The visit to Safaga and Luxor was our step back to
antiquity, but Sharm el Sheikh and Suez Canal are stark reminders that Egypt is
a major players in the world of the 21st century.
After returning from our long trip to Luxor, we were tempted
to skip the Egyptian Cultural Show that Holland America was presenting, but we
were pleased that we attended. There
were only four performers for the entire show and the presentation was different
from other shows we have seen. Of
particular note was one of the two young men who came out on stage, a Whirling
Dervish who didn’t stop twirling for between 10 and 15 minutes. After about 5 twirls I think I would have
toppled to the floor, dizzy! But he was
nonstop, fast and exceptionally precise.
He had two colorful skirts on and they made a dazzling display. He got them off while still twirling and kept
the skirts moving. He used some colorful
boxes and arranged them differently as the twirled. It was pretty amazing! We have heard of Whirling Dervishes before
but had never seen one in action and we were quite impressed with this Middle
Eastern act!
First however, we learned of an incident in Safaga/Luxor
that reminds us all too well why we almost never take independent shore
excursions. We have done two of them in
all our cruising plus visits with friends in Brian & Margaret in New
Zealand, Gretar in Iceland, and Andrew in Australia. The other two times involved a tour of the
Vancouver Olympic venues just a few months before the 2010 Winter Games that
Vancouver hosted. The tour operator got
us back to our ship in plenty of time.
Our only other independent excursion was with Jose in Rio de Janeiro
early in this trip. A friend had highly
recommended Jose and we did his excellent tour of Rio on the first of our two
days there. No problems getting back on
time there either.
However, everyone knows that the rule is that if one strikes
out independently, it is his or her obligation to return to the ship by the
final boarding, a half hour before sailing.
Our Safaga departure was set for 12 midnight since we had just a short
sail from Safaga to Sharm el Sheikh.
Holland America typically will wait for shore excursions which it
sponsors or if they have to leave, they will get the people who missed the ship
to the next port at HAL’s expense. If
you are not with HAL and miss the ship, you get to the next port at your own
expense. And that expense could be quite
considerable! Our new friends, Bob and
Nancy from West Virginia, reported that they had been on an excursion to the
sites in Luxor which would include the dramatic Sound and Light Show at Karnak
Temple. They were on the last tour
scheduled to get back, but their bus broke down in the desert. The backup bus broke down as well and to make
a long story short, they didn’t get back to the ship until after midnight, but
the ship waited. Because they hadn’t
eaten in quite some time, Bob and Nancy went for a bite to eat before retiring
and saw four people upset and visibly shaking.
These people had participated in a private tour at less expense. But their driver and guide took a different
route home which took longer than anticipated.
They arrived at the ship at 11:57 and saw the ship still there! They otherwise would have been arriving just
in time to see it sailing away … without
them. They were told by the Hotel
Manager that they were very lucky that the HAL shore excursion had delayed the
departure as the ship would have otherwise left without them! That reinforces our belief that the greater
expense of the Holland America excursion justifies our choosing to go with
their tours.
In Sharm el Sheikh, Barb and I made the rare decision not to
do a shore excursion. Our visit there
was only to be about six hours and it would have come on the heels of our very
long day in Luxor. We chose instead to
do what many cruisers do at each port and that was to just wander into town,
browse the shops and see if there were any bargains. We had been told that most, if not all shops,
would be closed on Friday since that’s the Muslim holy day. But Sharm el Sheikh is at the southern tip of
the Sinai Peninsula and we wanted to say we had been on the Sinai Peninsula. So after breakfast we went into town. It turned out to be a greater walk than
anticipated but we got to town and found that several stores had opened and
more opened while we were there. There
were three cruise ships in port and apparently the lure of cruisers’ business
led them to open. So our trip to town
wasn’t in vain.
Sharm el Sheikh has played a major role in “recent” Egyptian
history. I first became aware of Sharm
el Sheikh at the time of the Six Day War between Israel and its Arab
neighbors. Between June 5 and 10, 1967, Israel
took all of the Sinai Peninsula down to Sharm el Sheikh as a buffer between it
and Egype, the Golan Heights of Syria, and the West Bank of the Jordan River
from Jordan. The three Arab nations had
misjudged Israel’s military capability. This meant that Israel and Egypt faced each
other across the Suez Canal. Sharm el Sheikh at the southern tip was occupied
by Israeli forces and it and the entire peninsula were occupied by Israel until
after the Camp David Accords in 1978.
Even the Egyptian attack on Israel in Sinai at the time of Yom Kippur in
1973 hadn’t won Sinai back for Egypt.
Ships had been sunk in Sinai and it was out of commission for several
years and represented a huge financial loss for Egypt. But with Israel across the border, firing on
Egypt, they couldn’t clean the debris from the sunken ships to allow transit
through the canal.
Our new Australian friends, John and Gerda, indicated that
Gerda had been in Sharm el Sheikh in 1968 and there had been virtually nothing
there. Now, it is a warm resort city
with luxury hotels and a thriving business district. However the concern over January 2011
revolution in Egypt which overthrew President Mubarek cost untold sums in lost
income when tourists refused to come to Egypt.
