11/18 Continued from yesterday, I’m currently on a bus in a police caravan. Everywhere we went in the bazaar men were stopping me and commenting on my eyes. Maybe that’s it – blue eyes. One guy jokingly offered 20 million camels. I told him to show them to me.
11/ I have no idea what day it is any more. I was writing about the bazaar. At this point, I’m quite sick of the men here.
11/ Next morning and we’re getting ready to leave Luxor for the desert. Back to the bazaar.
The souks of the bazaar were lined up in narrow, jumbled streets and we began exploring them. I saw beautiful silver jewelry, small decorative bottles, statues, textiles, a brilliant kaleidoscope of colors, sounds and smells. On the side streets we would turn a corner to find exquisite arches and stonework and in their shadows Egyptians hawked their wares. The locals are a meld of cultures. The men range from modern dress, traditional gauyaberas, turbans and shawls wrapped around their head and neck, or a combination. I was admiring the bottles at various perfume souks and one man lured me into his shop. It was a small souk crowded with beautiful glass bottles of all shapes and colors, and he led me up a narrow winding stair to the upper floor, which was smaller still. I bargained with him for a bottle and decided on a smaller one. He tried to sell me perfume, which I refused, and then proceeded to attempt to give me a perfume massage (also refused).
I began walking again, dodging the attention, and stopped next at a shop selling sheeshah pipes. I wasn’t sure how they worked so he put one together for me and ended up selling it to me. We continued walking around the bazaar and bantering with the men who were flirting. Cathy was stepping in more and more, for which I was grateful. My next stop was at a souk selling belly dancing scarves. He kept draping them around me and I bargained for a sheer black one with silver coins sewn into it. He brought Egyptian tea for us to sit and drink and Cathy actually started belly dancing. I decided to buy another sheeshah pipe, this one of brass, and a black cat figurine.
By this time we were due to meet up with the others for dinner. We ate at a little restaurant on the edge of the bazaar and I ordered koushari, which is a mixture of pasta, lentils, chickpeas, spices and sauce. It was very good. By that time we were ready to head back, or the rest of the group was, and I went along. The driver put ethnic music on and me, Cathy and Carylene all danced in the back seat. When we arrived back at the hotel we sat outside and talked a bit before I went up for bed.
The next morning we left early for the Red Sea coast. Our driver is named Ehmed and he is a sweetheart. He is an older Egyptian man who acts very fatherly and has taken a liking to me. Anyway, we arrived in Nuweiba that afternoon. Nuweiba is a tiny town along the coast of the Red Sea. The streets were dirt, and goats and donkeys wandered about. Our hotel had small bungalows on the beach and I got one to myself.
11/21? -continued
The motels we’ve been staying at have mostly been dives, but this one was charming. Of course the shower didn’t work. That would have been too much to ask. There was a nice breeze from the sea and chairs in front of my door. I was glad to have a room to myself. By this time the strain of being with so many people was wearing on me and it was a nice break. I changed into shorts, t-shirt and sarong and walked down on the beach but the others had finished swimming and I didn’t feel like being stared at.
I changed into something a little nicer and went out. Everyone had gathered around Liz’s bungalow and were drinking beer. I walked over and said hi before taking my journal to the patio to write. I wrote until it was time to go to dinner, trying to catch up, which was obviously in vain.
We went to a small restaurant down the road called The Mermaid. I had vegetarian lasagna, which was very good. There was no electricity and the town was pitch black, so you couldn’t see the road. I walked back with a few other ladies and admired the stars when I wasn’t concentrating on trying not to trip. When we got back I walked down to the beach. The moon was rising over the water and its reflection filled the sea with ripples of silver light. I walked a bit before finding a place to sit and watch. The sound of the waves lapping against the shore lulled me into a peaceful trance. This day I had been hurting. It’s always there but at Nuweiba it rose through the layers I had tried to drown it in. I lied back on a stone block and looked at the stars and listened to the sea. When I grew cold I went inside and made myself cum.
I had been looking forward to snorkeling but the depression had me down so I had told Diane, our leader, that I was going to pass. In the morning I had changed my mind and decided to fight through it. We got our gear from a nearby shop and set off. We only went a short ways from where we were before going down to the beach. The waters of the sea are so beautiful, unlike anything I’ve ever seen. The water is blue and green and every shade in between and is so clear you can see right through it. The instructor told us how to breathe and we all put on our gear and went out. When I first put my face in the water I panicked a little and couldn’t get used to the idea that I could breathe underwater. Me, Liz and Jean stayed near the shore and practiced. I soon managed to relax and breathe and set off on my own. The reef was right offshore and I found myself snorkeling directly above it. I was afraid I would touch it on accident and damage it, or touch fire coral and damage myself, so I slowly kicked myself away from it to where the reef dropped off.
I’ll finish writing about Nuweiba tomorrow. This girl is a toast. 🙂