A "Dangerous" Trip for Two Women (Jordan) ① - A Travel Companion I Don't Get Along With, "Oh No!"

↑ We were suddenly dropped off in a place like this.

"Get off, the bus is broken."

Huh?

It was on the way back from a trip to Jordan.

In Jordan, no physical trouble had occurred, and this was after we had crossed the border and returned to the Sinai Peninsula on the Egyptian side.

There were only three foreigners on the long-distance bus: myself, my friend Hiromi (a pseudonym), and a young British man I didn't know.

"The bus won't move anymore, so everyone get off here."

It was true that for a while now, the driver had been endlessly inspecting and tinkering with various parts of the vehicle. But it seemed it just wouldn't be fixed.

In Japan, where I was born and raised, I have never once had a public bus, taxi, or train "break down" while I was riding it,

but why do these things happen so many times in Egypt, where I have only lived for a few years?

There was nothing around us, just desert. Just endless desert, desert, desert. I think the scenery hasn't changed since before the Common Era.

"..."

We looked at each other.

Actually, my friend Hiromi and I had been on bad terms during the Jordan trip (or more accurately, from the very start of the trip), and even on the long-distance bus ride back, we sat in completely separate seats and hadn't spoken a word to each other.

We each silently stared out the window, played Tetris, or listened to a CD Walkman with earphones, ignoring each other's existence.

And then, we were just tossed out into the desert at night.

It is not pitch black because there are many stars, but there are no shops, no neon lights, and no other cars passing by. There is nothing but the desert.

There was some friction unique to traveling with another woman, and we were both annoyed and giving each other the cold shoulder, but we couldn't afford to be like that anymore.

"Hiromi-san, I wonder what will happen."

"Lolo-san, what should we do?"

Desert nights are cold, even in summer. It's freezing. We're also hungry. The other bus passenger, a young British man, was in the same boat. He was pale and lanky like a bean sprout. He looked even colder than we were.

The bean sprout guy just happened to be on the same bus as us and was a total stranger, but he also looked very anxious and kept talking to us.

"Lolo-san, coyotes and wolves don't come out in the desert, do they?"

Hiromi-san asked. She was shivering from the cold and fear. We couldn't afford to be at odds with each other anymore.

By the way, even though she called me "Lolo-san" with an honorific, she was much older than me, around her late thirties.

"I don't think they do, but there might be scorpions..."

"Scorpions! Eek!"

When Hiromi-san screamed,

"Whoa, wh-what happened!?"

the British bean sprout guy jumped.

Just as I was about to answer, "It's nothing," I saw a bus coming from behind.

It must be a long-distance tour bus. Only tour buses travel on desert roads like this. The Bedouins use camels.

Our driver jumped into the middle of the desert road and waved his arms frantically. The approaching bus then screeched to a halt just a short distance away.

When I looked, it was a very dilapidated local long-distance bus.

High-end long-distance buses, which are almost exclusively for foreign tourists, have windows, air conditioning, and clean, comfortable seats.

However, the long-distance buses used by many Egyptian migrant workers have almost no paint on the exterior, no windows, and no air conditioning.

Furthermore, the seats are tattered. It is not uncommon for fleas to be hopping around.

The bus that had just appeared out of nowhere on the desert road at night was the latter, the dilapidated long-distance bus.

The drivers' appearances were also completely different; our driver was wearing a collared shirt, a tie, and proper leather shoes.

On the other hand, the driver of the dilapidated bus was wearing a turban, a galabeya, and sandals. He looked like nothing more than a farmer.

The drivers spoke to each other. They quickly reached an agreement, and our leather-shoed driver said,

"All three of you, transfer to that one."

In truth, I didn't want to get on a bus that looked like nothing more than a piece of junk. But we weren't in a position to be picky.

We didn't know when the next bus would pass by on this desert road at night, and if we were unlucky, we would be sleeping outside until morning.

"Let's get on."

The three of us boarded the bus one by one. But we were all shocked. Completely shocked.

Inside, there were only soldiers in camouflage uniforms.

