Aimless wanderings in the Egyptian heartland. Part One- The beginning
This is what I always said…
A week in wandering and I am not tired… I feel youthful, energetic, and alive all over again. I am speaking with an élan, my ideas are flowing in a more fluent manner… a few days ago, I partied hard and actually flirted after so many years… I completed a book called "Ascent of Man" in three straight sessions… I am loving music, feeling happy, seeing movies… taking long walks in the streets of Cairo well past the midnight and most importantly sleeping well.
Just one week of wandering.
The idea of the visit germinated in my mind a few months ago… the idea was to visit all the places that I had not visited in last two years of my stay in Egypt… and despite the wanderings that punctuated my listless existence in this antique land… there were quite a few places like these… El Arish, Port Said, Assiyut, Sohag, Abu Simble etc.
When I was planning these wanderings… I got a request from a friend of mine… if he can join me on this trip. I was confused… not because I didn’t like the idea… but because… I wondered whether he would like my idea of traveling. Traveling shoestring, traveling without a plan… sleeping in backpackers' joints… and sometimes public benches… it is not everybody's cup of tea. He, however, proved to be more than a game.
So one eventful night, we started for a place called Marsa Matrouh… I and Juno.
Cairo has been very nice to me… in giving me friends for life.
Almost accidentally, I bumped into Raja Karthikeya… an IIFT graduate working for I-Flex. Almost prophetically, I quipped- meeting you is serendipity. And it turned out to be one. Amazingly well read, intelligent, informed… Raja's hallmark was his spontaneity. I was impressed with him… and catalyzed his dream to look beyond the world of Corporate glitter… he enrolled himself for International Studies course in one of the finest Universities of the US… we have this nascent plan to start something on our own, one day.
Then Amit Mishra… a budding diplomat. Amazingly intelligent… nobody comes even close. And amazingly simple… it has always been pleasure talking to him… More about him later… he deserves more than a passing reference in my blog…and I promise to give him his due.
Juno Srivastava is one of them… he works for an Indian software firm… and is an unpretentious human being. The hallmark of this man is his humility… mind you being humble is one of the most difficult things in life. He loves to talk… he loves to compliment when it is due… and more importantly, he loves to take care and admit mistakes when there is any. I am his fan.
We reached Matrouh at around 5 in the morning… the bus to Siwa was at 7, after two hours… Matrouh is a Mediterranean town. The winters in Mediterranean towns are chillier than usual. When we reached there… cold winds were blowing… and it was important to find a refuge.
We did find a refuge in a roadside Ahwa… Matrouh, in this time of the year, is a ghost town… without any tourists… in summers Matrouh attracts hordes and hordes of tourists… it has few of the most beautiful beaches in Egypt… when I came here last year, I was mesmerized by the Aguiba beach. The town has been a witness of one of the most defining moments of World War 2. It was a German stronghold… before the offensive of Al Alamein begun… the single most decisive battle in the WW2. It was said by English war historian- "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat"… many Indians lost their lives in that war… last time around, while doing some tomb searching… I found a lot of Indians on the western side of the commonwealth cemetery… the Marathas, the Tamils, The Rajputs, the Balochs, and The Pathans.
In Matrouh… we had also seen the place where General Rommel, the desert fox had his base… the cave of General Rommel was surrounded by one of the finest piece of sea… blue, tranquil and soothing… nothing can be more ironical that the plan to launch one of the bloodiest offensive of WW2 was hatched over here.
This time around… I was doing an experiment… I chose not to carry a lonely planet with me… there were two reasons for it. One, I wanted to experience the joy of traveling without any plans… and two I wanted to interact and find out things from the locals instead of the book. Lonely planet is a nice idea if one needs to make his life easier while traveling but certainly not a good idea if one wants to make his life more enriching while traveling. Towards the end of it all, I realized that Lonely Planet comes for one big help… that is finding a place to stay in the night. Beyond it… interacting with locals is a far better idea.
We boarded the bus to Siwa at 7 in the morning and set out for this magical place… more than me, Juno was excited.