That part of Egypt has been somewhat safer and quieter and slowly
tourism is returning. Next to Suez
traffic, tourism is Egypt’s greatest source of income.
We had to sail from Sharm el Sheikh earlier than usual in
order to sail up the Gulf of Suez to get in line for the convoy through the
Suez Canal on Saturday. There are
usually two convoys south and one north each day and the convoys meet at the
Great Bitter Lake. If we didn’t reach
the southern terminus of the canal by the appropriate time, we would be first
in line for the next day’s departure!
We were told that the transit would take up to 12 hours and
we would begin our sail about 6 AM. A
few quick facts about Suez, one of the two major world canals. It had been opened in 1869 after several
unsuccessful attempts to build one there.
It was engineered by the Frenchman, Ferdinand deLessups who had become
personal friends with the Egyptian pasha at the time.
When the 101 mile canal opened, it saved the journey of
7,350 miles around Africa! Today the
average toll paid per ship is about $205,600 but toll is dependent of course
upon various factors including weight.
Needless to say, maintaining the canal is vital to the Egyptian
economy. We didn’t really know what to
expect but now that we have completed the 9¼ hour transit, I would apply the
same comment our friend Pam did about Antarctica. Like Antarctica, we can’t even explain to
anyone who hasn’t done the journey. You
just don’t go through the Suez Canal and then explain to others what you
saw. “You have to experience it.”
We were told the transit would commence about 6 AM, so
shortly before 6, I pulled the curtains back to see if we had begun. We had
just started the transit and Barbara Haenni was already broadcasting commentary
to the outer decks and bow. Much to our
surprise, the ms Amsterdam was leading the northbound convoy! That gave an unobstructed view ahead for
us. (A ship’s officer sat at our table
for our formal night dinner and I asked how we happened to be in the lead. He told us they like to have a very dependable
ship lead because there is very little likelihood of a breakdown and it has
such efficient navigational capability, sufficient speed, and quality crew,
that they were pretty much assured that we wouldn’t hold up any other ship.)
We quickly got ready and went to the bow to view. Since it can’t be adequately described, I
will just mention a few key things we observed.
Most notable was the contrast between the west and east banks of the
canal (the African side nearer the Nile River and the Asian side and the Sinai
Peninsula). The west bank was much
greener and more lush than I expected, while just a few hundred feet away in
Sinai, it was primarily desert sand. In
fact we had a real treat and apparently a rarity because when we were eating
lunch, a lady at the table behind me called out, “There are camels out
there!” Sure enough in the distance and
in the desert we observed up to a dozen camels.
We dashed out to the aft deck to snap a few pictures which we will try
to enlarge to “prove” we saw them in their natural habitat! We spoke to several experienced cruisers who
have transited the Suez several times and none of them reported that they had
ever seen a camel there before. We felt
quite proud that we saw them, thanks to the anonymous observant woman.
We also noted a lot of military security: guard posts, active military with weapons, at
least one encampment of soldiers in training, and gunnery positions. One man commented that there seemed to be
much more military presence than when he went through the canal two years
ago. He insisted it meant that Egypt was
preparing to attack Israel. Likewise his
theory was that the barricades we saw from time to time along the shore were
not meant, as Barbara Haenni told us, to be put in the canal to block it if
that was ever needed, rather than have the canal blocked with sunken ships as
occurred after the Yom Kippur War of 1973, but rather these large structures
had some kind of offensive purpose.
There were also two monuments to war victims, one of which was a World
War I monument and another on the Sinai side was to commemorate the Egyptians
lost in the 1973 war with Israel.
There were also two small ferries that operated between the
two sides of the canal as well as two bridges, one of which was more like a
drawbridge with sides that could move into place across the canal when a convoy
wasn’t coming through and the other a high span bridge which we cleared with no
difficulty. We spent the day watching
these amazing sights and “experiencing” the Suez Canal.
We certain saw both ancient Egypt as well as modern Egypt in
our voyage. With the unsettled situation
in the Middle East, we hope that cool heads will prevail and that some kind of
accommodation will allow the people of Egypt as well as Israel and other
nations in that volatile region to lead their lives in peace. But we have to admit that we were pleased to
reach the Mediterranean Sea and anticipate the ports of our seventh continent
in this amazing voyage, Europe! Three
weeks from now we will be home!
We hope everyone had a very happy Easter! It seemed unusual to be away from our church
and family but we enjoyed a unique sunrise service on the outdoor aft deck in
the Mediterranean Sea. The ship was
brightly decorated for Easter and a wonderful brunch was served in the
LaFontaine Dining Room. Before lunch, we
had an hour to check out the food carvings and creations. The artistic decorating of food in all sorts
of creative ways was a photo album all its own.
After all the hours of effort in making and displaying the food, it
seemed wrong to devour the food in less than an hour!
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