Going to Cairo for Christmas (Christmas II)

When I was in Jerusalem I met some Christian missionaries (Kim, Rachel and Matt) who are working in Cairo. They were also in town to go to Bethlehem for Christmas. They invited me to spend Christmas with them on the Coptic Christmas date which is January 7th. I did not think I would be in Cairo by then, but when I found out that the ferry from Sharm to Hurgada was not running on the day I wanted to leave Dahab, I thought it might be nice to have Christmas in Cairo too!

It was about a 9 hour bus ride from Dahab to Cairo (bus goes under the Suez canal).

A few observations:
* Egypt has alot of desert. Which is mostly just sandy mountains with plastic bags flying in the wind

* Checkpoints. There are checkpoints scattered through Egypt. I believe these checkpoints are run by the 'tourist' police and appear to me to be a sort of counter attack against fundamentalist violence or perhaps they are a form of internal border control to track people moving within the country.
The typical checkpoint has a road block with a few gates and barriers, with about 6 soldiers. One or two are stopping each car and visually checking out the passengers and occasionally checking each passport. Two more are behind thick shields which are each just big enough to protect one person. Then there are two or more behind machine guns on towers or on the back of a truck.

Now, after seeing checkpoints in both Israel and now Egypt, I think that checkpoints are just a common part of living in the Middle East.

BTW, they had dogs check all of the luggage before going under the Suez canal.

* Rain in Egypt! There was rain while we were on the bus. Everyone in the bus got really excited when it started to rain and were looking out the windows at the streets that were flooding. It was dark, but in the city I could see a few kids playing with the rain as it fell illuminated by a street light. Kinda like how we might try and catch snowflakes on a first snow.

* Arab movies on the bus. They showed three movies on the bus. All in Arabic and all featuring the same hero: A man in his 40s with slick hair and bulging eyes. A couple comedies and an action/adventure type movie from what I could tell.