Corinne returns to Egypt 2005. Page 2

After several successful days' business in Cairo, Corinne sets off for the weekend to perturb the unsuspecting inhabitants of Sharm El Sheikh.

Naama Bay

Saturday 2 april. I awoke to the sound of the wind in the palm fronds just outside my balcony. This really is a gorgeous spot and I'd love to come here with my little daughter for a holiday. I felt so happy ! I got up in time for breakfast which is a luxurious buffet with absolutely everything imaginable. The cook insisted on making me an omelette and chatting me up while he did so. Then it was time for the pool and the beach. Luckily the wind had dropped so I swam in the sea a few times, although it wasn't as warm as I would have liked. I sunbathed and read a book, skipping lunch because the breakfast had been so filling.

Light as a bit of fluff !!!

After I had done my dilation in the afternoon I dressed in my black leather top which looks brilliant with my tits, pink trousers and black booties. I walked the coastal path to the town centre, attracting enormous attention. At one shop I was asked if I did weightlifting so of course I said yes ! One guy pretended to be terrified of me and then lifted me in the air for a photo. Several insisted on arm-wrestling me and I was beaten easily. Egyptian men are very sociable and have a good sense of humour. However I quickly tire of the numerous passes made at me.

A walk on the cliffs

I walked on to the south end of Naama Bay where the ground rises and sandstone cliffs take over from the sandy beach. Here a hundred or so steps climb to the top of the cliff. A man came to tell me he'd been mightily impressed at the way I ran all the way to the top. Then he gave me his card and suggested I might like to call him for an unforgettable evening together. Hum. As darkness fell I returned to the hotel and booked a table in the Japanese restaurant for tomorrow night. Then I wandered around until dinner time, ate a buffet meal, and watched the bellydancing show. I phoned my father in England to wish him a happy birthday. He asked if all my wounds were healed now and I told him yes, and I was the happiest girl in the world. He replied with a laugh that it was still difficult to think of me as a girl.

An idle sunday on the beach and at the pool

Sunday 3 april. After breakfast I dilated for an hour, checked out of my room and went to the pool. It was very windy unfortunately... apparently fairly common in march, especially in Cairo. I wrote some postcards to my little girl in France, my big girl in England, my old flying instructor, my psychiatrist and also to Dr. Suporn, my surgeon in Thailand. After that I braved the waiters (who are remarkably like Manuel, the totally inept waiter in the English televsion comedy, Fawlty Towers ) and had lunch by the pool. Since I no longer had my room it was a bit of a long day waiting for dinner at 19.30 and the flight to Cairo at 22.30. As the sun went down I went to change in the ladies' section of the health club. It's so nice to be able to do that without any eyebrows raised.

Sharm El Sheikh - Cairo

Then it was time to go to the Japanese restaurant, joining a nice English family of 4 and an elderly Palestinian couple around the central bit where the cook prepares the food. We all had to wear a Japanese jacket and headband... red for the women, yellow for the men. I felt very proud to be given the red ! My little black sheep, Shaun, also got one. He's a boy but seems to have been mistaken for a girl ! The meal was slow and of average quality, the service painfully slow and totally inept. I had to rush to catch the bus to the airport, which left at 21.30. An Egyptian lady, accompanying her two grandchildren to Cairo, chatted to me in the bus and said I was very pretty and had a fantastic figure given that I had 3 children ! She also admired my nails and decided I didn't do much housework. Wrong ! At the airport it was chaos and the plane was delayed from 22.30 to 23.30. On arrival at Cairo, Esmael was there to pick me up with his little taxi and I got to bed at 02.00.

A respectable business dinner this time... and a conservatively dressed girl !

Monday 4 april. My first meeting, with [censored], had very irritatingly been cancelled. The next company I had to see was a very small outfit in a dingy street and the building looked as if it were falling down. The owner wasn't there so I saw his assistant whose English wasn't too good. While I was explaining to him the reason for my visit he stared at me in a very off-putting manner. When I had finished talking, putting a question to him, there was a pregnant silence and then he said "You are very beautiful woman..." I laughed and asked my question again. He replied "Can I go to Sharm el Sheikh with you ?" Hmmm... this meeting doesn't seem to be going in the right direction. Eventually I got it back on track and he gave me the information I was after. Next was a meeting with Ahmed at [censored]. I immediately asked if I could use the loo and he suddenly looked very concerned. This must be the loo paper problem all over again. He asked me to wait, went out and, after a great deal of urgent discussion in the reception area, came back saying it was in use and would be free in 10 minutes. Rather odd. He looked decidedly uncomfortable and it was difficult not to laugh. Ten minutes later the secretary knocked on the door to say it was free now. Behind her I spotted a cleaner scuttling off with her cleaning materials ! They had obviously decided it wasn't clean enough for the lady from Switzerland ! I was very flattered and thought it terribly sweet. The meeting was a good one and I went on to the next one.

