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| Road out of Sahl Hasheesh with Verdant Roundabout |
What I didn’t expect from Egypt: (Here follows another set of random observations)
Different skies and horizons – Flying to Hurghada from Cairo, I noticed the moon was a perfect hemisphere posed upright - a wedge of bright blood orange served up to the heavens. The red turned orange at Sahl Hasheesh, edged with a pale rind.
The horizon of the desert at night is unbroken like that of the sea, a vast sheet of deep black stretches out to meet the fainter blackness of the sky. For someone who has always been holed up in the dense conglomerations of big cities such unused expanses amazed me and I often wondered about the paradoxical proximity of barren desert and teeming sea.
The vermillion clouds overhead (when we drove through the mountains at sunset) were not like any I’d seen before. They seemed to be sent expressly to contrast with the granite rock.
Constellations like Orion were clearly visible at night. Sahl Hasheesh is mostly cloudless. I found it amusing when the taxi-driver felt the need to warn us that there might be one or two minutes of rain the following day.
Sometimes the mountains across the bay appeared as a string of impressively high peaks and at others times, despite the absence of cloud, a mere strip of flat headland. This deflation reminded me of the allegory behind the obelisks – the marriage of the male earth and the female sky.
The sun sets early and sharply.
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My skin (especially on my hands and feet) tended to shrivel and scale – Even though I applied sun cream dutifully every morning. I liked the effect of the Red Sea on my hair; the saltiness made it curlier. The colour on my evening shoes has worn away but they only strolled along paved streets so I’m still puzzling over that.
Every other building in Sahl Hasheesh and beyond being a half-built shell: it almost seems like a deliberate architectural feature. It’s an unmissable (in both senses of the word) phenomenon!
As in ancient times, wealth still flaunts itself in the desert. Fanciful and commodious hotels stand proud and aloof in the middle of nowhere. One named after and shaped like the Titanic!
Administrative mania – Solemn form-filling was required for just about any activity from taking a semi-submarine to seeing Sand City.
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| Sand Sculptures of Nefertiti and Akenathon Sun-worshipping |
The sense of community in El Andalous – I thought people would keep themselves to themselves but there is obviously a lively community there and lots of going-ons beyond the tranquil facade! No comment!
The magnificent landmark entrance into Sahl Hasheesh – ancient warriors are lined up in Pharaonic style behind two enormous columns.
To find Arabic so fascinating – I was moved to make attempts to understand the script and the spoken word.
Clean toilets – The toilets in SH and Hurghada left nothing to be desired; they were all up to modern standards.
In Luxor they hand out about 30-40cm of toilet paper as you go in, and there often isn’t soap or towels but the toilets themselves are clean enough, albeit old and with dodgy locks. There was no foul stench (which can’t be said for some of the toilets in Paris).
Like Lena I was surprised by the toilet rolls hanging next to the wash basins in the mountain stops. The obligatory tip has gone up to 2EGP. Fiona has now been to 4 different desert cafes; it’s surprising, because you don’t really notice there being very many during the 5-hour trip. A slit of window set against patterned wallpaper at the far end of the cubicles tickled my fancy for some reason: it was like a lurid painting of a desert with mountains and sky but, of course, it was the real thing!
Change being unobtainable! – It first started at Cairo airport: I bought a small bottle of water for 29 EGP (extortionate!) with a 50 EGP note and the guy was clearly surprised that I asked for the 1 EGP missing change ( I also had to hang around for the 20 EGP because he said he didn’t have any notes). This was par for the course. You would get a bill, for say, 55.36 EGP but small change was in short supply. The smallest delineation I ever saw was a 50 piasters coin. So in the example I’ve given, you would pay 55.50 or more likely 56 or 60. When you got 5, 10 or 20 or even 50 EGP notes, you were keen to hang on to them.
The lack of change made buying souvenirs particularly difficult and hawkers tried to take advantage by just rounding prices up. This customary flexibility with numbers allowed retailers to ignore sell-by dates on food, as long as the year is right seemed to be the motto! I also wasn’t prepared for the scruffiness and flimsiness of banknotes (a wad would hang limply in your hand like a rag); ancient papyrus is better preserved!
