Back to the Basics: Ananda Camp, Nuweiba

Have you ever felt you've had enough of city life? Suburbia? Have you ever felt the need to be away from Facebook, Twitter, news and emails? I have felt this over and over again and little did I know the cure is there in my own country: Nuweiba in Sinai.

Ananda Camp, Nuweiba

Back to the basics, the camps in Nuweiba offer you the chance of a lifetime to unwind. If you stand with your back to one of these huts, you will have the sea in front of you, the open sky up there, and if you turn around you will see the mountains. If you decide to wade in the water, you will see the corals, and if you decide to lie at night al fresco, you will see the open sky full of stars and yes, shooting stars as well. What makes it all easier to enjoy this is the fact that there is no electricity all day except from 6 till 11 at night.

The view from inside the hut

Ananda Camp is one of many camps that lie side beside in Nuweiba, around 10 minutes or so from Radisson Blu hotel. What distinguishes Ananda Camp, however, is the option for solitude and the hospitable staff there.  You have more than one option: you can have the hut that is closest to the beach, fits two adults comfortably, and there is no electricity all day long inside. You are provided with lanterns, though. The second option is another bigger hut that is 30 meters or so from the beach, and you can have some electricity there. There are two communal bathrooms with showers and one without. They are all spotless clean.

The prices of the accommodation are more than cheap; you pay from 30-50 EGP. As for the food, it varies, but their menu is full of Egyptian as well as common dishes. I strongly recommend the fish since it is fresh out of the fishermen net, and add their freshly squeezed lemonade and you are ready to go. You pay an average of 120 EGP per meal (main dish, beverage, and salad).

One of the lanterns provided inside the hut

The electricity lasts only four hours in the evening so prepare your cellphones or ipods to be charged at the cafeteria where they have a lot of plugs installed for that purpose.

I spent three nights and four days, yearning for privacy and isolation, and I got it, in spades. I enjoyed myself to no end and I will repeat it as soon as I can. The weather was great (first week in September), the fish was aplenty (this is a place for snorkeling), the place was clean, the staff was friendly, and  I got the chance to unwind. Is there anything more to ask for? Of course there is. This place is a perfect hideout for couples who wish for some quality time together ;)

Fifty Shades of Desperation

Have women become this desperate?


I could not resist the temptation of reading E. L. James's Fifty Shades of Grey if only to know what the rage is all about. And now that I have read it, I am at a bit at sea. It is riveting, there is no denying it. But what really sets it apart from all the erotic romantic novels published since the last decades of the twentieth century? For there is no denying the fact that it is one. Perhaps it is the first time a novel like this is put under the genre of 'fiction' and not 'romantica' or even 'adult fiction'.

Needless to say, this is a typical romantic plot written by women for women. It is not surprising that the author herself states that she had written her female erotic and romantic fantasies and compiled them in a novel. The plot is very simple and very romantic. Ana, freshly graduated from college, is pursued by the utterly sexy, multi-billionaire Christian Grey who has a fifty shades of grey in his life. Like a typical romance, from  Jane Eyre to Nora Roberts and Daniel Steele, Ana is an ordinary girl who is besieged by her attraction to the sexy billionaire who wines, dines, and dazzles her with his charm and affection. There is just one catch to this deal: Christian is a confirmed dominant who cannot be in any relationship that does not involve a heavy doze of BDSM.

Mr Rochester had a mad wife in his attic, Heathcliffe was obsessed with Catherine, bordering on madness, and Edward Cullen is a vampire, to mention but a few of the heart-wrenching romantic novels. Mr Nice Guy has never featured in this type of novels. It is always, Mr. tall, dark, handsome, and most of all: dangerous. Yet it is the first time for our hero to have a shady sexual past and yet appeals to female readers like Fifty Shades of Grey. So what makes readers move on and keep reading? Is it the explicit sexual scenes? Is it the love between Ana and Christian? I would vote "no" for the two questions.

The answer lies in the following: Of course the author keeps the reader on her toes trying to find why Christian is the way he is. As a female reader myself, I wanted to find an excuse for this man. He is the Fallen Angel that needs to be restored to normal. So I say this is the first reason this novel is attractive. The secret behind the hero, which we will only have glimpses of in the first volume.

Another thing: the exchanged emails between the two. Let me ask you this: how many men have you met in your life who in this day and age kept up an email communication with the woman he loves?With this frequency, and this fervor, and this wit? Oh, and he replies almost instantly, considering he is the CEO of Grey Enterprises Holdings Inc. Now who can resist that? :) It is clear most of us women are won over by the elaborate email exchanges between Ana and Christian throughout the novel, and the author uses this very wisely.

As to why this heady amount of explicit sexual scenes found appeal in the audience, I have only one reason that comes to my mind. Women have become more desperate than ever before. If women readers are OK with a rough guide to BDSM that normally catered to only a fraction of people, then there is a question mark here. Like the recent obsession with vampires and their famous love bites, the audience is merely taken to the next level, a normalization with sexual activities that are not in any way 'normal'. Have women had enough of liberation they want to be dominated by the men in their lives? Tied up, flogged, and spanked? Ordered about? Eyes always cast down in the presence of their Masters? Or is this another means of exploring the boundaries of female sexuality, as I always hear repeatedly? I personally don't know.

In the end, Fifty Shades of Grey, whether we like it or not, has become one of the most popular novels in today's market. The author's lure using the reader's natural curiosity into why Christian turned into a Dom, and the elaborate emails are the two main reasons for the novel's popularity.