Fasting and Facials

Well this is the third time I'm writing this blog as the power and internet connection in Sudan are far from reliable! I've got some good photos but not sure that I'll be able to upload them

Hmm, I also seem to have to wriite backward in arabic styly with punctuation marks in the wrong places, confusing for you to read but adds to the character!

What's been happening then?

Headed further up the Nile to Aswan after I last wrote in Luxor. Found a hotel with a roof top pool, well plunge pool, which was a welcome surprise as the heat really does get to you. Met up with three lasses (Gry, Cas, Anicka) who were studying Arabic up in Cairo and were on a bit of a break. Spent a good couple of days with them cruising around the islands in the Nile, checking out the little Nubian villages and chilling out in the pool. Good to get some decent company, just a shame they weren't traveling onto to the Sudan.

I was getting a little annoyed with the hassle of Egypt in the end, I'm not sure I have ever been anywhere where you get so much grief from touts and the like, I tire of how many times you need to say 'no' to each tout. I had one experience back up in Luxor where a taxi driver had driven up to the Valley of the Kings and said that he would wait for me when I returned, I wasn't keen but I stupidly relented. He said I'd need until about two pm. I come out of the Tombs at two twentypm and there he is shouting at me giving me grief for being late. Needless to say he doesn't get a tip and because of this he then shouts and screams at me saying he is going to drive me to the police station as I didn't tip him. Ridiculous, but this is just one example of the hassle you always seem to get in Egypt. Outside the tourist honey pots the people are fantastic but unfortunately they are not the ones that you remember.

Flipside - Sudan. Now this is a whole different kettle of fish!

To be honest I was worried that I hadn't met anyone to do the trip into Sudan with and I set off to the port for the weekly ferry into Sudan with great trepidation. I had no idea when the ferry was due to leave, when I asked the helpful response that I got was 'it goes when it is ready'. Brilliant. Got up there for about ten am and had to wait in various queues in the stifling heat whilst getting one of the big cheese officials randomly shouted at people. Eventually got through the masses and was one of the first on the boat as I didn't have the handicap of two tonnes of luggage that most people seemingly had. It was tough to find any shade on the top deck of the boat with below deck having a pleasant humid air to it and had a nice fragrance of fags and s***. I opted to join a few others sat under the lifeboat which offered a modicum of shade. Got chatting to some random Sudanese and watched as this small ferry was loaded up with all manner of goods from dining room tables to boxes of cakes to fridge freezers which were carried onto the boat on the backs of the poor porter staff. It took all day to load the ferry up with goods and folk. Just when I thought I was going to be the only foreigner on the boat a bright orange old Mercedes caravanette shows up on the docks with German plates. As the porters tried to get this huge vehicle on a barge that would follow the boat I got chatting to its owners Maria and Robin, a couple who were driving from Germany to South Africa. Another German also shows up on a motorbike doing a Ewan McGregor 'long way down' styly trip - Marcus. Steeling the show however for nutty ways to travel Africa was this English guy Peter who was cycling from Norway to South Africa! Immense. Must be so lonely as well as the shear physical challenege of all that cycling in African heat. You would think that he'd be a cycling pro with a s***hot bike, but no, Peter was no great cyclist beforehand and had brought his Raleigh bike second hand for sixty pounds! I wonder whether my two tonne childs bike could of made it as well?! Anyhow good to see some other travelers, my challenge to use public transport seemed small fry after chatting with them though! The boat eventually left about six thirty pm, some seven hours after I had got on and took twenty four hours in all to get across to Sudan. Sleeping was interesting on the metal deck with some random Sudanese guy spooning me all night, every bit of the boat deck was covered in people and boxes.

When we finally got into the port of Wadi Halfa I got quizzed at immigration by a severe looking fella with pretty good English. I was asked on what I knew about General Bashir (popular Sudanese general wanted for war crimes) and what I knew about the British colonial history of Sudan as if I was going to b re-colonising the country! Despite knowing a fair bit about both I pleaded stupidity and the official seemed happy that I was just a dumb tourist and let me through.

