WINDOW SHOPPING IN SHARM EL SHEIK

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Late afternoons I liked to do some walking in the little Sharm el Sheik towns Nahama' Bay and Old Town. I preferred Old Town, because it is more typical and less touristic than the other part of Sharm, Nahama' Bay. Mr. Gattino stayed in the hotel, because he hates doing window shopping and I prefer to go alone than with an impatient husband besides me who would step from one foot to the other and make me nervous. Of course some women where scandalized that I dared to go alone because of "these Egyptians" but I told them that I am old enough to take care of myself (which I had always).

Of course it is true that you have a bunch of men behind you, even at my advanced age but instead of saying nothing and try to go your way (with the bunch behind you) I turned around and told them with a sweet smile "whould you like that men do this to your sister ?" Then usually they were very embarrassed, smiled too and disappeared. Sisters are very important to all arabic people and each brother has the duty to watch over her like his own eyeball. On the other side I could understand them. So many women come here alone only for sex so how could they know the difference ?

There are so many beautiful things to buy but one thing is very important and that bothers most of the tourists. For each price you have to haggle and very strongly ! It's part of the use and it's a kind of sport for them.

So never ever pay the price they ask for, not for taxi not even for a toilet use ! Only the restaurants and bars have fix prices. I like haggling, for me it's fun. I start by going down to under the half of the asked price and then we discuss and discuss and at the end we meet in the middle I happy with half of the price and him happy because it was probably even more than he expected.

Sometimes that makes really funny situations. One day I haggled with some man for something I don't remember and as usual I gave a very low price. He took out his tissu and started to cry that I would ruin his business. So I took out a tissu too and started crying too that he would take all my holiday money. Of course his friends came over to see what happened and then also other tourists and we haggled and haggled with our tissus at our noses and suddenly he started laughing and laughing, he alsmost had a cramp and then gave me the thing for free !! I insisted to give him at least something but he refused and said I were the best female tourist he ever met ! And then we had a tea together !

And here is a little bit of my window shopping.

click on the pictures to make them bigger all kind of lamps would you like a scarabee on your wall ? They bring luck and belonged to the old pharaons ! Brrr I found them very ugly ! But they didn't have a lamp in cat form ! leather seats and hand painted (?) papyrus Jewlry ! One shop after the other a lot of choice and very good prices (after haggling of course) Spices, spices for everything ! Please note the natural Viagara of the bedouins ! No wonder that so many single women come here ! hand woven carpets with wonderful designs Tourist "egyptian" clothes. No Egyptian woman would ever wear this. But many tourists buy them because they are so easy to wear. I have two of them to wear in the garden.

Waterpipes as far as you can see ! The men are smoking this pipe while they are chatting or playing cards or whatever. It's filled with herbs which smell very good, no drug all healthy and you only keep the smoke in your mouth, taste it and then blow it out. I tried it several times, but I am hopeless, I always try to inhale and then I cough like mad. It's not so easy to use !

I never take medication along to Egypt, because if you get sick our medicin doesn't help, there are other microbes. So I bought here something for Mr. Gattino's stomac and it was a miracle, next day he had nothing anymore. They have everything from Aspirines to Antibiotics and very cheap. When I finished my window shopping I drank a glass of Karkadee, the typical Egyptian drink made out of Ibiscus flowers. You can drink it hot or warm it really taste wonderful.

And of course I had some company, mother and child ! Aren't they cute ?

Next time more about Sharm el Sheik