Egypt part 2
Hurghada, as it turns out, got better after a few days. Sure, it was still weird to have to actively ignore people yelling at me, but we did meet a bunch of Egyptians not interested in selling us stuff, and they turned out to be really nice people. There was the adorable gay couple living in the same hotel as us, the nice couple who went on a snorkling trip with us without knowing how to swim (she stayed on the boat while he dared take a dip with a guide and a lifejacket), the nice guide who hated Russians and the guy selling alabaster vases in Luxor. Plus a bunch of other people, but I won't bore you with the details.
We got to see the temples and graves from ancient times, we went on a desert safari on quads (I think that might actually have been one of the most awesome things I've done in my life. Not the touristy part of seeing a fake beduin village or riding a camel, but driving through the desert at 40mph after sunset), and we both got tans.
We also finally found good food after wandering aimlessly up and down Shery street (the spelling is based on how people pronounce it, it's probably Cherry street, but who cares) looking for a restaurant called something something Ramadan. Part of this quest included asking for directions at a fruit shop, where the limits of crosscultural body language were discovered. I asked and signalled for a restaurant on this street and named it Ramadan, the two men trying to understand me questioningly tried to hand me a packet of dried dates. We moved on.
My issue with their treatment of women did not change, however. Downtown there were hardly any women (excepting the tourists, of course), and though there were women in other parts of Hurghada, they were all wearing at least a hijab if not also a veil. In fairness, outside the city centre men were also wearing their man-dresses, or gallibaya as they are called. The garment, dubbed man-dress by me, is a long, slightly wide dress in neutral colors that, even though it might seem weird at first, after a while seemed quite fetching (at least to me). I think it'll be a thing!
But back to the women. Even if I forgive the use of hijab (which I'm quite willing to do since I find the garment enticing and was planning on buying one), the problem was that women were not actively participating in visible society. This was also noticable by the way people treated me. On the one hand, they leered at me and flirted with me (turns out pretending to be dating 45hasle was not enough, I think because we do not act at all like a couple. Most people asked if we were siblings), but on the other they acted as if I was someone's retarded cousin: Opening doors, holding out chairs, helping me get in and out of boats/cars/whatever. And as I write this, it seems like nice gestures, but trust me, the third time someone tells you to mind your head because you might hit it getting into a car (okay, so I actually did once, but that's because I'm mishap-martine), or tries to make sure you don't drown by holding you while you try adjusting your snorkling mask, it gets annoying! It's also annoying when you jump down a 2ft drop from a boat, landing on sand and they treat you like you just did a triple backflip.
In addition to their treatment of tourists, there was this strange lack of consistency between tv and real-life. On tv, the women were like Arabic Britney Spearses or Christina Aguileras; scantily clad and often accompanied by stuff burning or them being wet. In commercials or posters there were women with freely flowing hair and low-cut dresses advertising everything from fruit juice to low morgage payments. But the actual women were covered up and hidden away. What's up with that? The ads seemed to indicate that people wanted actual women (or at least heavily sexualized versions of actual women), but in real-life they were all tucked away. If the ideal is the beautiful woman who flaunts her beauty, why aren't women being a bit more flaunt-y?
Now, as I said, I don't necessarily oppose the use of traditional garments, be it gallibayas or hijabs, but I do oppose the idea that the public sphere is reserved for men. And I find it incredibly annoying when people treat me like I am a fragile being that might break or fall over at any moment. Don't these people want real women that can do stuff?
/rant
All in all, the trip was great, I loved it, I needed it, and now that I'm back, I'm unbelievably much more efficient at sourcework than I was before I left. So a vacation was clearly both necessary and enjoyable.
We got to see the temples and graves from ancient times, we went on a desert safari on quads (I think that might actually have been one of the most awesome things I've done in my life. Not the touristy part of seeing a fake beduin village or riding a camel, but driving through the desert at 40mph after sunset), and we both got tans.
We also finally found good food after wandering aimlessly up and down Shery street (the spelling is based on how people pronounce it, it's probably Cherry street, but who cares) looking for a restaurant called something something Ramadan. Part of this quest included asking for directions at a fruit shop, where the limits of crosscultural body language were discovered. I asked and signalled for a restaurant on this street and named it Ramadan, the two men trying to understand me questioningly tried to hand me a packet of dried dates. We moved on.
My issue with their treatment of women did not change, however. Downtown there were hardly any women (excepting the tourists, of course), and though there were women in other parts of Hurghada, they were all wearing at least a hijab if not also a veil. In fairness, outside the city centre men were also wearing their man-dresses, or gallibaya as they are called. The garment, dubbed man-dress by me, is a long, slightly wide dress in neutral colors that, even though it might seem weird at first, after a while seemed quite fetching (at least to me). I think it'll be a thing!
But back to the women. Even if I forgive the use of hijab (which I'm quite willing to do since I find the garment enticing and was planning on buying one), the problem was that women were not actively participating in visible society. This was also noticable by the way people treated me. On the one hand, they leered at me and flirted with me (turns out pretending to be dating 45hasle was not enough, I think because we do not act at all like a couple. Most people asked if we were siblings), but on the other they acted as if I was someone's retarded cousin: Opening doors, holding out chairs, helping me get in and out of boats/cars/whatever. And as I write this, it seems like nice gestures, but trust me, the third time someone tells you to mind your head because you might hit it getting into a car (okay, so I actually did once, but that's because I'm mishap-martine), or tries to make sure you don't drown by holding you while you try adjusting your snorkling mask, it gets annoying! It's also annoying when you jump down a 2ft drop from a boat, landing on sand and they treat you like you just did a triple backflip.
In addition to their treatment of tourists, there was this strange lack of consistency between tv and real-life. On tv, the women were like Arabic Britney Spearses or Christina Aguileras; scantily clad and often accompanied by stuff burning or them being wet. In commercials or posters there were women with freely flowing hair and low-cut dresses advertising everything from fruit juice to low morgage payments. But the actual women were covered up and hidden away. What's up with that? The ads seemed to indicate that people wanted actual women (or at least heavily sexualized versions of actual women), but in real-life they were all tucked away. If the ideal is the beautiful woman who flaunts her beauty, why aren't women being a bit more flaunt-y?
Now, as I said, I don't necessarily oppose the use of traditional garments, be it gallibayas or hijabs, but I do oppose the idea that the public sphere is reserved for men. And I find it incredibly annoying when people treat me like I am a fragile being that might break or fall over at any moment. Don't these people want real women that can do stuff?
/rant
All in all, the trip was great, I loved it, I needed it, and now that I'm back, I'm unbelievably much more efficient at sourcework than I was before I left. So a vacation was clearly both necessary and enjoyable.