Rough, Rugged Charm in Sharm

Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, April 19 — We backtracked across the Red Sea to this spot on the southern tip of the Sinai Peninsula. It’s best known as a seaside resort because the diving and snorkeling are so good in the beautiful turquoise water. Visibility underwater was incredible, my snorkeling friends told me. Sharm, as it’s called, is also known for hosting many international peace conferences, giving it the nickname the ‘City of Peace.’ But being neither a snorkeler nor a peace-mongerer, I had to find something else to do the morning we were there.

I decided on the ‘Off the Beaten Track Desert Jeep Tour,’ touted as a way to ‘discover the Bedouin lifestyle.’ This trip came with what our cruise director calls ‘a free massage.’ The road in the photo at the top is a good road. A very good one. The massage came later.

We drove a ways out of town, passing through ‘picturesque Naama Bay with its hotels and resorts.’ We did see a few stores and going hotel concerns but mostly we saw fancy would-be hotels like this one that had been almost but not quite finished. Some hadn’t gotten this far — they were gigantic, multi-story shells, probably planned as massive holiday condo complexes.

But after the Arab Spring revolution in 2011, when tourists just stopped coming, building just stopped. No doubt because the backers backed out. I’ve heard two theories — they may both be true. That the backers are the Japanese and/or the Saudis. If we were still in Asia, the backers would have been the Chinese.

Our first stop was the Nabq National Park, a lovely but forlorn stretch of beach. The government is planting mangrove trees along it since they grow in salt water and attract all kinds of wildlife, above and below the water. Our guide warned us not to walk on the beach close to the water because we would hurt the crabs burrowed in the sand. There is a lot of crabbing and fishing in the area.

A Bedouin woman and her son selling bead jewelry at the beach.

Next stop was the Park’s Nature Museum... by far the saddest museum I have ever seen. There were shell collections and dead shellfish collections and taxidermy such as these moth-eaten and desiccated foxes. I am pretty sure the only reason this was on the itinerary is because it had a toilet.

Though there was a nice view around the corner from the necessary.

As we drove back out of the park we saw these Bedouin shacks. The government turns a blind eye to their illegal fishing.

A harrowing ride across rugged rock-strewn terrain provided the free massage.

We stopped for a look at this lone acacia tree standing in the middle of Wadi Kharayza. It is the only type of tree we saw because it’s the only one that can live in this arid and barren landscape. There are 22,000 of them in Egypt. We also saw tough little low-growing herbs that the Bedouins use for medicines and teas.

Bedouin Life

Bedouins live in the Asian part of Egypt (Sinai), Morocco, Sudan and Ethiopia. So, what’s life like for an Egyptian Bedouin woman? She might wear an embroidered robe and a veil with coins, we were told. I didn’t see that. She herds sheep and/or goats. Cooks, makes cheese, weaves tents (cotton for summer, goat hair for winter), makes textiles, cleans, cares for the children, etc. The men in the family supervise and meet with other men to discuss stuff. Really, that’s what our (male) guide told us.

Girls may marry as young as 15, to boys who are 17-19. Marriage to a cousin is preferred. If a girl marries outside her tribe, she is expelled. Bedouins have their own courts. And they aren’t especially interested in sending their children to school.

Though the government has built homes for them in the desert, like this yellow one...

... many prefer to live in their traditional tents or in mud-brick homes like these.

Their water is delivered in jugs and bottles.

The village...

A corral for cows, goats and sheep. Wherever I took this particular shot, there were wires, presumably for electricity.

We were on our way to Wadi Mandar, a Bedouin camp that puts on entertainment for tour groups, where we were greeted by boys with their camels. This boy was by far the most engaging. Our guide said ‘Don’t ride the camels.’ But people did, and one man fell off. Since the camel was kneeling, he didn’t fall far.

Inside the tent we sat on rugs (what we call rag rugs) for snacks and the performance...

We began with herbal tea made in metal kettles over hot coals...

... and served with fire-baked bread and soft cheese.

Then the entertainment began. After the dancer finished I asked our guide what I had just watched. ‘A Dervish.’ Well, what do you know! He wasn’t dressed like the Whirling Dervish photos I’d seen in National Geographic when I was a kid.

This man came out and began whirling. Fast. As he whirled, his skirts began to levitate, one by one. While he whirled, the top skirt came away from the lower skirts and rose up up up until it was over his head. He ceremoniously rolled that one and put it aside, then started whirling again to lift the second skirt, doing various banner-dancing type moves with it.

Of course, there had to be a belly dancer. In a land where many women are covered head to toe in black, belly dancing thrives. All in all, it was an interesting and informative visit — though the generator-powered Arab music blasting fortissimo throughout the entertainment was ear-numbing.

The typical souk afterwards. Since our onboard Arabian Night was coming up, many women bought beaded bracelets and the like. The young souk assistant needed to adjust his turban.