April 19th , 2010 – Day 1 of our 71 day Overlander.
We arrived at the Nairobi Airport at 4am and all of the sites and surroundings were all a little too familiar to us – neither Jeremy nor I had any good feelings about this place. We took a 20 minute taxi from the airport straight to our hotel – no detouring! We contemplated buying a room for the 4 hours but because the hotel would not give us any form of discount, we figured we would try and wait it out. Within an hour I got really sleepy - I went to a corner of the lobby, pulled out my sleeping mat and then proceeded to wrap myself in my sleeping bag.
At about 6 am, the manager came over and very politely asked Jeremy if I wanted to wake up. Jeremy was confused and told him that he wanted me to sleep. The manager very timidly told him that it was unprofessional to have a girl sleeping on the floor in the corner of their hotel – haha...oops!
From there we waited until the kitchen opened for breakfast. We then started to meet all of our travel buddies. We were wondering how many people would be delayed due to the volcano in Europe and soon found out that there were 5 stranded (we felt very bad for them).
After filling out some paper work and handing over our portion of the group's kitty fund (fund that pays for the groups food and gas etc.) we checked out our new home. We made the fatal mistake of calling it a bus and were quickly informed that it was not a bus but a truck...big difference! Our truck was awesome and what excited us all the more was that it had loads of books on it (Jeremy and I had killed our backs in Egypt stalking up on books for this trip).
After getting settled on the truck, we met our driver, Robert, and our guide, Kanyo, who we immediately knew would be awesome. After giving us the low down on how the truck works, we packed up and got ready for our first visit in the TRUCK.
First stop for the day was a Giraffe Sanctuary. A lot of the members on our group had never seen a giraffe so they were so excited! Although we had seen them countless times in our previous experiences, this was a little different because we got to feed the giraffes with our mouth. It might sound a little disgusting, and in truth it felt quite gross, but we were told that their saliva was like an antiseptic...not sure that really changed anything because it was still gross. To feed the giraffes we put a little piece of food in between our lips and then let the giraffe come close and pull the food out with his mouth or tongue...their preference. Each giraffe was a little different but most of the adults preferred to get a lot of tongue in there...I mean a lot of tongue!!! After everyone was kissed by the adult giraffes we had a chance to do the same with the younger giraffes which were much more delicate. We soon figured out that if you pulled slowly away from the giraffes as they came to grab the food from your mouth, they would stick out their tongue and try to get it that way. It made for some great pictures!!
After the giraffe park we headed to the Elephant and Rhino sanctuary where we got to see the cutest little elephants feeding and playing together. All of the animals had been rescued in the wild – majority of the mothers were killed because of poaching (one had fallen in a manhole and was basically left for dead). Everyone was so excited to take pictures of the little guys but we were all lucky not to get sprayed with elephant shit. One of the little ones had decided that he wanted to play a gag on everyone and came over to the viewing area for what we thought was ample picture taking. But then, he turned around and sprayed very liquidy green shit everywhere. We never did get to see any baby rhinos but plenty of cute elephants (some as young as 2 months old). From the elephant sanctuary we headed to our first campsite which was a couple of hours away in ____.
When we arrived at our campsite we helped to organize the massive amounts of groceries we had purchased from the kitty funds. There are lots of things to remember about the truck as it has so many nooks and crannies and to avoid losing things everything has to be put away in a certain place and everyone is given a job to help keep things running smoothly – we call these things CHORES! Because we were all 'newbies' and the custom in Africa is to welcome your guests and not immediately put them to work, we were given a few days grace. But...because we were such an ambitious group, we helped anyway (excluding supper) and found all of the perishables and cans a home. Next, we were given instructions as to how to set up our tents. This was followed by instructions as to how to properly sanitize our hands and dishes so as not to spread germs between everyone (something we both were very grateful over). We couldn't believe how thorough it was in comparison to our previous trips where things were either just rinsed in water or scrubbed in the sand.
That night we just chilled and got accustomed to each other. We had had a chance to talk on the drive but now we had a chance to learn a bit about what everyone was doing and what their plans were. Our group consisted of Aussies (Glenn and Rhinianon – very cool couple who were jumping off the truck after 25 days in Arusha), Kiwis (Christine – a doll who reminds me of Diana who is trekking the full 71 days to Cape Town) and Pom's (Mike, Mary, and Claire whom 2 are going all the way to Cape Town). Some had been here on volunteer work and many were here just like us to travel and see Africa.
The second day (Day 2) after packing up all of our gear, which we soon knew was going to be a royal pain in the butt, we headed to the Massai Mara National Park (famous for its annual migration which peaks in June and July). We arrived in time for an afternoon game drive. The truck (aka our home) is by far the best vehicle for game viewing compared to any others we have been in because it is so big! We tower over everything so we can just lazily sit back and watch...and to top things off, the windows roll up so it is like being at a nature movie theatre – completely unobstructed and a 360 degree view!!! We saw tons of animals and although we were not as camera happy as the others, we still admired the beauty of each animal. We stumbled upon a small pride of lions (we love our CATS!) but sadly enough, we spotted them just when mother nature felt the urge to give us a downpour – so...needless to say, we had to roll down the windows and our complete unobstructed view became a little more obstructed.
Our second night was spent at a local camp-site immediately outside the park. Because there are no fences around the perimeter of the park, there is nothing keeping the wild animals from making their way to us...especially at night when we are half out of it and are making our ways to the toilets. We were actually encouraged by Kanyo to mark our territory right next to our tent in the middle of the night so as to avoid this. But, because we were at such an awesome campsite, we had some local security guards who kept watch over us during the night (and they carried poison dipped arrows for weapons – crazy, crazy, crazy!). We were also spoiled that night as the camp-site had permanent tents with BEDS set up for us so we did not even have to pitch the tents that night which would have been in the dark.
The following morning (Day 3) we woke up at 5 am, packed up our belongings and scarfed down some breakfast. This allowed us to get an early start on our morning game drive at the Masai Mara. BUT...even with only nine people on the bus it still took us forever to get going (and keep in mind we did not have to take down our tents)...I can't imagine what it is going to be like when our group reaches its maximum capacity of 27 people on the truck.
The morning game drive was very successful. We got some beautiful sunrise pics and the thing that I really noticed about Kenya was the amazing clouds that appeared to grow from the ground and spread upwards like roots. The terrain of the Masai Mara is flat open ground...so it was really nice to have nothing blocking our 360 degree view. We were even lucky enough to not only see two lions hanging out near the road - 5 meters from us - but we got to witness these two lions having sex!!! It wasn't exactly what I had pictured. Actually it seemed more of a chore than anything pleasurable as the lions just growled and snarled at each other while they were doing it. Turns out the male lions penis is corkscrew in shape so it hurts the lioness as it goes in and out. But it didn't matter too much as it was over for both in about twenty seconds or less. We waited patiently to see if they would do it again as they supposedly have sex every fifteen minutes when they are mating, which is only for ten days of the year.
We figured the lions didn't mind us hanging around until the male started to stare at us and set up to pounce (reminded me of the Lion King when Mustafa teaches Simba to pounce and he practices on Zazu). Although, we were super high off of the ground, everyone began to get a little worried that the lion was actually going to pounce the truck and jump right in – Christine was the most scared and actually backed right up to the opposite side of the truck and got down low – lol. . We must have pissed him off, ruined the mood, or they had some stage fright because the second time the male attempted to start up again, the female told him off and they headed towards the bush (haha...damn right ladies!). It was here that Kanyo informed us that the movie starring Micheal Douglas called “The Ghost and the Darkness” was filmed inside this park. The movie is based on a true story about a pride of lions that stalked and killed a group of men working on a rail line. We were also told that when and if a lion gets a taste of human flesh, they will continue to hunt humans...so they are tracked and the entire pride is killed.
We headed down the road to see if we could spot any leopards or anything else cool but when trying to head through the swamp area we got stuck – boo! It took us nearly two hours to get our big beast of a truck out of the mud but thankfully, Robert and Kanyo saved the day. We were instructed not to help because we were after all in the middle of a national park and I think they were both worried about potential litigation issues (i.e. man eaten by lion while pushing vehicle out of mud). This was easier said then done because it was not long before some of us had to pee. Christine was the first to go and I soon followed quickly behind her. We went in front of the vehicle and told the boys not to look. When we were both squatting, I looked over at her and asked if she had some stage fright as I was just letting mine go...she was all red and laughing and it turned out that she had to do more than just number one! We both started laughing hysterically and I told her I would leave ASAP!...which I did (I mean, talk about getting close to your neighbour huh???...and on Day 3 too!) She was so embarrassed afterwards and was afraid that Robert would step right into it when he walked around the front of the vehicle to get behind the wheel (she had covered it up with some mud - haha). I came to her rescue and informed Robert to walk a healthy distance away from the front of the truck otherwise he would get some 'dirt' on him. He laughed and knew exactly what was going on. Just when he was about to pass the front, he noticed a set of lion prints in the mud...this caused quite the commotion on the truck and everyone was wanting a picture of them...which made Christine all the more uneasy. Luckily enough, no one spotted the pile of 'dirt' and she later told the whole truck and we both kept pissing ourselves with laughter.
After the game drive we were taken to a local Masai village where we were greeted with a welcome dance by both the men and the women. To give you a bit of a mental picture as to how the men dance, rent the movie “The Air Up There” with Kevin Bacon, if you haven't already seen it. The really awesome basketball player in the video is a Masai warrior and the dance they do in the movie is exactly what we were shown. They jump up and down in a circle while chanting and then break apart and continue to jump about 6 inches from your face (a little bit close at times!). They also showed us a traditional dance they use to court a women. The courting dance, or show off dance, is essentially all the boys jumping up and down. The higher they jump the more attractive they are to a women. Mike and I were invited to join in the dance but I think with my performance I was probably lucky to keep Katie. The dance performed by the women was much less dramatic and there were much fewer women dancing...I guess they don't all have to show off for their men.
Back in the day a Masai man would show their power by the amount of women each had, so this dance was important. However, now in their words “As we become educated we have realized that more than one women is just difficult, so we prefer only one”.
We also got to see some post war wounds on an older man who was attacked by a lion. Another practice from back in the day (which has since been banned by the Kenya Government) was to kill a lion before marriage (so... you can imagine how many lions would have died back in the day when one man would marry five wives...he would, with the help of his tribesmen, have to kill five lions on five separate occasions...and that was assuming he was not killed in the act).
We were taken in to their homes, learnt about their construction techniques, learnt how they kept their animals and the most strange of all their diet – meat and cow blood mixed with milk which they ate for breakfast and supper (they only have two meals a day). Luckily enough, they did not offer us any to try...phew!!!
Our next stop after the Masai village was Navaisha. When we arrived there we were all excited to ditch our tents and personally upgrade to a nice double room. After everyone agreed on the price, paid and moved their things into their rooms, we were informed that we had not paid enough - ??? We were supposed to pay the cost of the room minus the cost of camping as the camping was already covered in our kitty funds. Turns out that the woman had already deducted the camping fees without our knowledge (and without even knowing we were upgrading - ??? smells fishy to me). We have encountered this on multiple occasions on our trip where we are originally quoted with a price but later, having been judged up and down (and determined our wealth) are informed of a new and higher amount - ??? It is very frustrating but there is really not much to do about it.
But back to our story...despite the completely vacant and large amount of rooms the place had, the manager would not honor what we had paid and made us vacate our rooms. So...we were back to tenting.
The day was pretty chill and that afternoon we received another recruit of Aussie's (Bilsey, Laura, Fysh and Janelle). We were now at 13 and happy!
Our second day in Navaisha (Day 4) was spent at Hell's Gate National Park. Rather than drive the park, we were all given bicycles. It wasn't a very difficult bike ride and at times the pace was a little slow. However, we were all pretty exhausted shortly after it began due to the heat and the fact that some of the bikes were in pretty rough shape. At the end of the first leg of the bike ride, we walked down the hills and into the gorge to see the natural hot springs. It turns out this is where the Tomb Raider film was recorded.
I can't speak for everyone else but on the way back I was ready to turn in my bike and just sleep on the side of the road in some shade. I almost wished I could have walked the way back and I think I wasn't the only one who was thinking the same thing because when Christine's bike chain snapped and she had to walk back everyone kept asking if she wanted to trade and they would walk and she could ride. When she refused, Katie volunteered to walk back with her and I said I would pull her bike beside me. Glen started it out for me because he was much better at it. Once we reached what we though was flat ground he let me take over. I was able to get it around the first turn only by actually lifting the front of the bike off of the ground. At the end of the first turn I lost control and tried to jump off my bike but landed crotch first on the bike frame – Ouch! Fysh rescued me until we met back up with Katie and Christine, at which point she walked the bike home.
Overall, the whole experience was pretty cool and it is something amazing to think that we were biking along with the Gazelles, Zebra's and Giraffe's. We were informed there were no lions, buffalo or rhino's...but there were a family of leopards that we had to watch out for. We figured we were safe because there were more warthogs ('ugliness perfected' according to our tour guide) than there were humans – their fav snack! At one point, we had to stop for a Zebra crossing...only in Africa!
After the bike ride we headed back to the campsite to meet our next recruit, a Kiwi named Anna, which brought our toll to 14. That night we headed to the night club to find only two other people in the entire place. It was quite the place. You weren't allowed to take pictures or even show your camera and the walls of the entire place were covered in pillow like sound proofing...what goes on in here when it is not a nightclub??? We also laughed because only in Africa can you enter a bar with 'outside' alcohol and walk out of a bar with 'inside' alcohol.
Kanyo had also heavily warned us to steer clear of the hippos at night when they graze. Although they are fenced in and there are copious amounts of warning signs, they had a group in the previous year that had gotten drunk at the bar and thought it would be 'funny' to jump the fence and go looking for the hippos. One girl had made the fatal mistake of crossing paths of a baby hippo and the mother and was killed – the others safely made it across the fence. Hippo's actually are the number one animal killers in Africa...they beat out lions, crocodiles and even the unpredictable water buffalo.
The next day (Day 5) we headed to Lake Nakuru for another game drive!!! Just before the game drive we had stopped in the city for lunch and we desperately looked for a lens for a camera (the lens we currently had was only 5x optical zoom...not nearly adequate for the game drives). After seeing all of the other people on the trip with great zoom lenses we were supremely jealous and wanted to be able to get good close ups of all of the animals. After trying a dozen shops we realized it was a pointless search.
Kanyo informed us that we would have to eat our lunch before we entered the park because the monkeys would surely try to steal it from us. However, even though we ate our lunch before we got in, while we were waiting for fire wood the monkeys cornered our truck. We tried desperately to keep them away but someone on the truck tried to offer them chips (what a dumbass) and that just caused them to go crazy. Even despite our efforts to swat them away with broom sticks they managed to, in a split second, jump into the truck and out with a bag of our bread.
Lake Nakuru was much like Lake Manyare (in Tanzania) with towering trees and dense bush...Leopard Country but unfortunately we ended the day with no sightings of Leopards. We did get close to the water where we spotted white and black Rhino, flamingos, water buffalo and the coolest jumping birds. It was neat to look out into the distant long grass and see scattered tiny black birds jumping straight into the air and then again disappearing into the long grass.
That night we stayed in the park and when we arrived at the camp site we were greeted by what seemed like hundreds of baboons. Thankfully it was night time because shortly after we arrived they ventured off into the trees to sleep. We barely had time to set up the tent and the dinner equipment before it began to pour on us. The truck was equipped with a tarp to cover us but the last time it had had maintenance work done on it, it had been put back incorrectly and so there was a huge hole and water was coming down on us from every angle. We managed to finish dinner but we were drenched by the time we had finished dishes. Everyone figured that it would be better to just head to bed rather than stay out in the pouring rain and so we all retired early.
Jeremy was up early the next morning (Day 6) with the other wallah's to get things going for breakfast. By now we all had jobs and Jeremy's was to be a wallah – fire starter, cooking equipment prep and general truck 'bitch'. Jeremy thinks it is a pretty good job but I disagree, especially on the days when we have to get up early for game drives because he has to have the fires started by the time everyone wakes up. I rotate jobs with everyone else which includes cooking, dish washing and truck cleaning.