A week in wandering and I am not tired… I feel youthful, energetic, and alive all over again. I am speaking with an élan, my ideas are flowing in a more fluent manner… a few days ago, I partied hard and actually flirted after so many years… I completed a book called "Ascent of Man" in three straight sessions… I am loving music, feeling happy, seeing movies… taking long walks in the streets of Cairo well past the midnight and most importantly sleeping well.
Just one week of wandering.
The idea of the visit germinated in my mind a few months ago… the idea was to visit all the places that I had not visited in last two years of my stay in Egypt… and despite the wanderings that punctuated my listless existence in this antique land… there were quite a few places like these… El Arish, Port Said, Assiyut, Sohag, Abu Simble etc.
When I was planning these wanderings… I got a request from a friend of mine… if he can join me on this trip. I was confused… not because I didn’t like the idea… but because… I wondered whether he would like my idea of traveling. Traveling shoestring, traveling without a plan… sleeping in backpackers' joints… and sometimes public benches… it is not everybody's cup of tea. He, however, proved to be more than a game.
So one eventful night, we started for a place called Marsa Matrouh… I and Juno.
Cairo has been very nice to me… in giving me friends for life.
Almost accidentally, I bumped into Raja Karthikeya… an IIFT graduate working for I-Flex. Almost prophetically, I quipped- meeting you is serendipity. And it turned out to be one. Amazingly well read, intelligent, informed… Raja's hallmark was his spontaneity. I was impressed with him… and catalyzed his dream to look beyond the world of Corporate glitter… he enrolled himself for International Studies course in one of the finest Universities of the US… we have this nascent plan to start something on our own, one day.
Then Amit Mishra… a budding diplomat. Amazingly intelligent… nobody comes even close. And amazingly simple… it has always been pleasure talking to him… More about him later… he deserves more than a passing reference in my blog…and I promise to give him his due.
Juno Srivastava is one of them… he works for an Indian software firm… and is an unpretentious human being. The hallmark of this man is his humility… mind you being humble is one of the most difficult things in life. He loves to talk… he loves to compliment when it is due… and more importantly, he loves to take care and admit mistakes when there is any. I am his fan.
We reached Matrouh at around 5 in the morning… the bus to Siwa was at 7, after two hours… Matrouh is a Mediterranean town. The winters in Mediterranean towns are chillier than usual. When we reached there… cold winds were blowing… and it was important to find a refuge.
We did find a refuge in a roadside Ahwa… Matrouh, in this time of the year, is a ghost town… without any tourists… in summers Matrouh attracts hordes and hordes of tourists… it has few of the most beautiful beaches in Egypt… when I came here last year, I was mesmerized by the Aguiba beach. The town has been a witness of one of the most defining moments of World War 2. It was a German stronghold… before the offensive of Al Alamein begun… the single most decisive battle in the WW2. It was said by English war historian- "Before Alamein we never had a victory. After Alamein we never had a defeat"… many Indians lost their lives in that war… last time around, while doing some tomb searching… I found a lot of Indians on the western side of the commonwealth cemetery… the Marathas, the Tamils, The Rajputs, the Balochs, and The Pathans.
In Matrouh… we had also seen the place where General Rommel, the desert fox had his base… the cave of General Rommel was surrounded by one of the finest piece of sea… blue, tranquil and soothing… nothing can be more ironical that the plan to launch one of the bloodiest offensive of WW2 was hatched over here.
This time around… I was doing an experiment… I chose not to carry a lonely planet with me… there were two reasons for it. One, I wanted to experience the joy of traveling without any plans… and two I wanted to interact and find out things from the locals instead of the book. Lonely planet is a nice idea if one needs to make his life easier while traveling but certainly not a good idea if one wants to make his life more enriching while traveling. Towards the end of it all, I realized that Lonely Planet comes for one big help… that is finding a place to stay in the night. Beyond it… interacting with locals is a far better idea.
We boarded the bus to Siwa at 7 in the morning and set out for this magical place… more than me, Juno was excited.
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