Day Trip to Suez

Aswan, Egypt

 

Originally I had planned on taking the bus from Dahab to Suez, send the night in Suez, then travel onwards to Cairo the following morning. That would have been fine if not for the fact that I slept on on the day the bus for Suez left, leaving me with the option of trying again the following morning (at 8am) or just taking the overnight bus all the way to Cairo. Without to much hesitation, I opted for the overnight bus rather then the early morning one... ;) So that left me with having to double back from Cairo to Suez for a day trip if I wanted to see the Suez canal, which I did.

 

Suez is definitely not a touristy town. You can purchase a ticket for the bus in Cairo minutes before the bus leaves. While the town is larger then one would expect, there aren't really any backpacker hotels to stay in. Mostly, Suez is transit town for the ships passing through the Suez Canal and for Muslim pilgrims making the journey to Mecca, Saudi Arabia. The Lonely Planet guidebook that I have stated that the bus station was "conveniently located" to downtown so I figured that I wouldn't have to deal with any taxis. But the bus station that I found myself at sure didn't look anywhere near a downtown. It was out in the boonies, to put it mildly but everyone I asked assured me that I was at the right station. So, it was off to chat with some of the taxi crocodiles to find out how much it was going to cost me to get downtown...

 

One "problem" is that not as many taxi drivers in Suez speak or understand English as they do in Dahab or Cairo, so trying to tell someone to just "take me downtown to where I can see the canal" is sort of complicated. It's much easier to say the name of a specific place rather then something vague. Of course, as confusion developed over where I wanted to go, the price changed wildly from around 10 pounds to over 50 pounds. Finally, I just got out my notepad and drew a sketch of a boat going into a canal and a shoreline, then pointed at the shoreline as the place I wanted to go. This seemed to work, the price went back down to 10 pounds, and off I went to downtown Suez.

Turns out, Suez has a new bus station and the old one, the one that Lonely Planet refers to, is no longer used. The new one is way out of town and I think in the end 10 pounds was probably close to the appropriate fare for getting me to where I wanted to go. Along the way, my driver, in broken English, pointed out landmarks and tried to give me a somewhat impromptu tour, even pointing out a pile of rubble that apparently was a building that was bombed in the 1973 war with Israel. (At least that's what I understand when he pointed at the destroyed building and said "1-9-7-3").

 

As we got closer to the canal, I finally saw what I had came to see... One giant oil tanker cruising behind the skyline of the buildings. It was pretty crazy to see it from a distance because you just see a huge ship going from left to right behind the buildings and streets. Turns out the driver knew exactly where I wanted to go and dropped me off right at the south end of the canal, where there happens to be a small park and a sidewalk along the banks of the canal. From the insane traffic and noise of Cairo to the banks of the Suez canal was quite the contrast.

 

No sooner had I gotten out of the taxi and stepped foot on the sidewalk did a police officer approach me saying "No photos, no photos". Damn, I had heard that Suez was pretty tight with things like that but this seemed a bit much. I mean, it's just a canal with desert on the other side and boats in the middle. I strolled along the sidewalk for a bit before finally sitting down and trying my best to take some photos without getting caught. No way I was going to travel all the way to the Suez canal and not take photos! After about 30 minutes, a different officer approached me with a plain clothes officer in tow. Uh oh, busted, I thought. Never gave me a particularly friendly look and I was sure the plain clothes officer wanted to say something, but the uniformed guy just looked at me, smiled, and said "Welcome to Egypt", then said something in Arabic to the other and they both went on their way... In a strange sort of way I wondered if they really knew that I had been taking photos and just wanted to "warn" me. The two of them continued their patrol another 20 meters or so then just stopped and seemed to take up position looking over me. It all seemed very strange like as if I was being watched and everyone was suspicious of me.