Our early morning game drive was much more eventful than the previous afternoon game drive and we were lucky enough to see an entire pride of lions hanging out on the side of a hill no more than 30 feet from our truck. When they finally departed we headed to the nearby resort to take Claire to the bathroom. We had already had numerous sick people on the truck. The day earlier Mike had visited the doctors because he hadn't really eaten in about a weeks time. He seemed better after his medication took hold but now Claire was getting sick and she wasn't so smart about getting her diagnosis and catching the rest she needed. That day we took her to the doctor and when she went in she didn't bother to get a blood test, as recommended, and just accepted a pile of medication for Malaria. I don't think she got actually diagnosed but rather convinced the doctor that she had Malaria and so he just agreed.
We spent the night at this really nice place in a town called Eldoret supposedly where Bill Gates has once stayed. It was a cool place with tunnels and a bar that was built down into the ground with a fire place as its focal point. The owner was a bit psychotic but we all were pretty happy to stay in warm and dry dorm beds for the night.
The next morning (Day 7) was our last day in Kenya and we began the long drive to Uganda.
One last thing to mention about Kenya are the amazing kids who would come running from the villages and nearby fields screaming at the top of their longs, “HOW ARE YOU? HOW ARE YOU?” They are taught this at a very young age and they only understand the response as “FINE”and not “GOOD”. They usually do not even wait for the response though, they keep screaming this at us and then I would say ~a decent percent of them will quickly change their smiling expressions into stern faces with their hands out begging for money. We all laugh at this because it is not every day when a truck full of Mzungu's (white people) drive by.
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Saturday, May 1, 2010
WE ARE ENGAGED!!!
Proposal in the eyes of the asker.
I had always envisioned that on the trip I would ask Katie to marry me. I had no doubts that I wanted to ask her but I was just unsure of where I would do it. I figured that the moment would just pop out at me. After altering our plans to stay in Africa I knew where I was going to do it – Mount Kilimanjaro...that was unless something else arose and I couldn't help myself.
I had decided the previous day (as this is our last day) that this would be the place to ask the most important question of my life!!!
The previous day while we walked along the beach I had been searching for Sandstone. On our desert Safari I had fashioned a heart from sandstone that Katie had adored. Because there were no shops nearby I thought that this would be the nicest and most meaningful ring. Unfortunately, none of the rocks could be carved with what I had at my disposal. So that morning I asked Mostafa where in town I could get a ring. He said he knew of a place and would help me out. This might have been a bad idea because when we went into town he could barely contain his excitement and whenever Katie was a foot ahead of us he would make gestures and sometimes started to talk a little loud. I think I managed to keep him quiet with some gestures of my own but there was no way to sneak away from Katie to get a ring. I tried on my own at one point, feigning that I had to use the washroom, but after ten minutes of running around, I ended up empty handed.
I didn't want to give up and when we got back to the hotel I snuck away from Katie to ask about the ring. Mostapha by this point had filled in Said on what I had planned to do and now I had two very romantic people extremely excited and bursting with ideas. Although, they had a great many ideas I already knew how I wanted the night to turn out in my head. But it was hard to organize everything, even with their help, without alerting Katie as to what I was planning.
Katie ordered a simple meal and I went along with it. She had decided on spaghetti and chicken skewers. It is amazing how two people can think so alike. When I went into the kitchen I couldn't help thinking that spaghetti reminded me of the Disney's movie 'Lady and the Tramp'.
I knew that Katie did not need a ring or anything else but I did not want to be empty handed and I really wanted this to be somewhat traditional. I wanted everything to be perfect and it was making me so nervous. I knew that having Katie in my life was something I had no questions about but for some reason I was nervous. I don't think it was because I was scared but rather because I was so excited and it was really hard to contain my excitement. It was really hard to think and get everything straight...it didn't help that Mostapha and Said kept proposing things that I should do. For example, they wanted me to ask her 'my question' first and then come up for dinner, music and dessert. It took a long time to convince them of my ideas because they were just so excited...which was very touching.
I again asked Mostapha about the ring and because he was busy he sent me into town with a friend of his to look for something special. Before going into town I managed to sneak down to the beach and write M2 in the beach. I also added BFF because I think despite Katie being my girlfriend for a long time, she has also always been my best friend. She is there to listen to me when I need it, is also there for comfort when I am down but most importantly is always giving me more encouragement and love than I ever deserve.
After playing with rocks in the sand I managed to sneak away yet again from Katie and left her watching a movie in the room and headed to town. Despite driving around to every shop in town (there were so many open so late) I had to settle on something not very pretty and what seemed to be much to large (I picked out two to try and even my odds but both seemed a bit off).
Although, we rushed in to town and rushed back I was two minutes too late and Katie had come looking for me. Now she knew something was up.
Although, it was very late by the time we got to eat (Mostapha had waited for everyone to leave before preparing our food) the dinner was so nice. Katie thought exactly like I had and announced that we were rein-acting the lady and the tramp...candle light and spaghetti – great minds think alike.
All throughout supper it felt like my heart was running a mile a minute and I couldn't wait to lead Katie down to the beach. After a few hiccups in the plan and some difficulties in explaining what I wanted to do after dinner, I led Katie down to the beach.
The stones were lit up by candles but that didn't add much light making it hard to lead Katie down the stairs blindfolded. When we got to the bottom the pictures started. Mostapha had asked if he could take pictures and I agreed because it would be nice to have the evening recorded. It was a nice touch because it truly made the mood happy as Katie could not stop giggling as the flash continued to go off from every angle.
Once the boys left and Said had brought down the ring it was time to ask the question. I knew in my head what I wanted to say but it was so difficult to get the words to come out especially since I was nearly crying and tears were streaming down Katie's face. It didn't come out exactly as I had figured it would but either way Katie filled me with happiness by agreeing to spend the rest of her days with me!
We sat on the beach Katie, Rockie (our beloved German Shepard who was protector of the grounds and Katies new best friend) and I just enjoying the moment. It was very romantic until one of the previous guests had wandered down the beach and stumbled over to us. For what seemed like the next five minutes, Andrew rambled about his abilities to understand what the local dogs were saying to him. We had no idea what he was saying and couldn't wait for him to leave.
After the beach we went back up stairs...this time Katie asked to be blindfolded only at the top of the stairs so she would not trip...this seemed like a good idea. When we got up the stairs the guys had lit all of the candles and brought out the flower shaped vegetables. They were so excited when we entered the room and quickly Mostapha began shooting photos. He would shoot from one angle and then move to the next and take more pictures and even got a couple of shots through the book cases.
It was so amazing what they had done for us, especially the beautiful bouquet made of veggies. The atmosphere was very nice. They had the flowers, Christmas ornaments, dozens of candles, pastries and soft music...well some of it was love music the rest was club music. The rest of the staff and some of their friends were there to congratulate us. We sat around eating sweet after sweet, drinking coke and just talking. It would have been nice to be at home and share this moment with everyone but it was so nice that we had met some good friends to share it with and I am so glad that Katie said yes!!!
Proposal in the eye of the askee
When we arrived in Legzira, I knew we had found paradise – the 8 hour drive was so worth it! Once we were settled in and waiting for our food, Jeremy and I started talking about our future (like we always do) and how amazing it would be to bring our kids here one day. Jeremy mentioned it would be a dream to get married her…and before you knew it, we were planning our dream wedding. The only vital and key component that we were missing from this picture was the engagement. By the end of the day, I joked (haha…joked but then not really) with Jeremy that we could not leave this place without being engaged – it was THE most romantic place I have ever visited!
Day 2 was just as mesmerizing as day one only this time we ventured in the opposite direction as the massive rock monuments. Here we met numerous dogs along the way and continued to look at each other laughing and dumbfounded…we were so lucky to be here and even more lucky to have the beaches deserted.
On Day 3 I was getting a bit anxious and so in the morning I finally told Jeremy that, “screw it…I will just propose to you”. Jeremy did not like this one bit - he is a helpless romantic as I am sure you all already know. The remainder of the day I made jokes about my soon to be proposal to him and constantly alluded to the fact that I had “something really big and important to ask him”. I even at times would pretend to have tripped and fallen on one knee…I would then say, “Will you … (followed by a very long pause) help me up Jeremy?”
When the sun was starting to set, we went for our usual beach stroll. Along the way I asked Jeremy that I had to stop and write something very important in the sand. He promised me that his answer would be No. I laughed and told him he didn’t even know what I was going to write (although we both knew exactly what I had in mind). I jokingly wrote out “M2” (Marry Me – I thought it was cute seeing as we are both enginerds) and Jeremy blushed like I have never seen him before. He of course said no…but I knew he would. We made it back to the amazing stone arches and sat down to play a game of Backgammon. Unfortunately for me, I had lost the game but I made sure to point out that I was acting like a great loser (instead of the usual poor loser which is part or my Heisler genes). After this point, I figured I had pushed my case far enough and I let things be.
Jeremy I know has written about the events leading up to and after the big moment…so I won’t repeat them but all I can say is that it was amazing and I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Now, we feel like we are on cloud No. 9 – I proudly tell all of my new acquaintances of our recent engagement! Yep…life is good!
I had always envisioned that on the trip I would ask Katie to marry me. I had no doubts that I wanted to ask her but I was just unsure of where I would do it. I figured that the moment would just pop out at me. After altering our plans to stay in Africa I knew where I was going to do it – Mount Kilimanjaro...that was unless something else arose and I couldn't help myself.
I had decided the previous day (as this is our last day) that this would be the place to ask the most important question of my life!!!
The previous day while we walked along the beach I had been searching for Sandstone. On our desert Safari I had fashioned a heart from sandstone that Katie had adored. Because there were no shops nearby I thought that this would be the nicest and most meaningful ring. Unfortunately, none of the rocks could be carved with what I had at my disposal. So that morning I asked Mostafa where in town I could get a ring. He said he knew of a place and would help me out. This might have been a bad idea because when we went into town he could barely contain his excitement and whenever Katie was a foot ahead of us he would make gestures and sometimes started to talk a little loud. I think I managed to keep him quiet with some gestures of my own but there was no way to sneak away from Katie to get a ring. I tried on my own at one point, feigning that I had to use the washroom, but after ten minutes of running around, I ended up empty handed.
I didn't want to give up and when we got back to the hotel I snuck away from Katie to ask about the ring. Mostapha by this point had filled in Said on what I had planned to do and now I had two very romantic people extremely excited and bursting with ideas. Although, they had a great many ideas I already knew how I wanted the night to turn out in my head. But it was hard to organize everything, even with their help, without alerting Katie as to what I was planning.
Katie ordered a simple meal and I went along with it. She had decided on spaghetti and chicken skewers. It is amazing how two people can think so alike. When I went into the kitchen I couldn't help thinking that spaghetti reminded me of the Disney's movie 'Lady and the Tramp'.
I knew that Katie did not need a ring or anything else but I did not want to be empty handed and I really wanted this to be somewhat traditional. I wanted everything to be perfect and it was making me so nervous. I knew that having Katie in my life was something I had no questions about but for some reason I was nervous. I don't think it was because I was scared but rather because I was so excited and it was really hard to contain my excitement. It was really hard to think and get everything straight...it didn't help that Mostapha and Said kept proposing things that I should do. For example, they wanted me to ask her 'my question' first and then come up for dinner, music and dessert. It took a long time to convince them of my ideas because they were just so excited...which was very touching.
I again asked Mostapha about the ring and because he was busy he sent me into town with a friend of his to look for something special. Before going into town I managed to sneak down to the beach and write M2 in the beach. I also added BFF because I think despite Katie being my girlfriend for a long time, she has also always been my best friend. She is there to listen to me when I need it, is also there for comfort when I am down but most importantly is always giving me more encouragement and love than I ever deserve.
After playing with rocks in the sand I managed to sneak away yet again from Katie and left her watching a movie in the room and headed to town. Despite driving around to every shop in town (there were so many open so late) I had to settle on something not very pretty and what seemed to be much to large (I picked out two to try and even my odds but both seemed a bit off).
Although, we rushed in to town and rushed back I was two minutes too late and Katie had come looking for me. Now she knew something was up.
Although, it was very late by the time we got to eat (Mostapha had waited for everyone to leave before preparing our food) the dinner was so nice. Katie thought exactly like I had and announced that we were rein-acting the lady and the tramp...candle light and spaghetti – great minds think alike.
All throughout supper it felt like my heart was running a mile a minute and I couldn't wait to lead Katie down to the beach. After a few hiccups in the plan and some difficulties in explaining what I wanted to do after dinner, I led Katie down to the beach.
The stones were lit up by candles but that didn't add much light making it hard to lead Katie down the stairs blindfolded. When we got to the bottom the pictures started. Mostapha had asked if he could take pictures and I agreed because it would be nice to have the evening recorded. It was a nice touch because it truly made the mood happy as Katie could not stop giggling as the flash continued to go off from every angle.
Once the boys left and Said had brought down the ring it was time to ask the question. I knew in my head what I wanted to say but it was so difficult to get the words to come out especially since I was nearly crying and tears were streaming down Katie's face. It didn't come out exactly as I had figured it would but either way Katie filled me with happiness by agreeing to spend the rest of her days with me!
We sat on the beach Katie, Rockie (our beloved German Shepard who was protector of the grounds and Katies new best friend) and I just enjoying the moment. It was very romantic until one of the previous guests had wandered down the beach and stumbled over to us. For what seemed like the next five minutes, Andrew rambled about his abilities to understand what the local dogs were saying to him. We had no idea what he was saying and couldn't wait for him to leave.
After the beach we went back up stairs...this time Katie asked to be blindfolded only at the top of the stairs so she would not trip...this seemed like a good idea. When we got up the stairs the guys had lit all of the candles and brought out the flower shaped vegetables. They were so excited when we entered the room and quickly Mostapha began shooting photos. He would shoot from one angle and then move to the next and take more pictures and even got a couple of shots through the book cases.
It was so amazing what they had done for us, especially the beautiful bouquet made of veggies. The atmosphere was very nice. They had the flowers, Christmas ornaments, dozens of candles, pastries and soft music...well some of it was love music the rest was club music. The rest of the staff and some of their friends were there to congratulate us. We sat around eating sweet after sweet, drinking coke and just talking. It would have been nice to be at home and share this moment with everyone but it was so nice that we had met some good friends to share it with and I am so glad that Katie said yes!!!
Proposal in the eye of the askee
When we arrived in Legzira, I knew we had found paradise – the 8 hour drive was so worth it! Once we were settled in and waiting for our food, Jeremy and I started talking about our future (like we always do) and how amazing it would be to bring our kids here one day. Jeremy mentioned it would be a dream to get married her…and before you knew it, we were planning our dream wedding. The only vital and key component that we were missing from this picture was the engagement. By the end of the day, I joked (haha…joked but then not really) with Jeremy that we could not leave this place without being engaged – it was THE most romantic place I have ever visited!
Day 2 was just as mesmerizing as day one only this time we ventured in the opposite direction as the massive rock monuments. Here we met numerous dogs along the way and continued to look at each other laughing and dumbfounded…we were so lucky to be here and even more lucky to have the beaches deserted.
On Day 3 I was getting a bit anxious and so in the morning I finally told Jeremy that, “screw it…I will just propose to you”. Jeremy did not like this one bit - he is a helpless romantic as I am sure you all already know. The remainder of the day I made jokes about my soon to be proposal to him and constantly alluded to the fact that I had “something really big and important to ask him”. I even at times would pretend to have tripped and fallen on one knee…I would then say, “Will you … (followed by a very long pause) help me up Jeremy?”
