to our hotel to regroup. Our first priority was getting to Sharm El Sheikh before lunch time tomorrow. Our second priority was trying to get a refund on the ferry tickets. It was now 7:00 am, and we had 29 hours to get to Sharm.
Back at the hotel, we pulled out our trusted Lonely Planet guidebook (lifesaving bible?) and tried to determine if there was a bus to Hurghada. LP seemed to indicate that there are 5 or 6 buses from Hurghada to Suez, the first of which left at 10:00 am. From there, we should be able to catch one of 3 or 4 late afternoon buses to Sharm. LP also indicated that Egypt Air flew daily from Hurghada to Sharm El Sheikh. At least we had two options available to us to get to Sharm.
Around 8:00 am, we headed out for the bus station. The ticket officer there told us that the only bus to Sharm left at 11:00 pm that night. Alternatively, the first bus to Suez left at 11:00am, and that there were 5 buses to Suez today. Tickets are purchased on board the bus from the bus driver. They did not sell advance tickets. Things started to look up. OK, so instead of 90 minutes to Sharm from Hurghada by the high speed ferry, we would take one five hour bus ride along the western coast of the Suez Canal north to Suez, followed by a 6 hour bus ride along the eastern coast of the Suez Canal south to Sharm El Sheikh. Piece of cake!
At 9:00 am, I called the local travel agent. He confirmed that we could get a full refund on the price of the tickets from today's cancelled ferry ride. This was a shock to me, as I expected them to keep some form of baksheesh for returning our money to back to us. He gave me mumbled directions as to how to get to the office. Hanging up the phone, I now called EgyptAir. The person on the phone indicated that there were no flights to Sharm today. When I asked if there were flights the next morning, he asked me to call him back again in 20 minutes. What? How can he not know if there are flights 24 hours from now? Does EgyptAir simply build their schedule daily based upon where the demand is coming from? I dismissed flying as an option, as not only did they not give me comfort by not knowing their schedule, but LP did not give them a ringing endorsement either. We were down to getting to Sharm El Sheikh by bus.
I returned to Tamalyn who sat by guarding our bags, and asked if she wanted to stay at the bus depot to guard the bags, or if she wanted to go get the refund. Telling me to get the refund, I headed out of the bus depot and headed to the main road to catch a minibus. Arriving at the square where the travel agent's branch was, I began to ask people if they could direct me to the correct building. The wild goose chase was on. I was sent to five different buildings within one km of where I was supposed to go. I finally found it, and when I walked in, the agent wondered why it took me so long. I wanted to say "The police station that you said you were next to is ¾ of a mile this way, and the FedEx office that you said was across the street, is ½ mile that way. How did you expect me to find you quickly?" Diplomacy was called for as I wanted to ensure that I received a full 100% refund. "I couldn't get a taxi."
After much waiting around, 20 to 30 minutes, I finally walked out of the office with a full refund in cash. What a surprise. And now, back to the bus depot. We had about 45 minutes to kill before the Suez bound bus arrived.
Being Canadian and trustworthy, Tamalyn & I figured that since we were the first ones there, we would be the first ones on the bus. Rookie mistake #1. We also figured that because a tourist police officer asked Tamalyn where she was heading 3 or 4 times in the three hours that she had been waiting, that we would get some guidance once the bus arrived. Rookie mistake #2.
Upon arrival of the bus that was to go to Suez, it became mass pandemonium. Chaos theory reigned supreme. Dozens of people ran on the bus, others stood by to pack their bags in the baggage compartments, and before you knew it, the bus was ready to pull out and Gerald & Tamalyn were stuck waiting at the front door. We talked to the tourist officer, and he informed us the bus was full. We complained loudly that we were here first this morning and we tried to buy tickets in advance. He looked back at us with a blank look. "Sure, now you decide you can't speak English." He called over a gentleman who spoke some broken English. This gentleman spoke to the bus driver. We were told that if we wanted to sit in the aisle for the first 90 minutes as some of the passengers were getting off at the first stop, we were welcome to buy tickets. What choice did we have?
We jumped at it, as we didn't want to waste anymore time in Hurghada. As we boarded the bus, an overweight local sitting in the first row offered the empty seat next him to Tamalyn. She was floored. We had heard him tell four other guys (2 tourists and 2 locals) that the seat was taken. Tamalyn took him up on the offer, and I sat down on the floor at the front of the aisle, between the bus driver and the ticket officer. (The ticket officer was seated in a seat on the landing area immediately inside the front door.) Not only was my seat extremely unsafe, but I was certain that it would be the longest 90 minutes of my life, given the driving skills of Egyptian bus drivers.
This portion of the trip which was originally supposed to be ninety minutes ended up being two hours. Maybe if this kept up, it would be tight getting to Suez to catch the 5:00pm to Sharm. I wasn't going to complain, as Tamalyn & I now had seats next to each other on the bus. A couple of ladies got off at this point and the bus conductor stood behind the seats to prevent anyone from behind him from coming up to grab the seats. Some people in the back were sitting three people in two seats.
We started chatting with a couple of English lads who sat across the aisle from us. They were in the same predicament as us. They needed to get to Sharm today to start their diving tomorrow. James and Alex became our colleagues in this quest to circle the Suez Canal before sunrise tomorrow.
