Dahab Protests, Part II

Dahab Protests, Part II

So, it’s Saturday February 5th – the day after Departure Day, when no-one, protestors nor government, did any departing.  You have to admire the Egyptian spirit on both sides – there is absolutely nothing like it.

Dahab remains as quiet as ever – and getting quieter.  This is always a quiet time of year but I’m imagining that the continuing lack of cash in the cash machines and petrol in the petrol stations makes life incredibly difficult for tourists.  Of course, us residents have to make some adjustments to life without those essentials but as tourists often depend these days on being able to withdraw cash from ATMs (and all banks have been closed for nearly a week now anyhow, so no changing cash or travellers cheques) it makes it quite hard for them to stick around.

Here at Sunrise Lodge we still have guests – Guillaume, a die-hard freediver is only just beginning to get slightly worried about his return flight next week and the fact that EgyptAir are incapable of picking up a ringing phone, while Canadian travellers Carole and James look like a bomb could go off next to them and they would remain chilled and calm, enjoying the falafel and strawberries that are still in the shops.

We are however waiting for Lyndelle’s family who are currently stuck in Luxor, trying to make the sense of a totally disabled public transport system.  Trains and buses up to Cairo haven’t been running, and no-one knows if the bus to Dahab from Luxor (a spine-numbing 18hr journey at the best of times) can make it through Suez.  They’ve been trying to fly over, but the domestic flights system is crippled too.  Funny that Eric from indie travel company Backpacker Concierge had no problem getting to Cairo a couple of days ago – he was the only foreigner at the airport trying to fly INTO Cairo when the pro v anti-government violence was at its worst.  So flying to Cairo, provided you fly outside of the curfew hours (this morning slightly relaxed, incidentally, and now running from 1900 to 0600 making getting to work easier), is relatively straightforward.  Getting from the mainland to Sinai however is much harder.

Hopefully though, all this will be returning to normal over the next few days.  Although it’s hard to say it, some seem to be letting go of the Che “Viva El Revolucion” Guevara spirit; the BBC reported last night that there is a general agreement between the protestors to let the country go back to normal and to only protest on Fridays.  This morning however there are still thousands in Tahrir Square – but no longer millions.  The momentum is definitely dropping as revolutionary sentiment round the country, Dahab included, is dulled as people just want to be able to get back to work.  The last 12 days have taken so many twists and turns that it’s impossible to make any predictions for the future of the country – although the crashing of the Egyptian pound over the last few days is a hint of what’s to come. We’ve been told that the banks will reopen Sunday, and Egypt’s going to get dug in on the stock exchange on Monday – the government is pushing for things to return to normalcy.  Will the protestors in Tahrir let them?  But here in Dahab, if we don’t get some petrol soon in the next few days, those of us who rely on trucks to deliver our water are going to be rather showerless.

[Update:  Stock exchange apparently NOT going to reopen on Monday.  Unknown as yet when it will.  More fun and games for the EGP.]