We heard later that they were young men serving in the military, on their way back to Cairo for leave.

The soldiers looked just as surprised as I was.

Well, of course they were. Two Japanese women and a British man had suddenly piled into their bus in the middle of an empty desert.

"Sit wherever you like."

When the driver of the beat-up bus said that in his countrified, southern-accented Arabic, the group in camouflage uniforms all at once

"Pst, pst!"

signaled to us.

"The English man doesn't need to come here, the Yabaniya (Japanese woman) should come here."

"Welcome to Egypt!"

"The Yabaniya sits next to me, the English man sit over there."

"Welcome to Egypt!"

"No, the Yabaniya should come to me. If only the English guy were a woman too. Tsk, he's a man..."

"Welcome to Egypt!"

The "Welcome to Egypt" that kept popping up like a chorus was noisy, but I quickly sat down next to the soldier in the front row.

I figured there might be fewer fleas there than in the back seats, and I thought being near the driver would be safer in case of any sexual harassment.

There was one more reason, too. The soldier in the front row was the best-looking one.

Hiromi-san glared at me with a terrifying expression as I quickly sat down in the front and started chatting with the handsome soldier next to me.

Then, reluctantly, she plopped down next to a chubby soldier a few rows back who had large nostrils and looked like a Moomin.

The scrawny British guy also sat near us, but he was immediately...

"Do you have any British cigarettes?" "Do you have anything stylish from Britain?" "Won't you exchange British pounds for Egyptian pounds?"

As they started to pester (tease) us with things like that, Moyashi-kun's face turned even paler.

And after this, we ended up traveling all the way to Cairo with a group of people in camouflage military uniforms for nearly 10 hours.

【Departure】

That was about a week 'before' that.

I suddenly thought I wanted to go to Jordan. I was planning to just go there quickly by myself.

Then

"May I come along too?"

Hiromi-san raised her hand.

She was a woman who hadn't been in Egypt for very long.

Apparently, when she participated in an Egypt tour before, she became enchanted by Egypt, quit her job, and came here to study abroad.

But she was attending a language school in Cairo, thinking she should learn English before Arabic.

I met her, who was in the Arabic class, at the school's small break area (cafeteria).

She was a frank, mature woman.

When we met at school, we would chat, she would give me advice on various things even though I was much younger, and we would visit each other's apartments and go out to eat together many times.

We had never argued, had any trouble, or spoken ill of each other behind our backs.

So, when Hiromi-san said to me,

"Actually, I have an Egyptian boyfriend, but he's married..."

"I'm struggling with a lot of things and want to think, so I want to get away from Egypt for a bit. I'd like to join you on your trip to Jordan, Roro-san."

I was actually happy when she asked me.

I had traveled to Lebanon with another Japanese female friend, Yukki, before, and it was quite fun.

So I thought my trip with Hiromi-san would also be harmonious. I didn't even consider the difference in personality between Yukki and Hiromi-san at all...

The morning we headed to Jordan.

I had arranged to meet Hiromi-san directly in front of the Cairo Sheraton Hotel, where the long-distance bus departs and arrives.

The bus was scheduled to depart at 6:00 AM. So I arrived at 6:00.

However, Hiromi-san had arrived at the bus stop in front of the hotel at 5:30.

"Roro-san, you weren't coming at all, so I was nervous. Honestly, I was really worried."

She was completely sulking. But I thought, "Huh, why?"

Since it was scheduled to depart at 6:00 and I arrived exactly at 6:00, I actually thought I was "too early."

In fact, a group of other passengers, Italians and Spaniards, didn't show up until 6:30.

As expected, the bus scheduled to depart at 6:00 actually left at 6:40, and in Egypt, saying it departs at 6:00 is...

nothing more than meaning "you'll be fine if you gather around 6:00."

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Unlike the bus ride back from Jordan to Cairo, the bus departing from Cairo to Jordan was almost full. Whether it was just a coincidence or not, everyone except the two of us was a European backpacker.

