Not Exactly Ice Cold In Alex

I'm in Alexandria for the evening. It's not quite the place I'd imagined it to be from reading Laurence Durrell's 'The Alexandria Quartet', though I suppose it does have a faded sort of charm despite the disappearance of virtually everything that made it one of the very greatest cities of the Ancient World. Michael Palin described it as like Cannes with acne, which strikes me as generous. To my mind it's more like a post apocalyse Bournemouth, only with a lot more sunshine and far fewer grannies. It's just an overnight stop really, as I have to catch a bus in the morning to the Libyan border, in order to catch up with my latest group who I mislaid a few days ago in Cairo.

I've just about managed not to tire of classical ruins in the past couple of weeks. This is something of an achievement as there really are rather a lot of them in Egypt. Our couple of days sailing down the Nile in feluccas provided a welcome respite in which to summon the energy to tackle Luxor, home of the superlative Karnak Temple, the Valley of the Kings and a whole bag of other Pharoanic bits and bobs which would simply astonish in isolation, but which can almost seem missable in this neck of the woods.

The shame in a way is that Egypt as a country does not live up to the splendour of its heritage. I've found the people and general atmosphere here among the least appealing of the entire trip. You are hassled constantly and in a much more unpleasant manner than in India, and you often encounter examples of flagrant deception where people backtrack on an agreed price in order to extract more money from you. Of course it's not a wealthy place and the people lead hard lives and are poorly paid. But the same is true in many of the places I have visited in the Middle East and elsewhere, and in these cases I have found the people more courteous and honourable in their dealings. All in all, I'm quite looking forward to escaping to Libya (which is probably not a statement you read very often).

Still the departure is tinged with sadness as well. In the past few weeks I've broken the habit of falling in love with the countries I've visited, by going for a fellow traveller instead. It's been the highlight of my trip around the Eastern Mediterranean, but the inevitable point of parting was reached after a final few days sojourn in Cairo, exploring the nooks and crannies of the Islamic and Coptic quarters. Still, we plan to meet for further travel in a few months time which is a very exciting prospect. I feel sure old Ibn Battutah would approve. He was quite a fan of Cairo and his Travels are full of references to his many medieval travel romances.