I am back from my fantastic holiday in Greece.
Because of the war (and the consequential shut down of flights from Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv) I ended up driving my car to Eilat (about 4.5 hours from my home in Zichron) and sleeping over in a hotel there before taking a taxi to the Taba border crossing. I then walked across the border planning to find a taxi on the Egyptian side to take me up to Sharm El Sheikh (about 3.5 hours away). I had another hotel reserved in Sharm and then an early morning flight on Egypt air with a change of planes in Cairo. Lots to unpack and to share. First of all, it is safe to say that I was nervous.
I was intentionally travelling on my US passport and intending to identify myself only as an American citizen while in Egypt. A couple of short anecdotes about walking across the Taba crossing and passing through Egyptian customs. First of all, because of the rush of people crossing due to the cancellation of flights out of Israel, Egypt had raised their visa fee dramatically (payable in US dollars of course). They simply crossed out the old number and wrote in the new temporary price on the sign. Secondly, it seemed that as many as five times I had to stop and simply show someone my passport and the person then aggressively demanded “tip”. It was the only English word I heard from the Egyptians as I crossed until I got to the other side where scores of cab drivers were trying to hustle me into their cars promising me that they had the best car to take me wherever I was going.
My plans were rather last minute, so I was not able to make arrangements in advance for a vetted English-speaking driver to be waiting for me. I had hoped to find someone on the line crossing over who had a driver waiting who might be willing to split the ride/fare with me but that didn’t happen. I did however meet a guy who said he had a driver waiting that he had arranged through a friend who had used the same driver previously. He apologized that he could not share the ride with me because he was meeting up with family members along the way to Sharm and would have a full car but offered to call his driver for me and see if he had another driver to recommend. I accepted the offer gratefully. He called and said his driver “had a brother” who would take me to Sharm for $150 and laughed that “everyone was his brother”.
So, we walked across and he spotted his driver and waved and we walked over to a very beat up old van. The driver spoke no English (and my new friend spoke only limited Arabic) but through gestures and grunts it became clear that he wanted us to both get into the same van. My friend explained his understanding was that he would take me to the second driver who would be waiting for me at the campground where he was to meet up with his first daughter. So off we went. About 20 minutes down the road our van pulled off the road where there was a beat up old American car waiting and two young women with suitcases outside the car. It became clear that the plan was for our van to pick up the young women and bring them back to Taba for the end of their cab ride and we were both to transfer into the new car.
We drove away. To set the scene 1) our new driver was wearing a traditional long white robe and Egyptian headgear 2) our new driver seemed to be driving as fast as the car could possibly go and passing other cars on the two lane road while simultaneously talking on his cell phone. We quickly got to the next spot, but it became obvious after a short while that it was the wrong campground to meet up with my friend’s daughter, so we had to back track a bit to find her. When he got to the right campground, the driver simply got out of the car and walked away while leaving the engine running. This became a common occurrence and I started to wonder if gas was really so cheap in Egypt that nobody worried about leaving their engine running or if maybe he feared the car wouldn’t start again if he turned it off. Eventually my new friend got in the front seat and honked the horn to get the driver to return.
The plan had changed again and my friend’s daughter got in the car and we all rode together to the next stop where supposedly my friend and his daughter would be let out to wait for a second car and I would stay with the one we were in. This happened and eventually I was riding alone with the driver speeding along the highway except for the times that we had to stop because there was a camel in the middle of the road. The scenery (riding along the red sea) was stunning. We stopped a few times for what seemed like a local on side of the road and my driver offering to take them for an additional fee and the two of them screaming at each other in Arabic not able to agree on a price. At one point (maybe an hour or so into the ride) my driver pulled over at what looked like a “country store” and of course got out leaving the door open and the engine running. He then came back and communicated to me that I needed to pay him the $150 dollars American at that point and when I paid him, he went back into the store and disappeared for a while.
Eventually we got back on the road and he pulled over at a huge gas station about halfway between Taba and Sharm and got out of the car again. I keep calling it a car and not a cab because truthfully other than the fact that I had paid the driver there was no indication on the car that it was a cab that distinguished it from any other old beat up car on the road. At this point the driver said I was changing cars again and I transferred into a brand-new Chinese (Cherry) electric car that the driver was obviously very proud of. We did not leave the gas station until he had completed his task of polishing the front of the car and then spayed cleaner and wiped down the inside as well. The last two hours of the ride were comfortable with the air conditioner on and a driver who did not want to risk getting in an accident.
Now I will share two interesting details about the road to Sharm el Sheikh besides the beautiful scenery and the stops for camel crossings. There were numerous heavily fortified check military checkpoints. Serious stuff. Spikes in the road that had to be lowered for each car and soldiers with machine guns and a few heavier weapons. It was startling and made me wonder exactly what the Egyptians were worrying about. Then when we got into Sharm el Sheikh we entered the city through a large archway that had a beautiful big mosaic peace symbol on it.