By the way, a one-way ticket from Cairo to Jordan is about 2,000 to 3,000 yen. I suspect the price for Egyptians is probably about a third of that.

As soon as the bus departed,

"Let's discuss our itinerary once we arrive in Jordan."

Hiromi said, pulling out a paper-thin "Chikyu no Arukikata (Globe-Trotter) - Syria, Lebanon, Jordan Edition" guidebook. For the record, I would have just torn out the Jordan pages, stapled them together, and brought them on the trip.

"Huh? What exactly are we supposed to discuss?"

Then Hiromi let out a big sigh.

"First of all, we have to decide what we're going to do once we arrive in Jordan and get to our hotel in Wadi Rum, don't we?

We need to decide where to eat dinner, what time we'll leave the hotel the next morning, and how we'll get to the Petra ruins.

And we have to plan everything up until the final day, like what we're doing the day after tomorrow, don't we?"

Her tone was just like a teacher's, but then I remembered. She was actually a school teacher.

"..."

I was so surprised that my mouth hung open.

I mean, we don't even know what time we'll arrive (schedules are never set in stone), and we won't know how things are until we actually get there.

We can decide what to do from tomorrow onwards as we go. Isn't that what a carefree individual trip is all about... Being chased by a schedule is enough for guided tours.

"Well, Roro, you hadn't thought of anything at all. Isn't that hopeless?"

"..."

I want to retort in many ways, but it's hard to argue with a former teacher who is about a dozen years older than me.

When I endure it and stay silent,

"Roro, you're still young, so if you want to fix it, you can fix your sloppy personality. Don't worry, okay?"

"You're the one who ended up having an affair with an Egyptian, so you're the sloppiest one of all."

I thought that, but if I said this, it would be the end... I swallowed it hard.

Even though we are traveling to Jordan together, we haven't even left the streets of Cairo, Egypt yet.

【On the way】

Sinai Peninsula

On the way to Jordan, there were several breaks.

All the passengers would get off, use the pit toilets at the shack-like rest stops, or drink Nescafe/Lipton.

Every time the bus stopped, the driver would use the microphone to

"10 minutes, rest"

He announced things clearly like that. (Please imagine the R in 'rest' being rolled in an incredibly exaggerated way...)

However, even though they were clearly told "only 10 minutes," the Italian and Spanish teams never returned within the time limit. Even when the frustrated driver went to call them, they didn't hurry at all.

When they returned late, even though all the other passengers waiting in the bus were glaring at them, they were leisurely chatting away.

After the first break, the driver must have thought, "At this rate, those guys (the Italians and Spaniards) are going to be late every single time we stop."

So, even though the microphone was still on, he started complaining.

"It's always, always like this. The Italiano and Español guys never keep time.

"And the only ones who are always excellent are Armani (Germany) and Yaban (Japan). At this rate, I'm worried about the rest of the trip to the final stop.

"We're going to be quite late again."

It was in Arabic, but since various country names came up, everyone could guess what he was grumbling about.

However, the Italians and Spaniards in question were unresponsive.

They had taken over the back seats of the bus and were getting excited playing a game of UNO. So they didn't even notice the driver's complaints over the open microphone.

Meanwhile, Hiromi-san was in a bad mood and sulking.

"Honestly, making everyone wait like that, what terrible people they are. But the driver is also at fault, isn't he? He should warn them directly.

"Hey, since you can speak the language, Roro-san, why don't you tell the driver that? The driver really needs to firmly lecture those Italians.

"So, I want you to convey that to the driver, Roro-san."

"..."

Absolutely not. That's why,

"Hey, that's impossible."

"...Understood."

And then Hiromi-san turned her back on me, sitting next to her, and started looking out the window again.

I had thought she was a much calmer and more mature woman until now. But, she must be thinking various things about me too. Well, when you go on a trip, you see different sides of each other.

"Ah, I want to go back to Cairo soon"... and we haven't even entered Jordan yet.

"Can't be helped, I guess I'll play some Tetris..."

Now, how will this Jordan trip turn out!?

To be continued

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