NYE Siwan Style

The evening before New Years Eve I finally managed to get my hands of some gas. Claudia's friend Fathmi managed to get some on the down low off some 70 year old man who apparently has always tried to sleep with him. I was touched that he went to such extreme measures just so I could poach an egg. But thats what most of the boys are like. I thanked him and gave him a gift of some "special water" and we sat having a drink whilst he told me all the souk gossip from the last 10 years.

I have so far not managed to find out the truth as to what exactly happened the night of the debacle outside my apartment but from what Fathmi was saying, (and he is one of the only lads in town I trust) is that it's safe to assume that there is a fair chance that Mouhi would have had sex with khaled for money. It's not unusual for some of the boys to do this in Siwa and when you ask them they often openly admit to it. Khaled has clearly fled Siwa for a while as I have not heard or seen from him since that night. He may, or may not return.

Word on the street was that there were a few parties around the oasis happening on New Years Eve. The way the party thing usually goes down is that Penny or Claudia gets tipped off that there is a possibility of a shin dig at a certain camp. We all bundle in the back of the Jeep, often with a hand full of siwan guys and a few sneaky beverages. Once rocked up to the venue, fully shaken and a little stirred, we sometimes have a hot spring under the stars and then drink vodka disguised in water bottles and listen to the Siwan Band, occasionally ending up considerably shit-faced. Siwan music is very tribal and rhythmic. The boys dance by shaking their hips and butts like women. Its pretty unique to Siwa. The band consists of a couple of guys on drums and one on the flute. Drums being more bongo than rock and the flute more wooden and stick-like than your average polished number.

NYE Started off in a similar fashion although this time we were defiant we were to find the best party. This meant we were to go on a camp crawl. Firstly Cleopatra spring which looked lovely by candle light but was dead. We stayed for one and then hastily legged it to Al Masa which was slightly more upbeat. The band was playing and if it wasn't for the long faced Egyptians who looked about as enamored as a bunch of potatoes it would have been better. The only remotely exciting thing that happened was a super morbidly obese Egyptian girl who would barely walk managed to waddle over to where we were sitting and puke all over Sasha's sandals. The two puppies who live at the camp then came over and proceeded to eat it.

So it turned out it was third time lucky with the location, or may have been that we were a little red faced by the time we got to our third and final destination. Ali Khaled's camp is quite a bit further out of town than the rest but we arrived armed and merry. I was infront as we were all making our way through the undergrowth towards the tents and the sound of music. I couldn't see a thing so just carried on hoping that the most likely thing that could happen would be to lead us all in the wrong direction. Turned out I managed to nearly fall face first into a hole full of water. After everybody had stopped wetting themselves and managed to pull me out I finally made it to the tents with one sodden and freezing leg and arm.

It was Sheiks R' US at Ali Khaled's camp. Bearing this in mind we tried to be on our best behaviour. However, Things got a little animated and before long the girls were up dancing and the band were at full throttle. the five of us conducted a rather loud count down to 12 O'clock at which everybody just stopped and wondered what the hell we were doing. Then we all carried on as if nothing had happened. Sasha and Claudia ended up being paid 200LE each by one of the Sheiks as they ended up providing most of the entertainment by dancing for two hours straight. I'm considering becoming Claudia's Dance pimp. She doesn't know it yet.