Aimless wanderings in the Egyptian heartland. Part Eight- Home to a weary traveler
El Tor is nowhere… Ask any tourist, he mustn’t have heard about it…
When I reached the bus stand of Dahab… I realized that there was no bus to the mainland Egypt till late in the evening… there was a bus going to Port Suez… but that at around 2 in the noon, and after reaching there… I could have taken a bus going to anywhere in Egypt… but then I couldn’t have waited that long. It was then I met Wahid.
Wahid was a plumpy fellow… driving a pick-up van… he used to ferry to El-Tor and back… to buy some ration for his small resort in Dahab… ever smiling, with yellow teeth and more than a bad breath… his hallmark was a packet-full of Egyptian sandwiches, always ready to quench his appetite.
While I was sitting on one of the benches of the Dahab bus stand, wondering what to do next… he arrived with a few foreigners, who wanted to board a bus going to Saint Katherine. He saw me for a while, bid farewell to his foreigner customer cum friends… and then came close to me and cheerfully greeted me "Salaam Alaikum"…
Peace be upon me... Yeah I needed these good words… here I was sitting alone… and without a plan, with an uncertainty hovering over my plans… uncertainty that threatened to gobble up one valuable day of my journey. "Wa Alaikum As-Salaam"… I replied back…
"Inta Hindi"….
I always used to wonder… as to how they guess that I am an Indian… I mean, I resemble a 'Saeedi' in colour and contours… and yet I am so discernable… So discernable, that the moment I step into the streets of Khan-e-Khalili or Luxor- I am greeted with Namaste and Amitabh Bachhan.
"Naam"… yes. While replying, I started doing a threat assessment… what would this guy say next… will he sell me his resort room… or offer me to take to Dahab… ahhhhhhhh! I wanted none of these.
He didn’t…. He plainly told me that there was no bus to anywhere for next three-four hours… I took a deep breath… and said that-yes, I know. And then, he offered me something that was sweet to my ears…. He offered me to take to El-Tor, for free. As he confided later… he gets bored on these long monotonous drives and needs to talk to somebody… and often takes people for a ride (no pun intended)….
It was two and half hours journey to El-Tor… through a magical route… surrounded by the majesty of Sinai… one bat of an eyelid and it was difficult to remember if I was in Sinai… or Spiti or Heaven. He told me something interesting… Dahab in Arabic means Gold… and in ancient times… when Arab sailors used to pass through the Gulf of Aqaba, they used to see the shining hillocks of the place, which glittered like gold… and hence named the place- Dahab, the Gold… many of them came to Sinai… to hunt for the gold… some died at the hands of treacherous nature and some at the hands of robbers… and nobody could find gold…
The ride was very interesting… Wahid offered me different types of sandwiches… one that really set my taste bud on fire were filled with Tuna, Baba Ghanoug (eggplant) and Tahina sauce. Only hitch… the worst smelling breath, I ever smelt, coming out of constant chattering mouth.
El-Tor is the capital of South Sinai Governorate… it is a small township with a few shops that cater to people around… I asked Wahid, as to why he comes to El-Tor for his rations… and why not to Sharm… his reply was simple… things in Sharm are sold at inflated prices… in fact a lot of people, running small time resorts in Nama Bay and Sharm… often purchase their wares from El-Tor.
El-Tor is hardly a tourist spot… but often it is a great stop-over for people planning to go to Saint Katherine… or Sharm or Moses Spring (which, I was told was a small tourist spot very close to El-Tor… it is supposed to be a biblical spring that has now dried up with some portions having brackish water… not really very enticing, is it)
I had a few hours to go… before I could have taken any bus to the mainland Egypt… one option was taking a bus coming from Saint Kathrine… going towards Port Suez or Cairo… and the other was taking the bus to Luxor… the same bus that starts from Dahab at four in the evening and reached El-Tor at six in the evening… I chose the latter course…
El-Tor is a friendly place… though quite deserted…most of the people living here, come from the canal region… and are very gentle… their main business is trading and not tourism… and therefore they treat tourists as one of them… Wahid was right… I would be better off at El-Tor than in Dahab…
The other reason was the beauty of the place itself… wide roads… surrounded by beautiful hills… cold breeze… you could sit anywhere… any Ahwa… without being bothered by a persistent waiter… you could have eaten anything… without being bothered about being over-charged… you could pick-up conversation with anybody without being treated as a potential customer… this is what I missed in Dahab…. Bohemian or not.
I slept at one of the road side Ahwa, tried out my hands on Domino with a local-ite… in short I was really having a vacation… it was a strange feeling… it was like as if… I , a weary traveler, had reached an abode to rest….
The next two days were going to be difficult and harrowing… little did I know this… but destiny had brought me to a place… where I got recharged….to travel… to learn and to yearn….
El-Tor was magical in its own way… I would remember that local lad who taught me to play domino… or the policeman who listened to my description of India… in broken Arabic… or that Ahwa-owner who didn’t bother me, when I was sleeping without buying anything from his Ahwa….
