Weekly Update #3

Guess what? I’m in first place! Go Team Sara!
Vote here!– keep me in the Number One spot.

Thanks to all who have taken the time to help promote my entry on your Twitter and Facebook accounts. I cannot express my gratitude enough.

It was suggested I make a second support video to get more of my personality out there. So I did! I’ve also included a short travel story.
Check it out on Youtube here

Extra Sara travel adventure of the week:

I took my first solo trip to Egypt. I had always been intrigued by Ancient Egyptian civilization and becoming an Egyptologist was my original goal when I entered university.

I stopped in the resort town of Hurghada to squeeze in some Red Sea snorkeling. Hurghada was a sleazy tourist trap but it gave me a break from sand and temples. The vast majority of tourists were Russian and I was in the minority as an English speaker.

After a day of snorkeling, vans came to the dock to take passengers back to their hotels. The trip ran long and my bus to Cairo was scheduled to leave shortly. I felt a bit nervous but thought I still had plenty of time to catch my bus.

Before entering the van I showed the driver my hotel business card (with the address in Arabic) and he nodded his head. I sat in the back of the van and multitudes of Russian holiday-makers filled the seats. It was quite loud with incessant Russian chattering and the radio blaring the latest Arabic pop music.

The van drove for quite awhile and dropped Russians off at their various hotels. I was not familiar with the town and patiently waiting to see the façade of my hotel.

When the van was almost empty I started to panic. Where was my hotel? It shouldn’t take this long. Where is the driver going?

I was at the very back of the van and tried yelling out to the driver. He did not understand English and waved his hand.
The van turned into the open desert. It was just the driver, one Russian couple and myself. I continued to try to get the driver’s attention but he ignored me and turned up the music.

The van drove for about 20 minutes and arrived at a gaudy Russian resort hotel. The Russian couple exited the van and the driver motioned for me to leave. I shook my head and gave him the hotel business card again.

The driver’s face turned bright red and he exploded at me in Arabic. He continued to motion for me to leave the van and I refused. We started attracting the attention of the Russian resort security staff and the driver looked a bit nervous. He closed the van door and we started back out in the desert.

I felt relief thinking he was finally going to take me to the correct hotel. The driver had other plans.
He drove me to a random spot in the desert behind some sand dunes and told me to get out . The sun was blazing hot. I had no water or a map and was wearing flip-flops.

There had been a tourist bombing in a sister resort town a few days earlier and tension were high. I had seen men with machine guns riding atop camels roaming around in the area. I knew it was not safe for me to be wandering around along a random desert road.

I was not so concerned about catching the Cairo bus anymore – I was getting afraid for my life.

The man was quite aggressive in trying to get me to leave his van. There was no possible way I was leaving my seat. Just when I thought he was going to start pulling me out by my feet – he relented. I thought it was a miracle.

He got back into the van and drove me to my hotel. The driver got out and started yelling at the hotel manager.
I had arrived at the hotel with a few minutes before my bus to Cairo left. I did not want to spend a second night in this horrible town. I grabbed my backpack and got to the bus station just as the bus was pulling away. Luckily, my flailing arms caught the bus driver’s eye and he stopped to let me aboard.

This experience taught me to excessively pester drivers to ensure they understand where I want to go. I was too polite and should have made my hotel location more clearly from the beginning of the journey.

You can vote daily until April 30 – 17 days left
Vote here!

Remember Canadians could win a $500 Air Canada travel voucher.