I joined my host in all his activities. Wanting to be self-sufficient, he and his friend bought a small property and started working the land. They planted different vegetables and forgot to mark which type of vegetable is on each patch. Their tactic was to see what they have planted, when something grows. In fact, all the seeds were later mixed together when it did not rain for a long time due to drought. They rented a water tank and used a hose to release a huge amount of rainwater into the garden. I believe all the seeds then floated to the end of the garden.
The host's friend was a true artistic soul, funny and with a good sense of humour. He saw a new piece of art in every piece of rubbish. In the centre of Dahab, he sold newly made products and vintage items in his aesthetically sophisticated shop for tourists. His shop was a real attraction. All the tourists wanted to take photos in front of the shop window, and he kept getting angry that he didn't earn anything from that. So he recently started a new antique door business in Cairo. He bought old wooden house doors, hand-carved and unique, for a small sum of money and shipped them to Dahab. He was going to remodel them and then sell them. That's why his phone kept ringing those days, when he got a call from the police checkpoints between Cairo and Dahab, asking why the hell there is 50 broken doors in the truck. When they got there, the famous vintage door adorned his and the host's eco garden.
He and his Armenian fiancée, who was translating Indian scriptures for a living, were planning to build a house at the time. My host was their architect. The location of the house is the land where they used to garden. They were still waiting for the municipal authorities to approve the land for cultivation. Then they will start building, illegally of course. Once the house is standing, there is nothing the government can do. If you applied to build a house, it would cost a lot more money.
After a month when my visa had already expired, it was time to go to another country. Before that, I took a day trip to Sharm El Sheikh to take a PCR test, which I thought I needed when crossing the border into Jordan. However, I did not notice in time that all conditions for crossing the border with Jordan were waived the next day. I was driving to Sharm, where all sorts of Egyptian men were clinging to me, wanting to take pictures with me and asking me out for a drink. Sharm didn't impress me at all! After one month, my SIM card expired on the day I arrived at Sharm. I was completely lost and without Internet. How will I find the covid clinic? After a long conversation, the taxi driver drove me to the nearest Vodafone and wanted to grossly overcharge me. "Such a steep price for one kilometre? No way!" I bargained mercilessly, and on top of that, this Vodafone was closed!
After many complications, a local man then drove me to the hospital where the covid tests were carried out. But I wasn't on the list! "Which airline are you traveling with, miss?" I was asked before testing. "I'll be travelling by boat and I booked with you two days ago! Dammit" That I was travelling by boat and not by plane was suddenly a serious problem. If I pay, they'll do it anyway, they tried to reassure me. And this only made me angrier, because I paid for the test yesterday. I showed them the bill and then realised I was in the wrong place to do the test!
As if that wasn't enough, I almost missed the return bus to Dahab while smoking with the locals and taking a leak in the men's toilet! The signs for the toilets were only in Arabic, and when I saw the first toilet, I no longer wondered if they were divided into men or women, or if it was just a shared toilet. I was already done, when a coffee vendor approached me and showed me the ladies' room. After a free coffee, a couple of selfies and a gifted bus ticket back to Dahab, I left Sharm with relief.
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