(Funny) facts

Pictures of daily life in El Gouna:
http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=58322&l=6afea&id=523210814

Rather than boring you again with a blog about how fantastic and beautiful and fabulous the diving is, I will today try to sketch the daily things that happen and the random thoughts that cross my mind on an ordinary day here in El Gouna. This for the benefit of those who are considering moving out here too :-), or those who will come for a holiday soon, or those who just want to know what the hell I do here except for diving...

Fact: Often when you don’t have a plan for the evening and think you’ll be bumming on the couch, somebody rocks up with a fun idea and you end up doing something you’ve never done before.

Example: Yesterday evening, after work & yoga, I thought I’d have dinner at the Clubhouse and then go home and do nothing. It turned out that Stefano, Gijs and Christine were out by one of the many lagoons of El Gouna, fishing fish and catching crabs. So after dinner with a random collection of people at the Clubhouse, I headed out for the Marina and joined the fishing expedition. And I caught my first crabs. It’s easy. You wait until they come towards shore and when they are in the shallow water, you slap them with a stick and then grab them from the back. At least, this is what Gijs told me to do. So the first crab appears, I slap it really hard with a piece of wood, lots of water splashing and I wait for it to go unconscious (or something like that) before grabbing it but instead my victim swiftly swims back to deeper waters... And behind me, Christine, Gijs and Stefano start laughing really hard. Gijs forgot to mention that you slap the crab and then keep the piece of wood on top of the shell to hold it down so you can carefully grab it from behind. You can’t slap a crab unconscious, you undercover blondie... So the rest of the evening my nickname was crab-slapper, as I patrolled the shore for new victims. My next attempt was more successful, except for the fact that this crab was very flexible with his long pinches, pinched me really hard and cut my middle finger. So picture me running to the bucket, on my bare feet over a stoney shore, wooden stick in one hand, crab in the other, shouting “Auw, auw, shit, auw, kut kut kut, auw...” with the rest of the gang laughing again... Oh well, check out the pictures and you’ll see that it was all very much worth it. Self-caught, self-cooked, fresh crabs as a midnight snack... What a life....

Fact: High-heeled shoes are useless in El Gouna.

Example: I came to El Gouna with my two favourite pairs of high heeled shoes, but I can’t bear the thought of wearing them here. I’ve gone from click-click, click-click to flop-flop, flop-flop. I wear the same slippers every day and I think I will need some serious high-heel training if I ever go back to the corporate world. El Gouna is all dust roads and cobble stones, so holiday-makers, leave your high-heels at home. If you want to be trendy, get colour-coordinated flip-flops and clothes. Anything more fashionable will be considered overdressing.

Fact: You need to add 5 minutes extra to your trip if you’re going somewhere by car.

Example: It’s 50 degrees in the sun, easily. And when your car is parked in the sun, it’s probably 80 degrees inside the car. So before getting in, you open as many doors as possible and wait for 3 minutes before getting in. Otherwise you melt as soon as your butt hits the seat. After a while, you get in the car, turn on the engine and put the AC on full-blast, keeping the door opens for a couple of more minutes. Then you close the doors, leave the windows open for the first few minutes while driving until the AC is cold enough. When putting on the seatbelt, be careful not the touch the steel part of the buckle and before grabbing the steering wheel, carefully test it’s temperature. All this to avoid being grilled alive and getting second degree burns on your hands...

Fact: Your tolerance for dirt increases substantially when spending time El Gouna.

Example: There is dust everywhere, there are ants everywhere, you’re covered in salt all day and there is no getting away from it. So I kill ants with my bare feet, don’t wash my hands before eating (but I still do after visiting the toilet, I've not degenerated that much), don’t care if my clothes are covered in sand, my feet and hands desperately need an extensive pedi/mani, but to be honest, I don’t care! So don’t bring your nicest white trousers, don’t paint your nails just before coming here and if your parents never let you eat the sand from the playground when you were a toddler, get some Antinal from the farmacy as soon as you get here (much cheaper and stronger than in Europe) to avoid having to run to the toilet every 10 minutes.

Fact: Storks don’t really bring the babies

Example: September is the month that storks migrate towards the south. On several occasions, we saw hundreds if not thousands of storks flying over El Gouna. When they fly overland, they fly high in the sky, in big balls circling round and round with the thermic winds... When they fly overseas, they fly low over the water, in huge flocks and sometimes we go right through them with the boat... It’s wonderful. On one of those perfect days, a very tired stork landed on the sun roof of the Abydos, so we had to opportunity to observe this beautiful bird from very close by. But no baby. Myth busted.

Fact: You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave....

Example: Many people came here for a holiday or a sabbatical somewhere in the 1990’s and are still here. I’m close to making up my mind...

Lots of dusty kisses,

xYx