Greetings from prison Egypt.

The last week has been a study in frustration, followed by lessons in Egyptian police harassment, at least that's what it seems like. I submitted my application for a tourist visa to the Sudan Consulate in Cairo on 1 April and I'm still waiting! As I must pass through Sudan to get to Ethiopia, I am effectively blocked from moving south by land. It is possible to fly directly to Ethiopia and that will be my fall back strategy.

With time to kill while waiting for the next Sudan visa disappointment, I decided to head down toward Luxor stopping at any old somewhere along the way. The somewhere turned out to be Minya, the capital of the governorate where terrorists are suspected to be hiding as it turns out. There has been no terrorist action against tourists for eight years although the same group of bad guys is suspected to be responsible for a particularly brutal attack on police officers as recently as 1997. Foreign governments have been warning their nationals to avoid the area since 1992 and the Egyptian authorities have been working feverishly to eliminate any suspicion of danger to tourists.

Minya could be a typical medium sized Egyptian town with little to attract tourists, and in some ways that's what I found. It fancies itself at the gateway to one of the ancient archaeological tomb sites, Beni Hassan. That is the main reason I decided to stop there rather than a couple other towns along the way. Boy, was I in for a surprise! Little did I suspect I had stumbled into an area run like a police state. 

Most of the Egypt I've seen is more or less like everywhere else in the world: lots of good, wonderful people and sights plus a scattering of bad people and things. Minya, has been invaded by every branch of the existing and newly created civilian police services which are still searching for the Islamic extremists known to be responsible for the attacks on tourists almost a decade ago. One newspaper article at the time put the influx of special police personnel at a thousand, but even today there must be at least that many. Articles in the Al-Ahram Weekly On-line and censored articles from the Middle East Times told a different story of the late 1990's in Egypt, but the citations disappeared sometime before 30 August 2010. The security activity today is controversial and some critics say it is the police and their disregard for human rights that have led to more recent attacks on the anti-terrorist military-police personnel.

On the train from Cairo I shared my seat row with a good looking young guy with the Special Forces, the special police branch charged with protecting the antiquities and tourists from threats of all kinds including terrorists. He told me I could spot people from his branch by their black uniforms, which I subsequently saw everyplace I went in and around the town. He confirmed that the government still is VERY concerned that would be visitors to Egypt feel safe and all of the security activity is in place for that purpose.

My first personal encounter with the ubiquitous and heavily armed police security agents came as I left the Lotus Hotel to walk the town and check out other hotel possibilities. Someone dressed in a delebaya (Arabic robe) approached me like all the other hustlers in Egypt and said he would come along with me. I told him I didn't need or want any company and motioned him away. He slinked back, but the next time I looked around there he was. So, I took mild evasive action and lost him with little effort. When I reached the Hotel Etab, the "best hotel in town" and made arrangements to move over there the next day, a big guy who looked for all the world like an Egyptian version of Gunsmoke's Sheriff Mat Dillon, approached me: "You are the American, right? I saw you over at the Lotus Hotel." Surprised, I looked to the hotel manager for an explanation and he added "we have been hearing about you on the radio." (That's the police radio!)

It had been an hour's walk over to the new hotel so I agreed a cab back would make sense (the fare was only 2 Egyptian Pounds or about half a dollar). When I got back to the Lotus Hotel I learned that the "tout" I had alluded had been my official police escort. We all had a good laugh. Later in the evening I again went out to walk the town and my plain-clothes tourist police escort again tagged along. I let him know through gestures that I didn't want him too close to me and he more or less complied... I could always pick him out of the crowds around me not more than five meters away every time I looked, however.

The next morning I shouldered my backpack and headed out walking toward the Hotel Etab. I planned to walk part of the 7-8 Km and perhaps pickup a cab at some point. My police escort made a big fuss about the urgency of my getting a cab... he indicated he had already called one! I insisted on walking and much to his consternation, off I went with my distraught shadow in tow. I ended up walking the entire distance, my light blue robed watcher not far behind. At the hotel gate my guy and a half dozen other police personnel in various kinds of uniforms carried on animated discussions obviously about me.

