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It’s six in the morning and in this month of February I’m crossing a border on foot for the first time! It gives me a real sense of adventure. I leave Taba in a crowded taxi, radio cassette playing in the background, and let myself be carried away, totally alert, toward the unknown. A desert road leads to the water, circled to the west by the mountains of South Sinai. Now and then, a few huts lie flattened on a pure sky, facing Saudi Arabia some miles away. Only a ship traveling to Jordan separates sea from sky.
Outside, a narrow strip of beach, men in robes and kefieh, camels and a huge wooden porch opening onto a horizon of sand. The Red Sea is turquoise. A light bulb swings over a pool table. The wind carries the smell of the sea and songs of love drift through the open windows.