In Suez—so different from before

Before leaving Cairo, I left my unused food and clothes for cold weather with the woman living next door to me in Dokki, and got a car to Suez. I used a new-to-me service called “inDrive” and got a driver, Mohammed, who took me from my door in Cairo to my Airbnb location in the city of Suez. (About 86 miles.) The only difference between inDrive and Uber is that the driver
is paid a pre-decided price in cash at the end. My price was $17 USD.
Mohammed was very quiet for the first of the two hours, and then we began to chat when I asked for an Egyptian song I liked 40 years before, and which he LOVED, so that was a good choice! My biggest question on the trip was, “Where is the desert?” Forty years ago, from Cairo to Suez was stark desert, but now it’s a very fast highway, lighted all the way, and lined with large electricity towers. Cairo extends way out toward the east, and Suez seems to reach out a great way from the Canal toward the west as well. There actually was no desert along
this route! I said that to Mohammed as best I could, and then we chatted lightly until we arrived in Suez, and he was paid, and left to drive back to Cairo.
I was so pleased with this chatting, that I was primed for meeting my Airbnb hosts. I couldn’t find the property, so a very kind man left his morning coffee to help me, as he spoke English. But the hosts didn’t exist. The property didn’t exist. The phone number belonged to someone else. It was a disaster! Something like this has never happened with Airbnb, after 87 stays. The kind man helped me find a hotel, on the edge of the Suez Canal. The hotel “Lucinda” is practically right on the Canal, so I went out at night to look at it—a fabulous sight in the dark. And right on the sand, many bean bags were set out, and a film (Egyptian) was in progress, so my last “deed” of the day was to sit down and watch. Much to my surprise, a “host” brought the movie audience free candy and popcorn!

The highlight of the next day was a long and joyous meeting with my italki Arabic tutor. She took me out to lunch to eat my favorite Egyptian foods (stuffed grape leaves, and a soup called “mulukhiyya”) and other things beside. A feast! For the first hour, we spoke only Arabic together. That was extremely interesting for me, because I quickly realized what my grammatical lacks are. We switched to English and spent the afternoon and evening getting to know each other—an absolutely rapturous meeting, the first for both of us to meet an Italki student/teacher face to face. She also drove me around the city of Suez—full of Canal-related workers with their own housing, recreational facilities, etc. It is also a fast-growing Egyptian
city—so different from the much smaller one of 40 years ago. (327,000 in 1986, 801,000 today.)

My second day in Suez, November 19, I didn’t do much because an intestinal bug (from a salad at breakfast??) attacked me around 12 pm, and knocked me out for the rest of the day. I happened to be in the quite commendable Suez National Museum, so I can’t believe that I got back to my hotel without incident. It was because of the enormous and delicate help of some ladies on the museum staff. Then a friendly taxi driver drove me back to my hotel, where I rested in my room until finally in the evening I thought to ask my rescuer from the non-sexistent AirBnb two days ago for help. He angelically brought some much-needed medication to my hotel.
Tomorrow I shall go from Suez to Ismailia, along the Suez Canal.

Be sure to see the last photo: of a container ship moving through the Suez Canal.Read more