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Protests take gloss off dream holidays to Egypt
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Protests take gloss off dream holidays to Egypt
AFP - Monday, January 31
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Protests take gloss off dream holidays to Egypt
CAIRO (AFP) - – En route to Cairo, Dave whipped out his mobile phone camera for a snapshot of the front page of a newspaper showing the Egyptian capital in flames.
"A souvenir of the start of our vacation," explained the Canadian as he looked forward to visiting the pyramids and sailing on the Nile despite waves of protest washing over the ancient land of the pharaohs.
"I hope things calm down during the week we will be spending here," added Dave, in his fifties, as he and his wife prepared to disembark in Cairo, epicentre of protests that have claimed more than 100 lives since Tuesday.
"We had planned this trip for a long time and we did not want to cancel it at the last minute."
The itinerary of the Brussels-based couple includes a night in Cairo, a visit to the pyramids, a cruise up the Nile ending in Luxor and, to cap it all, a stay on the sunny beaches of the Red Sea in Sharm el-Sheikh.
It would be a dream vacation but for the most populous nation in the Arab world -- a top Middle East tourist destination -- exploding in street protests demanding the end of President Hosni Mubarak's regime after 30 years.
With few taxis plying streets crowded with angry protesters and littered with debris of six days of protests, many attractions within the city centre are off limits to all but the most determined of tourists.
And the Egyptian National Museum, home to thousands of Egyptian antiquities, including the death mask of King Tutankhamun, has shut its doors after an attempted robbery that left two of its mummies severely damaged.
Cairo may not be living its best moment, but in the airport arrivals hall, Andrea could not stop smiling as she approached passport control and the realisation of a childhood dream.
"I bought this trip to celebrate my 30th birthday," the Australian told AFP. "I've been dreaming about it since I was little."
But then a young woman dressed in a niqab cut the conversation short. She introduced herself as Sarah and questioned the wisdom and timing of Andrea's trip.
"We are going through a very bad moment in Egypt now," Sarah said. "I advise you to leave. The situation will only get worse."
Sarah explained that she had returned from London earlier than expected because she had wanted to join her family after seeing on television the scale of the unrest.
"Here, it's chaos. Frankly, Egypt is our country so we have to live with what is happening, but you, you should not stay here," Sarah said.
Visibly shaken, Andrea kept quiet and wondered if her childhood dream is not about to become a nightmare, when the immigration officer signalled her to to forward and inspected her passport.
David and his wife had travelled on a half-empty weekend flight from Zurich that was originally fully-booked. Half of the 228 passengers cancelled their bookings, according to a flight attendant on board.
Most Western governments have cautioned their citizens against travel to Egypt in light of the protests, while the United States on Sunday announceed it was starting to evacuate its nationals.
Civil unrest has paralysed the tourism sector, a pillar of Egypt's economy.
Australia on Sunday upgraded its travel warning for Egypt from "reconsider your need to travel" to "do not travel", and advised those already in the country to get out if possible.
Turkey meanwhile said it was sending two airliners to repatriate around 750 Turkish citizens from Cairo and Alexandria.
In 2010, Egypt registered a record influx of 14,7 million tourists, who put an estimated 12.5 to 13 billion dollars into the economy.
When Dave and his wife met their travel agent in Cairo, they learned that they were the only ones to have kept their bookings. Six others had thrown the towel and cancelled their plans.
Another unpleasant surprise awaited beyond the immigration counters -- a big crowd of tourists sprawled on benches in the departures hall, waiting for a flight out of Egypt.
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