May 8

May 8

Took a taxi to Sharm El Shiek on the tip of the Sinai Pininsula.  Hopped on a quick flight over to Hurghada on the north Red Sea coast.  Took a personal car-taxi to our first official ‘nowhere’ location – El Quseir, a small historical port town about one and a half hour drive south of Hurghada.  We checked in to our hotel – Hotel El Quseir, a dark, literally empty house-hotel.  Yes, we were the only guests.  In fact, many hotels in Egypt are vacant, shopkeepers and vedors and businesspeople across the country are suffering from a severe lack of tourism.  We’ve been realizing that ever since the 2011 Egyptian revolution (part of the larger Arab Spring), tourism in Egypt has been at an all-time low and the streets are nearly emptied of all foreigners.  This makes it an interesting but incredibly difficult time to visit the country.  For instance, Egypt has long been known for its pushy and unrelenting vendors of all sorts but now immediately subsequent to last years’ uprising the people are even more desperate and the hasslers are likewise even more aggressive.  We experienced this shortly after checking in to Hotel El Quseir.  We dropped our bags and moseyed down the street.  A man approached us and asked us to do him a favor by signing his guest book in his shop.  He told us we weren’t obligated to buy anything.  We agreed.  He offered us pop and went on and on about Egyptian hospitality.  And yes, he showed us his product (perfume) and pressured us (via big time guilt trip) to purchase some.  He had us cornered.  We reluctantly bought two small bottles of his ‘home-made’ perfume (Leah doesn’t even like perfume) and quickly left as cordially as we could.  We felt cheated but wanted to be friendly anyways. 

We looked out over garbage strewn streets and dilapidated half-finished buildings, saw children clothed in dirtied tattered garments, and Leah couldn’t have said it better – “welcome to Africa.”  We fully understood – we are no longer in the safe, relatively developed backpackers haven of Dahab.  T.I.A. – this is Africa.  We went to a beach close by and played with a bunch of kids in the water for at least an hour.  I swung them around and threw them in the air and chased them.  We made them laugh.  They called me ‘monkey.’  We imitated them and joked around.  Later we went out for dinner.  After our meal we shared a complimentary tea with the owner of the restaurant.  It was a difficult day but ultimately a perfectly characteristic initiation back in to Africa.