Round the World - Do you have beer we are coming to visit?

[Gerard]

Lekker om julle weer te sien  :thumleft:

 

[DirtyTeNeReLess]

:thumleft:

 

[Slainte Mhaith]

:sip:

 

[Gerard]

Update eers vir ons want ek het nou track verloor. Waar is julle nou en wat is die volgende trip ?

 

[Heimer]

Terug op die lug.

Nice Michnus  :thumleft:

 

[ROOI]

Fok welkom terug lekker om te lees soos altyd  :thumleft:

 

[michnus]

Update eers vir ons want ek het nou track verloor. Waar is julle nou en wat is die volgende trip ?

Yebo yes! Jislaaik ek weet, dit is net soveel damn werk om al die photos en goed te try sort en edit, en ek laai meer fotos hier as op die blog. Ek moes ook eers die blog update wat my lank gevat het. Ons het Europe getoer vir 5 maande en ek sal dit nou bysit. Ons volgende trip nou is vir April. Ons bikes is in Ulm in Germany en ons gaan hulle haal en dan af ry Turkey toe en Iran as ons kan inkom. sal Oktober die bikes weer in Ulm park vir winter.  :biggrin:

Yes menere die trip moet aangaan  :biggrin:

 

[cloudgazer]

You guys are my heroes.

 

[ButchH]

bout bloody time  :deal: :thumleft:

 

[michnus]

Post is a bit buggered the pictures do not follow the story as we could not take pictures on the ferry.

Penning our experience with Egypt took me some time. It's got more to do with the aberrant manner of Egypt. Take caution not to become cynical about Egyptians and try and see the real Egypt and people. But let me tell you the story and you can decide for yourself. It’s a love hate affair. Sometimes more hate than love and a bit of a culture shock until one learn to deal with Egypt's eccentric and quirky ways.

Our modus operandi for any new country was and still is, go in with open minds and expect anything and know that most things most probablywill be different to what we are accustomed to. This was no different to Egypt. Although, we had our trepidation about Egypt and were told horror stories by many travelers about Baksheesh and the art of ripping-off of travelers even outside the tourist areas.

We were really seeing forward sitting next to the Nile in Aswan with a beer, Falafel and the sun setting over the sand dunes. You know that pictures of Raiders of the Lost Arch and such movie? And then off course to see the pyramids and ancient sites of the old Egyptians.

Early morning Aswan waking up. Smell of fresh bread everywhere.

Mazar our fixer in Sudan at the border town of Wadi Halfa ran around preparing all the paper work for us to enter Egypt onboard the dilapidated SS Titanic Nasser. This ramshackle zinc tub was still the current and only means of travel between Sudan and Egypt. This must still be the first steel boat ever build in the world operating. We quickly found out the reason for its existence was that an entire economy revolves around the operation of this vessel.

These stupid big cruise ships stand 4-5 deep row after row, we stop counted somewhere after 50 or 70 empty. The Arab spring killed the tourist flowers.

Rent a Felluca for the day, they are cheap and lunch with beers are standard.

Me? Yes for bloody sure I am a pharaoh! Call me King Tut Two

Most migrants and travelers between the two countries would rather opt for road as means of transport than this decrepit piece of 1920’s boat building marvel. There is a perfectly good piece of black slab between Sudan and Egypt but because of corruption people are forced to use the boat and are not allowed to travel by road.

Small ferries taking people to the Islands in the Nile. Woman on one side men on otherside. Not allowed to sit together.

It took 24 hours for the boat to travel to Aswan along the length of Lake Nasser. We had to ask special permission to get our bikes on board as this ferry only took passengers. The barges that normally transport the vehicles were not operational due to a low water level in Lake Nasser.

Hotels were dirt cheap and we took over the rooftop swimming pool with the beer fridge.

*** is *** baby, does not matter how extreme the believes  :biggrin:

We set sail late in the afternoon. It took age’s to load all the people and their bags of whatever they had with them. Well, whatever powered this waiting-to-sink-fail-ship got slowly going with more people on-board than what very lenient Western safety standard would allow. There were people sleeping on everything that were flat.

Antoine and Carlene the two fearless bicycle overlanders. ******* crazy to pedal when you can open a throttle. They consumed more food that than our bikes consumed fuel. They pedaled all the way from Ethiopia back to Europe!

Cool thing about adventurers, spending a little bit of time together on the road and it tend to end in long term friendships. Does not matter where in the world people live.

Aswan comes alive at night. At least there are beer!