The next day my new hotel manager and I had arranged for a driver and car to take me to the two principle archaeological sites in the region: Beni Hassen and Tell al-Amarna, ancient Egyptian tombs cut into the rock cliffs that run along the Nile from horizon to horizon. After checking into the hotel I got myself down to the lobby at the appointed 10:00AM time to meet the driver, but more arrangements needed to be completed before we could start our 80 km trek to the ruins. A blue pickup truck containing four well armed "soldiers" including one officer and one special forces guy in black finally arrived and our little convoy started off about 10:30; the truck leading the way and our small vintage sedan following. At seemingly every opportunity the truck would emit short bursts of its electronic siren to order pedestrians and other vehicles out of the way to allow our caravan to proceed unimpeded... or perhaps to attract attention to the very important dignitary they had in their custody.

We hadn't gotten far out of town before my driver began muttering something in Arabic. Then he pulled over to the side of the road holding in his hand the gearshift shaft which had fallen out! Fortunately, we had broken down right in front of a garage and a mechanic came promptly to our aid. At the same time the military escort jumped into action setting up a protective perimeter around our disabled vehicle. Every time I made a move one of the soldiers became agitated and repositioned himself. I started seeing humor in the whole charade and imagined myself some important foreign official, perhaps a president even. I pretended like the bad guys were after me and moved to a protective space between two buildings to make it easier for my protectors.

Finally, the car became operational again and off we started. Not more than 15 minutes later we again stopped on the instructions of the officer in the military truck ahead. "We are waiting for another escort detail," he told me in answer to my puzzled expressions.

Soon, an enormous armored personnel carrier arrived and pulled in ahead of the little truck. The military pickup truck full of solders peeled off and parked on the other side of the road where it apparently sat the entire time we were gone awaiting our return. Our tiny sedan inched up under the protecting "arms" of the huge military vehicle while the six men inside made preparations for leaving. Eventually, the high caliber machine gun manned and other automatic weapons at the ready we headed south on the road to the famous tourist attractions. After perhaps a half hour we again halted and learned that another "detail" would take us the rest of the distance. At the river an Egyptian Navy boat with armed sailors accompanied the ferry that took our car and us across the Nile to the foot of the cliffs on the east bank where all the tombs are located.

After all the preparations and excitement of the trip to get here, I am sorry to report the tombs themselves are hardly worth the trouble. Each room carved into solid rock measured perhaps 7 by 12 meters with ceilings about 6 or 7 meters high. All had elaborate paintings on the walls depicting the daily life of the deceased I am told. Big deal. I saw better up in Giza near the pyramids with much less trouble getting to them.

I hoped for something more spectacular at our next destination, Tell al-Amarna, represented in some ancient history books as the "Cradle of Civilization." Off we started... Goliath ahead, our rattling sedan following. The roads wound their way through several picturesque villages primitive by even Egyptian standards, our caravan attracting attention wherever we went. If there were bad guys out there looking for targets, they would have had no trouble finding us. I got to wondering if I might be bait to flush out the still hiding militants. I wish I could report how delightful were the new tombs, but to tell the truth, they looked identical to the ones at Beni Hassan earlier. While archeologists, no doubt find them a treasure trove of antiquity, I remained decidedly underwhelmed.

Anticlimactic is the best way to describe our return trip home. The big personnel carrier peeled off a short way back letting us proceed on through a couple check points unaccompanied until we reached our little blue pickup truck full of guys no doubt excited to see us after their hot wait by the side of the road where we had left them six hours earlier.

The next morning I planned a long conditioning walk. As I prepared to leave the hotel compound the "military" scurried to make sure I had the appropriate escort to tag along, a plain clothes guy carrying a concealed AK47 under his delabeia. I indicated my preference to walk alone, but they insisted on protecting me. During the entire two-hour walk this guy would interject himself into every encounter or conversation I initiated along the way... always telling the Egyptians something like: "This is an American. I am his assigned police bodyguard." As one of the people with whom I spoke knew perfect English I got an accurate translation of my escort's usual Arabic pronouncements. At other times people would hear his announcement and then look at me saying "Amerique?" and smile. A day later I met a fellow at a museum who was "licensed" to speak to foreigners who told me it is against the law to speak to foreigners on the street and an Egyptian in Minya can go to jail for it! This same routine repeated itself every time I left the hotel: to explore the town, to meet the people, to spend some time working on the Internet getting my PenCam pictures processed.

