10/16/2000 -- We're sorry for our lack of current pictures or journal entries. We have both been
feeling "under the weather". Other than attending a lunch with the Rotarians yesterday, we
haven't even left the hotel since we arrived in Bahrain. Although we are feeling a little
better today, we're still taking it slow.
The flight from Hurghada to Luxor for fuel and then on to Bahrain made for a very
long day. We started at 9am in Hurghada. Dealing with the people and all the
paper work at the airports in Egypt is a terrible experience. Everyone wants
a tip and is ready with their hands out. It is much simpler to give them money than to
deal with all the trouble that they can bring upon you if they are unhappy
with you. We spent a few hours giving the plane a complete check before
we headed out. We took off into the sunset headed West for the first time
since we left Rochester.
The same problems with the airport employees continued at Luxor. The fuel guy
wanted a tip and only took payment in American cash, in which we were quickly
depleting. A fight nearly broke out between our handler and the other
handling company as we were walking to the plane. Our handler initially told us it was
fine to walk to the plane, however Egypt Air's representative felt quite
differently. After several minutes of yelling and waving hands, our handlers
stomped off to the tower to confirm that we can indeed walk to our plane. The walk was only about a quarter of a mile, and if we had been forced to take the bus it would have cost $50 USD.
The flight to Bahrain was relatively uneventful. Both Dan and I were
feeling a little under the weather. As we neared Bahrain we watched the sun
come up over the horizon. When we touched down in Bahrain it had been over 8
hours since we had started the engines in Egypt. We were lucky to have an excellent
handler in Manama and within an hour we were in our hotel room, finally putting an end
to our long and challenging day. Tomorrow we head out to see the sights of
Bahrain. The amazing thing is you can drive to anywhere in the country in
under 45 min. I can't even make it half way across Houston in 45 min.