Elsebie got allocated a cabin with a woman and her 2 kids the size of a shoe box. That turned out a disaster as the woman green smelly fart quickly filled the small cabin. As for myself, I had to use friendly force and an evil eye with a few Egyptians for the lid of the box where the life jackets were stored on deck. Not long and Elsebie made me move up to lie next to me on the lid of the box, the farting got too much for her to bear.

We met up with Antoine and Carlene, two bicycle riders from Europe that rode their bicycles from Ethiopia back to Europe. Eventually, we got space under one of the Lifeboats for the duration of the trip. This ferry trip turned out to be one of those experiences which were quite memorable and enjoyable but we would never want to do it again.
​

 

[michnus]

Thank's Cloudgazer  :thumleft:

Sorry ButchH  :biggrin:

 

[J-dog]

Welcome back M  :biggrin:

 

[Would I?]

Keep it coming!!  :thumleft: :thumleft:

 

[michnus]

Aswan is a serene place where the Nile is more majestic than anywhere else, flowing through granite rocks, and round emerald islands covered in palm groves and tropical plants. It’s a typical tourist town where rip-off prices and nagging vendors force themselves onto anybody looking like a tourist.

Food is cheap and street food quite good. Koshary and Falafel with beer is great for building a lekker boep.
"Koshary is, without a doubt, the most famous Egyptian street food around.  Consisting of more carbs and legumes than you’ve probably ever seen in one meal (pasta, rice, lentils and chick peas) and onions and garlic, you’ll be sure to eat this meal, then be ready for a nap right after!  Sometimes considered the poorman’s meal because it can fill you up and is quite inexpensive, you’ll find many common Egyptians crowding the stands and restaurants where it is served."

The Arabic spring had an adverse effect on the tourist industry in Egypt. Huge cruise boats we docked along each other many hotels we empty. A quick count over 50 of the behemoth cruise liners docked. Nothing much was happening in the town.

None of us are smokers. But when in Rome. Enjoying the view to Aswan and it''s lights at night from Elephant Island. Our Fixer "**** us over" host invited us over for tea and a peace pipe.

Because of the bureaucratic ******** we had to spend 2 days in Aswan waiting for the bikes to clear through customs. This border crossing ended up being the most costly of the entire trip. Mostly due to fixer payment and Baksheesh that had to be paid. Everything is written in Arabic and thus trying as travelers to clear through custom was impossible.

Beer is a blood purifier, do not know where they get this nonsense

https://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-QQKdfBm/0/M/i-QQKdfBm-M.jpg
Take the Arab spring on a bike..

Ideologies!!

It’s a lengthy process. First we had to pay for a road engineer, pffff…..a bloody low paid cop now is called a road engineer. We paid a taxi from Aswan to customs, 25km away for him to scratch the VIN numbers onto a piece of paper, which eventually would end up with a ton of other rubbish in a corner of one of the offices. The customs officials at the border were not allowed to perform this very important and highly skilled task.

Then there were four other officials each who had to sign some more useless papers and wrote gibberish in Arabic on the Carne. We then we got issued with yellow temporary number plates that had to be fixed to the bikes.

We were in Egypt and in search of the old Egyptians.​

 

[michnus]

Thanks J-Dog.  :thumleft:

 

[cocky]

Aswan is a serene place where the Nile is more majestic than anywhere else, flowing through granite rocks, and round emerald islands covered in palm groves and tropical plants. It’s a typical tourist town where rip-off prices and nagging vendors force themselves onto anybody looking like a tourist.

Food is cheap and street food quite good. Koshary and Falafel with beer is great for building a lekker boep.
"Koshary is, without a doubt, the most famous Egyptian street food around.  Consisting of more carbs and legumes than you’ve probably ever seen in one meal (pasta, rice, lentils and chick peas) and onions and garlic, you’ll be sure to eat this meal, then be ready for a nap right after!  Sometimes considered the poorman’s meal because it can fill you up and is quite inexpensive, you’ll find many common Egyptians crowding the stands and restaurants where it is served."

The Arabic spring had an adverse effect on the tourist industry in Egypt. Huge cruise boats we docked along each other many hotels we empty. A quick count over 50 of the behemoth cruise liners docked. Nothing much was happening in the town.

None of us are smokers. But when in Rome. Enjoying the view to Aswan and it''s lights at night from Elephant Island. Our Fixer "**** us over" host invited us over for tea and a peace pipe.

Because of the bureaucratic ******** we had to spend 2 days in Aswan waiting for the bikes to clear through customs. This border crossing ended up being the most costly of the entire trip. Mostly due to fixer payment and Baksheesh that had to be paid. Everything is written in Arabic and thus trying as travelers to clear through custom was impossible.