Then it was back to the hotel for my daily dilation, after which I changed into a pink long sleeved t-shirt, pink poncho, pink trousers, pink belt, pink earrings (!) and black suede booties. Looked most fetching without being overtly sexy. Tonight I was being invited out to dinner by Ahmed who met me in the reception of the hotel, wearing a suit, and took me to his BMW 523i and actually opened the door for me. Here is a date of good taste, manners and breeding. It makes a change. We went to Jo Sushi and had a fun meal. He treated me with respect, his conversation was interesting, his jokes very witty. He said he remembered Hans-Jorg (my colleague who had taken over responsability for Egypt last year when I hadn't been allowed to go) and also another guy who's name he couldn't remember... I feigned ignorance but wondered if he was playing me along. However at no time did he appear to be ill at ease so I presume I wasn't read. We went on to the Cairo Cellar for a liqueur and coffee then he took me back to the Mariott at midnight. A very pleasant evening.

More meetings

Tuesday 5 april. This morning I had to get up at 06.00 for an 08.30 meeting in October City. It was really windy which made life rather difficult as my hair was all over the place, tangled and a mess, and there are never any mirrors around. After a nice meeting with Tarek it was back to [censored] in Giza for another meeting. My contact there wanted to know if I had children so I showed him a lovely picture of my daughter sitting on my knee, thinking it an excellent way to dispel any doubts he might have had about my origins. Imagine my delight when he exclaimed "Your daughter is an exact copy of you, in miniature !"

Third meeting of the day was with the marketing manager of a large Egyptian IT equipment importer. This risked being a little tricky because he might want to ask about Richard. And sure enough that's what he did, adding that he and Richard had met some years ago in Saudi Arabia. He asked if I were Richard's wife since the surnames were the same. I felt obliged to say I was his younger sister ! We discussed my brother and his kidney stone problem from 2003 and he asked me to pass on his kind regards. I felt quite awful making up such a story but there was no way I could tell him the truth as he could have dropped dead from the shock. I visited the next company on my list but there were only a couple of extremely dopey secretaries there and they weren't helpful. I think I must have woken them up. On to the next where the bloke seemed to have fallen in love with me. He kept chatting for ages and said he would take me around on my next visit to Egypt. On the way back to the hotel I bought a whole load of nuts and turkish delight in a superb shop full of goodies.

I changed and walked to the Ramses Hilton, causing great consternation amongst the doorman and taxi drivers because I was actually going to WALK and not take a taxi. It wasn't a pleasant walk because of the howling gusts and the people letching from the slow moving cars. The shopping centre was the same as 2 years ago: identical shops selling identical shoddy goods, loitering teenagers and no-one actually buying anything. I kept hearing the dreaded word "man" from stupid looking teenagers who presumably judge a person's sex by their height. I nearly said something very rude to one dozy bitch in the queue in the ladies loo, who made the remark immediately I entered. But I knew exactly what the reaction would have been: cringeing with fear and I couldn't face seeing it. I walked back, getting picked up by a 27 year old lawyer who guessed my age at 32... thank you kind sir. He was quite a nice chap but he was kind of barking up the wrong tree. I told him I was married as being a single girl invites a whole host of problems in this place.

In the evening I took a taxi to the Pharaonic restaurant (the floating one), but the driver didn't know it by that name and the address I'd carefully copied down from the phone book was wrong. The result was a highly dangerous ride in circles, arriving just in time before the boat departed. I ended up at a horrible table right by the buffet so had people milling around me the whole time. I shan't bother going there again. The official photographer proposed a photo with the bellydancer but unfortunately she refused to sit on my knee. The singer came and insisted I dance so I agreed provided she dance with me, which she agreed to, without understanding what I had said. When I put my hands on her hips she looked utterly horrified ! I caught a taxi back and went to bed. I've had enough of Egypt this time around.

Cairo - Zurich - Geneva

Wednesday 6 april. After breakfast I dilated a couple of hours then checked out, arriving slightly early at the airport and went to buy a packet of nuts in the airport shop. The checkout assistant was incredibly slow and I mentioned this to the man behind me, then gave up and left. I was sitting in the bar and overheard the same man, who had his back to me, telling his friends about the slow service in the duty free shop "There was a girl in front of me. All she wanted to buy was a packet of nuts and, after waiting 10 minutes, she gave up and walked off". I was very pleased, not only not to be called something derogatory, but to be called a girl rather than a woman ! I flew to Zurich... an intercontinental flight with no newspapers, no peanuts, and even no soap in the loo !

In Zurich airport my summer clothing seemed to cause some amusement. I caught the plane to Geneva and went home. It had been a very successful trip indeed and I was delighted to have been able to prove myself capable of working in the Middle East in my new identity. In fact I found it considerably easier than before as local businessmen clearly prefer to deal with a tall, blue-eyed blonde than some nondescript businessman !