It’s a done deal!
I‘m now officially renting a beautiful villa in a quiet section of El Gouna, Egypt.
It has a kitchen with all the amenities, 3 bedrooms, and two TVs.
The 2 story property is enclosed by a high wall, and there are nice plants hither and yon that are quite pleasant.
There is a rooftop terrace with a stunning view of the Eastern Desert mountains in the distance.
There’s a pool, and a private dock on a wide “lagoon” (Gouna-speak for an artificial canal that leads out to the nearby sea). I wonder if it would be affordable to rent a SUP board by the month…?
Most importantly, the villa offers privacy, and quiet, which will finally allow me to slip into the fabled Gouna state of mind.
Oh, and it is available in 2018 from October till March 2019, meaning this will not be my last visit to Gouna, and that I will not have to permanently return in April to the American Gulag that is Florida.
I can’t wait for my wife to see the place!
It has been a tough year, and this a well deserved break… away from the sad memory of Saba’s recent passing, but a time also of perhaps pivotal change in our lives, if we decide to eventually up sticks one day and live here permanently.
Gouna today is stunningly beautiful.
The wind died down, so much so that the sea became glass.
The blend of colors of the sea and water made the marina look like a live painting.
Since it is Monday, there are no hordes of weekend party animals to ruin the calm relaxed vibe.
Twelve days from now, I will be done with Abu Tig marina, except to bring my wife here on occasion to have dinner, say, at La Scala or brunch at 7th Star.
Since I will soon be an ex Abu Tigger. I’m going to make it a point this week and next to regularly visit the beaches — ‘specially the one they call Element — in the very North end of Gouna, before I move to our villa, which is at the South, or opposite end.
I have to do something special in preparation for my wife’s arrival, however; you know, like a welcome pressie. She likes to play tennis, and there is a fab clay court tennis club in Gouna, but it is not really within easy walking distance of the villa.
Instead of her being dependent on buses and tuc tucs to get there, I’ve decided that I would purchase a used bicycle for my wife, so that she can pedal her way to the club (winds permitting!) whenever she wanted to play tennis and not wait around for tuc tucs or bus rides.
I thought I would have to go to Hurghada to buy a bike (everything is much cheaper there than in Gouna), but miracle of miracles, I saw this bike parked against a wall in a side alley in Abu Tig.
It’s for sale, and I have discussed price with the owner already. I’ve also inspected it; the bike needs work. It’s a 2011 Batavus Cayuca for Ladies bike; you can read more info about it here (just hit the Chrome translate button).
So what I’m going to do is get an estimate from a local bike shop as to repairing the bike, then deduct that from a proposed (in Egypt, you haggle, always) fire sale price for the bike. The real estate agent has stated that we could leave the bike in the villa’s garage while we were away, so this all seems to be coming together pretty nicely.
The only thing is, my wife has to of course like the bike idea, and cotton up to this particular bike, hence the pic above that I’m putting up for her to look at, and let me know if I should go ahead with this bicycle project.
I love making her happy, so this is something I would do with pleasure, for that reason, but also because it gives me something useful to do for the next week.
Lastly, speaking of moving to new digs, readers of this blog may want to check out this important New York Times documentary that was just released.
Radical changes are never easy to accomplish, for most, but sometimes, you catch a break, and everything falls into place — inshallah.
Leaving Amerika 