Ferry from Aqaba to Nuweiba
At around 0900, after breakfast, we made our way to the ferry terminal at Aqaba for the trip to Nuweiba. The taxi wasn’t allowed to go into the terminal area and it was a little bit of a hassle with luggage for the oldies.
We let Pat and Fiona settle downstairs while we went upstairs to buy the tickets. We had trouble finding the departure tax booth downstairs but eventually found it, of all places, in the arrivals area!
We went through immigration upstairs and sat in the waiting area. Luckily, we asked at about 1000 about boarding as we didn’t quite understand what was going on. We were ushered downstairs onto a bus that would take us to the ferry. It was bedlam but luckily we got on to the second one.
Boarding was relatively smooth and after a 30 min delay, we set off at 1130. Onboard, the Egyptian immigration entry stamps were made into our passports. However they held on to our passports until visa payment was collected on land upon arrival.
Disembarkation was painful slow, even though as foreigners we were allowed off first. We walked to the buildings at the port while Pat and Fiona took the bus, which arrived at the same time.
We had trouble finding the correct building for our visa payment and weren’t sure exactly what to do. Seeing a Tourist Police counter, we went there for help. The sleeping officer woke up, picked up his gun and showed us where to go.
Eventually the immigration officer who had stamped the passports turned up with the stack of passports. Even though I was supposed to have visa-free FOC entry into Egypt, the officers here don’t see many Malaysians and insisted on charging me.
Walking towards the customs, luggage were x-rayed then searched. But for foreigners, we were just waved on to go first, just like disembarking on the ferry. I’m sure this creates resentment amongst locals towards tourists.
Just when we thought we were out, we weren’t. At the exit, we were held back for an unknown reason. About an hour later, around 1500, we were allowed out. Apparently, the officials had to await the passenger manifest before we could exit but I didn’t notice anyone checking passengers off the list upon exit.
Taxi to St Katherine
Once out of the secure area, the sight was somewhat medieval. The crowd was unreal, seemingly carrying everything from large boxes, bales, chairs, radios to broken furniture. There were porters, passengers, greeters and taxi drivers. Some people here have a hint of African in them compared to those in the Levant.
Taxi drivers crowded around us as we tried to find a driver to take us to St Katherine. Prices started at EGP400 (USD65) and eventually came down to EGP300 (USD48) for the 2h journey. It was a cartel with all of the drivers standing there and prices didn’t go down to the prices indicated in our guide book.
Egypt, even second time around, is definitely a more chaotic and difficult place compared to the Levant.
We hopped into a van but with really bad wipers. With heavy rain just now, we asked for a change to a different vehicle. The driver stopped briefly at his house to collect blankets so he could stay the night in St Katherine.
The scenery on the way to St Katherine was awesome. Like the area around Aqaba, it made us wonder why we had to pay for a tour of Wadi Rum (apart from its historical value). There were many Bedouins and camels. The heavens opened up and poured along the way. Then it hailed!
As we approached St Katherine, the mountains got more dramatic. A couple of hours after leaving Nuweiba, we arrived to a cool St Katherine. We were booked at Daniela Village which comprised of chalets. This turned out to be the best accommodation so far during the trip.
In St Katherine
We were running low on cash. We should have put the Aqaba hotel on credit card and one of our USD50 notes had a small tear, rendering it unacceptable. We walked to town to get a cash advance from Bank Misr. It didn’t look promising when they got a terminal out of the cupboard and plugged it in. Then they removed the phone line to allow the terminal to connect to the network. Fortunately, we got the money we needed.
Around town, locals including shopkeepers were friendly. It was a touristy town and there was a bit of a mark-up on things. But it’s still better than buying at our hotel. Eg. a Snickers bar made for the local market was EGP3 (USD0.50) whereas it was EGP7 (USD1.2) at the hotel.
We had a nice buffet dinner back at Daniela Village which included dessert. The power died as were finishing and we had nice candle-lit chats afterwards.