When the sun was starting to set, we went for our usual beach stroll. Along the way I asked Jeremy that I had to stop and write something very important in the sand. He promised me that his answer would be No. I laughed and told him he didn’t even know what I was going to write (although we both knew exactly what I had in mind). I jokingly wrote out “M2” (Marry Me – I thought it was cute seeing as we are both enginerds) and Jeremy blushed like I have never seen him before. He of course said no…but I knew he would. We made it back to the amazing stone arches and sat down to play a game of Backgammon. Unfortunately for me, I had lost the game but I made sure to point out that I was acting like a great loser (instead of the usual poor loser which is part or my Heisler genes). After this point, I figured I had pushed my case far enough and I let things be.
Jeremy I know has written about the events leading up to and after the big moment…so I won’t repeat them but all I can say is that it was amazing and I wouldn’t have changed anything.
Now, we feel like we are on cloud No. 9 – I proudly tell all of my new acquaintances of our recent engagement! Yep…life is good!
Legzira - 100% PARADISE!!!
When we arrived in Legzira we were stunned by what we were seeing. It was by far the nicest place that we had ever seen. There was four hotels on the beach and maybe a handful of people in sight. Immediately after arriving we felt like royalty as the staff catered to us non stop. It wasn't just because there was nobody there either.
Before heading out to explore the great arches that were reported in the guide book, we stopped to eat something. We had fresh fish and unbelievable chicken skewers. This was, however, our first glimpse into how long it would take in the future before an order was delivered. But it didn't matter because we had nothing better to do than relax and stare out at the amazingly beautiful scenery.
Our first walk down the beach was eye opening and after witnessing the amazing arches we were talking about how amazing it would be so nice to get married on the beach ;). We couldn't believe how few people there were. We enjoyed playing some Shesh Besh under the massive stone arches and just revelled in the paradise. To give you a bit of a mental picture, these huge stone arches begin as part of the hillside that encompasses the bay. They jut into the water and over thousands (probably millions of years) have been eroded by the ocean into what could only be described as a mountainous half donut. They seem more like giants than rocks and seem to have a life of their own.
We had ate so much at lunch time that we had no appetite for dinner and continued our consumption of endless amounts of amazing Morrocan fresh mint tea. Now that we had our own Shesh Besh board we were like addicts and played game after game after game and as usual, I let myself be embarrassed by Katie as she kicked butt with her non stop lucky double rolls. Maybe it was the embarrassment of losing at Shesh Besh so rather than crash immediately I went to explore the staff nightlife. To my surprise, I found them jamming away together on their guitars and stopped for a listen.
The next day we spent lounging and enjoying the freedom of no plans, no major sightseeing and the company of the staff. Mostapha the manager and Said were easy to talk with and Katie for sure enjoyed that fact that Mostafa loved to call out my name, or a version of it – “Jimmy” for no reason at all. He couldn't quite get down Katie's name. Despite it seeming easy I think more people have trouble here saying Katie than compared to Jeremy.
In the evening we headed in the opposite direction to explore and had the company of one of the local beach dweller's dogs. Although, there was no arches in this direction, it was equally beautiful and the “lion's head” and the beach plateau was a photographers dream as the sun began to set. The best part was, that besides the locals who lived in the niches in the rock, there was absolutely no one on the beach.
We spent the evening discussing possible wedding plans on the beach, reading, Shesh Besh and a movie...no better life!!!
The next day the weather was not as nice as it had been and so we just sat around and read. As the day progressed we began to truly feel the romance of Legzira. During the day it is so peaceful and deserted that one can truly feel like they have the place to themselves. The incredible staff and their aim to make us so comfortable continued to add to the overwhelming romanticism. The breathtaking scenery during the day and the brightness of the stars by night were probably the most enthralling aspects of Legzira's romance. It probably didn't hurt that Mostafa kept saying romance, romance, romance when referring to anything.
Katie fell in love with the hotels dog named Rockie who was a German Shepard. He was such a snuggler and kept coming back to us and nudging us for his attention. He reminded Katie of her dogs back home and every day she would talk about how much she missed them. The cool part about Rocky was that not only was he a snuggle bug, but he was also an excellent guard dog. Whenever he heard commotion from down on the beach below, he would dart across the patio and perch himself over the ledge as if to say, “Hey...I am watching you”. We both loved him dearly and he definitely added to our experience.
By the afternoon Katie began to joke about us getting engaged before leaving Legzira. When we went into town to get money to pay for our accommodations she did not stop saying that she wanted to get back to the beach because she had to ask me something. We had offered Mostafa a lift into town and his complete contempt for time might be another reason why she had kept commenting that she wanted to return to the beach.
When we did finally manage to get back to the beach Katie proposed to me. Haha she cutely wrote in the sand “M2” as a joke to our nerd backgrounds. Although, I had informed her a hundred times that I would reject her proposal she could not help herself and I kept true to my word.
Before heading out to explore the great arches that were reported in the guide book, we stopped to eat something. We had fresh fish and unbelievable chicken skewers. This was, however, our first glimpse into how long it would take in the future before an order was delivered. But it didn't matter because we had nothing better to do than relax and stare out at the amazingly beautiful scenery.
Our first walk down the beach was eye opening and after witnessing the amazing arches we were talking about how amazing it would be so nice to get married on the beach ;). We couldn't believe how few people there were. We enjoyed playing some Shesh Besh under the massive stone arches and just revelled in the paradise. To give you a bit of a mental picture, these huge stone arches begin as part of the hillside that encompasses the bay. They jut into the water and over thousands (probably millions of years) have been eroded by the ocean into what could only be described as a mountainous half donut. They seem more like giants than rocks and seem to have a life of their own.
We had ate so much at lunch time that we had no appetite for dinner and continued our consumption of endless amounts of amazing Morrocan fresh mint tea. Now that we had our own Shesh Besh board we were like addicts and played game after game after game and as usual, I let myself be embarrassed by Katie as she kicked butt with her non stop lucky double rolls. Maybe it was the embarrassment of losing at Shesh Besh so rather than crash immediately I went to explore the staff nightlife. To my surprise, I found them jamming away together on their guitars and stopped for a listen.
The next day we spent lounging and enjoying the freedom of no plans, no major sightseeing and the company of the staff. Mostapha the manager and Said were easy to talk with and Katie for sure enjoyed that fact that Mostafa loved to call out my name, or a version of it – “Jimmy” for no reason at all. He couldn't quite get down Katie's name. Despite it seeming easy I think more people have trouble here saying Katie than compared to Jeremy.
In the evening we headed in the opposite direction to explore and had the company of one of the local beach dweller's dogs. Although, there was no arches in this direction, it was equally beautiful and the “lion's head” and the beach plateau was a photographers dream as the sun began to set. The best part was, that besides the locals who lived in the niches in the rock, there was absolutely no one on the beach.
We spent the evening discussing possible wedding plans on the beach, reading, Shesh Besh and a movie...no better life!!!
The next day the weather was not as nice as it had been and so we just sat around and read. As the day progressed we began to truly feel the romance of Legzira. During the day it is so peaceful and deserted that one can truly feel like they have the place to themselves. The incredible staff and their aim to make us so comfortable continued to add to the overwhelming romanticism. The breathtaking scenery during the day and the brightness of the stars by night were probably the most enthralling aspects of Legzira's romance. It probably didn't hurt that Mostafa kept saying romance, romance, romance when referring to anything.
Katie fell in love with the hotels dog named Rockie who was a German Shepard. He was such a snuggler and kept coming back to us and nudging us for his attention. He reminded Katie of her dogs back home and every day she would talk about how much she missed them. The cool part about Rocky was that not only was he a snuggle bug, but he was also an excellent guard dog. Whenever he heard commotion from down on the beach below, he would dart across the patio and perch himself over the ledge as if to say, “Hey...I am watching you”. We both loved him dearly and he definitely added to our experience.
By the afternoon Katie began to joke about us getting engaged before leaving Legzira. When we went into town to get money to pay for our accommodations she did not stop saying that she wanted to get back to the beach because she had to ask me something. We had offered Mostafa a lift into town and his complete contempt for time might be another reason why she had kept commenting that she wanted to return to the beach.
When we did finally manage to get back to the beach Katie proposed to me. Haha she cutely wrote in the sand “M2” as a joke to our nerd backgrounds. Although, I had informed her a hundred times that I would reject her proposal she could not help herself and I kept true to my word.
Marrakech - Shopping, Shopping and more Shopping!
When we arrived in Marrakech, after an exhaustingly hot train ride, we had no idea where we should stay because all of the hotels in the guide book within our price range were full. We decided that first we needed fuel and stopped at Mickey D's to collect our thoughts. We jumped in a cab after dinner and tried desperately to explain to the taxi driver that we were looking for a cheap but nice hotel. Despite our efforts we were not able to succeed and the driver had to stop and ask someone on the street to translate. We finally got it figured out and although the meter said the ride was 4 pounds he asked us if we would give him 50 pounds. I guess the translation was worth a lot of money??? We ended up settling on 20 pounds (less than 3 bucks).
After a good nights sleep, we headed down to the Medina where we had wanted to stay the night before...the heart of it all. The guide book had turned out to be completely correct about the hotel in that it was great and was a minute walk from Jamaa El Fna, which is the main square in the Medina where all the fun goes on.
Our first day in the Medina we decided that we should head out and see what was around for shopping (Katie's favorite thing...that being said the shops here were great). While shopping we discovered one great thing...fresh orange juice. This was not orange juice that had been prepared somewhere else but was prepared right in front of you. The oranges had not been pre peeled but were cut and juiced in front of our eyes. It was the most delicious oj either of us had ever had and even better was that it was only 40 cents per glass. The only downside was that it was served in glasses, that from what we could see, were only rinsed in water between people but that didn't stop us and we had glass after glass after glass.
By the end of the day we had purchased enough to warrant another shipment home. Because Morrocco is the leather capital of the world (the small part I have visited) we bought numerous purses and briefcases. We also got slippers and about a total of twenty kilograms of souvenirs. After fully exhausting ourselves with shopping we dined at one of the makeshift restaurants that are set up every night in the square. It is really hard to decide which restaurant to eat at because as you approach you are not given a chance to think. Immediately upon entering the food area you are crowded with menus from competing restaurants and that all claim to have the best food and will serve you a free glass of mint tea.
We settled on one where the type of food was recognizable and looked delicious. It must take a lot of effort on the part of the staff because each restaurant artistically presents its food for their customers and the aura of the glowing lights sets a romantic mood. But once seated the romanticism ends and you are a number in a huge group of people. I have never seen so many people squished into a small space and such a small table. Once we had decided on a restaurant, we figured we would have to wait until someone sat up because there was no where to sit. But sure enough, we were found a spot at the end of a table with a small gap of 20 cm between us and the table next to us. The space was to small to accommodate anyone but the smallest people and was proven on a hundred of occasions as the staff constantly bumped into us as they went to serve others.
The couple next to us added an air of excitement to the evening because when we sat down the female was in the middle of getting henna done on her hand. Kind of a weird time to get henna done...especially since you can't move the area for like twenty minutes after. The girl doing the henna was ripping through it and putting it on thicker than what seemed to be normal. When the girl was finished she asked for 150 pounds and the couple said that was ridiculous. It would seem that they should have asked for the price before hand but that is where the excitement came in. So the man would not agree to give anything more than 20 pounds which is probably even a high price for the work that this girl did. After much debating another woman came over to the table and in no time at all there was a fighting match between the two woman soliciting the henna, a man (possibly the man who owned the business) and the couple. The whole argument was broken up by the police who asked if the girl had agreed to get the henna done. It turns out that the henna girl had asked the woman if she could do it and the girl said not now I am going to eat. But whether the girl couldn't understand or just wanted to ensure business she just grabbed the girl's wrist and went to town. Needless to say there was no point saying no after half her hand was covered in henna. After hearing the woman's story the police officer ran the henna girl away and told them not to worry about paying them because what they did was wrong. This didn't stop the henna girl because she came back glaring about ten minutes later but didn't stop to say anything...just to glare!!! I felt bad for the girl because it kind of ruined her meal as she had to eat one handed and even more she was going to have the ugliest henna tattoo I have ever seen (it was dripping all down her hand).
After dinner we went and watched some of the shows. We got to see the weakest boxing I have ever seen between a girl and a guy because the man running the show just kept shouting to people to bet (I am guessing because I couldn't understand but money was constantly exchanging hands). I tried taking a picture but after the flash went off realized that was a bad idea...he stopped talking and just put out his hand toward me. I was in the spotlight of fifty spectators and had to fork over some cash - doh!! After deciding the boxing was going nowhere we went to see some acrobatics.
Hint: If you go to watch a show at square such as this one beware that a visible camera is likely going to attract a lot of attention. For example, in the morning we were watching the snake charmers and he noticed the camera. Sure it was neat to get some good pictures of the snake charming but it was not fun to have to contest that three pictures (although priceless...Katie was sure scared of the snake) was not worth three hundred pounds...he got twenty and although he didn't think so, it was way too much.
The acrobats immediately noticed that I was wearing a camera and singled me out as the potential candidate to give them money. He asked where I was from and then the other guy jumped on his back. He told me to take a picture but I knew where this was going and so I said I didn't have much money on me. “Of course, don't worry the picture will be free my Canadian friend” but after I snapped one he told me to take another picture. What a con because he knew that he had told me that one would be free but by taking pictures our agreement was no longer valid. After his partner had jumped off his back he was right in my face asking for money.
Our last stop of the evening was fishing for cokes. I was addicted to the game before I even started. Katie was a little hesitant at first but after watching me play a round she was right in there having a ton of fun. After completely failing and getting no where close to winning a coke we headed for another orange juice (about number 5 for the day) and then went back to try again. Despite getting about twenty five minutes beyond what I had paid for (he must have had a crush on me) I still had nothing to show for my efforts and headed back to the hotel. That was not before being asked by random strangers to buy hashish.
Hint: If a man walks by and whispers something that is barely audible, do not flinch or turn your headed even the slightest bit. A slight turn will indicate that you are interested in buying whatever drugs he has to offer, or so it seems. It seems worse when you are walking by yourself because when alone if you flinch they think that is good reason to follow you for five minutes and ask you the same question over and over...”do you want hashish?”. And it doesn't matter if you are walking they will even try to solicit while you have a fishing rod in your hands!!
The next morning we were super tired and got a slow start to the day just catching up on emailing and picture sorting (this is a big when you take a thousand pics a week!!). At around noon we headed out to take a walking tour guided by the lonely planet. This one was not nearly as nice as the one in Fez and halfway through, our excitement completely faded and we headed to shop. We decided that we should try a hammam (Moroccan massage and cleanse) and considered one of the many pamphlets we had been given the day before. Katie decided that the one given by Mostafa (who was the nicest) was the best and it turned out to be the bargain for the buck.
We booked our appointment, slammed back a pizza and headed to the massage parlour. It was difficult to find not only because it was down winding streets but because it was hard to find someone to ask directions who wasn't trying to peddle a different hammam parlour. Questions just led to “it's closed” or “ours is much nicer and cheaper”. This cheaper part was easy to prove as they were holding a flyer and after comparing to the one we were holding, it surely was not. Although, we got there on time we had to wait for an hour long 'twenty minutes'. When we finally got in they had a nice little bag prepared for us that consisted of slippers, a robe and disposable underwear.
When it was our turn to hit the steamer we were a bit surprised. There was a woman in the steamer who was fully clothed and dripping wet. She got us to sit down and strip of our robes. Besides the uncomfortable disposable underwear we were completely naked (looking back on it now we should have just went naked). She came over and started by getting each of us to stand up, drenched us,with hot water and then got us to lay down where she lathered us from head to toe in oil. Once finished, we were left in wood fired steam room. She returned later to rinse us, lay us again on the bed and scrub the dead skin off of our bodies...nasty! This was followed by a full shower including a shampoo and a lather of body gel followed by a good rinse. Next was our massage where we had to strip again (no problem by now) for an incredible one hour massage (or so they say it was one hour as there were no clocks in the room and it definitely did not feel like one hour). Although, we are not sure we would do it again, it was good to try. It would have been much better however, if it would have been a little better organized.
