In spite of the traffic noise and fact that we are too tight to pay for air-con, we slept really well.
After a simple breakfast we went back up to the room to avoid the heat until it was time to ring Mr Aboda. Once again the line was terrible, but I managed to hear the words that we should go to the ferry office.
At the office we received the same level of customer service and joy that we had got the first time. This time though we were told that Mr Saleh was sick and to come back tomorrow. Slightly frustratedly we said that that was what we had been told the last two times, which was greeted by laughter and more dismissive hand gestures. While trying to decide what to do next, I went to talk to two western guys who were filling in paperwork on a wall outside the office. It turned out that Kurt and his friend had been in Aswan since last week when there wasn't space on the ferry for their vehicles. Since their first meeting with Mr Saleh they had been told to come back to the office everyday to no joy. The whole situation seemed to be turning into some kind of farce.
Eventually Kurt managed to get hold of Mr Saleh who told him that he was on holiday, but would be back on Saturday when he would sort the tickets. With the boat leaving on Monday, this seemed to be cutting it a little fine. What was more annoying was the fact that the staff clearly knew he wasn't going to be in until Saturday, so were just taking the p**s when they told us to come back tomorrow! Chancing my arm I gave Mr Aboda another ring and explained that the office weren't helping at all. He asked me to pass the phone to one of the staff and a somewhat heated conversation seemed to ensue. Eventually getting the phone back, he told me that he would meet us in the hotel lobby on Saturday and he would go with us to get the tickets. The whole situation is not ideal but we have no choice but to hope that it all works out. There is clearly no point in going back to the ferry office on our own. The sooner we leave Egypt the better and when we do it will be for the last time.
Just before leaving the office we asked Kurt where the ferry port was, as we had heard that it was about 25km from the city centre which would mean an early start for us the morning of the ferry departure. He told us that it wasn't very easy to find and there were no signposts, but he thought it was under 20km from the city. While we are here we will ride out to try and find it before Monday. Waving goodbye to Kurt and his friend, we wished them good luck and said that we would see them on the boat, if not on Saturday at the office.
With nothing else to do for the rest of the day, we had tea in a nearby park and then wandered down through the bazaar. After the experiences of the ferry office we weren't really in the right frame of mind to be walking through the bazaar. Buying a meal at a snack bar ended in failure when the stall holder continually changed his mind about what he had for sale and then tried to sell us food we didn't want. We then had to fight to get a sensible price for snacks and water at another stall. In fact the only success was that I bought a pad to write my blog on for when I can't charge the laptop.
By the time we got back to the hotel through the taxi drivers, carriage drivers, felucca owners and touts, it was time for a rest. Sometimes you just feel like shutting the world outside and this was one of those days. It was just a shame that we had to go out for dinner!
No comments:
Post a Comment