My resort in Sharm was spectacular. Unfortunately, I was booked on a very early flight so all I had time for was a nice dinner and then went to sleep with my alarm set. Even more unfortunately I woke up when the front desk called to tell me that my cab to the airport was waiting. This set off a panicked late race to the airport. In the interest of brevity (I know that ship has sailed already) I won’t try to describe my experiences at the small sharm el sheikh airport or going through security in Cairo except to share this one anecdote. As I had mentioned I was intentionally travelling with my US passport and trying to identify myself only as an American going to Greece but I kept catching myself accidentally saying slichah and todah (the Hebrew words for excuse me and thank you).
This post is supposed to be only about the cab rides in Egypt so I will skip past my wonderful holiday in Greece with my youngest daughter.
On the way back I took the same route back, but it was very different.
My flight from Athens to Sharm el Sheikh had a long layover in Cairo, but because it was changing onto a domestic short flight to Sharm rather than an international flight as on my way to Greece, the security process was much easier. The terminal (for the domestic flights) was also much smaller and quieter and unfortunately there were very minimal amenities. I had problems connecting to wifi in the airport and somehow could not make any phone calls and was not able to contact the hotel about an airport pickup so I was coming into Sharm after 8 PM (dark) with no cab arranged. When I finally gathered my luggage (another small hiccup) I walked outside assuming that like every airport I’ve ever travelled to there would be cabs lined up outside. Right before the door to the outside (on the inside) there was a stand with a sign offering cab rides and I told the guy (who spoke some English) where I was going and he quoted me a reasonable price. He then wrote down my destination on a slip of paper and said what appeared to be the magic word (TIP) as in “now you tip me”. He walked me outside (after shorting me on change to take the tip he thought appropriate) and brought me to a nice car with a driver named Muhammed who took me to my hotel. Muhammed was a lovely driver and spent the short drive telling me how nice my hotel was and where I could go nearby for restaurants or nightlife and remarkably when he dropped me off at the hotel said in English “I am not just driver. I am also gentleman”. He did not ask for a tip, but I had some euros in my pocket that I gave him and thanked him for the ride.
In the morning I planned to enjoy the lovely hotel with a fabulous pre-paid buffet breakfast. I called the concierge and arranged a cab to take me back to Taba for the return trip and planned it for noon which would get me to Taba at 4 PM early enough to have dinner in Eilat and stay overnight at a hotel before driving home the next morning. At noon I checked out and the concierge handed my luggage to a guy who I assumed was my driver and asked for the payment of the agreed upon price and then walked me outside and handed me off to another driver. This is my favorite part of the story so buckle up and please read on.
The driver invited me to sit up front with him (all gestures no English) and after a moment’s hesitation I accepted. Along the way the driver showed me pictures of his two kids and held up two fingers and smiled when I responded by showing a picture of me with my three kids and held up three fingers. He told me that he lived in Cairo but I never really learned if he commuted every day (about a five hour drive each way so I doubt that) or if he worked away from his family all week in order to have a decent job to support them back in Cairo. Along the way he shared his own awe at the beauty of the Red Sea and when he noticed me taking a video of the view, he rolled down my window to facilitate the shot. Twice he pulled over at nice spots and invited me to get out and enjoy the view and once even asked if he could take a selfie with me. (all without speaking hardly any English) When we got to the big gas station half way between Taba and Sharm he asked if I needed to use the restroom and then asked if it was ok with me if he stopped for a while to rest and get some coffee. He returned in ten minutes as promised with a little cup of espresso and enjoyed his espresso and a cigarette outside of the car before getting back in for the final leg of the trip.
Along the way he stopped at every military checkpoint but seemingly spoke a bit a Arabic and said the new magic word (Ameri) and got waved through and then by the third time he laughed out loud and let me know that he thought it was funny. I assumed he was telling me that he would have been searched if not for the fact that he was bringing an American passenger. When we got to Taba, he spoke into his phone (with the translate app) and then pointed it at me while it played in a woman’s voice “Sir, we are approaching your destination. It was a pleasure driving you. I hope you felt safe with me. Good luck on your next journey.” After we stopped and he handed me by luggage I gave him a substantial tip in Euros and his eyes teared up and he said “for me” and then touched his heart.
And that is what peace looks like.
Fifty-nine years ago, the Israelis conquered the Sinai Peninsula during the six-day war (1967). Israel built settlements and an airport (and military bases) and for almost 15 years the Israeli population enjoyed vacations along the beautiful red sea. In fact, one of the Israeli settlements was called Ofira, and was in what is now the resort city of Sharm El Sheikh. In 1973 Egypt launched the surprise Yom Kippur war in an attempt to recapture the Sinai but was defeated. In 1979 Egyptian president Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin signed a peace agreement known as the Camp David Accords that resulted in the return to Egypt of all of the Sinai Peninsula. That peace agreement still stands today more than 45 years later.
As always, please feel free to forward a link this post to anyone that you think might enjoy it and feel free to write me with any questions or comments at adrchildlaw@hotmail.com