Hurghada - First Visit to Souq

Souq in Hurghada

It’s amazing that I’ve been here for over 5 years and have never visited the large souq in Dahar. Apparently, tours even take tourists there. It’s a fruit and vegetable souq really, although there are fish and meat stalls as well.

Horst and Hilda go maybe once a month, so they kindly invited me to join them. They have their own taxi driver who they know and trust and he also does the shopping for them, afterwards they all go out for a meal. It was lovely to be part of this for a day.

I don’t generally go to the souq because, although the fruit and vegetables are extremely cheap, the taxi fare makes it not worthwhile and it’s more cost effective to pay the double- triple- or more price in the supermarket for the few veggies that I buy than to fork out for the cost of a taxi. However, I had always meant to do it once as a day out, so I was delighted to be invited.

The souq is huge. At least in winter it is under cover (not sure if it is under cover also in the summer – an excuse to go again some time to see, I guess). Some stalls have huge pumpkins hanging up, fruit and vegetables are piled high and some I couldn’t identify. There are also fresh herbs. The prices are displayed but in Arabic, of course. I didn’t buy anything since I don’t really eat that much fruit and veg, but if I went again, I think I have enough Arabic to be able to cope (famous last words). There’s no bartering, as far as I can tell.

There are also meat stalls of two different variations. One type has meat hanging up on hooks in the open air and you buy it directly (you can also see butchers’ shops like this in town); the other type has the animals (rabbits, pigeons, chickens) in cages and you order as appropriate. I saw one person asking for a chicken, saw the market owner grab one by its neck; it squawked in alarm, setting off all the others in their cages, too. It was pretty gruesome and I didn’t look to see what happened next. I don’t know if some buy them to breed at home and/or if they are killed on the spot for fresh meat. I eat meat but I don’t really want to be faced with the actuality of what I’m doing.

Of course, with Hurghada being situated on the Red Sea, fish is a large commodity over here. There were fish stalls, too, with lots of pretty fish now dead, laid out in boxes of ice for you to select I felt quite sad for my fish friends, but if you eat fish, it’s really very fresh.

Outsiide the souq, there were some pop-up stalls with women selling various types of cheese; apparently there’s one type that is sold warm and is delicious, but since I don’t eat cheese, this didn’t really interest me. It didn’t smell, so I was OK! There was a whole load of buses, which I took a photograph of; the ladies selling on the stalls outside shouted out to me not to take the photo – they didn’t want to be in the photograph (I guess this is a religious thing where it’s perceived as stealing your soul). I moved forward and focused on the buses. It’s just so chaotic when the buses are all squeezed together and facing in slightly different directions as each tries to manoeuvre.

Anyway, it’s an interesting experience, so do take a look if you are ever in Hurghada!