Nonchalantly flouting safety rules - No seat belt locks in the back of taxis, or rather they are inextricably tucked back into the seat holes from which they emerge, to allow room for more people. Taxi drivers yell into mobile phones for entire journeys.
We got into this contraption at Karnak temple (I’ve never watched Top Gear but I know what a car is supposed to look like) for a very bumpy ride; the petrol fumes were very heady and the various clanking and clattering noises made me wonder how many car parts had been left behind on the road. But we got back to the hotel unscathed!
Blithely ignoring requests - I found that some Egyptians would wholeheartedly concur with the reasonableness of your request (for say, silence at 7am) and then exactly two minutes later would seem startled by your reminder.
I often heard expats sounding out the letters T I E; it took me a while to work it out.
Blithely ignoring reality - A word on Egyptian business sense: An entrepreneur opens a new bag shop similar to the unfrequented and failing one next door. The first bag shop owner is not fazed by this but heartily welcomes the second for bringing more trade to the area!
Talking of more trade, I was amazed that every authentic Italian restaurant is conjoined with an authentic Chinese one, sharing waiters, toilet facilities, an owner and, no doubt, a cook - but not sharing very many customers!
Shop signs (especially for the poorer shops) are a kaleidoscope of colour and reflect the optimism of shopkeepers.
Ready availability of sun loungers - El Andalous beach has only one row of loungers so you get an unadulterated view of the bay! We always had a choice of lounger, whichever beach we went to.
The palm-lined esplanade with its sea-view restaurants was practically deserted at night and the infrequent beach bars completely so, yet the latter were lit up and soft, swooning music would waft over (it made me think of mermaids and sirens). It was all like an extravagant film set waiting for actors.
The huge number of Russians around - And none particularly Dostoevskian!
Regrets:
None! As I will be returning to fulfil my wish list! Thanks Fiona!
Wish List:
1. I want to walk on the desert a bit and not just drive through.
2. Boat trip to El Gouna. More temples and tombs in Luxor. Stopover in Cairo.
3. More snorkelling. Fiona has converted me to fish worship!
The magnificent landmark entrance into Sahl Hasheesh – ancient warriors are lined up in Pharaonic style behind two enormous columns.
To find Arabic so fascinating – I was moved to make attempts to understand the script and the spoken word.
Clean toilets – The toilets in SH and Hurghada left nothing to be desired; they were all up to modern standards.
In Luxor they hand out about 30-40cm of toilet paper as you go in, and there often isn’t soap or towels but the toilets themselves are clean enough, albeit old and with dodgy locks. There was no foul stench (which can’t be said for some of the toilets in Paris).
Like Lena I was surprised by the toilet rolls hanging next to the wash basins in the mountain stops. The obligatory tip has gone up to 2EGP. Fiona has now been to 4 different desert cafes; it’s surprising, because you don’t really notice there being very many during the 5-hour trip. A slit of window set against patterned wallpaper at the far end of the cubicles tickled my fancy for some reason: it was like a lurid painting of a desert with mountains and sky but, of course, it was the real thing!
Change being unobtainable! – It first started at Cairo airport: I bought a small bottle of water for 29 EGP (extortionate!) with a 50 EGP note and the guy was clearly surprised that I asked for the 1 EGP missing change ( I also had to hang around for the 20 EGP because he said he didn’t have any notes). This was par for the course. You would get a bill, for say, 55.36 EGP but small change was in short supply. The smallest delineation I ever saw was a 50 piasters coin. So in the example I’ve given, you would pay 55.50 or more likely 56 or 60. When you got 5, 10 or 20 or even 50 EGP notes, you were keen to hang on to them.
The lack of change made buying souvenirs particularly difficult and hawkers tried to take advantage by just rounding prices up. This customary flexibility with numbers allowed retailers to ignore sell-by dates on food, as long as the year is right seemed to be the motto! I also wasn’t prepared for the scruffiness and flimsiness of banknotes (a wad would hang limply in your hand like a rag); ancient papyrus is better preserved!
Nonchalantly flouting safety rules - No seat belt locks in the back of taxis, or rather they are inextricably tucked back into the seat holes from which they emerge, to allow room for more people. Taxi drivers yell into mobile phones for entire journeys.
