3.11.2008

Egypt days 3 and part of 4

Day three of the Egypt adventure brought more hours baking on the beach and by the pool. We went to a nicer place to eat (still included, but there were several hoops to jump through before we were allowed to partake). Kofta kebabs grilled over charcoal, giant spoonfuls of hummus AND baklava for dessert? Couscous, fish AND delicious cucumber and tomato salad with yogurt? Oh yes. We gorged ourselves.

Today we went to Luxor, which meant getting on a bus at 5:40am. I had heard that all buses travel in a caravan across the desert, but I was not prepared for the seriousness of it. When I thought of a "convoy" I pulled the imaginary semi-truck horn and thought of the novelty song from the 70s (when CB radio was king), but after today, I will think of 50+ tour buses gathering in a secured gravel lot 60 kilometers from Hurghada and leaving together with armed police at the front, at the back and in two cars that patrol the middle. Lots of machine guns.

The drive through the desert took a few hours and was highly surreal, made all the more surreal by the Myers Elementary School 4th grade curriculum in 1978. While other children learned about ancient Egyptians, our hippified teachers thought we should spend the year learning about the Bedouins, Egypt's desert nomads. I get that we were in an "experimental" school, what with the open plan classrooms and reading and math "pods", and I even tip my hat to the idea that kids should learn about nomads and such, but spending a year's worth of social studies hours on the Bedouins seemed like overkill.


That is until we made our only WC and coffee stop about an hour into the convoy trip. Enterprising Bedouins were waiting for us with camels, donkeys, goats and little girls, all decorated in bright colors, for a manufactured photo op. There was that moment of thinking, "I shouldn't support this - it is essentially begging." And then that moment was beaten down with the realization, "That may possibly be the most pretentious thought ever!" Because it isn't begging, but taking advantage of an opportunity, and I know, thanks to the overabundance of Bedouin lessons, that opportunity didn't come often to desert. More to come later - temples, Nile river, my love of hot weather, snorkeling in the Red Sea, bartering and the perfume debacle along with other assorted gems. Must sleep now.

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