My Egyptian adventure

[Stan_Lite]

I just returned back from Egypt yesterday - just in time by the look of things.

I went out to work on the 18th January and spent a week working on the equipment for my rig in the yard. When that was finished, I was told that the date for the rig repairs and subsequent tow to it's new location had been delayed until at least the 6th of February so I was sent out to another rig which had come to the end of it's contract. I was to assist the team on there to dismantle our equipment on there for removal.

I went out to that rig on the 25th January - the day the protests began. We did the work required whilst closely watching television reports on the escalating protests and violence. We finished the work on Saturday 29th but were told by the clients - BP - that we could not leave the rig until our safety could be assured (as contractors to BP, they have a duty of care not to place us in a position of danger). In the ensuing days several possible routes out were mooted. The original plan was for us to leave with the rig. The rig was scheduled to move on Sunday to it's new location in Israel. It was due to stop at Cyprus for 10 days for some preparatory work before it's new contract. I liked the sound of that plan - a 3 day tow to Cyprus and a couple of days there before heading home. The only fly in the ointment was that, before the rig could move, there had to be a visit from immigration (to stamp everybody's passports) and customs (to seal the bond for the move). Given the situation in the country, this was never going to be easy.

When it became clear this was going to take some time, BP suggested by conference call to town that the rig should just pull anchors and leave without waiting for government officials. It would appear that communications were being monitored as, a few hours later, an Egyptian navy ship appeared and started circling the rig preventing any action. This also scuppered BP's other plan of taking their employees and those of service companies directly employed by them (including us) to Cyprus on one of the supply vessels. With these plans unworkable, BP had to come up with something else. We were woken at 06:00 on Tuesday 1st February and told to get our stuff together as BP had arranged a charter flight from Cairo to the UK. We would be leaving the rig by chopper for Alexandria and getting a fixed wing flight directly from Alexandria to Cairo airport, thus avoiding any travel on mainland Egypt. The only fly in the ointment was that they could not guarantee seats on the chartered flight for non BP employees (us) so we would be taken to Cairo airport and basically left to organise travel home ourselves.

We decided our best option was to get to Alexandria by chopper and then decline the fixed wing flight to Cairo. The hotel we stay at in Alex is about half an hour from the city centre and about 15 minutes from Borg el Arab international airport. One of our colleagues had been staying there throughout and said there had been no sign of any of the troubles out there. We had no problems getting to the hotel. We landed by chopper and there was a car waiting for us when we got there. There were 4 tanks at the airport where we landed as it is a combined military/civilian/commercial airport. On the way to the hotel all looked reasonably peaceful - except for the odd tank and the deserted Carrefour shopping mall (usually packed). The driver told us the shopping mall had been looted two days before and was now empty. When we got to the hotel, we were informed that our travel department in Aberdeen were organising travel home for us so we settled ourselves at the bar with ex-pats from other companies to work our way through the dwindling stocks of local beer.

In the late afternoon, our travel itinerary was faxed through to the hotel. The desert road between Alex and Cairo was closed by army roadblocks so there was no way we could travel from Cairo airport - probably a good thing as, according to news reports, Cairo airport was in utter chaos with up to 20,000 people trying to leave and some passengers having already spent 2-3 nights there. There used to be a BA flight direct from Borg el Arab to Heathrow but that was stopped a few years ago as it was unprofitable. As a result, our route home was a tad convoluted. We had to fly with Gulf Air from Borg el Arab to Bahrain where we would have a 4 1/2 hour wait. We would then fly with KLM from Bahrain to Amsterdam via Kuwait. We would then have a 5 hour wait at Amsterdam and then finally fly home - again with KLM. All went reasonably well. We left our hotel at 08:00 GMT on Wednesday and I arrived home at around 12:30 yesterday afternoon utterly exhausted after 28 1/2 hours travelling but relieved to be home. Surprisingly, despite the ridiculous system in Bahrain for transferring from one airline to another, my luggage made it home on the same flight I did so all is well.

Due to the nature of our work and where we were, we were always well shielded from any sort of trouble. I feel sorry for some of the tourists in Cairo and Alex as they would have been more exposed to the trouble and would have had a much tougher time arranging travel home. Working for a company who is obliged to arrange safe travel out of this sort of situation has its advantages. From reports I've seen today, we got out just in time. Apparently some elements of the protesters (reportedly pro-government agitators) have started attacking foreign journalists and there have been reports that other foreigners have been attacked under the pretext that they were "Zionist spies".

That's my little adventure. Not hugely exciting or dangerous but not a situation I'd care to find myself in again.
I don't know how long it will be until order is restored to the point where it is safe or practical to go back to work - we'll just have to wait and see. My main concern now is the safety and well-being of my Egyptian friends and colleagues. Having worked there for 5 years, I have made quite a few friends and I am concerned that some of them may be in danger. We had an e-mail this morning saying that it was hoped that our Cairo office would re-open on Sunday and that all our Egyptian colleagues were safe. Let's hope it stays that way.