The African adventures didn’t stop with that trip to Tanzania. Summer 2009 was home to THE EPIC AFRICAN ADVENTURE and a summer to remember. Six whole weeks in the continent starting with a week in Egypt followed by 5 in Ghana (hardly epic, but back then it was, and even now looking back it was epic, but, for other reasons). Egypt, what can I say about Egypt? It was cheap, dirty and hot. No, really, it was HOT, I got struck by heat stroke on a few occasion causing much distress and hysteria, (well hysteric laughing). But heat aside Egypt, and more importantly the way we chose to see Egypt, made for a fantastic adventure. I could have gone home after that week and been really satisfied with my holiday, Ghana was just the cherry on top of the icing on the cake, a very nice cherry.
We, (my then P.I.C (Partner in Crime) and sister ) started off with a night in Cairo, we then flew down to Aswan in the south, the home of the Nubian people, a place that we assumed would embrace us...We were sadly mistaken. Aswan was by far the hottest part of Egypt that we visited, and where I suffered heat stroke. Whilst in Aswan we visited all the major attractions and had a felucca ride up the Nile. Not the type that luxury tourist are used to. After haggling a cheap ride, pissing off the captain, we were relegated to an old abandoned felucca full of moss and other undesirable plant life. Our captain Mohammed removed an old sweaty rag from his even sweatier robe and proceeded to insufficiently clean the seat before we sat down for a nice cruise up the Nile. Since being in aswan we had yet to meet any Nubians, in fact we were slightly confused by the whole Nubian thing. I had read that Nubians were the early Egyptians before the Arabs colonised the North of Africa. I was under the impression they were the ‘real Africans’ of Egypt. Mohammed told us he’d take us to a Nubian village on a nearby island. Before we landed we were given a little speech by Captain Mohammed about how Nubians were not Egyptians, he said it with a kind of disgust for them. We entered the village and were offered a tour around the village, we declined knowing that it would only mean further Baksheesh, a major drawback of Egypt. There’s only so much one can be expected to tip before it become ridiculous, I mean there was a guy sweeping the street, just because that’s his job and on seeing us he turned and asked for baksheesh. WTF! Seriously, and he was serious, I mean the whole baksheesh to me was like begging. I know that the Egyptians are proud of the fact that there aren’t many homeless people begging, but what they seem to be oblivious of is that fact that the whole country begs as an occupation, seriously it’s terrible. Anywhoos back to the Nubian village, we refused the tour but he took that as an insult, we were family as fellow Africans. We reluctantly took the tour after being assured that we wouldn’t be charged for it, we were shown around the village and given some brief facts before being ushered to what can only be described as a show room, where they hoped we would be convinced to part with our money. After having another bout of heat stroke we left behind disgruntled guides who were unsatisfied by the tip we had given. We got back into the felucca perplexed, the Nubians looked exactly like the Egyptians, and there was no telling them apart. I thought they would be darker skinned, as every time we walked through a bazaar we would be asked if we were Nubian, so strange. To me, the Nubians were a bunch of people who had been outcast by the Egyptians forced to live in suffocating villages on an offshore island. The locals disliked them, despite not even knowing what they looked like, must be some historical hatred like most. The end of our time in Aswan really threatened to ruin our whole trip. In the pursuit to subside our hunger we braved the Aswan night to get some food. The town was abnormally busy, (abnormal for us but normal for them) I guess the fact that the sun had gone down made the town more desirable. The streets were full of people, each with their own insults for us. Each person, every moving car, we passed had something to say to us. It was crazy like we were in Eastenders when a big plot bomb is about to be dropped. “What’s up Nigga!” “Africano” “Obama, we love Obama” “Nigger Nigger!” was heckled to us at every turn, it was horrible. Then a woman, carrying a baby, shouted “SODA SODA” fingers in our faces, malice in her voice, what was going on, and what the hell was ‘Soda’? When we finally got to the restaurant we began to penetrate what had just happened. We decided to ask the waiter what the word had meant. I had though she had said resoda, so obviously he didn’t know what we were talking about, but then we tried soda and we saw the light bulb switch on above his head. He then claimed ignorance, soda, that a drink he said, like Fanta. Finally after much probing he told us it meant black, but it was not a derogatory term, gave us the whole we are family speech. Anyway he goes off tells a colleague and they start laughing, so we start looking over pointing and laughing to make him uncomfortable, and man did it work, it made the event something to laugh about, not to mention the great pizza that was at the end of the line of hecklers. So after Aswan we travelled to Luxor by train, in Luxor we were better received, thank god, I think it’s partly to do with the towns obsession with Bob Marley. Luxor was just as eventful, we were joined by my friends sister, my friend was lusted over by the hostel manager who, unbeknown to my friend before it was too late, conned us when he realised there’d be no nookie. On the plus we visited the valley of the Kings, with student discount thanks to my Oyster card and library card and all the other ID’s I used (apparently everyone looked like me), I managed to fool people that I could speak Arabic and we picked up some great quotes to keep us laughing on the road. Next, was the unplanned stop of Hurghada, a trip forced on us by the seedy conniving hostel manager in Luxor, but, Hurghada turned out to be one of the best parts of the trip, if we take out the drama, back stabbing and break up. In Hurghada the head scarf came of and the skirts got shorter. In order to respect the Egyptian people I had taken to wearing a headscarf in Aswan and dressing modestly. Once in the resort of Hurghada all of that went out the window. I really loved Hurghada, the people were so nice, in fact if I were to go back to Egypt, no I mean when I go back to Egypt I’m going straight to Hurghada. Gosh looking back the trip was so eventful, in a good sense, anyway need to finish this post so will fast forward to the end. After Hurghada was Cairo and Giza. Again fun fun times. Free massage, jumping photos in front of the pyramids and move money hungry conniving Egyptians, seriously some people just have no shame. All in all the 9 days spent in Egypt are truly unforgettable as are the characters we met.
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