Enough Egypt

Tomorrow we will be catching the boat from Aswan to Wadi Halfa in the Sudan. Although we will not actually enter Sudan until tuesday, we will be leaving Egypt for all intents and purposes tomorrow. To be honest Its not a day too soon. We have enjoyed this country in parts, Dahab in Sinai, older areas of Cairo and camping in the white desert were all wonderful, but at the moment we are sick to the back teeth with the nagging dishonesty that acompanies the tourist trade in Upper Egypt. Fair enough people are gonna try and con you for Feluca trips or the like, but when the fruit sellers in the market would rather not sell to you, than sell to you at a fair price then things are just getting silly. Whether this is a consequence of what happens if you have big money tourism in a basically poor country over a long period of time, or whether Egyptians (and especially Nubians who tend to be the worst) have an especially large capacity for ripping people off, its hard to say. Whats disapointing is that the hassle here made us unwilling to put in the effort to see some of the admitadly spectacular sights just cuz of the hassle we'd have to got through to get there, and whilst there. Much better the deserted remains of Syria, slightly less dramatic maybe, but oh so much more atmospheric.
Having ranted about that, and having met so many wankers, weve also met so many nice folk, that restore some faith in the place just when I want to write it off completely! So thats that, Ill leave it with a photo of Aswan at dusk, undoubtably pretty.
Not sure when the next travel update will come, as not sure how Hitech Sudan is. I'd expect not so, but then this is 2006.