Egypt - January 31

This was the most suspenseful and intimidating day. The riots continued, and no one knew how bad it will get, and where. First, our leaders decided to continue as planned and go south to Aswan. On the way they checked the airport (was still closed) and the train station (train traffic still on hold), and as we turned south, the embassy decided we should stay in Luxor, and try to make our way to Cairo, together with the other Israeli group in Luxor. We passed the time waiting at the hotel, going to lunch and then the highlight of the day - sailing on the Nile, aboard a Faluka - sail boat - on which the mood finally improved with the sailors' Darbuka, singing and Riki and Yossi dancing. (We also tried going to the Luxor Museum and the Mummification Museum - all closed and guarded by many soldiers.)



As an example of the pressures Danny and Rami had to deal with - at 11pm they got a call from the embassy (or foreign ministry) that through some Egyptian travel agent there will be a flight to Cairo. They were given the following demands by the agent: $300 per person, all or nothing (this includes our 30 travelers and the other group's 30 travelers), and... decide in 15 min. They of course, had to reject. This turned out to be an attempt by the embassy to get us out - we'll never know if their leg was pulled by some opportunistic Egyptian who had no plane to offer, or we could have spent a night in Luxor airport, fly and then spend another 36 hours in Cairo airport with hordes of others. Our leaders decided to go to Cairo by bus. As the direct road to Cairo was blocked, they got army & police permission to go indirectly - first to Hurghada, and from there to Cairo.

As we had already checked out from the hotel, we were moved to a much nicer hotel in Luxor. There was no curfew that night in Luxor, so people took walks along the Nile, went to the market and hired carriages. Was very relaxed and enjoyable despite everything. The worst part was the knowledge that everybody is so worried about us while we are having a wonderful time...