Transportation in Egypt is always a mixed bag. On the one hand, getting around is pretty cheap. Our roundtrip bus tickets from Cairo to Dahab and back cost $30. Not bad for about 800 miles of total travel, especially considering the roundabout way of getting to Dahab due to the mountainous interior of the Sinai Peninsula. (See the map for our general route. No compliments necessary--I know my Photoshop skills are top-notch).
But like most things, you get what you pay for. The bus ride to Dahab was a pretty miserable start to the vacation. About halfway through the 10 hour bus trip (2 hours of which were just getting out of Cairo), I felt as if someone was jabbing me in the gut with a screwdriver. Over and over again. To add to that fun, I had my first ever bout with motion sickness. Apparently our bus driver decided to hit every bump in the road. I may have been airborne at points. Combined with the generally zig-zag direction of the roads, I spent more time than I cared to in the bathroom of the bus.
Of course, the bus trip back had its own joys. I had the "good fortune" on the way back to get the seat directly across from the bathroom. I figured that one of two things could happen. Either this was a blessing because I wouldn't need to crawl over people to puke my brains out....OR....some other dude was going to be destroying the toilet and I would be the lucky one who gets to bask in the aftermath. About thirty seconds into the trip, I had my answer when a guy from two rows back hustled to the bathroom. He emerged a few minutes later, followed by a bouquet of fresh sickness. A few hours later, about two minutes after a rest break, he literally ran to the bathroom, but didn't quite make it, barfing all over the stairwell and bathroom door. This was all a few feet to my right. But don't worry, he made sure to splash some water over the mess to clean it up.
To make matters worse, the driver had a flawed sense of climate control that went something like this: "It's really hot, let's turn the AC up to full bore. *Minutes pass until it's freezing on the bus* Whoa...super cold now. Better turn it off. *Minutes pass until it feels like a sauna and everything feels sticky* Whoa...super hot now. Better start that process from the beginning." Maybe the only dials were freezing and sweating. It was almost comical how ridiculous the temperature variations were during the trip.
The only plus side to the trip was that the trip took only 7.5 hours to get back instead of the 10 hours it took to get there. Traffic was way better, and there was far less stopping at security checkpoints. I was thankful for the better efficiency the second time.
Mario Andretti of the Dunes
The hostel were stayed at was nice enough to arrange transportation to/from the bus station and to/from the Blue Hole dive site (more on that later). I can honestly say I have never been more scared in my entire life from these rides.
To begin, the Jeeps themselves were old. That wasn't a big deal in and of itself, but the tire tread on these cars was simply non-existant. If you could even find a groove to stick a penny in to measure the remaining tread, you deserved a prize. Even the "spare tire" on the back was bald. Granted there is no precipitation to worry about in Dahab, but the speeds at which these guys were driving didn't help.
The roads all looked like they were designed by Nintendo for a new Mario Kart game, and the workers from the hotel took full advantage. I half expected Yoshi to pop out or for bananas to shoot from our grill. The drivers just gunned the Jeeps everywhere. At one point on our way to the dive site, we were flying into a pretty sharp curve. The Jeep banked hard to one side to the point I was certain we were going to tip. One of the back tires lost traction (or didn't have it to begin with), squealed, then hit the curb. How nothing happened to the car (or us), I'm still not quite sure. After a brief, not so polite exchange with the driver, he chilled a little bit. But only a little.
And that was just the paved part of the trip. The road ended and in front of us stretched a half-rock, half sand expanse. We didn't seem to slow down. There was a trail of sorts, but it was (unnecessarily) curved with high banks. I don't know why they didn't just make it straight along the shoreline. So, we gripped the bars of the Jeep, enjoyed the complete lack of suspension, and prayed we didn't tip/run into another car/hit a camel/pop a tire/fall over a precipice. If anyone wasn't religious before that 20 minute ride, they were believers by the time we reached our destination. I was holding on so tight I could barely move my fingers when I finally let go.
But the whole thing only cost each person $6 round trip. Take that Cedar Point.
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