Finally, I'd had enough close police surveillance and told the hotel staff as much. "Oh. You may write out a statement saying you do not want a police escort, sign it and we will terminate the bodyguard service." Sign off on the city's responsibility to protect its visitors? You got to be nuts! What I did do was prepare a carefully worded statement of my observations that the police procedures in place here made things LESS secure for foreign visitors, in my opinion. I presented this to the hotel receptionist and asked that they tell the police to lay off, which they apparently did. My next walk did not include a shadow; though I now fear I actually just gave them the slip in the confusion of a new busload of guests arriving. The next time I left the hotel, here was the gang of police hovering around me and this time with an attitude, blocking my way as I attempted to rush away before they could get themselves organized. A block or two away from the hotel sure enough there was my trusty protector, this time slinking in the "shadows." By now I am really pissed. This is no way to run a railroad!

As I attempt to find an Internet cafe with all the features I need to process my camera, I am directed to the governorate (state capital) building where there is supposed to be an office to help tourists. Stumbling around inside the three-story structure I am finally directed to an office where a guy in his forties spoke good English. I explained my computer need and he made a phone call. When I enquired what might be his responsibility for the governorate (like a state in the U.S.), he informed me that he is the head of the "secret police."

Boy! Did I let him have it! He listened politely, had mint tea brought in, presented me with a little lapel pin and asked a number of questions about my experiences with his police officers. As I prepared to leave with one of his officers who had been instructed to take me to a place where I could use a computer connected to the Internet, there arose such a commotion that everything stopped and a couple officers hustled me back into the police chief's office. In a moment the chief returned to explain that the Governor General wanted to meet me!

With all the fanfare appropriate for a state governor we were led into a large waiting room and in a few minutes ushered into the presence of Governor General Hassan Hemeda who glanced up briefly to acknowledge our presence and continued to sign letters from a huge pile on his desk making the usual small talk as he did: "How do you like Minya; are you having a good time; etc." Finally, he directed his full attention to Mr. Mohammed Saeid, his head of the police operations who translated for us. "How have you found our efforts to protect foreign tourists?" he asked through the interpreter. For perhaps three or four minutes he listened while I detailed my observations and feelings, finally offering a few suggestions for making the escort activity less intrusive, less obtrusive.

The governor then launched into what must have been his canned speech about how everything now being done had been at the request of the major foreign embassies, the American and British in particular - crowing that after years of being black-listed by those countries, only two months ago Minya had once again been judged by the American Ambassador safe enough for American citizens!

Rising, the governor indicated we were approaching the end of our meeting and directed the waiting photographer to capture this historic meeting for posterity (what else?). I produced my little spy camera and he agreed to let his man take a picture of me shaking his hand, the hand of the guy ultimately responsible for all the misery I had been enduring. He then searched around in his desk drawers locating a souvenir folder with a cheap papyrus picture of Nefertiti, and a key chain with the governorate logo. He then invited me to sit down for a while and drink more mint tea and look through several large albums of photos featuring the attractions of his region.

I stayed on in Minya another night, but soon felt it time to move on as the police personnel around the hotel had obviously gotten the word that I am a trouble maker and their behavior around me got rather weird. People still followed me, but now I had to look hard to catch them at it. At the train station, the police knew me when I arrived and treated me like some special visiting dignitary... not overbearing, but very attentive, making sure I got my ticket and got on the correct train for Luxor (Is it possible that I had been gently run out of town again?).

Peace,
Fred L Bellomy

PS: From the Middle East Times (October 1993): "Hassan Abdel Latif MINYA Around 1,000 police, including anti-terrorist squads and Special Forces, launched a massive man-hunt in Egypt on 14 October for Islamic militants suspected of carrying out the bloodiest attacks against the police in five years." Note: this article is among many which were censored from the printed version of the paper. Though now purged from the on-line site, they made for interesting reading about problems in the Middle East and Egypt in particular. FB

 

Minya Egypt: Around the tombs of Beni Hassen near Minia (Minya) Egypt. At one point in ancient history people considered this the center of civilization.

Minya Egypt: This is Hassan Hemeda, the Governor General of Minia Governorate who summoned me to his office to hear first hand my complaints about the ways the police were "protecting" tourists. I had been talking unknowingly to the chief of the Governorate's "Secret Police," Mr. Mohamed Saeid.

Minya Egypt: Fishermen processing their catch in Minya Egypt. 

Minya Egypt: Butcher on the streets of old town in Minya Egypt. 

Minya Egypt: Sidewalk barber and his client invited me to capture their pictures for posterity. Very brave of them as talking to a foreigner can mean jail time in Minya!

