Hurghada - First Trip in Jac's Truck

Hurghada from the Sea

There’s a group called Lotus Ladies in Hurghada for women to meet up. There’s afternoon coffee in the Marina each Wednesday and then lots of other events are organised such as trips to Alexandria, fundraising for charity, Arabic lessons, etc. I’d heard it was a good way to meet other people and before coming here I thought I would join pretty quickly so that I could establish a social network for myself. But then I broke my foot and was housebound, so I never went. As it turned out, I ended up with plenty of social contacts in El Andalous, so I haven’t really needed Lotus Ladies.

However, Jac organised a trip for us to go to the afternoon coffee so that we could register if we wished. I was curious to go and Lena was happy to come along and see what it was like, so we agreed to join, along with Kathryn and Jac’s sister-in-law, Angie.

Jac and her husband, Chris, have bought an old landrover/truck for Chris to play around with and to do up whenever he feels like tinkering. They bought it off one of the shopkeepers in El Andalous and Medhat, bless him, is in a continual state of anxiety over Jac and Chris using it, because it is so old. He is convinced that it is dangerous. He did his best to dissuade Jac from using the “truck”, as they call it, for our journey, fearing that Jac wouldn’t be able to drive it (women drivers aren’t common in Egypt) and that it would be unsafe or would break down. Jac kept on reassuring him.

Anyway, we all piled into the truck to go to Lotus Ladies. After fiddling about with the controls to find out what was where, off we went, bumping along the roads in Sahl Hasheesh. However, before we’d even managed to exit Sahl Hasheesh, the indicator got stuck, making it look as if we were continually turning left. We rode on for a while, waiting for it to turn off; sometimes it would go off for a second or two but then it would turn on again. We tried all sorts of things but the light stubbornly continued to blink. So, barely two minutes into our journey, we had to turn round and go back to ask how to switch the indicator off! Oh the irony!

Chris said we shouldn’t worry and that the indicator would just stop blinking in good time; it was just how Egyptian cars were made. Medhat came out to have a laugh; we all joined in. With no resolution to the problem, we ended up having to drive the whole way with our indicator flashing. TIE (This is Egypt).

We stopped off for a coffee at the restaurant where I’d been to before with Jac and Nadia; we were provided with a complimentary ouzo each (I guess the owners can’t be Muslim!) and this was at 11am! The truck provided much amusement. Jac asked the guys there if they could sort it out, but I believe with no success, although the men then fretted about the battery running flat if the indicator continued to flash while we went away. However, the men clearly enjoyed being able to tinker about with the vehicle.

One of us – I can’t remember who – wanted to buy some sandals in the shop across the road. Well, can you imagine a load of women in a shoe shop? Jac bargained the price down to 35 LE and, of course, as one person tried them on with the rest of us having nothing better to do, it didn’t take long for us all to be crowding round and getting every sandal out in the shop as we each tried them on to pass the time. Before we knew what had happened, all of us had bought some sandals – I believe Kathryn bought six pairs and Angie bought around four pairs. We were all shouting out the sizes and colours we wanted in true Egyptian style. It ended up with the shopkeeper taking a group photo of him and us in his shop. It must have been his lucky day. He was happy and we were happy. That’s what shopping should be all about!

After that, we returned to the “shop” that the old man runs with all the hotchpotch of junk items. He’d recently tried to charge Kathryn 800 LE for a picture she liked, so you have to bargain hard or just walk away if he insists on a ridiculous price.

Surprisingly, he’d tidied the place up since the last time I was there and the cutlery was no longer all over the floor. As Jac said, if you only knew about these things, you could probably find some bargains amongst all these various items stashed everywhere, but unfortunately all of us are clueless. She bought a bangle for about 10 LE and resisted buying a picture until she’d had more time to think. As it happened, the chance purchase of the bangle turned out to be a pure gold bracelet!

Anyway, we eventually attended the Lotus Ladies meeting – not so many others were there on this occasion – and Jac and I signed up for membership. There’s definitely a lot going on should you get bored and be looking for something to do. The group got interrupted by an Egyptian guy wanting to give us his opinions on either Morsi or the Muslim Brotherhood; the organiser reiterated several times that political discussion was not allowed within the group and eventually the guy retired to the background. I never found out which side he was advocating.

Subsequently, we went back to the restaurant for a late lunch. Some of the men were sitting around on the bonnet of the truck, obviously feeling that they looked trendy and cool. Meanwhile, we all received another complimentary ouzo. Jac was summonsed to restart the Landrover to make sure that the battery was still charged.

Kathryn and I ordered fish and chips on Jac’s recommendation, but somehow we ended up with a different type of fish from the one we’d ordered since the owner decided we hadn’t ordered the right thing. This had also happened on a previous evening where we’d tried to order one thing and then were firmly told by the person serving that we would be much better eating a different dish. TIE! Although the fish wasn’t quite what we’d ordered, it was nevertheless still very good.

Those that know me may be feeling a little surprised at these recent blogs, because I don’t really eat fish. At the moment, I’m trying to develop a taste for it as it is good for you (and the fish here is supposed to be great). Just now, I’m starting to feel that I’ve overdone it!

After this late lunch, Jac had an appointment, so the others boarded the truck again wihle Lena and I waved them off and subsequently continued to explore.