Harassed by countless taxi drivers, we finalized on one and made our way to the nearest bus station for destination Hurghada. Not speaking a word of Arabic, translation got a little dodgy as our driver stopped, ran out and came back with bought bus tickets for a bus station that was supposed to be a 25 minute drive turned a mere 5 minute drive. He assured us it was for Hurghada leaving at 8 am. What were we to do? Feeling skeptical, the taxi driver grabbed our hands and walked us over to the bus area to put someone in charge of making sure we got on the correct bus. Sure enough, every bus that came through, some local would holler at us to rush and get on it. All of a sudden, it was everyone’s business to make sure the only foreigners there were well taken care of. All eyes on us, we made our way through the chaos in search of some reasonable food that could get us through the next 5 hours, but opted instead for some coffee, very strong coffee, so strong I could barely get it through my teeth. We found a seat on the curb across the way and I turned to see 3 guys staring at us from afar. I waved, and they instantly waved back with giant smiles and sheepishly made their way over. They didn’t speak any English, were still all smiles and continued staring at us, just much closer. The young boy with them couldn’t take his eyes off our packs, so I asked him if he wanted to try one on for size? Super shy, with sweet little grin, he did a double take to make sure he understood and went straight for my pack. I got him situated, then added the daypacks, and motioned for him to walk around. What a blast! He was beside himself and slammed us a high five! Finally getting closer to 8, we made our way back into line and met DJ Fabric, who actually spoke English we could understand and offered to buy us each a soda. We were taken aback by his kindness! With just enough time to chug our drinks and break the news to him that we, unfortunately, wouldn’t be around to make it to his gig, we made our way to the back of the bus per our assigned seats and met Hassam, who on the 20 minute break to Hurghada came back with 2 chocolate bars for either of us! How unbelievably thoughtful and generous! He was telling us how long it took him to save up for this bus ride and then he’s buying us food! We had 2 more hours to go and Hassam opened up his computer and shared all of his family pictures. He was extremely passionate on becoming FB friends and helping us out in Hurghada so that we wouldn’t get ripped off by the taxi drivers and insisted on paying for the ride! What?! He wouldn’t take our money, wouldn’t have it any other way and proceeded to walk us to the dive boat to make sure they had our reservation and all was well. We were absolutely blown away by his generosity! He went above and beyond. We couldn’t have had a warmer welcome into Egypt! We tried to buy him a drink or something, but he had to be on his way to meet his sister. So, 2 Long Island Iced Teas, a cold swim in the Marriot pool and when 4:30 hit we stepped aboard the Blue Voyager…..
Picture credits: Simon and Alice
