24th December 2003
Well, it certainly wasn't a good morning! Poor Guy was prostrate on the bed and very weak from a night worshipping the porcelain. I managed to pack all our possessions and went downstairs to pay the bill.
Returning to the room, Guy said he felt well enough to make the walk down to the Mohamed Ali Hotel, otherwise known as Club Red. In fact, he thought that would be preferable to facing a taxi driver in his weakened condition. So he staggered into his backpack and I carried the rest of our accoutrements, my backpack and the two daypacks and we made our way down to the Mohamed Ali, where we had booked a room the day before.

AND HERE IS A WARNING TO ALL YOUNG TRAVELLERS

Never, ever believe an Egyptian hotel clerk.

Having faithfully promised we would be able to move in at 11am we arrived to find "the previous guests will not leave until 12pm". Aaaargh! I pointed out Guy's desperate condition and said he couldn't possibly sit around in their courtyard (as they suggested) until then. So they reluctantly gave us a room for him to rest in until ours was ready.
I settled him into a comfortable bed and made off for breakfast. After a quick coffee and croissant, I returned to find Guy asleep. Not wishing to wake him, I sat outside in the courtyard. At 12pm, I walked across to reception to be told "They will be leaving at 1pm,Insh Allah."
Back to the courtyard where I met a pleasant chap called Mila who worked for the Dive Club at Club Red. I idly played with his kitten Balahat until it was time to go back to reception.
"Is our room ready now?" I asked. Then it all came out - they had actually given our room to someone else the previous night and had been waiting for the people in the next room to move out.
I asked to view the room, which was being cleaned. Checking it out, I pointed out that whilst it was very nice, it was not a patch on the one we had booked and no way were we going to pay the same rate. "Of course, we will come to an agreement later." said the clerk. And I returned to the courtyard to wait ... and wait.
Finally at 3.30pm I lost patience and marched up to the desk again. "Surely it is clean now!" "Well, yes, lady but we thought you would stay in the other room, as you have used it." (translate that as they had someone else at reception to whom they were trying to sell the room) No such luck. I turned to the other couple, explained what had happened and claimed the room as ours.
Then came the fun of moving everything up to the room and helping Guy make it from one bed to another. He was feeling slightly better but still only wanted to sleep. Lucky him, at least he had slept through all the drama. But on arrival in the new room he expressed his disappointment "It's not as nice as the other one." If he hadn't been sick, I would have killed him! After all I'd been through ....
The drama continued, with no lights and intermittent water, but we were both too exhausted to care ...

By evening, Guy was feeling better and ventured out on the balcony to view the parade. We saw our Kiwi friend Dane and invited him to come up on Christmas Day for a few drinks. Then we ventured into the back streets for a quiet meal - no seafood tonight!
At around 7.00pm, just when we had given up hope of Doug arriving, there was a knock on the door and there he was - exhausted after non-stop travelling from London to Tel Aviv, bus to Eilat and then bus to Taba, going through Immigration at Taba and then catching a taxi to Dahab. Two days non-stop, 3 countries. His Alitalia flight had been cancelled and he had been rerouted with El Al who had given him a thorough third degree on seeing his passport, with stamps from Sudan and Uganda (not the Israelis' most popular destinations). Unfortunately, he could only get a Sinai visa so is unable to travel to mainland Egypt. That means we will have to stay in Dahab for New Year also.
But we were so happy to see him. It had been almost a year since he left us in Perth to return to Nairobi for his Cairo to Capetown Carnage Tour and he and I celebrated accordingly.
Sitting on the balcony, we saw our friends Ana and Ivor and invited them up for a few drinks as they were leaving in the morning. When they left, Guy went back to bed and Doug and I went downstairs to book him a room. For EP10 he got a tiny room - just a double bed really - with no window but a lock on the door. Good value really and a sea breeze too as it was upstairs. Despite his exhaustion, Doug was still able to stay up till the wee small hours and chat to me about life in London, his girlfriend Melissa and his plans for the coming year.
Eventually we bade each other goodnight. Tomorrow was Christmas Day.