When I reached the bus stand of Dahab… I realized that there was no bus to the mainland Egypt till late in the evening… there was a bus going to Port Suez… but that at around 2 in the noon, and after reaching there… I could have taken a bus going to anywhere in Egypt… but then I couldn’t have waited that long. It was then I met Wahid.
Wahid was a plumpy fellow… driving a pick-up van… he used to ferry to El-Tor and back… to buy some ration for his small resort in Dahab… ever smiling, with yellow teeth and more than a bad breath… his hallmark was a packet-full of Egyptian sandwiches, always ready to quench his appetite.
While I was sitting on one of the benches of the Dahab bus stand, wondering what to do next… he arrived with a few foreigners, who wanted to board a bus going to Saint Katherine. He saw me for a while, bid farewell to his foreigner customer cum friends… and then came close to me and cheerfully greeted me "Salaam Alaikum"…
Peace be upon me... Yeah I needed these good words… here I was sitting alone… and without a plan, with an uncertainty hovering over my plans… uncertainty that threatened to gobble up one valuable day of my journey. "Wa Alaikum As-Salaam"… I replied back…
"Inta Hindi"….
I always used to wonder… as to how they guess that I am an Indian… I mean, I resemble a 'Saeedi' in colour and contours… and yet I am so discernable… So discernable, that the moment I step into the streets of Khan-e-Khalili or Luxor- I am greeted with Namaste and Amitabh Bachhan.
"Naam"… yes. While replying, I started doing a threat assessment… what would this guy say next… will he sell me his resort room… or offer me to take to Dahab… ahhhhhhhh! I wanted none of these.
He didn’t…. He plainly told me that there was no bus to anywhere for next three-four hours… I took a deep breath… and said that-yes, I know. And then, he offered me something that was sweet to my ears…. He offered me to take to El-Tor, for free. As he confided later… he gets bored on these long monotonous drives and needs to talk to somebody… and often takes people for a ride (no pun intended)….
It was two and half hours journey to El-Tor… through a magical route… surrounded by the majesty of Sinai… one bat of an eyelid and it was difficult to remember if I was in Sinai… or Spiti or Heaven. He told me something interesting… Dahab in Arabic means Gold… and in ancient times… when Arab sailors used to pass through the Gulf of Aqaba, they used to see the shining hillocks of the place, which glittered like gold… and hence named the place- Dahab, the Gold… many of them came to Sinai… to hunt for the gold… some died at the hands of treacherous nature and some at the hands of robbers… and nobody could find gold…
The ride was very interesting… Wahid offered me different types of sandwiches… one that really set my taste bud on fire were filled with Tuna, Baba Ghanoug (eggplant) and Tahina sauce. Only hitch… the worst smelling breath, I ever smelt, coming out of constant chattering mouth.
El-Tor is the capital of South Sinai Governorate… it is a small township with a few shops that cater to people around… I asked Wahid, as to why he comes to El-Tor for his rations… and why not to Sharm… his reply was simple… things in Sharm are sold at inflated prices… in fact a lot of people, running small time resorts in Nama Bay and Sharm… often purchase their wares from El-Tor.
El-Tor is hardly a tourist spot… but often it is a great stop-over for people planning to go to Saint Katherine… or Sharm or Moses Spring (which, I was told was a small tourist spot very close to El-Tor… it is supposed to be a biblical spring that has now dried up with some portions having brackish water… not really very enticing, is it)
I had a few hours to go… before I could have taken any bus to the mainland Egypt… one option was taking a bus coming from Saint Kathrine… going towards Port Suez or Cairo… and the other was taking the bus to Luxor… the same bus that starts from Dahab at four in the evening and reached El-Tor at six in the evening… I chose the latter course…
El-Tor is a friendly place… though quite deserted…most of the people living here, come from the canal region… and are very gentle… their main business is trading and not tourism… and therefore they treat tourists as one of them… Wahid was right… I would be better off at El-Tor than in Dahab…
The other reason was the beauty of the place itself… wide roads… surrounded by beautiful hills… cold breeze… you could sit anywhere… any Ahwa… without being bothered by a persistent waiter… you could have eaten anything… without being bothered about being over-charged… you could pick-up conversation with anybody without being treated as a potential customer… this is what I missed in Dahab…. Bohemian or not.
I slept at one of the road side Ahwa, tried out my hands on Domino with a local-ite… in short I was really having a vacation… it was a strange feeling… it was like as if… I , a weary traveler, had reached an abode to rest….
The next two days were going to be difficult and harrowing… little did I know this… but destiny had brought me to a place… where I got recharged….to travel… to learn and to yearn….
El-Tor was magical in its own way… I would remember that local lad who taught me to play domino… or the policeman who listened to my description of India… in broken Arabic… or that Ahwa-owner who didn’t bother me, when I was sleeping without buying anything from his Ahwa….
2 comments:
Hey,
I want to see those photos when we meet..and listen to you.
So when do you plan to come over... be my guest
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