Our massage was followed by a browse of the dvd store (cheap copies), confirm and pick up our rental vehicle and lastly, a movie in bed. In regards to the rental vehicle, we had seen pictures of this really rad looking place in the lonely planet guide book and right from the get go we had been excited to see if we could make it there. The bus would be possible but because we were running short of time awe opted for the car rental.
We awoke early the next morning, so we could beat the crazy traffic in the square, and headed on our way. I am not sure if we were lucky or if the signage was better in Morocco but we were soon on the highway and headed in the right direction. We managed only to get lost twice in the major towns/cities along the way and only stopped once to take pictures of a herd of goats chilling out on tree branches...it was worth the stop!
After a good nights sleep, we headed down to the Medina where we had wanted to stay the night before...the heart of it all. The guide book had turned out to be completely correct about the hotel in that it was great and was a minute walk from Jamaa El Fna, which is the main square in the Medina where all the fun goes on.
Our first day in the Medina we decided that we should head out and see what was around for shopping (Katie's favorite thing...that being said the shops here were great). While shopping we discovered one great thing...fresh orange juice. This was not orange juice that had been prepared somewhere else but was prepared right in front of you. The oranges had not been pre peeled but were cut and juiced in front of our eyes. It was the most delicious oj either of us had ever had and even better was that it was only 40 cents per glass. The only downside was that it was served in glasses, that from what we could see, were only rinsed in water between people but that didn't stop us and we had glass after glass after glass.
By the end of the day we had purchased enough to warrant another shipment home. Because Morrocco is the leather capital of the world (the small part I have visited) we bought numerous purses and briefcases. We also got slippers and about a total of twenty kilograms of souvenirs. After fully exhausting ourselves with shopping we dined at one of the makeshift restaurants that are set up every night in the square. It is really hard to decide which restaurant to eat at because as you approach you are not given a chance to think. Immediately upon entering the food area you are crowded with menus from competing restaurants and that all claim to have the best food and will serve you a free glass of mint tea.
We settled on one where the type of food was recognizable and looked delicious. It must take a lot of effort on the part of the staff because each restaurant artistically presents its food for their customers and the aura of the glowing lights sets a romantic mood. But once seated the romanticism ends and you are a number in a huge group of people. I have never seen so many people squished into a small space and such a small table. Once we had decided on a restaurant, we figured we would have to wait until someone sat up because there was no where to sit. But sure enough, we were found a spot at the end of a table with a small gap of 20 cm between us and the table next to us. The space was to small to accommodate anyone but the smallest people and was proven on a hundred of occasions as the staff constantly bumped into us as they went to serve others.
The couple next to us added an air of excitement to the evening because when we sat down the female was in the middle of getting henna done on her hand. Kind of a weird time to get henna done...especially since you can't move the area for like twenty minutes after. The girl doing the henna was ripping through it and putting it on thicker than what seemed to be normal. When the girl was finished she asked for 150 pounds and the couple said that was ridiculous. It would seem that they should have asked for the price before hand but that is where the excitement came in. So the man would not agree to give anything more than 20 pounds which is probably even a high price for the work that this girl did. After much debating another woman came over to the table and in no time at all there was a fighting match between the two woman soliciting the henna, a man (possibly the man who owned the business) and the couple. The whole argument was broken up by the police who asked if the girl had agreed to get the henna done. It turns out that the henna girl had asked the woman if she could do it and the girl said not now I am going to eat. But whether the girl couldn't understand or just wanted to ensure business she just grabbed the girl's wrist and went to town. Needless to say there was no point saying no after half her hand was covered in henna. After hearing the woman's story the police officer ran the henna girl away and told them not to worry about paying them because what they did was wrong. This didn't stop the henna girl because she came back glaring about ten minutes later but didn't stop to say anything...just to glare!!! I felt bad for the girl because it kind of ruined her meal as she had to eat one handed and even more she was going to have the ugliest henna tattoo I have ever seen (it was dripping all down her hand).
After dinner we went and watched some of the shows. We got to see the weakest boxing I have ever seen between a girl and a guy because the man running the show just kept shouting to people to bet (I am guessing because I couldn't understand but money was constantly exchanging hands). I tried taking a picture but after the flash went off realized that was a bad idea...he stopped talking and just put out his hand toward me. I was in the spotlight of fifty spectators and had to fork over some cash - doh!! After deciding the boxing was going nowhere we went to see some acrobatics.
Hint: If you go to watch a show at square such as this one beware that a visible camera is likely going to attract a lot of attention. For example, in the morning we were watching the snake charmers and he noticed the camera. Sure it was neat to get some good pictures of the snake charming but it was not fun to have to contest that three pictures (although priceless...Katie was sure scared of the snake) was not worth three hundred pounds...he got twenty and although he didn't think so, it was way too much.
The acrobats immediately noticed that I was wearing a camera and singled me out as the potential candidate to give them money. He asked where I was from and then the other guy jumped on his back. He told me to take a picture but I knew where this was going and so I said I didn't have much money on me. “Of course, don't worry the picture will be free my Canadian friend” but after I snapped one he told me to take another picture. What a con because he knew that he had told me that one would be free but by taking pictures our agreement was no longer valid. After his partner had jumped off his back he was right in my face asking for money.
Our last stop of the evening was fishing for cokes. I was addicted to the game before I even started. Katie was a little hesitant at first but after watching me play a round she was right in there having a ton of fun. After completely failing and getting no where close to winning a coke we headed for another orange juice (about number 5 for the day) and then went back to try again. Despite getting about twenty five minutes beyond what I had paid for (he must have had a crush on me) I still had nothing to show for my efforts and headed back to the hotel. That was not before being asked by random strangers to buy hashish.
Hint: If a man walks by and whispers something that is barely audible, do not flinch or turn your headed even the slightest bit. A slight turn will indicate that you are interested in buying whatever drugs he has to offer, or so it seems. It seems worse when you are walking by yourself because when alone if you flinch they think that is good reason to follow you for five minutes and ask you the same question over and over...”do you want hashish?”. And it doesn't matter if you are walking they will even try to solicit while you have a fishing rod in your hands!!
The next morning we were super tired and got a slow start to the day just catching up on emailing and picture sorting (this is a big when you take a thousand pics a week!!). At around noon we headed out to take a walking tour guided by the lonely planet. This one was not nearly as nice as the one in Fez and halfway through, our excitement completely faded and we headed to shop. We decided that we should try a hammam (Moroccan massage and cleanse) and considered one of the many pamphlets we had been given the day before. Katie decided that the one given by Mostafa (who was the nicest) was the best and it turned out to be the bargain for the buck.
We booked our appointment, slammed back a pizza and headed to the massage parlour. It was difficult to find not only because it was down winding streets but because it was hard to find someone to ask directions who wasn't trying to peddle a different hammam parlour. Questions just led to “it's closed” or “ours is much nicer and cheaper”. This cheaper part was easy to prove as they were holding a flyer and after comparing to the one we were holding, it surely was not. Although, we got there on time we had to wait for an hour long 'twenty minutes'. When we finally got in they had a nice little bag prepared for us that consisted of slippers, a robe and disposable underwear.
When it was our turn to hit the steamer we were a bit surprised. There was a woman in the steamer who was fully clothed and dripping wet. She got us to sit down and strip of our robes. Besides the uncomfortable disposable underwear we were completely naked (looking back on it now we should have just went naked). She came over and started by getting each of us to stand up, drenched us,with hot water and then got us to lay down where she lathered us from head to toe in oil. Once finished, we were left in wood fired steam room. She returned later to rinse us, lay us again on the bed and scrub the dead skin off of our bodies...nasty! This was followed by a full shower including a shampoo and a lather of body gel followed by a good rinse. Next was our massage where we had to strip again (no problem by now) for an incredible one hour massage (or so they say it was one hour as there were no clocks in the room and it definitely did not feel like one hour). Although, we are not sure we would do it again, it was good to try. It would have been much better however, if it would have been a little better organized.
Our massage was followed by a browse of the dvd store (cheap copies), confirm and pick up our rental vehicle and lastly, a movie in bed. In regards to the rental vehicle, we had seen pictures of this really rad looking place in the lonely planet guide book and right from the get go we had been excited to see if we could make it there. The bus would be possible but because we were running short of time awe opted for the car rental.
We awoke early the next morning, so we could beat the crazy traffic in the square, and headed on our way. I am not sure if we were lucky or if the signage was better in Morocco but we were soon on the highway and headed in the right direction. We managed only to get lost twice in the major towns/cities along the way and only stopped once to take pictures of a herd of goats chilling out on tree branches...it was worth the stop!
Casablanca and FEZ!!! The wonderful world of MOROCCO
Our travels from Egypt to Morocco could not have been any worse. We had to take a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from Alexandria to the Cairo Airport. Unfortunately for me, I am unable to sleep anywhere and everywhere unlike Jeremy. Needless to say, I was squished, stuffy and hot in the back of the bus while Jeremy was out like a lamb. When we arrived at the Airport, it was 1 am. We tried to check in but they would not let us do so until 3 hours before departure. This meant we were confined to the one restaurant across from the terminals. Passing the time was not too hard to do, we grabbed a bite to eat and battled each other in our new favourite game Sheshbesh. Once we cleared security, we were informed that our flight was one hour delayed – great! So now it is 8 am (7 hours since we arrived at the airport). We were both exhausted. Jeremy was able to sleep the entire plane ride (5 hours) to Casablanca while I read up on the Lonely Planet Guide, annoyed at myself for not sleeping.
Once we landed in Casablanca, we took the 1 hour train into the city (~1/10th the price of a taxi). Our cab driver had never heard of our hotel so when I showed him it on the map, he informed us that he would drop us of near one of its major landmarks...the fish market which jut happened to be half a block from our hotel. Upon entering the hotel, we asked for the price...and this is where it gets weird. He asked us what we would like the price to be. I referenced the book and said that since it is normally 220 Dirhams, I would like 200. He looked at us crazy then Jeremy said maybe 250. I quickly interrupted and said there is no way I would pay more than what the book quoted for this place. Still looking at us like we were crazy, he informed us that Jeremy would stay for free and that I would have to pay 100 Dirhams for the room (i.e. $12 Canadian Dollars). We were very confused but obviously agreed with him.
When we were in South Africa, Jeremy and I had met a couple that had toured Morocco and loved it. There only little piece of advice they had given us was to follow the Lonely Planet. So, after touring the smelly (but neat-O) fish market and scarfing down some pizza and a panini from a restaurant nearby we were ready to start our 'Walking Tour of the City'. We followed the book and thoroughly enjoyed our sights of the city which included: ancient mosques, the old police and law buildings, the post office, and abandoned cinema and an many unique and impressively architected buildings. One of our favourite sights which we just happened to stumble across while we were walking by was a little courtyard filled with people and pigeons - a neat mix!
After many hours and several kilometres of walking, we were exhausted. We headed back to the hotel where I passed out immediately. Jeremy was ready to crawl into bed and read until he glanced at the clock. It was 8pm – instead he went downstairs and made good use of the free internet in the lobby. The only catch was that it was a French keyboard and typing was a great difficulty.
Unlike Egypt where the second language is English (making it very nice for people like us to communicate), Morocco's second language is French. There has been a huge communication barrier because of this and we find that we are really counting on our gestures as a means to communicate.
The following day we hitched a cab to the Hassam II Mosque, which was built by the late King and was his best attempt to give Casablanca the landmark he thought it sorely missed. The construction started in 1987 and finished in 1993 – quite an impressive feat when you consider not only the construction footprint but also the 'Moroccan' Detail which is evident throughout the building. The building also houses a 210 meter tall minaret (largest building in the country) and a retractable roof. It is the world's third largest mosque, accommodating 250,000 worshippers inside and a further 80,000 in the courtyard and square around it. Since there are only 2 mosques that non Muslims are permitted to enter in the country, we figured this would be a good one to see and we were very pleased with both its enormity and beauty.
After walking kilometers along the Corniche, we headed back to our hotel. We checked out of our hotel (paying only the 100 Dirhams as promised) and made our way to the Train Station. We had trouble finding a cab and after walking a few blocks (backs sore and sweaty) we met a man named Shaq on the corner. He was also heading to the train station – perfect...more eyes to hail a cab! It turned out that Shaq was also heading in the same direction as us and Shaq was in the same English tour group as us at the Hassam Mosque that same morning. Ironically enough, the previous night, Jeremy remembers seeing Shaq at the courtyard with all of the Pigeons – once again we realized just how small the world really is. Shaq was great to sit with, he made our 5 hour train ride a breeze as he kept us entertained with all of his travelling experiences he has encountered all over the world (a world class traveller).
We said our goodbyes at Meknes, as this was his destination and we were heading to Fez. Once in Fez, we selected a hotel in the Nouvelle (i.e. New Fez) versus the Medina (i.e. Old Fez) as the prices were cheaper and we figured we would just utilize the cheap taxi's for transport. When we arrived at our hotel, we first looked at the room (smart thing) and after looking at the room, we opened our book, selected a hotel in the Medina, reserved the room, notified the front lobby and hailed a taxi.
We were dropped of at the main gates of the Medina and were told by our cabbie that the hotel was in, “that direction”. We made our way through the very narrow and over crowded streets. Along the way, Jeremy was approached by a man enquiring where we were staying (with our backpacks on us, we were like sitting ducks). After informing him of our place and receiving directions, Jeremy noticed a young fellow behind him run in front of us. He warned me that something fishy was about to take place. When we arrived at the steps of our hotel, the same man that Jeremy had warned me about was waiting in the doorway. He informed us that the hotel was fully booked but he had a great hotel to stay at just around the corner. We basically laughed at him and told him we had a reservation at which point he cowardly walked away.
After settling in to our hotel, we headed out to explore the Medina and all it had to offer. At first, we followed our nose. We stopped and had a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed Orange Juice (one of our favourite parts of Morocco), munched on some candy roasted peanuts, purchased the most beautiful and edible strawberries I have ever seen (unfortunately they did not taste as good as they looked) and loaded up (I mean loaded up!) on my much beloved peas. Anybody that knows me would know that I go absolutely bonkers over my peas, so for me finding them in April was like a dream come true.
After feeding our tummies, we aimlessly walked around the vegetable market and then entered the meat market. I was horrified to find camel, goat, ram and pig heads on display at every butcher station, as if they were a prized possession. Meat was hanging everywhere and chickens were everywhere. They were tied to crates on the floor, tied to crates on the counters and in cages in the butchers stall.
The craziest part (even crazier than the camel heads) was the small space in which everyone operated. The stalls were small, the roads were small and the people were EVERYWHERE. It was a blessing in disguise that the streets were too narrow to accommodate cars...but this did not stop the copious amounts of scooters ripping in and out of traffic. Add to this donkeys and mules pulling over sized and over stuffed carts and this is what the streets of the Medina looked like.
At the end of the night, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal of Tajine Poulet (which is chicken, vegetables and couscous) with Morocco's famous mint tea. The owner was a great guy who tried to lure us in earlier on in the evening. We promised him we would come back and when we did, he was so happy. Our meal came to $10 – cheap cheap cheap and so delicious!
The next day we started the 'Walking Tour' of the Fez medina. The book commented that it should take anywhere between 2 to 3 hours...for us it took the entire day. We stopped along the way and entered souqs that interested us. We bought some interesting smelling spices from an adorable old man in the spice market. He beamed with excitement as he showed us the page of his stall in the Lonely Planet FEZ edition. We stopped to watch a wood craftsmen working away amidst his wood shavings. He made us a spin 'top' and we tipped him for our gratitude. We wandered in to a carpet shop, saw multiple carpets we were interested in and successfully walked out of their alive (we were warned in our books that carpet sellers are the best of best of the best for suckering in tourists).
Although we got lost many times while on our tour, every stop was something new and interesting and in my opinion, worth getting lost over. On one of our 'lost' episodes, we wandered right into a tannery. We were given fresh mint to hold under our nose as the smell was horrific. We climbed numerous sets of narrow stairs, passing numerous sets of leather workstations (where the craftsmen were sewing anything from jackets to slippers). When we reached the roof, we had an amazing view of the entire tannery. The tannery had all different types of leather from goat to camel, sheep and cow. We watched in horror as the workers were submerged in waist deep chemicals, utilizing their own feet and legs as an instrument to soak, treat and absorb the chemicals. At the end of the tour, our own personal guide made his best attempt to sell us some of the leather as souvenirs. Although he was close to selling Jeremy a leather jacket, we walked out of the tannery empty handed.
