Tomorrow I will be heading to Al Qasr which is only 35KM from Mut, is a little town that has kept its look from the Ottoman years. We will see how long I stay once I am there. The hotel is only 15LE a night.
I might not be posting for awhile, if I come back to Mut it will only be for a night to catch the bus the next day for Al Kharga. I guess Al Kharga is the least attractive oasis of them all. Siwa is by far the nicest, friendliness, most enjoyable oasis to visit.
I am just taking it easy and gearing myself up for the hassle capital of Egypt – Luxor and Aswan. Although, the ways of the tourist trouts don’t fool me anymore. They all have the same type of body language. When they try to charge to much they always pause, look away, and take a guess at the price of what they think you will buy it at. Most people always ask “where are you going?” I beat them at their punch line and ask them “where or Fen” in Arabic, it really confuses them, although I do this on a comical level. If they sense cleverness, they do have a respect this.
I will be bargaining hard for a felucca boat from Aswan to Luxor, although I think I will stay in Luxor for a couple of nights on the way to Aswan. From Aswan I will be spending one night down in Abu Simbel, visiting the grand temple of Ramses the Great on the border of The Sudan. I am gearing up for a very interesting February.
Mut is a very interesting town, the women work and don’t vale all the way like in Siwa and Bawiti. It is very modernized and orderly. Interesting enough, not one person has commented in a negative way regarding the government. From the history of the new valley and Upper Egypt of the mid-nineties this all makes sense. Hundreds of people were killed, policemen and tourists, which the last was the massacre in Luxor in 1997 blowing up the German tourist bus. Since 1997, all has been quite because of the heavy handed police. Nevertheless, nowadays Egypt is safe – don’t worry, be happy. I feel they just tolerate the tourism here in Mut. I don’t even see any tourists on the street which makes sense, there really nothing much in Mut, although people are kind of friendly, but nothing like Cairo, Siwa, and Alex. This town has me very fascinated. Observing these young kids, 7 years and up, watching porn in this Internet cafe really cracks me up. The very young ones – age 5 and up – are taught to say “hello” to the tourist and some are very bold and ask for money.
Every area has different energy, different cultural aspects in small ways, different levels of personality, different types of spirits and entities living among humans. This is the way of the world.