Minya Egypt: These old guys watched me taking the pictures of the barber at work and indicated they wanted me to capture their souls as well. One sees many small groups of men like this just sitting around smoking and chatting on the streets of small towns everywhere in Egypt.

Minya Egypt: A view of the Nile near the Mercure Hotel. Here is another one of those strange and interestingly pruned trees.

Minya Egypt: One of the interestingly pruned trees along the narrow park that is next to the river near my hotel in Minia Egypt.

Minya Egypt: Sugar cane juice processing on the outskirts of Minya Egypt.

Minya Egypt: A one half horsepower cart - there are more of these than gasoline powered versions! At one point I saw a cart being pulled by a big mule and a small donkey... about one and a half horsepower I reckon.

Minya Egypt: A view of the Nile near the Mercure Hotel. Lovely, don't you think?

Minya Egypt: A view of the Nile near the Mercure Hotel. Enchanting.

 

End

 

 

Hello from the real Egypt.

After a short four-hour train ride from high security Minya I arrived unceremoniously in Luxor. Luxor is Luxor. Everything you have heard is true, a remarkable area, full of antiquities, monuments everywhere. The atmosphere is festive and most of the people dealing with tourists try to make visitors feel welcome. The street hustlers and touts are an exception, of course.

I'm going to leave my further thoughts on Luxor for future conversations as this has already gotten so long no one is going to be able to read it without at least one bathroom break.

Peace,
Fred L Bellomy
 

 

Luxor Egypt: Luxor Temple built to allow the rays of the sun god to shine on the interior. 

Luxor Egypt: Elaborately illustrated walls in base relief at Luxor Temple in Egypt.

Luxor Egypt: Closer shot of the columns within the temple ruins at Karnak in Luxor Egypt: note the people using the "benches" around the bases of each column.

Luxor Egypt: Self portrait of the photographer . 

Luxor Egypt: Inside the open air temple at Karnak Temple: note the "benches" around the bases of each column.

Luxor Egypt: In and around the ruins at Karnak Temple: so many tour groups. This shot shows the scale of things inside the temple ruins.

Luxor Egypt : At Luxor Temple.

Luxor Egypt: Closer shot of the columns within the temple ruins at Karnak: note the people using the "benches" around the bases of each column.

Luxor Egypt: Designs on the columns at Karnak Temple

Luxor Egypt: Some of the structures are extraordinarily beautiful within the complex of temple ruins at Karnak Temple

Luxor Egypt: Swarms of foreign tourists visit the temple ruins at Karnak Temple

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 1

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 2

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 3

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 4

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 5

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 6

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 7

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 8

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 9

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 10

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 11

Close up of the illustrated wall at Karnak Temple complex in Luxor Egypt. 12

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings. West bank area of Luxor on the way to the Valley of the Kings: the Colossi of Memnon.

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings. many of the tombs are in the process of being restored. Others are still being excavated.

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings. "Don't touch the walls!"

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings: here work is actively underway to restore one of the tomb entrances.

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings: an excavation pit which seems to have yielded nothing. The landscape is pocked by such shallow holes everywhere.

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings.

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings.

Luxor Egypt: In the Valley of the Kings.

Luxor Egypt: The train ride extortionist. This is the grin I got when I pointed out he didn't collect anything from anyone else. I think he had seen my tiny camera by now. Sellers of everything were short changing tourists right and left or collecting non-existent fees.

Luxor Egypt: Valley of the Nobles area.

Luxor Egypt: Another view of the Valley of the Nobles area

Luxor Egypt: Valley of the Queens. This tomb is closed for restoration.

 

End

 

 

Hello from the border with the Sudan.

At the moment I am in Aswan, the gateway to the Sudan by boat. There is a weekly (09:00 Mondays) boat from Aswan to Wadi Halfa where the railhead there connects with Khartoum daily. The latest information I got from the many telephone conversations to a Mr. Mohammed Seleman, assistant to the man in charge of the visa section at the consulate, is that it might be easier to get a transit visa. So, that's what I'll be trying when the consulate is again open tomorrow, Sunday (everything closes Friday and Saturday in the Arab world).

Peace,
Fred L Bellomy

 

This guy never seemed to move from this spot the entire time I walked the streets of Aswan. Also, he slept a lot.

Those same lightening rods in Aswan again: an art shot through a strange pedestrian barrier.

Typical street scene in the older section of Aswan. Here a merchant displays his selection of spices.

