I knew that I had to get the breakfast stuff from Tuah, and I did that as soon as I got up as I was dying for a cup of coffee anyway. Alison was still complaining about mosquitoes and Adrian having been bitten. I knew there were mosquitoes around and had applied the repellant before I went to sleep and had no problems whatsoever and Adrian was still sound asleep when we were discussing about it. I stated my case and ended the discussion.

It was a pity that they have left the complex not maintained, as the idea was there. But after being in the Middle East for the last month or so, maintainance is not high on their priority list as I see it. Nor is hygiene for that matter.

We left with me wondering what the five star hotels were like. The drive up north was rather boring apart from the discovery that The Tunnel is meant for the Suez Tunnel, all one kilometers of it! Along the way we had to stop for Adrian to pee and of course a police van had to come along to see if we were ok. We indicated we were alright and was told to move which gave me the impression that they are still jittery over Sinai war.

As we approached the tunnel, we were stopped by a group of non-uniformed police personnel who were keen to practice their English and have a look at Tuah. We in turn were not keen handing our passports to any Tom, Dick or Harry. So we acted dumb and Alison kept on repeating “English” to them and they eventually gave up and told us to move on. At the ticket booth, Alison must have looked surprised when told that we had to pay only 2EGP, so much so that the ticketing staff had to say that “yes cost of living is cheap here in Egypt”. As we came out of the tunnel we could see soldiers with machine guns lining both side of it but we couldn’t take photos as we didn’t expect to see such show of military presence.

I decided to spend the night in Suez as Cairo was still 150kms to go and driving in Alison said she saw a sign pointing Suez to the left and we were still 10kms away. I did however turn left and ended up in a village and had to ask if it was Suez. Of course it wasn’t and was subsequently pointed in the right direction by a local who spoke perfect English.

While driving around looking for a hotel a car suddenly appeared on our left, blaring its horn away and I was just about to curse the driver when I recognized the white Mercedes of Ron and TJ. They were also looking for a hotel and had seen a couple with some possibilities. We ended up at the Red Sea Hotel at 350EGP per night. We had to shift room as the air-conditioning was not functioning in the first room assigned to us, and by the looks of things nobody knew about it.

At least there was wifi in the room and TJ was desperate to send some attachment to their passport to the Libyan fixer for their visa. We all went to dinner at el Khalifah, a seafood restaurant recommended by the lonely planet. It was good, especially the seafood soup and cheap at 60EGP per head.

We got back to the hotel feeling satisfied while Ron and TJ decided to have coffee, we turned in early, with me sleeping fast as soon as I put my head on the pillow as usual.