Stayed a night in the grotty border town and shared cell number thirty with Peter in a very grim hotel that shared my image of what a Thai prison should look like. After a sleepless night with random cats in the room the German couple Maria and Robin offered me a lift in their cool van the following day where we continued southwards up the Nile.

Despite the grotty town I was struck with how friendly and helpful the Sudanese were, especially compared with the Egyptians. No bartering was needed, the price quoted was the price paid. Simples. No one tried any scams to rip you off and everyone that you met was incredibly generous, I've had fruit given to me in markets, coffees paid for in cafes, and locals insisting to pay for my bus fare. I don't think I have ever felt so safe in a country,there seems little or no trouble. The only hassle is all the government bureaucracy in visiting the country which limits the amount of travelers to about twenty in a two week period. Nice in a way that you are one of only a few in the country. Got to watch the laws here though, you're hanged for being gay and get forty lashes if you get caught with alcohol. What a perfect combo.

Anyways, my first bit of traveling was by orange carvanette with the Germans, Markus the motorcyclist also tagged along so we had a good group. So cool just having fre reaign on where you went and where you stopped. We camped in the middle of the desert the first night which was awesome. A nice change from the busy towns. Campfire, bit of basic cooking whilst gazing up at the stars. God only knows what would have happened if we caught by some officials camping in the middle of nowhere, but heyho.

The roads are better than I was expecting in Sudan but there are stretches where you have to off road it with multiple directional choices to make which led us to get hopelessly lost on the second day of traveling. We did however manage to find some really cool remote mud hut villages who were very surprised to see an orange campavan driving through their villages. Despite the surprising power of the Merc van we soon got scuppered and stuck in some sand in the middle of nowhere. We all got incredibly worried at that point as we were low on water in forty five degree heat and couldn't get the van out of the sand. After we all got mardy with each other we did however manage to dig the heavy van out after a couple of hours of blood sweat and tears. We paid a bit more attention to sticking to the main tracks after that! Had a really good further two days with the Germans camping in random spots before reclaiming a bit of independence and going my own way in Dongola.

I've been to a few towns in Sudan and although there aren't that many tourist sights the people that you meet more than make up for the lack of sites. Went to see some more pyramids in Karima where I was the only person looking around. Not quite as impressive as the ones in Egypt as they were a bit crumbly, but they had their own dilapidated beauty. Travel on the buses has been much easier than I imagined, air con with all roads fully tarmaced south of Dongola making for some speedy journeys.

Ramadam continues, it does however finish tomorrow just as I leave Muslim Africa! Food is very hard to come by during the daylight hours and even if you do find it you have to find somewhere private to eat it, a bit like going outside to smoke in the UK! As in Egypt everyone feasts at night however the Sudanese food is far from impressive, Fuul (stewed beans), Falafel, and the odd bit of fried chicken or fish are the only things you can really get hold of.However the Jebbana coffee is awesome, a thick sweet Turkish type coffee infused with cardamom, ginger, and some other spices***. Very good although as they only serve it after dark it is very hard to get some shuteye afterwards! I hear the food in Ethiopia from people traveling the other way is superb so that is something to look forward to next week.

After the many cool towns I saw in Sudan the capital Khartoum was a let down, just another busy smoggy city with nothing to see. The one redeeming feature are its barber shops…

I haven't stayed in a Lokanda (basic hotel) with a mirror yet so my patchy beard was getting a bit itchy. Decided I'd get a barber to give me a shave with one of those cut throat razors which was fine but then he decided to give me a facial... Now I know some of you will mock otherwise but I have never had a facial. After the state of my face after this one I'm not sure I'd be brave enough again. This big barber rubbed my face until it was red raw with a faint blue tinge from the bruising beginning to show. My Geordie tan returned in an instant. An experience if nothing else.

I was meant to be getting to the Ethiopia border today but because of Eed (the celebration after Ramadan) the roads have been packed and I've got stuck in a town called Gederaf which is actually OK. I've teamed up with another English guy for this bit of the journey - Roufus, when he talks to people who aren't English he speaks like Steve McClaren in a Dutch press conference. Will try and go for the border again tomorrow, we were actually lucky to get a visa in Khartoum as the office closed today for ten days over Eed. Fingers crossed we get over to Ethiopia tomorrow where good food and beers beckon……..