From the tannery, we continued to walk aimlessly through the Medina. One of our favourite sightings was a giant oak tree surrounded by tiny souqs. We continued on past another meat market and this time I made the mistake of witnessing a chicken being slaughtered (again, in a very tiny butchery). I held back a few tears and basically got the heck out of there.
On our way back to our hotel, and after having yet another glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, we passed by the owner of the carpet shop. We informed him that we were going to grab a bite to eat and then head back his way. We also informed him that we were still looking and this by no means meant a 'guaranteed' sale. We made sure to eat a full meal as we knew the night ahead of us was going to be long.
When we got back the owner greeted us with a big smile and welcoming hands...I can only presume that he was thinking Suckers! Now, imagine being escorted to a room where in a matter of minutes, you had fresh mint tea and hundreds of carpets to choose from. Because Morocco's color is red, a lot of the carpets they were showing us had red in them. We informed them that although the color was beautiful, it was not our favourite. We told them instead of bright colors, we liked softer colors and loved green, blue, purple and brown. We were expecting a different set of carpets to appear in round 2 but still, to no avail, they continued to show us red! Round three was no different. We figured maybe we liked older carpets instead as the newer carpets were just too bright for us. So, we switched rooms and entered the era of 'old carpets'. Now, I am not exaggerating when I say this but the owner and his son must have shown us 90% of all the carpets in the room...and we have the picture to prove it. After hours of 'shopping' aka sitting on our butts sipping mint tea while the owner and his son unfolded carpet after carpet, we were pleased to have a selection of carpets to choose from (the Ij Ma pile (meaning to keep) versus the Khale pile (meaning to toss)).
Just when we thought there could be no more carpet viewing, the owner pulled out a beautiful brown rug (which we later bought). When he saw our excitement, he ran out of the store and came back with a pile of soft colored rugs. We laughed and told him this was exactly what we had wanted. We narrowed our carpets down to five and began the long negotiation for the price – this was where the fun began. Not to our surprise, the carpets were extremely expensive and grossly overpriced – we immediately tossed the two most expensive. We countered with a more reasonable offer for the remaining three (half of what was offered) and mentioned that it was firm. For the next twenty minutes, the owner did his best to raise our offer...but we stood firm. At one point, I got up, motioned to Jeremy and said, “sorry, we will not budge. I am glad we shared this experience and that we can still walk away as friends - thanks”. The owner jumped up and motioned for us to stand still. He ran out of the room and within seconds, brought in his brother (who was dressed up in a suit...and keep in mind that it is now 10 pm). His brother looked at the rugs that were in front of us and asked if we could increase our price any further. We thanked him for his troubles and made way for the door. Before we could take a second step, the owner had his hand stretched out and told us we had a deal.
Unfortunately, the credit card machine was not working and Jeremy and I were too tired to go to an ATM and sign off on the deal. The owner was obviously concerned at this (as I can only imagine a number of deals have fallen through in this manner) and so we left a small deposit. We exchanged numbers and agreed to pay the remaining sum and collect our carpets the following morning at which time the owners son would help us ship the carpets home.
That night we both slept like logs. The following morning, I awoke with a minuscule feeing of regret in the pit of my stomach. I asked Jeremy how he was feeling and he told me fine. We walked to our favourite restaurant for some crepes, mint tea and orange juice (freshly squeezed of course) and considered our options. We could hope for the best and assume we made a good deal and complete the transaction or we could walk away and consider the small down payment as a tip for their hard work. When Hassan showed up at our hotel an hour later with the carpets, we were still unsure what to do. We asked him for the carpets and asked for a few minutes. We unrolled each carpet on our bed in the hotel and we both immediately knew we had to buy them - they were exquisite! Jeremy was able to motion to one of the French workers to take a look and through a lot of hand gestures we were able to make out that we got a good deal. She then grabbed her Grandma (also a worker at the hotel) and her Grandma, after carefully scrutinizing both sides of the rug said, “tres bein – artisans”- tres bein”. We thanked them and felt a little more reassured. After returning to Hassan, who was patiently waiting in the street, we successfully shipped the rugs and some other small souvenirs home (lets just hope that they make it home). From there we caught a cab to the train station and we were bound for Marakesh.
The train ride was 8 hours but both Jeremy and I were in the middle of two really good books – so we didn't care to much. But that was until the train filled to over capacity and the A/C broke down. Needless to say, it was not so pleasant.
Once we landed in Casablanca, we took the 1 hour train into the city (~1/10th the price of a taxi). Our cab driver had never heard of our hotel so when I showed him it on the map, he informed us that he would drop us of near one of its major landmarks...the fish market which jut happened to be half a block from our hotel. Upon entering the hotel, we asked for the price...and this is where it gets weird. He asked us what we would like the price to be. I referenced the book and said that since it is normally 220 Dirhams, I would like 200. He looked at us crazy then Jeremy said maybe 250. I quickly interrupted and said there is no way I would pay more than what the book quoted for this place. Still looking at us like we were crazy, he informed us that Jeremy would stay for free and that I would have to pay 100 Dirhams for the room (i.e. $12 Canadian Dollars). We were very confused but obviously agreed with him.
When we were in South Africa, Jeremy and I had met a couple that had toured Morocco and loved it. There only little piece of advice they had given us was to follow the Lonely Planet. So, after touring the smelly (but neat-O) fish market and scarfing down some pizza and a panini from a restaurant nearby we were ready to start our 'Walking Tour of the City'. We followed the book and thoroughly enjoyed our sights of the city which included: ancient mosques, the old police and law buildings, the post office, and abandoned cinema and an many unique and impressively architected buildings. One of our favourite sights which we just happened to stumble across while we were walking by was a little courtyard filled with people and pigeons - a neat mix!
After many hours and several kilometres of walking, we were exhausted. We headed back to the hotel where I passed out immediately. Jeremy was ready to crawl into bed and read until he glanced at the clock. It was 8pm – instead he went downstairs and made good use of the free internet in the lobby. The only catch was that it was a French keyboard and typing was a great difficulty.
Unlike Egypt where the second language is English (making it very nice for people like us to communicate), Morocco's second language is French. There has been a huge communication barrier because of this and we find that we are really counting on our gestures as a means to communicate.
The following day we hitched a cab to the Hassam II Mosque, which was built by the late King and was his best attempt to give Casablanca the landmark he thought it sorely missed. The construction started in 1987 and finished in 1993 – quite an impressive feat when you consider not only the construction footprint but also the 'Moroccan' Detail which is evident throughout the building. The building also houses a 210 meter tall minaret (largest building in the country) and a retractable roof. It is the world's third largest mosque, accommodating 250,000 worshippers inside and a further 80,000 in the courtyard and square around it. Since there are only 2 mosques that non Muslims are permitted to enter in the country, we figured this would be a good one to see and we were very pleased with both its enormity and beauty.
After walking kilometers along the Corniche, we headed back to our hotel. We checked out of our hotel (paying only the 100 Dirhams as promised) and made our way to the Train Station. We had trouble finding a cab and after walking a few blocks (backs sore and sweaty) we met a man named Shaq on the corner. He was also heading to the train station – perfect...more eyes to hail a cab! It turned out that Shaq was also heading in the same direction as us and Shaq was in the same English tour group as us at the Hassam Mosque that same morning. Ironically enough, the previous night, Jeremy remembers seeing Shaq at the courtyard with all of the Pigeons – once again we realized just how small the world really is. Shaq was great to sit with, he made our 5 hour train ride a breeze as he kept us entertained with all of his travelling experiences he has encountered all over the world (a world class traveller).
We said our goodbyes at Meknes, as this was his destination and we were heading to Fez. Once in Fez, we selected a hotel in the Nouvelle (i.e. New Fez) versus the Medina (i.e. Old Fez) as the prices were cheaper and we figured we would just utilize the cheap taxi's for transport. When we arrived at our hotel, we first looked at the room (smart thing) and after looking at the room, we opened our book, selected a hotel in the Medina, reserved the room, notified the front lobby and hailed a taxi.
We were dropped of at the main gates of the Medina and were told by our cabbie that the hotel was in, “that direction”. We made our way through the very narrow and over crowded streets. Along the way, Jeremy was approached by a man enquiring where we were staying (with our backpacks on us, we were like sitting ducks). After informing him of our place and receiving directions, Jeremy noticed a young fellow behind him run in front of us. He warned me that something fishy was about to take place. When we arrived at the steps of our hotel, the same man that Jeremy had warned me about was waiting in the doorway. He informed us that the hotel was fully booked but he had a great hotel to stay at just around the corner. We basically laughed at him and told him we had a reservation at which point he cowardly walked away.
After settling in to our hotel, we headed out to explore the Medina and all it had to offer. At first, we followed our nose. We stopped and had a refreshing glass of freshly squeezed Orange Juice (one of our favourite parts of Morocco), munched on some candy roasted peanuts, purchased the most beautiful and edible strawberries I have ever seen (unfortunately they did not taste as good as they looked) and loaded up (I mean loaded up!) on my much beloved peas. Anybody that knows me would know that I go absolutely bonkers over my peas, so for me finding them in April was like a dream come true.
After feeding our tummies, we aimlessly walked around the vegetable market and then entered the meat market. I was horrified to find camel, goat, ram and pig heads on display at every butcher station, as if they were a prized possession. Meat was hanging everywhere and chickens were everywhere. They were tied to crates on the floor, tied to crates on the counters and in cages in the butchers stall.
The craziest part (even crazier than the camel heads) was the small space in which everyone operated. The stalls were small, the roads were small and the people were EVERYWHERE. It was a blessing in disguise that the streets were too narrow to accommodate cars...but this did not stop the copious amounts of scooters ripping in and out of traffic. Add to this donkeys and mules pulling over sized and over stuffed carts and this is what the streets of the Medina looked like.
At the end of the night, we treated ourselves to a delicious meal of Tajine Poulet (which is chicken, vegetables and couscous) with Morocco's famous mint tea. The owner was a great guy who tried to lure us in earlier on in the evening. We promised him we would come back and when we did, he was so happy. Our meal came to $10 – cheap cheap cheap and so delicious!
The next day we started the 'Walking Tour' of the Fez medina. The book commented that it should take anywhere between 2 to 3 hours...for us it took the entire day. We stopped along the way and entered souqs that interested us. We bought some interesting smelling spices from an adorable old man in the spice market. He beamed with excitement as he showed us the page of his stall in the Lonely Planet FEZ edition. We stopped to watch a wood craftsmen working away amidst his wood shavings. He made us a spin 'top' and we tipped him for our gratitude. We wandered in to a carpet shop, saw multiple carpets we were interested in and successfully walked out of their alive (we were warned in our books that carpet sellers are the best of best of the best for suckering in tourists).
Although we got lost many times while on our tour, every stop was something new and interesting and in my opinion, worth getting lost over. On one of our 'lost' episodes, we wandered right into a tannery. We were given fresh mint to hold under our nose as the smell was horrific. We climbed numerous sets of narrow stairs, passing numerous sets of leather workstations (where the craftsmen were sewing anything from jackets to slippers). When we reached the roof, we had an amazing view of the entire tannery. The tannery had all different types of leather from goat to camel, sheep and cow. We watched in horror as the workers were submerged in waist deep chemicals, utilizing their own feet and legs as an instrument to soak, treat and absorb the chemicals. At the end of the tour, our own personal guide made his best attempt to sell us some of the leather as souvenirs. Although he was close to selling Jeremy a leather jacket, we walked out of the tannery empty handed.
From the tannery, we continued to walk aimlessly through the Medina. One of our favourite sightings was a giant oak tree surrounded by tiny souqs. We continued on past another meat market and this time I made the mistake of witnessing a chicken being slaughtered (again, in a very tiny butchery). I held back a few tears and basically got the heck out of there.
On our way back to our hotel, and after having yet another glass of freshly squeezed orange juice, we passed by the owner of the carpet shop. We informed him that we were going to grab a bite to eat and then head back his way. We also informed him that we were still looking and this by no means meant a 'guaranteed' sale. We made sure to eat a full meal as we knew the night ahead of us was going to be long.
When we got back the owner greeted us with a big smile and welcoming hands...I can only presume that he was thinking Suckers! Now, imagine being escorted to a room where in a matter of minutes, you had fresh mint tea and hundreds of carpets to choose from. Because Morocco's color is red, a lot of the carpets they were showing us had red in them. We informed them that although the color was beautiful, it was not our favourite. We told them instead of bright colors, we liked softer colors and loved green, blue, purple and brown. We were expecting a different set of carpets to appear in round 2 but still, to no avail, they continued to show us red! Round three was no different. We figured maybe we liked older carpets instead as the newer carpets were just too bright for us. So, we switched rooms and entered the era of 'old carpets'. Now, I am not exaggerating when I say this but the owner and his son must have shown us 90% of all the carpets in the room...and we have the picture to prove it. After hours of 'shopping' aka sitting on our butts sipping mint tea while the owner and his son unfolded carpet after carpet, we were pleased to have a selection of carpets to choose from (the Ij Ma pile (meaning to keep) versus the Khale pile (meaning to toss)).
Just when we thought there could be no more carpet viewing, the owner pulled out a beautiful brown rug (which we later bought). When he saw our excitement, he ran out of the store and came back with a pile of soft colored rugs. We laughed and told him this was exactly what we had wanted. We narrowed our carpets down to five and began the long negotiation for the price – this was where the fun began. Not to our surprise, the carpets were extremely expensive and grossly overpriced – we immediately tossed the two most expensive. We countered with a more reasonable offer for the remaining three (half of what was offered) and mentioned that it was firm. For the next twenty minutes, the owner did his best to raise our offer...but we stood firm. At one point, I got up, motioned to Jeremy and said, “sorry, we will not budge. I am glad we shared this experience and that we can still walk away as friends - thanks”. The owner jumped up and motioned for us to stand still. He ran out of the room and within seconds, brought in his brother (who was dressed up in a suit...and keep in mind that it is now 10 pm). His brother looked at the rugs that were in front of us and asked if we could increase our price any further. We thanked him for his troubles and made way for the door. Before we could take a second step, the owner had his hand stretched out and told us we had a deal.
Unfortunately, the credit card machine was not working and Jeremy and I were too tired to go to an ATM and sign off on the deal. The owner was obviously concerned at this (as I can only imagine a number of deals have fallen through in this manner) and so we left a small deposit. We exchanged numbers and agreed to pay the remaining sum and collect our carpets the following morning at which time the owners son would help us ship the carpets home.
That night we both slept like logs. The following morning, I awoke with a minuscule feeing of regret in the pit of my stomach. I asked Jeremy how he was feeling and he told me fine. We walked to our favourite restaurant for some crepes, mint tea and orange juice (freshly squeezed of course) and considered our options. We could hope for the best and assume we made a good deal and complete the transaction or we could walk away and consider the small down payment as a tip for their hard work. When Hassan showed up at our hotel an hour later with the carpets, we were still unsure what to do. We asked him for the carpets and asked for a few minutes. We unrolled each carpet on our bed in the hotel and we both immediately knew we had to buy them - they were exquisite! Jeremy was able to motion to one of the French workers to take a look and through a lot of hand gestures we were able to make out that we got a good deal. She then grabbed her Grandma (also a worker at the hotel) and her Grandma, after carefully scrutinizing both sides of the rug said, “tres bein – artisans”- tres bein”. We thanked them and felt a little more reassured. After returning to Hassan, who was patiently waiting in the street, we successfully shipped the rugs and some other small souvenirs home (lets just hope that they make it home). From there we caught a cab to the train station and we were bound for Marakesh.
The train ride was 8 hours but both Jeremy and I were in the middle of two really good books – so we didn't care to much. But that was until the train filled to over capacity and the A/C broke down. Needless to say, it was not so pleasant.
