To rest.
A day with nothing to do. Stated
officially. “Tomorrow, we have to do
nothing.” We'll have no sites to see or connections to make except
with the Red Sea, seen last night for our first time and now shining aloud. It was nice in the dark and its nicer in the
day. We have a remarkable corner room
with a few to the left and a view to the right. The sea is not “red.” My wife noted convincingly. I stared out and thought of Arabia, which I
thought perhaps I could see, until I checked Google Maps and confirmed that
there are a few islands, five kilometers off shore (Jazair Jiftun). And I
thought of Moses and tried to explain the parting of the Red Sea, to my wife
and I thought of Peter O’Toole the way his eyes pop out of his head when, as
Lawrence of Arabia he looks at the water after being in the desert and says “Aqaba,”
and I thought of being a little grade school boy and learning of Jacques
Cousteau diving in the Red Sea when he was the coolest figure I could imagine.
Outside are
pleasure yachts of varying degrees of grandeur. The Egyptian flag is fluttering
above a thatched hut. It seems small but
determined. Yesterday, driving up and back
to Qbey and Abydos there were many pillbox towers check-points with machine
guns poking out were a much more imposing site.
This town is most certainly a target.
I’m sure the security in general around this town in tight. The water is crystal clear as it ought to be
and there are families down below, none of them dressed conservatively, lounging. In the lobbies are a jarring cabal of the Cancun-set
here with their American stares of presumption. This place is certainly seen as
an infidel colonization by some.
And where are the
Russians? I had been told that the
Russians loved to go to Egypt and I’ve been here two weeks and not met nor
heard one Russian voice. Perhaps there
all here at the beach doing what you can’t do in the summer in the Baltic. Perhaps they are at the Russian-friendly resorts
somewhere further up or down the coast. I
warned our guide and a quick look on the web confirms that Chinese tourism to
Egypt doubled over the last few years.
It will invariably double and then double again. Sooner or later China will face a
soul-shaking challenge to its international presence.
I had very much
wanted my children to see Egypt. I
wanted to see it as well. Last night I
toasted the whole family for their endurance.
We’d seen a tremendous amount in the last twelve days. And as
happens with a collective journey like this, the gestation of inspiration can be
one year and be many years. The shared
experience regardless creates a webbing of references that hold you closer together as a
family. Sharp narratives.
Tomorrow early, we
fly out. First to Cairo, and then on to
JFK. A blessing then, being able to have
seen all this safely and while we can, as a collective.
Sunday 7/14/19
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