All we needed was one hour to get the
gist of this little city.
Sunday night, Ivan wore a tuxedo and I
more a formal gown as we socialized with the guests on our Ultra-luxury
cruise-ship. Monday afternoon we went to
Safaga, Egypt. The world is so contrasting
and so opposite from the lives we grew up in.
The middle class is pretty much
nonexistent. There are no trees to
identity the season. Nearly everything
was abandoned. It was creepy and weird.
A shuttle bus picked us up from our pleasant ship and drove us 15
minutes to a Holiday Inn resort. The
drive was silencing. Here is what I
wrote as I loved out the window.
Piles of dusty trash next to an empty
dumpster. Piles of dirt and sand. A
great big deserted space of sand, only sand.
In the middle on a small hall is a mansion surrounded by palm trees,
straight out of Beverly Hills. Only
small cars here. Beautiful mosks, run
down convenience stores. Abandoned
carnival rides. Dirty beach. No one had cleaned this up in months.
We got to the Holiday Inn resort and
what a contrast. One side of the street
had a few souvenir shops. The atm gave
our Egyptian money. About $100 of Egyptian
money was $16 American. The resort was
large and had a big pool, pool bar and restaurant to eat outside. It was right on the beach and some tourists
were there dancing and sunbathing and they were mostly European and wearing
speedos. The water was warm and
rocky. Only one person was in the water and
it was very shallow. You could walk the length of the pier in the water and you
were still only hip deep. Then we saw a
white donkey which I loved because I haven’t seen an animal in a week- except
flies!! And a man in robes asked if we
wanted our picture with a camel for 1 Euro, or we could sit on the camel and
take a picture. But he let me pet the
camel for free. The, closer to the
resort, we went into a souvenir shop to meet out friends.
The shopping experience here is super
super sketchy. They talk to you a lot
and ask you way to many questions.
Specific questions like your name, where you’re from, how long you’ll be
here. Whether or not you like Obama.
They shake your hand, close the curtain door behind you, ask you to sit on a
stool, offer you tea, or to smoke out of their bong. Seriously.
Now of course I, being from New York, didn’t fall for it, but our
foolish friends that we met there did-and this is why I know all this. He was actually talked into buying a scarf
for about $8 American dollars- $50Egyptian!!! We met the same tender. He told us his name but all I heard was “Salami.” Ivan told him to call him “Mr. Hoffman,” to
which he responded, of course Mr. Huff. He
asked us to buy the scarf for $20 US, we
laughed and he said “ok $10.” We walked away with all our money and zero
junk!
We are very lucky to live in
luxury. Hopefully when I get off foreign
waters, our country will not become like the ruins and depression that Safaga
was is L. Tonight our Italian Hotel Director here made a
funny joke, “So, here in Safaga, what are the people called? Safags?” It sounded funnier in his
accento. Today was great and tomorrow night
we sing Billy Joel and tomorrow morning-7 hours I go on a submarine ride!! Wish
me luck!! Xoxo~ Cruiser
my new friend
shallow and clear waters
egyptian wasteland
