From Asswan to Port Sudan

I had to travel to Port Sudan to recognize how cheap and comfortable the public transport in egypt is. the ferry trip from asswan to sudan on lake nasser was still nice, as the ship was not full and one could walk around anytime. somehow the captain took a wrong way at night and it took 28 hours for some 300km. but then the road (actually only a track) from wadi halfa, the port on the sudanese side, to atbara lead through empty sand desert. the average speed was around 35km/h but the road was so bumpy that the passengers were shaken into the air and hoped to land on the seat again. a lot of dust entered the bus. after some 3 hours the bus got broken and we were stuck in the desert for about 7 hours untill a car arrived to repair it.

one not only has to suffer on the busses, one also has to pay prizes of almost european standard, 42 euros for about 1000 km, compared with 10 euros for about the same distance in egypt.

police controls are much tighter here, foreigners have to register in the numerous checkpoints. on my upcoming trekking trip in the red sea mountains i chose a legal way with a permit that allows me to trek there even alone. but i m still a bit afraid to get arrested for "spying". the police doesn t hesitate to put foreigners in jail for ridicolous reasons. a british teacher was arrested for a few weeks because she allowed her students to call a teddy bear mohammed. in the streets of khartoum crowds of people even called for her execution.

hassan, my "couch surfing" host in port sudan, who was visited by the teacher before, spent some hours in custody because he carried plastic bags on the suq, which is forbidden because the goats on the market might eat them and become sick!

now i m stuck in port sudan because i m out of money and no visa card is working here because of the US embargo. somebody in asswan told me that it s actually working so i carried very few money to sudan. in this week the banks are all closed because of the hajj holiday, so i have to wait untill sunday untill i can pick up the money my father sent me by western union.

port sudan is not very well worth seeing, it was built by the british some 100 years ago as the main gateway to all parts of the world. it's mainly inhabitated by the beja, the local tribe, but also by many different ethnics from all over sudan. many foreigners lived here, mainly greeks and indians but most of them have left since the islamic regime of the current president, omar al bashir came to power. but they left behind some katholic, coptic and greek orthodox churches.

the people are less curious than in egypt, it's much harder to get in touch with them.
on the streets women are more present, most of those working serve shay or coffee on the wayside.

after i hopefully soon picked up the permit and the money i'll be off in the mountains for maybe up to 3 weeks. so don't worry if there's no blog entry the next time.