Alexandria and MINA!!!!
Our sole purpose for visiting the much acclaimed Alexandria was not for the views of the Mediterranean but to see our beloved friend Mina and his family. We arrived in Cairo after a long and uneventful bus ride from Sinai (7 hours) followed by another painful train ride (3 hours) before stepping foot into Alex. In was dark by the time we arrived so we checked in to our hotel, ordered room service and watched movies on the satellite TV we had in our room. The only other interesting thing to comment on was the crazy taxi driver (who took us from the bus depot to the train station) in Cairo – he was very impatient and attempted to drive away as we had one foot still in the cab. Needless to say, he did not receive his baksheesh.
The following day we slept in and spoiled ourselves with a movie. By the time it was over, we figured it was time to get off of our lazy buts and sight see. We walked along the Corniche for 3 hours but really could not appreciate any of the beauty. There was garbage everywhere – lined in the streets, piled against all buildings and floating in the water. Although we did not think it was nearly as dirty as Cairo, it was still really bad for our Canadian Standards. On top of all this, people would just whip out their wookie's and pee wherever they felt the urge (also something we noticed in Cairo). We saw tons of fishermen boats floating in the water...and one sunken boat which made me smile and think of my dad and his unfortunate boat experiences (don't worry dad...I bug you because I love you!).
After touring a mediocre fish museum at the end of our walking tour, we hailed a cab and told him to take us to our much beloved Carrefour. Even before leaving the parking area our cabbie got into a massive yelling match with the local cars around him. At first we thought it was quite comical because their was a little girl in the passenger seat of one of the vehicles. She joined in with her mom and leaned out the window and joined in on the yelling. Everyone was laughing...everyone that is except for our cab driver. He then got really angry and must have told the woman off because the fighting then started all over again but this time with a heightened tone to it. We only wish we could understand Arabic.
We made it to our destination safely and with our tummy's grumbling, we made a bee line to the food court. We could not believe our luck when we saw a FuddRuckers...just what we were both craving. We sat down and glanced at the menu even though we both knew what we wanted. We could not believe the variety this FuddRuckers had over ours and on top of that, the burger building station even had a variety of salads including a very delicious potato salad. We ate in bliss and as usual, went through a dozen napkins. When we received the bill, we noticed it was a lot more than what we were expecting...precisely 25% more. When I went to inquire, I was told that 13% was taxes (fair enough) and 12% was a service fee. I was then told that I still had to tip the server as this service fee was for the restaurant only. We then remembered our Lonely Planet book warning travellers of this. I guess it was a good thing that we rarely ate out at restaurants and stuck to the 'street food' and thankfully for us, we never got too sick from the street food.
We shopped around and treated ourselves to “Shutter Island”. We were somewhat disappointed as the movie was not what we were expecting. But...what we also were not expecting was a completly deserted theatre that at half time took a 7 minute intermission. I can only assume that this is done to give a break to all those smokers in the country. Cigarettes are as little as $1 a pack and everywhere I looked, people were lighting up. After the movie we headed back to Carefour. After my experiences in Carrefour, I will never enter a WalMart and think it is busy or be annoyed at the crowds. I have never seen so many people in one giant superstore in my entire life. The whole experience is both exhilarating (well...some what) and exhausting at the same time. The security at the store is very advanced and it goes a little something like this;
1)Upon entering the store, a security guard collects your belongings and puts them together in a clear bag in which he seals via heat. If you have a drink, it is confiscated. A water bottle is permitted but the bottle is stickered indicating approval.
2)When looking at electronics, you must wait your turn at which point you will be helped. When you have selected something you wish to buy, the clerk gives you a piece of paper in which you have to wait in another line to pay. Once the transaction is completed, you go back to the electronic counter where the clerk reviews your receipt and stamps that it has been paid. He hands you your purchase at which point you think you are free to go – right???
3)Wrong, you now must wait in another line to exit. The security guard reviews you receipts and your purchase, hands you a bag to put your purchases in and stamps on your receipt, “Security Out”.
Sound complicated? Well, it really is not that bad and you do get used to it. Jeremy and I would recommend to be organized and try and limit all your purchases to one visit unlike one of our days where we had 3 or 4 – call us crazy!
From our recent journey to Sinai, we were more than convinced that we needed a new camera. We were not enjoying our picture taking as we had been in the past and we figured this would be a decision we would not regret. We still could not find our beloved G11 so we settled on a Canon 1000 EOSD. We did not buy the camera that night because we wanted to double check on some of the reviews.
The following day (aka Easter Sunday) we were awoken to Mina calling. We were in deep sleep as it took him two calls to get a hold of us. He picked us up outside our hotel and here we met his family. Lena was his beautiful and pregnant wife of 8 months and Malina was their absolutely adorable five year old daughter. Malina was hungry so we all stopped for some lunch at McDonald's. From here Mina took us to the Library of Alexandria which is the first and oldest library in the world. It had been burnt down during the reign of the Romans and was rebuilt later to a grander scale than before, to illustrate the importance of this once grandoise library. It was unbelievable and seemed to be larger than a football stadium. The library had something like three museums and all sorts of neat gadgets – a machine that could print a fully copy of a book from start to finish (scanning, printing and binding) in about twenty minutes. It was very neat.
It was not until we got back in to the car that Malina had finally warmed to us (she was very very shy at first). She entertained us with all of her toys in the car (I could not believe all those toys could fit into a car) and we sang songs and played games. We both immediately fell in love with her and we were sad to say our goodbyes. Mina and his family had a Easter family gathering but we would meet us later that night. So we figured since our beloved Carrefour was on their way, it would be a fantastic place to kill some time. We watched another movie (Wolf man...a big disappointment yet again) and then window shopped. There were so many beautiful things I wanted to buy but I had to limit myself as I knew we just did not have the space. We ended up purchasing the EOS Canon Camera (and have never once regretted it) and some gifts for Mina and his family as a “Thank you for all of your help and essentially being our saviour while in Egypt”. We met up with Mina again at night and he graciously drove us to the bus station where he helped us buy tickets for our bus ride back to Cairo.
The following day Mina picked us up from our hotel and we had tea and dessert at his house. I was thrilled because this meant getting to see Milana again. She was shy for the first 2 minutes then before you knew it, she was whipping out the gifts we had given her. We had such a great time and so enjoyed their company. After drinking our cup of tea and eating dainty after dainty we took lots of pictures and said our goodbyes. We only hope that we can meet again in the not too distant future perhaps in Canada (as they are hoping to immigrate to the East) or somewhere closer to their home. It was from Mina and his amazing Egyptian hospitality that we discovered that travelling is not just about where you go and what you see but who you meet along the way. And, it is these people, these experiences and these friendships that you will remember and cherish forever.
We decided to spend the remainder of the afternoon at Carrefour. This probably seems crazy to you but we were so exhausted from all of the sight seeing. It was Easter Monday and we were homesick and what we felt we needed more than sight seeing was a little bit of comfort and we found this at the mall. We ate another meal at FuddRuckers (and yes, this meant paying an additional 25% in taxes on top of the menu price) and watched yet another movie. This time we lucked out. We watched the latest Mel Gibson movie called, 'The Edge of Darkness' and it was exactly what we needed. We headed back to our hotel feeling refreshed and ready to go...ready to take on Morocco – a whole new chapter in our amazing journey.
The following day we slept in and spoiled ourselves with a movie. By the time it was over, we figured it was time to get off of our lazy buts and sight see. We walked along the Corniche for 3 hours but really could not appreciate any of the beauty. There was garbage everywhere – lined in the streets, piled against all buildings and floating in the water. Although we did not think it was nearly as dirty as Cairo, it was still really bad for our Canadian Standards. On top of all this, people would just whip out their wookie's and pee wherever they felt the urge (also something we noticed in Cairo). We saw tons of fishermen boats floating in the water...and one sunken boat which made me smile and think of my dad and his unfortunate boat experiences (don't worry dad...I bug you because I love you!).
After touring a mediocre fish museum at the end of our walking tour, we hailed a cab and told him to take us to our much beloved Carrefour. Even before leaving the parking area our cabbie got into a massive yelling match with the local cars around him. At first we thought it was quite comical because their was a little girl in the passenger seat of one of the vehicles. She joined in with her mom and leaned out the window and joined in on the yelling. Everyone was laughing...everyone that is except for our cab driver. He then got really angry and must have told the woman off because the fighting then started all over again but this time with a heightened tone to it. We only wish we could understand Arabic.
We made it to our destination safely and with our tummy's grumbling, we made a bee line to the food court. We could not believe our luck when we saw a FuddRuckers...just what we were both craving. We sat down and glanced at the menu even though we both knew what we wanted. We could not believe the variety this FuddRuckers had over ours and on top of that, the burger building station even had a variety of salads including a very delicious potato salad. We ate in bliss and as usual, went through a dozen napkins. When we received the bill, we noticed it was a lot more than what we were expecting...precisely 25% more. When I went to inquire, I was told that 13% was taxes (fair enough) and 12% was a service fee. I was then told that I still had to tip the server as this service fee was for the restaurant only. We then remembered our Lonely Planet book warning travellers of this. I guess it was a good thing that we rarely ate out at restaurants and stuck to the 'street food' and thankfully for us, we never got too sick from the street food.
We shopped around and treated ourselves to “Shutter Island”. We were somewhat disappointed as the movie was not what we were expecting. But...what we also were not expecting was a completly deserted theatre that at half time took a 7 minute intermission. I can only assume that this is done to give a break to all those smokers in the country. Cigarettes are as little as $1 a pack and everywhere I looked, people were lighting up. After the movie we headed back to Carefour. After my experiences in Carrefour, I will never enter a WalMart and think it is busy or be annoyed at the crowds. I have never seen so many people in one giant superstore in my entire life. The whole experience is both exhilarating (well...some what) and exhausting at the same time. The security at the store is very advanced and it goes a little something like this;
1)Upon entering the store, a security guard collects your belongings and puts them together in a clear bag in which he seals via heat. If you have a drink, it is confiscated. A water bottle is permitted but the bottle is stickered indicating approval.
2)When looking at electronics, you must wait your turn at which point you will be helped. When you have selected something you wish to buy, the clerk gives you a piece of paper in which you have to wait in another line to pay. Once the transaction is completed, you go back to the electronic counter where the clerk reviews your receipt and stamps that it has been paid. He hands you your purchase at which point you think you are free to go – right???
3)Wrong, you now must wait in another line to exit. The security guard reviews you receipts and your purchase, hands you a bag to put your purchases in and stamps on your receipt, “Security Out”.
Sound complicated? Well, it really is not that bad and you do get used to it. Jeremy and I would recommend to be organized and try and limit all your purchases to one visit unlike one of our days where we had 3 or 4 – call us crazy!
From our recent journey to Sinai, we were more than convinced that we needed a new camera. We were not enjoying our picture taking as we had been in the past and we figured this would be a decision we would not regret. We still could not find our beloved G11 so we settled on a Canon 1000 EOSD. We did not buy the camera that night because we wanted to double check on some of the reviews.
The following day (aka Easter Sunday) we were awoken to Mina calling. We were in deep sleep as it took him two calls to get a hold of us. He picked us up outside our hotel and here we met his family. Lena was his beautiful and pregnant wife of 8 months and Malina was their absolutely adorable five year old daughter. Malina was hungry so we all stopped for some lunch at McDonald's. From here Mina took us to the Library of Alexandria which is the first and oldest library in the world. It had been burnt down during the reign of the Romans and was rebuilt later to a grander scale than before, to illustrate the importance of this once grandoise library. It was unbelievable and seemed to be larger than a football stadium. The library had something like three museums and all sorts of neat gadgets – a machine that could print a fully copy of a book from start to finish (scanning, printing and binding) in about twenty minutes. It was very neat.
It was not until we got back in to the car that Malina had finally warmed to us (she was very very shy at first). She entertained us with all of her toys in the car (I could not believe all those toys could fit into a car) and we sang songs and played games. We both immediately fell in love with her and we were sad to say our goodbyes. Mina and his family had a Easter family gathering but we would meet us later that night. So we figured since our beloved Carrefour was on their way, it would be a fantastic place to kill some time. We watched another movie (Wolf man...a big disappointment yet again) and then window shopped. There were so many beautiful things I wanted to buy but I had to limit myself as I knew we just did not have the space. We ended up purchasing the EOS Canon Camera (and have never once regretted it) and some gifts for Mina and his family as a “Thank you for all of your help and essentially being our saviour while in Egypt”. We met up with Mina again at night and he graciously drove us to the bus station where he helped us buy tickets for our bus ride back to Cairo.
The following day Mina picked us up from our hotel and we had tea and dessert at his house. I was thrilled because this meant getting to see Milana again. She was shy for the first 2 minutes then before you knew it, she was whipping out the gifts we had given her. We had such a great time and so enjoyed their company. After drinking our cup of tea and eating dainty after dainty we took lots of pictures and said our goodbyes. We only hope that we can meet again in the not too distant future perhaps in Canada (as they are hoping to immigrate to the East) or somewhere closer to their home. It was from Mina and his amazing Egyptian hospitality that we discovered that travelling is not just about where you go and what you see but who you meet along the way. And, it is these people, these experiences and these friendships that you will remember and cherish forever.
We decided to spend the remainder of the afternoon at Carrefour. This probably seems crazy to you but we were so exhausted from all of the sight seeing. It was Easter Monday and we were homesick and what we felt we needed more than sight seeing was a little bit of comfort and we found this at the mall. We ate another meal at FuddRuckers (and yes, this meant paying an additional 25% in taxes on top of the menu price) and watched yet another movie. This time we lucked out. We watched the latest Mel Gibson movie called, 'The Edge of Darkness' and it was exactly what we needed. We headed back to our hotel feeling refreshed and ready to go...ready to take on Morocco – a whole new chapter in our amazing journey.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Our House...It's in the middle of the Desert (Sinia)
To get to Nuweiba, our buddy Mina hooked us up yet again. He arranged for us to have a driver pick us up from the hotel and take us to the train. Again we had to be up fairly early to make sure that we made the train on time. The train was uneventful and we made it to Luxor when we were supposed to. This is where our original plans were about to change.
When we arrived in Luxor Mina's groping EX friend Abraham was to pick us up from the train station and drive us the rest of the way to Rhuhgada but when we got there he was no where to be found. We called Mina and he said that Abraham was to show up soon. After about 15 minutes of having to dissuade other taxis that we were not interested, Abraham arrived. He seemed like he was a bit frazzled. I guess that was probably because he had arranged other work for the day before he would drive us. He tried to persuade us that it would be nice for us to have a one hour rest at his house while he went and picked up his other group. That would have been okay had it not been 11:00 am and we would have to kill 2 hours with all of our gear.
We called Mina back and he said he would figure it out. Abraham dropped us off for something to eat and promised to be back in 30 minutes to take us because we told him we did not want to wait until the early afternoon. However, after 30 minutes he was not there and we called Mina back. Within two minutes Mina called back and said that he will talk to Abraham and deal with our problem. Abraham informed Mina that he had arranged other work and would be able to take us three hours later. So Mina made another phone call and had another driver pick us up within five minutes. We were also very happy because Abraham had arranged for a travel permission for us and was attempting to charge us 120 pounds...the new driver explained to us that this was free. In the end, after realizing that Mina wished no longer to work with Abraham, we decided it would be good to inform Mina of Abraham's unprofessional actions...bum grabbing. Mina said that he was glad that we had told him and never again would he work with Abraham.
It turned out for the better because our new driver was great and when we arrived in Rhuhgada he helped us to get our tickets, took us to find a clinic to get a vaccination (didn't work out...Katie was so happy!) and helped us to get a hotel. Because we only had about 5 hours to stay in Rhugada we opted for a cheesy and cheap hotel to catch a few zzz's and maybe watch a few movies. To our surprise we turned on the tv to find hardcore American porn!! We flipped through the channels to find that there was only three channels in total (news in Arabic, the movie channel and porn) and they cycled from channel 1 to 150.
