Day 186: Nuweiba - last stop in Egypt

It was an eight-hour bus ride from Suez to Nuweiba. When we got off the bus, there was no taxi in sight. It was around 8pm. We were the only people walking on the street from the gas station into the town. Fortunately a minibus pulled over and offered us a ride into the town. We ended up staying at the same hotel as the driver, who was a tour guide from Cairo. The chef cooked us hot meal even though we were the only people at the restaurant and the kitchen was closed. It was very satisfying. There was so much food – one of the few times that we had left-over on our table.

The hotel, Farouyaza Village, was better than I expected. At US$9, we had a clean, well-built beach hut, not the refugee types we saw in Goa, India. There were only one or two other travelers there. That's it. When we woke up the next day, there was no one on the beach. We would have loved to spend a few hours on the beach, but we had a more urgent matter to attend to: ferry ticket to Jordan.

long queue of trucks waiting for the ferry to Jordan

According to the Lonely Planet, the ferry ticket office accepts only US dollars. We went to three banks, which were all closed and would re-open at 5pm. Having no luck on the exchange, we found a truck driver and a grocery store owner who would be happy to supply us US dollars in return for Egyptian pounds. Unfortunately we had only Euros with us. Regardless, we still went to the ticket office to inquire about the schedule. We found out that there was a sailing at 3pm that day, and we could pay in Euros! After securing the expensive tickets (US$70 for 90-minute sailing), we went back to the hotel to pack our things and rushed back to the port because we had to be at the departure terminal two hours prior (according to the Lonely Planet). We got there at 1:15pm, and the ferry did not leave until 5:30m. Does the term "African time" sound familiar? It was so painful waiting at the grubby ferry terminal with stray cats running around, fishing things out from the garbage bins.

on our way to the port

funny signs