Abgeschickt von bakri and david am 02 Mai, 2004 um 22:33:09:
Antwort auf: Beduin Tent Rocks! von Pat am 01 Mai, 2004 um 22:20:02:
Masa' alkhair,
So it is late again, I am pretty tired of looking at this screen and Bakri is smoking a Shisha next to me. Thanks for your posting – although now we have a lot of questions to answer.
Ruth is still in London and Bakris got her mobile#: 00447989444724. It would be really nice if she joins the party and tells us something of her life lately. Yes and what about her book, we wonder. Bakri says she did not publish anything until now and because of problems with her neighbour building a balcony – lawyers cost a lot of money – she can't come to Siwa this time.
Eamonn: we don't know anything about him except that he left Egypt. He is not connected to this site yet.
Bakri says that you should use the "0" so dial this #: 0020103896741. But maybe you can also call the local number 0020464600767 to save money, that is the telephone in the tent in his garden.
Dash Dash is still driving Mohammed Faiz's Landrover. He is fine and we will deliver your greetings to him.
And Eisa? He is still working in Alexander Restaurant.
Mahmoud was working together with Bakri in Aloushs restaurant but he stoped working like two weeks ago. He build his house and works in his garden. In the summer he will work in Marsa Matruh.
Abdullah got married 15 days ago and he is working still in Alexander.
Quashi spends his time in the jail now because he was caught redhanded (or headed) with a boy. Nobody nows how long he will be in.
Abu Bakr stoped working at East West Restaurant for two years now. His brother kicked him out of his business. He started to do some local work – in the gardens. Since a couple of months he works in Saudi Arabia.
Said is still working for the government and although he is not anymore at Cleopatra Spring he is always around in the market.
Omran is the owner of Fatnas – which is not an island anymore since they drained the lake – and so he will stay there forever. Every night he drops by in Kanooz, a beautiful restaurant by the owner of ecolodge but downtown and reasonably priced, to chat with Ali and the other staff
Actually we visited Ahmed yesterday in Bir Wahid and I forgot to take photos :-(
We were the first tourists since ten days when the army prohibited tourist to drive to the desert (anyplace), but you know us – we went walking. I could not believe my eyes – it is a huge complex and an amazing garden full of grapes and palm trees, bananas and crowded with his helping sons (maybe 16 or something like that), and yes I saw some beautiful Indian cows. Maybe I will make it another time and shoot some photos. The lake is still deep and blue and full of fresh water, although the reed belt narrowed and the water level dropped. Actually it is a chain of lake after each dune with the third looking quite nice but being shallow. But they broke the hut and now the place is just full of rubbish. That was part of the fight the Siwans continue to have with Ahmed.
I just chatted with Mohammad Musa today. He is now living in Cairo, although three days ago he went to Siwa to check the prospects of building a local milk and cheese factory. He studies English translation and works for a foreign company. And he is still into computers. You can access his website via www.haberlah.com by clicking on hosted sites.
How is Hany? He is still working in Cleopatra but he has not visited Bakri since a long long time. Which is kind of strange, since they are more or less neighbours. Maybe we will just drop by.
Bakri does not know anything about Fahmy since he left Siwa. He had a problem in the hotel. But he broke his engagement with his old love while being the new "prince in town" and hanging around with an Asian girl …
Bakri owns half of a patch of garden very close to Shali with its own sweet water spring. Until now he also has to share the spring and the size of the garden (his part) is still limited – so I press him to purchase the rest of the land. The owner would sell for about 1000 € or more and I hope it is not anybody else doing the deal before Bakri since there is considerate building activity in the neighbourhood. But in the situation right now, Bakri might just try to finish his second floor of the house, so that while renting his rooms he has a place to sleep (other than the tent in the garden). If you are interested I will do some photos. Definitely not a bad place to call partly your own, I would say.
Gosh, that was some answering to do. I just thought about writing down one of Bakris great stories – the one where he tried to wake up earlier for a period of time – but not today.
So long
Bakri and David
P.S. We will pass the greetings and maybe Ali or Aloush will write something, too