So after we decided that the movie did not look good we headed out to check out the town. Our quick little walk turned into three hours of shopping and finding out all about the Russian love affairs that are born here. It turns out that this is the one place in Egypt where the Russian people love to come for holidays, especially the women ;).
We finally managed to get to sleep around 11:45 pm, three hours before we had to wake for the ferry. When the alarm went off Katie accidentally turned it off. She reset the alarm (the phone) so as not to fall back asleep and dragged it into bed with her. Despite being a little sleepy we managed to get all of our gear and get to the ferry. Like most things in Egypt the ferry boarding station was poorly organized and it was hard to decipher where we should go. After three or four people rambled something to us we managed to find our way but realized that we no longer had a cell phone...it was in the bed!
We met a nice man named Sameh who let me borrow his phone and call the hotel. Being that it was three thirty in the morning the hotel reception was a little slow going and didn't seem to want to look for our phone. I asked him to call it when he was in the room and he said that he would see what he could do. In all honesty I don't even think he left his seat and just said he looked because we knew it was there. But all we could do was think of how we were possibly going to get Mostafa's phone number so we could call him when we got to Nuweiba as planned.
With the help of Sameh (translation) we were able to get a taxi in Sharm el Sheik that would take us to get a new phone and then take us to the bus. Because it was still so early we had to drive around forever to find a shop that was open. Luckily we were able to find one and purchased a new phone. Step 1 phone – complete, step 2 – Mustafa's phone number ???.
We decided it would be worth calling the hotel back and see if our phone had been found. The person I spoke to on the phone spoke little english in compariosn to the man I had first talked to in the morning. Despite this he was able to go to the room and find our phone. However, I could not explain to him that I needed the numbers inside the phone. So we called up our savior Mina and he was able to explain the situation and get the numbers we needed and also said he would arrange to get our phone back (how we did not know but we knew he could anything).
The bus ride was uneventful with the exception of about three police stops where, after the first we were short about 20% of the original passengers. It was hard to know why the people were told to leave the bus but from what we could gather it was because they didn't have a valid permit to travel to Sinai and so they were told to go home. We also met a new friend on the bus, Ohad, and he decided that he might as well share a taxi with us because he really had no plans of his own.
We were expecting to see Mostafa waiting for us in Nuweiba but upon our arrival he was nowhere to be seen. Our driver had been waiting for an hour ( not sure why because when he called we told him the exact time we would arrive) and so he did not want to waste anymore time. We had tried calling Mustafa but for some reason his phone was off. We managed to buy just enough time to look around the bus depot and a nearby restaurant before the taxi driver would leave us.
On the drive to Shanty lodges we continued to call Mostafa with no luck. The taxi driver told us that the bus from Cairo should come in at 3:00 pm so we should not be worried. However, we were because Mustafa did not know our new phone number and we were sure he had arrived on the early morning bus.
It was difficult to enjoy the beautiful beach and the great food we had been served upon arriving at Shanty because we still had not been able to reach our friend. What made the situation worse was that when we checked our email we found one from Mustafa that said “Where are you? I have been in Nuweiba for five hours and I think I am going to cry”. We were now in ultra panic trying everything we could, from calling cyber cafes in town to calling the bus stop. This was no good because we had to get the lodge owner to do all the talking because we could not explain ourselves properly in the wrong language. As a last resort Katie called the hotel (where we had left our phone) to see if we had any messages on our phone but we did not. However, as Katie was talking to the hotel reception, Mustafa called and so finally after three hours of panic we had found him. Mustafa was happy to see us when he arrived at the beach and I am sure the rest of the lodge staff were happy too because now “those annoying Canadians could fianlly shut up. Mostafa explained to us that the reason we could not reach him was because the night before he had lost his phone...what a coincidence.
We spent the rest of the evening swimming, chatting and enjoying the absolute peace and quiet of the area. There was no constant electricity but at nights they ran a generator to power some mood lights scattered all around the property and in the grass huts. I also learnt Shesh Besh (in Arabic ??? - backgammon in english) from two of the workers. They had to put up with my slow play and I figured I was boring them but when we finished our fourth game Sleman (lodge owner 1) translated to me that Hassan (lodge owner 2) thought I was a quick learner.
We also learnt that night that Sinai is like mini Israel because all of the Israeli people come here on there holidays (it is half and hour to the border). This was definitely the case because all of the Bedouin people in Sinai could speak perfect Hebrew. Not like I could tell but it was sure easy for Ohad to converse with any of the workers although we couldn't.
We set up our Mosquito net in our tiny little hut on the beach but it was difficult because the roof was just out of reach (we truly are small) and our small mattress was on the floor. It didn't really matter because we were pretty exhausted and fell asleep pretty easily. We knew the Egyptian's love to stay out late but we hadn't seen it first hand, until we were in Rhugada for when we woke to take the ferry at three am all of the same stores were still open and the people still hanging outside. Despite this Mustafa was obviously tired and feel alseep an hour before me (but not before Katie – haha).
The next morning we awoke to the sun shining, with the ocean right outside our door (literally thirty feet and with no obstruction) and of course some back issues. After breakkie (Adam's word) we headed down to the beach and I taught the rest of the gang (now short Ohad) how to play backgammon. Mostafa, who had originally thought it was a hard game, was amazed at how simple it was and we played quite a few games and ended fairly even in score. We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach and doing nothing, which I think was unusual for our friend from Cairo as he is used to the fast pace back home. I don't think it bothered him at all because part way through the day he passed out face first in the sand (literally – face covered).
After speaking with some of the staff Mostafa reported to us that he was the first ever Egyptian man to come to the Shanty lodge in the ten years it had been opened. Although, we were honored that we could do something like this for him, we were a bit taken back when he further explained that some of the workers couldn't believe that he wasn't trying to take advantage of our hospitality. In fact because some of the staff know knew that he was staying with us, they wouldn't give him 'Egyptian' prices for cigarettes but were giving him triple the true price like the rest of the tourists on the beach. We decided that we should go into town and get some supplies for our Desert Safari the next day. In town Mostafa managed to get a carton of cigarettes for the price of one pack in Canada, we also managed to get dinner, water and a few beer for almost nothing.
Once back at Shanty we met up with our desert Safari guide Lafala who gave us the lowdown. After hearing the price Mostafa was a little taken back and figured that was too much and couldn't accept our offer. After explaining to him that we had known the price when we gave him the invitation, he accepted. Katie decided to hit the sack early that night so Mosafa and I sat out and talked over beers for quite some time, where I learned a lot about our new friend.
The next morning we packed just enough gear to head out into the desert and left the rest behind, after discussing with Sleman that we would be back to stay another night in two days time.
Katie was a little freaked because to get to our camel pick up point we had to drive in the back of the truck. Katie asked him to drive slow but I think that he took that as a joke and might have sped up a little (it sure felt like it around those hairpin corners). Anyways we made it safely to our destination where we were quickly (in Arabic) directed to jump on the camel and get moving. We had ridden camels before but this was Mostafa's first time so we snapped endless pics. We were also lucky enough to be with a group of camels that had a two month year old (Zarka) who was so cute. Just like most kids she was very playful and when she wandered too far, her mother would start to grunt until she could once again see her baby.
I was put on the stubborn camel (Zamarek) and after five minutes was about two kilometers behind. Our guides didn't seem to mind because they made no effort to get my camel to keep up. It was amazing to ride the Camels through the Mountain ranges. It was neat to enter the desert of the mountains and watch the ocean behind us disappear.
The only time I would manage to catch up with the rest of the group was when we stopped to get off the camels and walk through the difficult parts. But once we got back on the camels I was always soon left behind with my camel wandering where ever he wanted. It was good because it allowed me to get some nice pictures of the rest of the group ahead of me, that is until I was so far behind I couldn't even zoom in on them.
My camel was definitely the explorer of the group as he would venture off the beaten path leaping over rocks. At one point I was scared because he ventured so far off the path and was literally running (jogging speed) over rocks. I knew it wasn't safe when Lafala yelled to me to grab his rope and make him stop. But once again when I was back with the rest of the group they left me on my own to get lost.
Katie rode the mother (Aqmar) of the baby while Mustafa rode a camel that had been freshly marked. The camels are marked by making a deep incision on their neck or body which turns to a scar and is used as an identifying mark. Katie was horrified by the sight of the marks on the neck and probed Lafala several times about whether he was going to be okay, which he replied with a simple yes.
The mountains were very nice but by noon it was scorching hot and our guides led us to an oasis where we would rest and eat lunch until it became cooler. Lafala and Musa unloaded the camels and spread out blankets for us to sit on. It is easy to see how at night it was going to be cold because even in the shade it was like a whole new world to being in the direct sunlight. Despite our guides having modest means to cook the food we were treated to English tea with camels milk (our guide tried to convince us that it would make us strong like camel and immune to the sun – which was delicious) and a great tuna and vegetable salad with bread. Katie was shocked to find out that the bread was cooked in the dirt and we would have been unlikely to discover this had we not seen Musa scraping off any dirt from the crust.
After lunch we rested for what seemed like forever and Musa and Lafala disappeared without any indication as to where they were going. All we know is that they grabbed blankets and sleeping gear and headed off down a ravine. After a total of 4 hours in the oasis Musa and Lafala returned and we headed out again.
By the time we left it was much cooler and we didn't venture too far until we found a spot to setup camp. While Lafala was cooking chicken soup, Musa had to go gather the camels. When we had first arrived they had let the camels roam with their two front feet tied together with a short leash. This didn't seem to matter to them and they still managed to venture far enough that it took Musa two hours to fetch them.
While we waited we started playing games like throw the rock at a target. Mostafa made a ridiculous target and we attempted with three turns each to try and hit it without any luck. Out of the blue a rock flew over and hit the target right in the middle. We looked over to see Lafala sitting twice as far as us from the target with a pile of stones. After the first hit and our compliments to his aim he began to throw rock after rock. Although, Kaite, Mostafa and I were taking turns throwing rocks three before the next would throw, Lafala just began looking for stones, throwing one every 5 seconds. It was funnier to watch his enthusiasm with the game rather than playing and when he stopped we were finished.
In between games Katie set up, what she liked to call, Our House, which consisted of three blankets spread over an area of ground that Katie had cleared of all rocks (or so we thought). She then preceded to tell everyone that in Our House, there would be no shoes – haha! She then proceeded to start singing, “Our House...” but instead of using the original lyrics, she created new ones. Before you knew it, we had all started singing her crazy song, “Our House...it's in the middle of the Dessert, Our House...it's in the middle of Mnt Sinia”.
Although, Musa had told Mostafa that we were crazy for not having sleeping bags we had figured we would be okay if we all slept in one area sharing the three blankets we had. After the sun went down we put on all of our clothes as it was starting to get cold. Katie and I were a little more used to it but Mostafa, who had not grown up in Saskatchewan, was a little more concerned and bundled himself up like an Eskimo. Shortly after dinner Lafala and Musa headed to sleep and we were left to fend for ourselves..
That night was the most amazing stars any of us had ever seen. Being that the only major city on Sinai was 300 km away there was no lights to diminish the stars effect. We seen three shooting stars (a first for Mostafa) race all the way across the sky. When we finally decided to try and sleep (like 8 pm) the wind decided it had other plans and began ripping across the open areas near us. Although, Katie and I were cold, it was Mostafa who had to get up an build a fire because I think he honestly feared for his life. The wind was sucking almost all of the heat from his fire but it took me a while to convince him that it would be warmer under the blankets. After I built a wall with camel saddles we all wrapped ourselves in blankets and stayed like that until Katie woke up choking on sand. Katie and I woke late at night (different times) to see the brightest and most brilliant moon directly over our heads, which had hidden almost all of the stars.
We woke very early the next morning (4 am) and got an early start on breakfast...we needed coffee. We then headed out on foot to the coloured canyons. It was a difficult walk, illustrating to us, how bad of shape we were in. After about one hour Katie had to stop to use the bush toilet, which consisted of the only busy we had seen for 3 km. Mostafa and I ventured ahead to give her some privacy...we didn't have to worry about Lafala because by this point he was three quarters of a km ahead. All of a sudden Katie was calling us back...a snake had startled her when she went to go pee. Luckily when she had turned around she had seen the snake out of the corner of her eye and even more luckily the snakes head was burried in the bush and only its tail was near her.
After Katie had finished, we hurried to find Lafala but with no luck. It was as if he had disappeared...isn't your guide supposed to make sure you get there? After aimlessly wandering around and making all sorts of noises to try and alert Lafala that we were lost he finally came back. It took another thirty minutes to get to the coloured canyons but it was worth it. The colored canyons was a crevace in the rocks that was filled with sandstone rocks that were of all colors from green to yellow. It looked like one of those glasses that is filled with colored sand and they use to toothpick to push the different layers of color into neat patterns. We had to climb up small ledges and through very tiny holes in the rocks and had a lot of fun doing it. When we reached the end Mostafa ventured off (to give us some alone time????) which was nice because it gave me some time to use the bush toilet. I have to say that after this trip any prince or princess left in either Katie or I are gone. In all honesty though, Katie and I much preferred using the natural bush toilet to the disgusting squat toilets we have encountered along the way.
We returned to the camp after tying to spot the snake so Lafala could identify it. We had no luck but from our description Lafala figured it was quite poisonous. When we arrived at the camp Musa was gone with the camels but Lafala already anticipated this because we did not stop but walked on for about an hour through the scorching heat to the oasis we had stopped at the previous day.
Again we dined on incredible tuna salad and dirt cooked bread and stayed for what seemed even longer than 4 hours before heading back to our pick up point. All in all it was a great experience even though we were freezing cold the previous night. We truly enjoyed the company of the guides and Mostafa.
After saying our goodbyes to Musa we headed back to Shanty only to find that our huts for the night were now occupied by the thousands of Israeli's that had come for passover holidays. Not only was our lodge full but all of the huts along the beach were full. Either Sleman hadn't understood that we were planning on staying another night or he couldn't refuse the business – but either way, he allowed us to stay under one of the canopies on the beach for the night.
After arriving back from the desert we once again had cell coverage and Mostafa found that he had received many messages from his fiancé and work. Mostafa was able to make some phone calls and from the look on his face things weren't well. It turned out that his fiancé was a bit of a freak case and the employee his boss had found to fill in for him while he was gone did not show up to work. Therefore, Mostafa was now out of work and without a fiancé. We felt pretty bad but he was very calm and had been offered work at one of the lodges along the beach but wasn't sure yet what he was going to do.
After a quick dinner and some more backgammon we robbed some cushions from one of the other canopies and wrapped ourselves in carpets and went to sleep (again it was only 8 pm but we were dead).
Under the canopy was more comfortable than the rock mattress we had slept on the night before and was much warmer but we still could not manage to sleep in and were all awake by four thirty in the morning. We had a relaxing breakfast and arranged for a taxi to pick us all up to take us to the Nuweiba bus depot where we would all catch a ride back to Cairo. However, at the last second Mostafa informed us that he was going to accept the job and would not be coming back with us. We would say our goodbye which was met by tears from our new friend and headed into town to make the long bus back.
When we arrived in Luxor Mina's groping EX friend Abraham was to pick us up from the train station and drive us the rest of the way to Rhuhgada but when we got there he was no where to be found. We called Mina and he said that Abraham was to show up soon. After about 15 minutes of having to dissuade other taxis that we were not interested, Abraham arrived. He seemed like he was a bit frazzled. I guess that was probably because he had arranged other work for the day before he would drive us. He tried to persuade us that it would be nice for us to have a one hour rest at his house while he went and picked up his other group. That would have been okay had it not been 11:00 am and we would have to kill 2 hours with all of our gear.
