Safaga was an unexpected stop on the journey. Egypt had been taken off the itinerary due to a State Department travel advisory and the political unrest with the revolution. We left Salalah, Oman and went three solid days at full speed for the ship (23 knots) through the Arabian Sea, which the Captain said was the most dangerous pirate waters on our trip. We sailed in a designated international corridor protected by a multi-national force of warships. We passed two warships and one patrolling helicopter as we sailed. We also passed a number of slower freighters and tanker ships. As we transit these waters our internet connection was often scrambled or cut off by military activities. We had a crew fire drill and instead of training on fighting internal ship fires they trained on using the hoses on the railing to repel boarders. All in all an interesting experience. The Captain’s plan was to speed through the Arabian Sea and then slow way down to reach Jordan on time. During our transit the State Department rescinded the travel advisory for lower Egypt and thus we were in the area with a planned sea day. So we have added a stop at Safaga, Egypt.
Port Safaga began life a long time ago as a shipping point for Egypt’s phosphate exports. It fell into disuse but was rediscovered as a gateway to the Luxor area including Karnac’s Temple, Biban el-Muluk (Valley of the Kings) and the less impressive Valley’s of the Queens and Nobles. It is also a leading site for diving the Red Sea and mineral springs for therapeutic tourism. Since Noreen and I have visited Luxor and the surrounding area before we decided to stay close to town.
As we were leaving the port there were a large number of carts with personal goods from Egyptian workers returning from Kuwait. This picture shows what is done when labor is less expensive than using fork lifts. There were dozens of these carts moved around, all by manpower.
Loading a truck with the personal goods. No idea how it all stayed on but it did.
Picture of a old truck for the classic vehicle crowd.
We got a taxi to take us to a local resort. Entrance to the port. I think these guys are Day Labor types waiting for a job to come along.
I’m not sure what the cause was but the place was like a ghost town. We saw very few people on the street and a very large number of unfinished buildings. I would guess that there was a building boom which crashed with the world economy and these are projects waiting for funding. I don’t know that for sure. One thing that was definitely present was the military. Here are some shots of armored personnel carriers by the side of the road. While it not unusual to see armored vehicles parked in sight of the general public in many countries, the crews are usually sitting around under a tree or relaxing close by. Note these vehicles are manned and ready for deployment. Each of the soldiers on top has an automatic weapon ready to go. I took these pictures quickly as you usually can’t photograph military vehicles and I didn’t know what would happen if they saw me. There were several other vehicles I didn’t want to take a chance on photographing. We didn’t see any signs of political or general unrest.
Passing closer to the vehicle above on the way back.
The unfinished buildings. We never saw one workman or any signs of activity.
Some occupied apartments next to a mosque.
This is the way the road looked most of the time.
A local dive shop. Safaga is a great dive location. The lead time on stopping there was to short for me to setup a dive.
Safaga is also a terminal for night ferries sailing to other Red Sea ports. These are two night ferries getting ready.
Some overview shots. All the buildings you see in the picture below are unfinished construction. You can see the mountains in the background.
Some more unfinished buildings by the ocean taken from our ship.
We didn’t take a lot of pictures in Safaga. We went to a resort and I worked on the internet (you got the blogs) while Noreen shopped in the adjacent stores. This was a huge resort on the sea, nice beach, three swimming pools and all the amenities. They had 25 rooms occupied. Noreen and a friend were the only people in the stores. Earlier I commented on the unfinished buildings. I think the lack of tourists is a result of the political unrest and travel advisories. We would not have stopped here if the situation hadn’t changed and we were the first ship they had stop in a while. Noreen reported several very good purse package deals.
Not our usual blog report but I hope you found it interesting. See you next in Aqaba, Jordan.
Ken & Noreen
Very interesting and bewildering, that the construction wasn't scheduled in Phases. If it is that they ran out of money at least some buidings would be completed. Think how many thousands of years of construction experience in that country. Weird!
ReplyDeletewhat are they going to do with all that????
ReplyDeleteit looks like they were planning on a large amount of people to move in...just crazy.
When I was in Cairo a couple of years ago I was told they often didn't finish buildings (even after they moved in) because they were given a tax break on incomplete buildings. So, I saw a lot of buildings near there that didn't have the top couple levels complete. Not as many or as incomplete as the buildings you saw, which I imagine is more economy-driven as you suggested, but this tax thing could possibly factor in.
ReplyDeleteWe thoguht about the tax thing. That was also true in Some SOuth America countries. My posts form there show the unfinihed buildings. But these were totally vacant. No one lived in them at all.
ReplyDeleteKen