Egypt takes it easy

By JIM EAGLES

If I needed reassurance in the wake of the bomb blast at the Hilton Hotel in Taba it came in the demeanour of Egypt's tourist police.

The news came through when we were cruising the River Nile but, although the attack was in the same country, it didn't seem to have any relevance to us.

Then as the messages of concern came flowing in from relatives in New Zealand and England we began to have second thoughts. But the chaps guarding the tourist installations around Luxor, Aswan and Cairo were clearly not expecting any trouble.

They were as sleepy and casual as ever. So it seemed okay to relax and enjoy the ancient monuments without worrying about the risk of bombs.

Egypt has a great deal riding on its ability to prevent terrorist outrages. After 1997, when terrorists massacred 58 German tourists, the tourist industry collapsed and was only just starting to recover when the latest bombs went off.

It is a sign of the importance of those tourist dollars that pretty well anywhere visitors are likely to go is under special protection. For instance, at the Temple of Hatshepsut, where that earlier massacre occurred, you have to enter through a metal detector and all around are tourist police with automatic weapons.

The problem is that no one seems to take the security seriously. The detector beeps just about every time anyone walks through - I set it alight with a backpack containing a camera - but no one checks on the cause.

The guards are happy, smiling chaps whose automatic weapons, some patched up with insulation tape, are clearly not well cared for.

In a way that is comforting. They certainly don't look trigger-happy types who might pump off a few rounds at a tourist who accidentally steps over a barrier, but it's hard to imagine them worrying real terrorists.

Not far away in the Valley of the Workers the guards were enjoying a communal lunch when we arrived. Their guns were lying around, mostly far enough away from their owners that we could have picked them up.

Pretty much the same pattern applies everywhere in Egypt. Even at Cairo Airport the anti-terrorist precautions look rather a waste of time. At one stage I happened to sit behind the two security people x-raying baggage and they were so enthusiastically involved in a conversation that they rarely looked at the screen.

Things did change briefly after the news broke of the terrorist attacks at the Red Sea resorts.

For a few hours the security guards at the Isis Hotel in Aswan did use the metal detector properly, but before long things were back to normal and the beeps from cameras and mobile phones were smilingly ignored.

When we flew from Aswan to Cairo the day after the bombing the security checks were almost over the top. We went through a metal detector, a baggage x-ray and a hand-search at the entrance to the airport, had the same process at the departure lounge and then two guys wheeled a sort of tea trolley up to the foot of the steps to the plane and searched our hand baggage again.

But within a few days that, too, was back to the lackadaisical norm. When we flew out of Cairo there was a queue for the x-ray machine at the main entrance so we were waved to another door where there were no checks at all.

At the Ramses Hilton in Cairo we were advised that - considering the attack on its sister hotel in Taba - no vehicles would be allowed up to the front door. But after a bit of dithering, our van drove right up to the entrance, closely followed by a bus.

My impression is that most of the security measures are for show rather than anything else.

On the one hand, it's clear the Egyptians see tourists as dollars on legs and want them to feel protected. On the other hand, it must be hard to stay alert when there's no sense of danger.

During our time there we never felt the least bit threatened or unwelcome. On the contrary, the day after the massacre locals made a point of coming up to say, "Welcome to my country. We are happy to have you. Have a nice time."

Sadly for them, that may not help much. Even as they were offering those good wishes the Aswan agent for our travel company was saying, "We've already had cancellations and there will be many more".

Two days on, the agent in Cairo was going further: "It's a disaster for us. There is only one Egypt and for tourists a bomb in Taba is the same as a bomb in Cairo."

The reaction was much the same in other parts of the Middle East.

"It will be bad for all of us," said our guide in Amman. "Most people don't distinguish between Jordan or Egypt or Iraq, they just see the Middle East as dangerous and they stay away.

"Yet in reality Jordan is very safe, it is the safest country in the region. Our tourists have never been at risk."

It certainly seemed that way. The Jordanian security at airports was by far the most thorough and efficient we came across. If I felt safe in Egypt I felt even safer in Jordan.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which tends to err on the side of caution, seems to agree that the level of risk is minimal.

In fact, it rates Jordan and Egypt as pretty much the same level of risk as the Britain or the United States.

Its advisory notice on Jordan and Egypt says, "Be security conscious. Avoid crowded/landmark places. Possibility of terrorist action."

For Britain it says, "There is a heightened general and non-specific terrorist threat. The UK threat level remains at severe general. UK authorities acknowledge risk of terrorist attack in London and warn the public to be vigilant on all types of public transport."

And for the US, "There is an elevated general terrorist threat for the United States. The US Department of Homeland Security has raised the threat level for specific financial institutions within the US to high."

Of course, there is a risk in going to the Middle East. As we've seen in Taba and Jakarta, Madrid and Nairobi, bombs can go off anywhere.

But the reality is that you're much more likely to get hurt in a traffic accident than a terrorist outrage. Just a few days after I left, six tourists, including an Australian, were killed when their bus was in a collision just outside Cairo.

The only time I was scared during my few weeks in the Middle East was when our Jordanian Tourist Board driver swerved to avoid a dead donkey while doing 170km/h during a late-night drive to the Dead Sea.

I'd certainly go back to the Middle East again. It's a fascinating region. And life's too short to spend it worrying about where the next bomb may go off. But next time I'd prefer a slower driver.

* Jim Eagles and Alan Gibson travelled to the Middle East as guests of United Travel and Innovative Travel.