We called Mina back and he said he would figure it out. Abraham dropped us off for something to eat and promised to be back in 30 minutes to take us because we told him we did not want to wait until the early afternoon. However, after 30 minutes he was not there and we called Mina back. Within two minutes Mina called back and said that he will talk to Abraham and deal with our problem. Abraham informed Mina that he had arranged other work and would be able to take us three hours later. So Mina made another phone call and had another driver pick us up within five minutes. We were also very happy because Abraham had arranged for a travel permission for us and was attempting to charge us 120 pounds...the new driver explained to us that this was free. In the end, after realizing that Mina wished no longer to work with Abraham, we decided it would be good to inform Mina of Abraham's unprofessional actions...bum grabbing. Mina said that he was glad that we had told him and never again would he work with Abraham.
It turned out for the better because our new driver was great and when we arrived in Rhuhgada he helped us to get our tickets, took us to find a clinic to get a vaccination (didn't work out...Katie was so happy!) and helped us to get a hotel. Because we only had about 5 hours to stay in Rhugada we opted for a cheesy and cheap hotel to catch a few zzz's and maybe watch a few movies. To our surprise we turned on the tv to find hardcore American porn!! We flipped through the channels to find that there was only three channels in total (news in Arabic, the movie channel and porn) and they cycled from channel 1 to 150.
So after we decided that the movie did not look good we headed out to check out the town. Our quick little walk turned into three hours of shopping and finding out all about the Russian love affairs that are born here. It turns out that this is the one place in Egypt where the Russian people love to come for holidays, especially the women ;).
We finally managed to get to sleep around 11:45 pm, three hours before we had to wake for the ferry. When the alarm went off Katie accidentally turned it off. She reset the alarm (the phone) so as not to fall back asleep and dragged it into bed with her. Despite being a little sleepy we managed to get all of our gear and get to the ferry. Like most things in Egypt the ferry boarding station was poorly organized and it was hard to decipher where we should go. After three or four people rambled something to us we managed to find our way but realized that we no longer had a cell phone...it was in the bed!
We met a nice man named Sameh who let me borrow his phone and call the hotel. Being that it was three thirty in the morning the hotel reception was a little slow going and didn't seem to want to look for our phone. I asked him to call it when he was in the room and he said that he would see what he could do. In all honesty I don't even think he left his seat and just said he looked because we knew it was there. But all we could do was think of how we were possibly going to get Mostafa's phone number so we could call him when we got to Nuweiba as planned.
With the help of Sameh (translation) we were able to get a taxi in Sharm el Sheik that would take us to get a new phone and then take us to the bus. Because it was still so early we had to drive around forever to find a shop that was open. Luckily we were able to find one and purchased a new phone. Step 1 phone – complete, step 2 – Mustafa's phone number ???.
We decided it would be worth calling the hotel back and see if our phone had been found. The person I spoke to on the phone spoke little english in compariosn to the man I had first talked to in the morning. Despite this he was able to go to the room and find our phone. However, I could not explain to him that I needed the numbers inside the phone. So we called up our savior Mina and he was able to explain the situation and get the numbers we needed and also said he would arrange to get our phone back (how we did not know but we knew he could anything).
The bus ride was uneventful with the exception of about three police stops where, after the first we were short about 20% of the original passengers. It was hard to know why the people were told to leave the bus but from what we could gather it was because they didn't have a valid permit to travel to Sinai and so they were told to go home. We also met a new friend on the bus, Ohad, and he decided that he might as well share a taxi with us because he really had no plans of his own.
We were expecting to see Mostafa waiting for us in Nuweiba but upon our arrival he was nowhere to be seen. Our driver had been waiting for an hour ( not sure why because when he called we told him the exact time we would arrive) and so he did not want to waste anymore time. We had tried calling Mustafa but for some reason his phone was off. We managed to buy just enough time to look around the bus depot and a nearby restaurant before the taxi driver would leave us.
On the drive to Shanty lodges we continued to call Mostafa with no luck. The taxi driver told us that the bus from Cairo should come in at 3:00 pm so we should not be worried. However, we were because Mustafa did not know our new phone number and we were sure he had arrived on the early morning bus.
It was difficult to enjoy the beautiful beach and the great food we had been served upon arriving at Shanty because we still had not been able to reach our friend. What made the situation worse was that when we checked our email we found one from Mustafa that said “Where are you? I have been in Nuweiba for five hours and I think I am going to cry”. We were now in ultra panic trying everything we could, from calling cyber cafes in town to calling the bus stop. This was no good because we had to get the lodge owner to do all the talking because we could not explain ourselves properly in the wrong language. As a last resort Katie called the hotel (where we had left our phone) to see if we had any messages on our phone but we did not. However, as Katie was talking to the hotel reception, Mustafa called and so finally after three hours of panic we had found him. Mustafa was happy to see us when he arrived at the beach and I am sure the rest of the lodge staff were happy too because now “those annoying Canadians could fianlly shut up. Mostafa explained to us that the reason we could not reach him was because the night before he had lost his phone...what a coincidence.
We spent the rest of the evening swimming, chatting and enjoying the absolute peace and quiet of the area. There was no constant electricity but at nights they ran a generator to power some mood lights scattered all around the property and in the grass huts. I also learnt Shesh Besh (in Arabic ??? - backgammon in english) from two of the workers. They had to put up with my slow play and I figured I was boring them but when we finished our fourth game Sleman (lodge owner 1) translated to me that Hassan (lodge owner 2) thought I was a quick learner.
We also learnt that night that Sinai is like mini Israel because all of the Israeli people come here on there holidays (it is half and hour to the border). This was definitely the case because all of the Bedouin people in Sinai could speak perfect Hebrew. Not like I could tell but it was sure easy for Ohad to converse with any of the workers although we couldn't.
We set up our Mosquito net in our tiny little hut on the beach but it was difficult because the roof was just out of reach (we truly are small) and our small mattress was on the floor. It didn't really matter because we were pretty exhausted and fell asleep pretty easily. We knew the Egyptian's love to stay out late but we hadn't seen it first hand, until we were in Rhugada for when we woke to take the ferry at three am all of the same stores were still open and the people still hanging outside. Despite this Mustafa was obviously tired and feel alseep an hour before me (but not before Katie – haha).
The next morning we awoke to the sun shining, with the ocean right outside our door (literally thirty feet and with no obstruction) and of course some back issues. After breakkie (Adam's word) we headed down to the beach and I taught the rest of the gang (now short Ohad) how to play backgammon. Mostafa, who had originally thought it was a hard game, was amazed at how simple it was and we played quite a few games and ended fairly even in score. We spent the rest of the day lounging on the beach and doing nothing, which I think was unusual for our friend from Cairo as he is used to the fast pace back home. I don't think it bothered him at all because part way through the day he passed out face first in the sand (literally – face covered).
After speaking with some of the staff Mostafa reported to us that he was the first ever Egyptian man to come to the Shanty lodge in the ten years it had been opened. Although, we were honored that we could do something like this for him, we were a bit taken back when he further explained that some of the workers couldn't believe that he wasn't trying to take advantage of our hospitality. In fact because some of the staff know knew that he was staying with us, they wouldn't give him 'Egyptian' prices for cigarettes but were giving him triple the true price like the rest of the tourists on the beach. We decided that we should go into town and get some supplies for our Desert Safari the next day. In town Mostafa managed to get a carton of cigarettes for the price of one pack in Canada, we also managed to get dinner, water and a few beer for almost nothing.
Once back at Shanty we met up with our desert Safari guide Lafala who gave us the lowdown. After hearing the price Mostafa was a little taken back and figured that was too much and couldn't accept our offer. After explaining to him that we had known the price when we gave him the invitation, he accepted. Katie decided to hit the sack early that night so Mosafa and I sat out and talked over beers for quite some time, where I learned a lot about our new friend.
The next morning we packed just enough gear to head out into the desert and left the rest behind, after discussing with Sleman that we would be back to stay another night in two days time.
Katie was a little freaked because to get to our camel pick up point we had to drive in the back of the truck. Katie asked him to drive slow but I think that he took that as a joke and might have sped up a little (it sure felt like it around those hairpin corners). Anyways we made it safely to our destination where we were quickly (in Arabic) directed to jump on the camel and get moving. We had ridden camels before but this was Mostafa's first time so we snapped endless pics. We were also lucky enough to be with a group of camels that had a two month year old (Zarka) who was so cute. Just like most kids she was very playful and when she wandered too far, her mother would start to grunt until she could once again see her baby.
I was put on the stubborn camel (Zamarek) and after five minutes was about two kilometers behind. Our guides didn't seem to mind because they made no effort to get my camel to keep up. It was amazing to ride the Camels through the Mountain ranges. It was neat to enter the desert of the mountains and watch the ocean behind us disappear.
The only time I would manage to catch up with the rest of the group was when we stopped to get off the camels and walk through the difficult parts. But once we got back on the camels I was always soon left behind with my camel wandering where ever he wanted. It was good because it allowed me to get some nice pictures of the rest of the group ahead of me, that is until I was so far behind I couldn't even zoom in on them.
My camel was definitely the explorer of the group as he would venture off the beaten path leaping over rocks. At one point I was scared because he ventured so far off the path and was literally running (jogging speed) over rocks. I knew it wasn't safe when Lafala yelled to me to grab his rope and make him stop. But once again when I was back with the rest of the group they left me on my own to get lost.
Katie rode the mother (Aqmar) of the baby while Mustafa rode a camel that had been freshly marked. The camels are marked by making a deep incision on their neck or body which turns to a scar and is used as an identifying mark. Katie was horrified by the sight of the marks on the neck and probed Lafala several times about whether he was going to be okay, which he replied with a simple yes.
The mountains were very nice but by noon it was scorching hot and our guides led us to an oasis where we would rest and eat lunch until it became cooler. Lafala and Musa unloaded the camels and spread out blankets for us to sit on. It is easy to see how at night it was going to be cold because even in the shade it was like a whole new world to being in the direct sunlight. Despite our guides having modest means to cook the food we were treated to English tea with camels milk (our guide tried to convince us that it would make us strong like camel and immune to the sun – which was delicious) and a great tuna and vegetable salad with bread. Katie was shocked to find out that the bread was cooked in the dirt and we would have been unlikely to discover this had we not seen Musa scraping off any dirt from the crust.
After lunch we rested for what seemed like forever and Musa and Lafala disappeared without any indication as to where they were going. All we know is that they grabbed blankets and sleeping gear and headed off down a ravine. After a total of 4 hours in the oasis Musa and Lafala returned and we headed out again.
By the time we left it was much cooler and we didn't venture too far until we found a spot to setup camp. While Lafala was cooking chicken soup, Musa had to go gather the camels. When we had first arrived they had let the camels roam with their two front feet tied together with a short leash. This didn't seem to matter to them and they still managed to venture far enough that it took Musa two hours to fetch them.
While we waited we started playing games like throw the rock at a target. Mostafa made a ridiculous target and we attempted with three turns each to try and hit it without any luck. Out of the blue a rock flew over and hit the target right in the middle. We looked over to see Lafala sitting twice as far as us from the target with a pile of stones. After the first hit and our compliments to his aim he began to throw rock after rock. Although, Kaite, Mostafa and I were taking turns throwing rocks three before the next would throw, Lafala just began looking for stones, throwing one every 5 seconds. It was funnier to watch his enthusiasm with the game rather than playing and when he stopped we were finished.
In between games Katie set up, what she liked to call, Our House, which consisted of three blankets spread over an area of ground that Katie had cleared of all rocks (or so we thought). She then preceded to tell everyone that in Our House, there would be no shoes – haha! She then proceeded to start singing, “Our House...” but instead of using the original lyrics, she created new ones. Before you knew it, we had all started singing her crazy song, “Our House...it's in the middle of the Dessert, Our House...it's in the middle of Mnt Sinia”.
Although, Musa had told Mostafa that we were crazy for not having sleeping bags we had figured we would be okay if we all slept in one area sharing the three blankets we had. After the sun went down we put on all of our clothes as it was starting to get cold. Katie and I were a little more used to it but Mostafa, who had not grown up in Saskatchewan, was a little more concerned and bundled himself up like an Eskimo. Shortly after dinner Lafala and Musa headed to sleep and we were left to fend for ourselves..
That night was the most amazing stars any of us had ever seen. Being that the only major city on Sinai was 300 km away there was no lights to diminish the stars effect. We seen three shooting stars (a first for Mostafa) race all the way across the sky. When we finally decided to try and sleep (like 8 pm) the wind decided it had other plans and began ripping across the open areas near us. Although, Katie and I were cold, it was Mostafa who had to get up an build a fire because I think he honestly feared for his life. The wind was sucking almost all of the heat from his fire but it took me a while to convince him that it would be warmer under the blankets. After I built a wall with camel saddles we all wrapped ourselves in blankets and stayed like that until Katie woke up choking on sand. Katie and I woke late at night (different times) to see the brightest and most brilliant moon directly over our heads, which had hidden almost all of the stars.
We woke very early the next morning (4 am) and got an early start on breakfast...we needed coffee. We then headed out on foot to the coloured canyons. It was a difficult walk, illustrating to us, how bad of shape we were in. After about one hour Katie had to stop to use the bush toilet, which consisted of the only busy we had seen for 3 km. Mostafa and I ventured ahead to give her some privacy...we didn't have to worry about Lafala because by this point he was three quarters of a km ahead. All of a sudden Katie was calling us back...a snake had startled her when she went to go pee. Luckily when she had turned around she had seen the snake out of the corner of her eye and even more luckily the snakes head was burried in the bush and only its tail was near her.
After Katie had finished, we hurried to find Lafala but with no luck. It was as if he had disappeared...isn't your guide supposed to make sure you get there? After aimlessly wandering around and making all sorts of noises to try and alert Lafala that we were lost he finally came back. It took another thirty minutes to get to the coloured canyons but it was worth it. The colored canyons was a crevace in the rocks that was filled with sandstone rocks that were of all colors from green to yellow. It looked like one of those glasses that is filled with colored sand and they use to toothpick to push the different layers of color into neat patterns. We had to climb up small ledges and through very tiny holes in the rocks and had a lot of fun doing it. When we reached the end Mostafa ventured off (to give us some alone time????) which was nice because it gave me some time to use the bush toilet. I have to say that after this trip any prince or princess left in either Katie or I are gone. In all honesty though, Katie and I much preferred using the natural bush toilet to the disgusting squat toilets we have encountered along the way.
We returned to the camp after tying to spot the snake so Lafala could identify it. We had no luck but from our description Lafala figured it was quite poisonous. When we arrived at the camp Musa was gone with the camels but Lafala already anticipated this because we did not stop but walked on for about an hour through the scorching heat to the oasis we had stopped at the previous day.
Again we dined on incredible tuna salad and dirt cooked bread and stayed for what seemed even longer than 4 hours before heading back to our pick up point. All in all it was a great experience even though we were freezing cold the previous night. We truly enjoyed the company of the guides and Mostafa.
After saying our goodbyes to Musa we headed back to Shanty only to find that our huts for the night were now occupied by the thousands of Israeli's that had come for passover holidays. Not only was our lodge full but all of the huts along the beach were full. Either Sleman hadn't understood that we were planning on staying another night or he couldn't refuse the business – but either way, he allowed us to stay under one of the canopies on the beach for the night.
After arriving back from the desert we once again had cell coverage and Mostafa found that he had received many messages from his fiancé and work. Mostafa was able to make some phone calls and from the look on his face things weren't well. It turned out that his fiancé was a bit of a freak case and the employee his boss had found to fill in for him while he was gone did not show up to work. Therefore, Mostafa was now out of work and without a fiancé. We felt pretty bad but he was very calm and had been offered work at one of the lodges along the beach but wasn't sure yet what he was going to do.
After a quick dinner and some more backgammon we robbed some cushions from one of the other canopies and wrapped ourselves in carpets and went to sleep (again it was only 8 pm but we were dead).
Under the canopy was more comfortable than the rock mattress we had slept on the night before and was much warmer but we still could not manage to sleep in and were all awake by four thirty in the morning. We had a relaxing breakfast and arranged for a taxi to pick us all up to take us to the Nuweiba bus depot where we would all catch a ride back to Cairo. However, at the last second Mostafa informed us that he was going to accept the job and would not be coming back with us. We would say our goodbye which was met by tears from our new friend and headed into town to make the long bus back.
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