Beer is a blood purifier, do not know where they get this nonsense

https://www.smugmug.com/photos/i-QQKdfBm/0/M/i-QQKdfBm-M.jpg
Take the Arab spring on a bike..

Ideologies!!

It’s a lengthy process. First we had to pay for a road engineer, pffff…..a bloody low paid cop now is called a road engineer. We paid a taxi from Aswan to customs, 25km away for him to scratch the VIN numbers onto a piece of paper, which eventually would end up with a ton of other rubbish in a corner of one of the offices. The customs officials at the border were not allowed to perform this very important and highly skilled task.

Then there were four other officials each who had to sign some more useless papers and wrote gibberish in Arabic on the Carne. We then we got issued with yellow temporary number plates that had to be fixed to the bikes.

We were in Egypt and in search of the old Egyptians.​

Kak lewe wat jy het ne, wens ek kon ook bietjie gaan bike ry met n mooi sakkie vir my kit, dalk eendag as ek mooi groot is. eepwall: ot:

 

[michnus]

Jy weet nooit, mag dalk net gebeur  :thumleft: :biggrin:

 

[michnus]

After our stint in Ethiopia having to beg, kick and kill for petrol, we thought petrol would be an easier commodity to come by in Egypt. Well as it turns out, the Arab spring protest had a huge influence on the supply countrywide.

Petrol in Egypt normally cost around R3-00 (.30usd) per liter of petrol. For us as travelers, that is if you could get some, it was closer to R6-00 (.60usd) per liter. Yes, still cheaper compared to South African prices, but a poorer quality than ours. The bikes performance were more like cheap Chinese knock-off scooters.

Check the huge smile a motorcycle ride gives a bicyclist. Twist the throttle gives much more of a hard on than pedaling. Having fun visiting all the ancient historical places.

Mosque build in the grounds of the old Egyptian ruins

Lots of small tourist trap shops. You can buy genuine, 100% real out of the tomb artifacts. Genuine!

The old next to the new. Part of ancient buildings foundations to the right.

When we entered Egypt our plan was to do the desert route. It passes the White and Black deserts to the west of the country. With its spectacular scenes and sand formations it is a must see. Also off the main tourist route and should allow us to mingle with local folk. Okay, so in the end that did not work out due to the petrol shortage and we would not have been able to find petrol for that 1100km stretch.

The Nile is everything and everything happens next ot the Nile. It is life in Egypt

With Antoine and Carlene and their slow as a donkey bicycles for transport, the decision was made to have a bit of a party time up the coast to Cairo. They will go from Hurghada to Dahab, a dive scene along the Red-sea coast, while we will ship our bikes somewhere else out of Egypt.

Easier to get around Luxor on the bikes.

Well, like I said, just useless information.And I think we had less harmful emissions than what they had consuming all the funny food on the way. Farting and peddling cannot be good for a human being. That said, there’s a lot to be said for peddling the way they did. It’s a helluva lot cheaper than a motorcycle setup, and there were no need for Carne’s and paper work.

The reason the picture was taken from such a distance is that it's not allowed to take pictures. Think they are scared they would either lose revenue, or by taking photographs would do damage to the structure.

The road in the middle of Egypt that snakes parallel to the Nile up to Cairo is a tedious slow going affair. It is around 700km in length and there are police stops every 3 or 5 kilometers. The locals told us after Mubarak got asked nicely to get the hell out of office, the local Egyptians did not want this entire military and police nonsense. So none of the stops were actually stops anymore, just inconveniences in the road where we had to slow down and wave at the police sleeping under the dilapidated makeshift sun shades.

We only had to stick to the main road till Luxor and then turn off to Hurghada, a seaside resort town at the Red sea.

Road blocks, road blocks everywhere...we never stopped just went through them.

Now, this is where my question as the heading of this blog comes in …

Where and what happened to the old Egyptians? The people in Egypt today cannot possible be the same people. I must confess I am really ignorant when it comes to Egyptian history. But it hits one in the face the dramatic difference between the impressive old and the lackadaisical almost torpid reality of today’ Egypt.

The old monuments, temples and Valley of the Kings are truly impressive. To think that people build it thousands of years ago with very primitive tools and knowledge, sure makes for jaw dropping gasps. They sure punched above their weight. Turn around and look at Egypt today and it is as if the entire old Egyptian civilization stopped to exist at some point, progress just stopped. Egypt today looks like a rundown African failed state with a good stream of tourism income.​

 

[Carrots]

Lekker Michnus!!

 

[michnus]

Thanks Carrots