 

A few uncomfortable minutes passed until an Egyptian tourist, I assume, walked past with a camera slung around his neck. He showed no concern about taking pictures of the canal, the boats and other people on the sidewalk, all in front of the two officers. I just had to find out how this possible and went to ask the uniformed officer if it was ok if I took pictures. He replied "Where are you from?" and I said "Uh, Canada." to which he smiled and said "Ahh, Canada... Of course you can take pictures of boats. Do you like boats? Boats are very beautiful...." and so on... The plain clothed officer didn't seem to find either. I made sure to get the uniformed guys name, Ali, in the event I bumped into the first officer again. For the next few hours I strolled along the sidewalk taking pictures of the boats, all the while waving and saying hello to Ali each time I passed him.

 

The only other strange thing is that after about 2 hours of this, a police car pulled up along the sidewalk with two officers in it and just sat there. This isn't all that uncommon in Egypt as there are policeman and police cars parked everywhere, so I didn't really concern myself with them and they didn't seem bothered by me taking pictures. But as Ali returned, he just came up to me and simply said "Ok, no more photos please." then went over and talked to the other officers. I obliged, picked up my stuff and walked south along the sidewalk to where the boats enter the Red Sea to grab a few sunset photos. No idea what Ali ended up saying to the other officers, but I can only imagine that the "No photos" policy is probably not universally enforce by all officers. Luckily Ali was on my side and I got the photos I wanted.

 

After about 2-3 hours of walking along the sidewalk I was ready to move on. You see, other then just watching the ships go by, there really isn't that much else to go except to stare at the canal. A ship goes by every few minutes, but when there's a gap you notice it. Also, for some reason, the ships were getting smaller and less interesting as the day went by. Maybe the biggest ships go first or something. (Ships in the Suez canal travel in grouped convoys, with two convoys a day running from North to South and one convoy a day running from South to North. From what I can gather, ships pay a fee passed on tonnage with some of he larger ships paying over 100,000$US to pass through.)

 

Before leaving, I swung by one of the only hotels in town that offers some great views of the canal from it's top floor restaurant, though by this time dusk at set in and the light was fading fast, so I didn't really get any good photos. I grabbed a quick dinner at a cheap restaurant, then took a taxi back to the bus station.

 

The funny thing at the bus station is that it's split up into two sides, the "luxury bus" side and the "micro bus" side. Micro buses are nothing more then 7-10 passenger vans with sliding doors that many of the locals use to get around since they are so cheap. For some reason, the taxi driver dropped me off in the micro bus station which confused me a bit because the layout is the same as the main bus station, but all the bus are microbuses. Of course, lots of people tried to help me get back to Cairo in a microbus but all wanted around 7 pounds, which is the cost for a luxury bus. (Yes, 7 pounds to get Cairo, 10 pounds to get downtown...) 

 

I tried to ask some people where to purchase tickets for the luxury buses but no one seemed to understand what I meant. No amount of hand signals, facial expressions or language seemed to get through that I wanted the big buses, not the small buses. Until, that is, I said I wanted an "Air Conditioned" bus. For some reason, in Egypt, they use the term "air conditioned" to refer to luxury buses or trains. So I'm standing their saying "big bus", "large bus", "luxury bus", etc... using appropriate hand signals and I'm getting a bunch of blank stares and confused looks. As soon as I say "air conditioned", everyone in unison goes "Ohhh, air conditioned bus" and points me in the right direction. Strange.

 

At the "air conditioned" bus ticket office I see something that isn't found anywhere in Cairo... An orderly line. It's surreal almost. Every person is standing one behind the other patiently waiting to purchase a ticket. Granted, the term "personal space" is a bit smaller hear, but still, there was no one budding to the front and just shoving themselves in front of the window. When someone tried to do that, and they did try, the rest of the line would shout at them and said person would quickly retreat. This, my friends, is not at all what Cairo is like. 

 

So, I got the bus ticket, sat in the wrong seat because the ticket agents Arabic handwriting was so sloppy that only an Arabic could actually understand the number, and not some tourist who just learned the Arabic numerals, and headed back to Cairo, pleased that I finally got to see the Suez canal in person.

 

Kenny