We met a wonderful guy, Remon, who carries excursion groups around Egypt, exchanged contacts and asked about the peculiarities of Egypt, about the country and customs.
First of all, we found out about the hijab. As it turned out, not all women wear closed robes, everything depends on the specific person, and it is not so much the husband who decides, as I thought before, but the woman herself. Depends on the specific family. We also asked how the locals react to provocatively dressed visitors - everything is different, since Egypt is inhabited by different people, then the attitude is different. In the resort towns, everyone is definitely used to it. Desert Bedouins certainly don't share this sex revolution..
Of course, we were interested to learn about such a feature of Egypt as a harem. An Egyptian is allowed to have several wives, nationality is not important, but rarely does anyone do that, because it is expensive. As the Arabs like to say, why do you need four problems when one is enough. Divorces are allowed, but not frequent, since the most important thing for life in Egypt is respect for neighbors and friends, so they don't change partners so easily, reputation is more important.
Now about other features of Egypt. The first thing that struck me was the sand around. Not just sand, but sand and sand, a sea of sand. How can people live in such conditions, I have no idea.
Egypt. Solid sands.
Egypt. Desert.
And I would put up a monument to the creators Sharm El Sheikh - make a blooming oasis out of the desert. And where do they just get their water from? The locals told us that the water was imported from Cairo. I don’t know if this is so. In order for the grass and palm trees to grow, they must be constantly watered, hoses stick out from the ground near some trees.
Egypt. Sharm El Sheikh. Watering.
The second feature of Egypt is the almost complete absence of price tags in stores, if the price depends on the dollar exchange rate in Zimbabwe, or on the mood of the seller, which is generally equivalent. I don’t know how to bargain, so we stocked up food in the supermarket, where there was a scanner and price tags for parts of the products. And at one of the gas stations, I had to send the seller to hell when he told me from the bulldozer the price of snickers at $ 10.
Also, a feature of Egypt, read the local population, is obsession. At first, we even walked along the other side of the road, so as not to go through the shops, away from the barkers. And then they relaxed, began to enter into dialogues, fortunately, you can communicate in Russian and English. And, imbued with the friendliness of this people, and I am sure, sincere friendliness. They always smile at you, and do not get angry at all if you do not buy anything. Often they tease and joke. Funny boys. Most likely this is noticeable due to the contrast with the rude Russian saleswomen.
In Sharm el-Sheikh, I did not see a single traffic light and pedestrian crossing, and in Cairo there are only 9 traffic lights for the entire 20 million metropolis. They are probably not needed, Allah helps.
At first, you constantly flinch from the taxi drivers inviting honks. And they hum even when the taxi is with passengers, probably a reflex already. Although all the drivers are buzzing here for the hike, greeting each other, saying goodbye, and just like that out of boredom.
The next feature of Egypt is slightly outdated means of transportation, namely camels. All is good, but this tool often shits on the asphalt. And you can often get into this fresh.
Camels in Sharm El Sheikh.
The Bedouin run this remedy and are easy to spot by their traditional dress. Arabs living in resort towns dress like all people. Typically, Bedouins offer camel rides, most offered at tourist destinations such as ancient pyramids, or mountain of moses, but my sensitivity to smell prevented me from even thinking about it. It looks like a poor people living mainly in the desert. But some of them are not poor at all, as they trade in drugs and weapons..
Bedouin near Mount Moses.
The car park in Egypt, too, as I understand it, is one of the oldest in the world. For some reason, it's nice to see Russian cars, sevens and fives, although in Russia they sometimes evoke an anti-patriotic feeling. Gasoline is cheaper here than water, so drivers often do not shut off their cars, stopping for 15 minutes.
Egypt. Vaz 2107.
Gas station. Egypt.
And the people here are all cheerful and smiling. This is probably why there are funny painted cars..
A car with a paddle painting. Egypt. Cairo.
Another of the noted features of Egypt is a kind of unsanitary conditions and an abundance of garbage. Also, people are not worried about the appearance of buildings, most are dirty and without cladding..
Garbage in Sharm El Sheikh. Egypt.
Cairo. Egypt. Slightly blurred building.
P.S. Alcohol is not sold anywhere, only in bars - a feature of Egypt and some other Arab countries. But with my healthy lifestyle, I did not pay attention to this - told other Russians whom I met on the spot..
P.S. Asia wrote, because the Sinai Peninsula is located precisely in Asia, and in the rest of Egypt, which is just in Africa, we were only 1 day in Cairo.