We got into this contraption at Karnak temple (I’ve never watched Top Gear but I know what a car is supposed to look like) for a very bumpy ride; the petrol fumes were very heady and the various clanking and clattering noises made me wonder how many car parts had been left behind on the road. But we got back to the hotel unscathed!
Blithely ignoring requests - I found that some Egyptians would wholeheartedly concur with the reasonableness of your request (for say, silence at 7am) and then exactly two minutes later would seem startled by your reminder.
I often heard expats sounding out the letters T I E; it took me a while to work it out.
Blithely ignoring reality - A word on Egyptian business sense: An entrepreneur opens a new bag shop similar to the unfrequented and failing one next door. The first bag shop owner is not fazed by this but heartily welcomes the second for bringing more trade to the area!
Talking of more trade, I was amazed that every authentic Italian restaurant is conjoined with an authentic Chinese one, sharing waiters, toilet facilities, an owner and, no doubt, a cook - but not sharing very many customers!
Shop signs (especially for the poorer shops) are a kaleidoscope of colour and reflect the optimism of shopkeepers.
Ready availability of sun loungers - El Andalous beach has only one row of loungers so you get an unadulterated view of the bay! We always had a choice of lounger, whichever beach we went to.
The palm-lined esplanade with its sea-view restaurants was practically deserted at night and the infrequent beach bars completely so, yet the latter were lit up and soft, swooning music would waft over (it made me think of mermaids and sirens). It was all like an extravagant film set waiting for actors.
The huge number of Russians around - And none particularly Dostoevskian!
Regrets:
None! As I will be returning to fulfil my wish list! Thanks Fiona!
Wish List:
1. I want to walk on the desert a bit and not just drive through.
2. Boat trip to El Gouna. More temples and tombs in Luxor. Stopover in Cairo.
3. More snorkelling. Fiona has converted me to fish worship!
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| Fiona the Fish |
It was a ‘fishy’ holiday: What with the glass-bottomed boat, fresh fish dishes at the marina, the fish market, the Hurghada Aquarium (Red Sea in Glass (sic)), a souvenir cartouche smelling of smoked haddock and Fiona’s superb collection of fish photos (taken with her underwater camera), I had many a lucid dream involving fish.
4. Take a good quality, speedy and reliable camera to snap up the constant surprises and delights. (My Android phone turns everything into an impressionist daub)
5. Go with an Arabic phrase book and guide book (I went with neither but Fiona served very well for both)
6. Read up on Egypt’s rich history beforehand to avoid information overload.
7. Get a tour guide who is easier-going and less appalled by my ignorance and my retention capacity (of the memory kind, though I did have a problem with constipation too) or dispense with one altogether.
Next week I’ll tell you a little about our trip to Luxor.
4. Take a good quality, speedy and reliable camera to snap up the constant surprises and delights. (My Android phone turns everything into an impressionist daub)
5. Go with an Arabic phrase book and guide book (I went with neither but Fiona served very well for both)
6. Read up on Egypt’s rich history beforehand to avoid information overload.
7. Get a tour guide who is easier-going and less appalled by my ignorance and my retention capacity (of the memory kind, though I did have a problem with constipation too) or dispense with one altogether.
Next week I’ll tell you a little about our trip to Luxor.
I see there has been some judicious editing (Fiona spots incoherence a mile off!)
ReplyDeleteI meant to say something like:
I didn't expect my skin to shrivel and scale (cos' it definitely did - not just 'tend' to)
Thanks Fiona for inserting the word 'tend' and trying to make sense of my hieroglyphics!
You have the eagle eye of Horus!
I'll try and balance note form with good English next time!
I can see how this was confusing. I intended a list of headings with participial phrases like:
ReplyDeleteSkin shrivelling and scaling - (after the hyphen you would get further information)
But then, of course, I was inconsistent with the next heading and used a colon!
I’ve only just realised that Fiona’s tiny edit may have been to make what I said less alarming..
ReplyDeleteMy skin only deteriorated once but then stayed more or less the same for a couple of weeks. Rest assured it’s on its way to recovery now.
In hindsight, I cannot advocate the frequent use of sun-cream highly enough.