donderdag 25 november 2010

Impressions

Back from the White Desert trip and from the Nile Cruise and papers full of impressions. I don't think I need to elaborate on the impressive sightseeing since I assume the majority has a pretty good vision on that. But what I do want to share with you is the atmosphere, the people and some of the habits.

+ First of all: in Cairo we saw quite some men with a strange darker place on their forehead. We tried to guess, but my friend Ali enlightened us with the truth. This strange dot is a prayer mark.

+ Men in Cairo: from 'pssst', to 'hi, sweetie' and from 'I want to sleep with you' to ' touching your but'. In the latter case I gave the young boy a scare by yelling haram in the middle of the street so the community pressure would take action. Mission accomplished.

+ A camel is referred to as the ship of the desert for his way of walking.

+ Each year the equivalent of the entire Belgian population visits Egypt. Mass tourism is the word in some places.

+ I was offered half of the White Desert as a wedding gift...

+ Walking through a souk means getting asked every other centimeter if you want to buy this or that. It is not that bad as they say. The third 'no' is the right one. One would think: why do I always need to say this three times, did they not get me the first time. Of course they did, but three is the magic number in the Islam. The key to all of this is to stay calm, but firm and to not to loose your temper. And he, I've just spent 4 months in hakuna matata Kenia. LOL!