Amoun Hotel in Asyut listening to the cacophony of sounds erupting
from the city below our window. A few sounds that stand out are the
calls to prayer (I can make out at least 2 different ones at the same
time), the omni-present hooting of traffc and the horn of the train as
it rushes past on the great Nile railway line.
We were a bit apprehensive about getting here after what the locals
further North had told us ("there are bad people there" as they put
it) and what we had read on some forums (horrible city, hounded by
police etc.). But without a doubt this is the cleanest place we have
been to in Egypt so far (that doesn't mean its clean though!) and most
of the buildings are fully constructed and even painted in some cases
so it looks relatively nice. Our only gripe is that the prices for
hotels seem a bit high. The cheapest we found after doing some serious
haggling with about 4 hotel managers was E£120 (~£12/R140).
Which brings me to last nights stay in El-Minya at the Beach Hotel,
where we paid a sum total of E£60 which is more in line with our
budget. With scaffolding throughout the ground floor and reception to
hold up the roof (and all 4 stories above) it wasn't perfect but you
can't expect much for that price so we were more then happy!.
The riding since Beni Suef has been pretty tough, despite being flat
and having a tail wind! The main reason for this is me unfortunately
getting some sort of virus in Cairo(bit of fever and now a cough but
nothing serious) and then the "Nile Nasties" (no explanation
required). So needless to say I wasn't feeling my strongest. James
says I should man-up and I think he's right if I'm to make it all the
way to Cape Town.
Apart from that the scenery has been fairly constant and the people
extremely interested in us. We are both quite surprised by this as we
were expecting it further into "deepest darkest Africa" but not in
Egypt. Although we have realised that very few tourists travel through
any of the towns we have been through so far.
By far most of the interest is displayed with lots of smiling, hooting
and shouting one or more of the four English phrases most people know
i.e. "Hello", "What is your name?", "How are you?" and "Welcome!".
Unfortunately they do not understand a word when you reply to "how are
you?", but we can't complain as they still know more English then we
know Arabic. We are working on that though.
And then unfortunately there is the unwanted attention which usually
comes from children and teenagers probably bored. There is a reason
kids under 13 shouldn't drive. On two occasions we've had these guys
in their "tik-tiks" (3-wheel taxi) cruising alongside us for at least
10 mins hooting constantly with agressive shouting and hand signals.
And then when we tried ignoring them they started swerving into us and
forcing us off the road, scary stuff! We've also had a few stones
thrown our way and smacking us and our bags as we cycle past.
Apparently the Sudanese are really friendly so we are looking forward
to that!
Tomorrow is a relatively short ride to Sohag and then its a big push
to Luxor (220km).
Now we're off to find some food in town...
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