A view from my hotel room in Aswan. That is the Nile in the background.

Colorful street scene in the older section of Aswan.

 

End

 

 

Hello again from Luxor.

Chances are you are getting this postcard out of order, but you know the postal services.

I am sending it mainly to mention the pictures I took while down in Aswan waiting for my Sudan visa to come through. My plan had been to take the boat to Wadi Halfa in Sudan and the train on down to Khartoum. But as you know, that didn't work out. So, I'm heading back up to Cairo with this two night stop in Luxor waiting for a convenient train schedule.

Feeling frustrated,

Peace,
Fred L Bellomy

PS: We won. Egypt has adopted anti-smoking laws as forward looking as those in California. F

Luxor Egypt: In and around the complex of temple ruins at Karnak Temple

Luxor Egypt: Valley of the Nobles area. That's my cab sitting there. In the background can be seen many of the cliff openings of tombs.

 

End

 

 

Greetings from Cairo (again),

I first approached the Sudan Consulate here in Cairo on 27 March about 15:00 after they had closed for the day (and weekend) and learned the next time they would be open would be Sunday, the first day of their week. So, application in hand I completed all the paperwork and submitted everything on 1 April. The clerk told me to return in one week for my visa. That's when I decided to head over to Matrouh on the north coast. When I returned after the elapsed week they took my passport and directed me to a dusty "reception" area free of confining walls. There I sat for 8 hours while multiple dramas unfolded as desperate applicants and harried consulate staff milled around shouting at one another. An hour after the posted public business hours elapsed a guy came out with a briefcase full of passports and began passing them out to anxious... over anxious people who could not wait to hear their name called. The mad scene finally ended and my name had not been called and my passport had disappeared. Now I got frantic and finally some new face showed up and handed me back my passport saying no visa had been approved. No one spoke understandable English, but finally a guy (who turned out to be the head of the visa section) showed up and suggested I call one of two numbers he gave me in a "few days."

That began a month of stalling and avoidance on their part. Since then I have called them - or more precisely tried to call them as no one answered either number with any regularity - several times a week as I filled the time with visits to Minya, Luxor, Aswan and back. Finally back in Cairo and desperate I contacted the U.S. Consulate Citizen Services Section and pleaded with them to intervene on my behalf... which they did, but to no avail. They did manage to get the name and phone number of the Sudan Cultural Attaché and suggested I contact him emphasizing the journalism aspects of my planned visit to Sudan. Mr. Basit graciously received me, listened to my sad tale and brightened up considerably when I mentioned my plan to retrace the route used by Michael Palen in the BBC TV series: Pole to pole. In a few minutes he had summoned the head of the visa section who eventually showed up with my file, explaining the actions he had taken on my behalf without success so far: several Fax messages had passed back and forth between Cairo and Khartoum in the preceding weeks. He promised to get me an answer by "tomorrow" and instructed me to call him at his private cell phone number between 10:00 and 16:00. Buoyed by all this attention and what seemed like a near guarantee of success finally, you can be sure I called him, and called him about 10:05 the first time. The phone had been turned off! Still undaunted, I tried the number every 15 minutes for the next hour and then every hour until about 17:00. He never turned on the damn phone the entire day!

I decided they just didn't want to talk to me and started making alternate arrangements to bypass Sudan on my way south. At least once a day I would again try the phone number, always finding it busy or unanswered. Now it is 7 May and I finally got someone to pick up the phone, the visa chief himself. "You still in Cairo?" he asked in response to my obvious question about the status of my visa request. "Yes I am." I politely answered. Suddenly his perfect English changed to something unintelligible. Eventually, in response to my repeated prodding he made it known that they had heard nothing in the affirmative from Khartoum.

So, I'm off to Nairobi a little after midnight tomorrow, 8 May. I got a ticket that will allow me to connect to Lagos Nigeria in a few months, planning to do my exploring of the east African area as far south as Victoria Falls and then return to Nairobi to fly over to the west side of the continent. "Plans" could change of course, but that is the rough schedule.

Love getting letters from home; so don't hesitate to write me with news, good wishes or whatever. (cont.)

Peace,
Fred L Bellomy

 

Cairo Egypt: Typical street scene in Old Cairo: sometimes it is hard to tell where the shops end and the alleyways begin.

Cairo Egypt: Typical street scene in Old Cairo: half the shop is usually on the sidewalk... when the cars aren't parked there.

 

End