SOLDIER TOURISTS

Wairarapa Times-Age, 23 December 1940, Page 5

SOLDIER TOURISTS

SIGHTS, SOUNDS, SMELLS NEW ZEALANDERS IN EGYPT. SCENES BEFORE OFFENSIVE BEGAN. (From the Official War Correspondent with the N.Z.E.F. in the Middle East). EGYPT, November 10. In the land of the Pharoahs, the New Zealand soldier is a tourist ready to taste experiences, and the wonder of it all to him is that these “sights and sounds,” which will be treasured memories in years to come, can be so cheaply gained. Camel rides are at least novelties and just as inexpensive is the feat of having one’s fortune told at the summit of the Great Pyramid. Millions have done it before, millions will do it after him, but the New Zealand soldier enjoys falling for the appeal. Handreading is another ancient lure which retains its attraction and makes money for the shrewd Egyptian. A milder form of adventure which the New Zealand soldier may enjoy is the sampling of native foods. Of the unleavened bread, the meat cakes, the sherbet drinks and the spiced dishes offered for sale at every turn in •Cairo, however, he is seldom pressed to buy. His medical officers have warned him to be cautious, and this fact, together with the difference between his tastes and the Egyptian’s, does not often leave room for temptation. Usually he contents himself with “a good' look round,” and an appraising sniff. If he is really hungry he sticks to the straight and narrow path that is paved with bacon-and-eggs and steak-and-chips. Even if the circumstances seem favourable and he is tempted, he should at least be convinced that the taste for Egyptian food is not to be acquired at a single sitting. One shall not easily forget chancing sixpence on what looked like sheep’s brains bound with lengths of spaghetti around a long iron spit, sealed with slices of fat mutton and roasted over an open fire. The lean black cat prowling under the cafe table seemed to like it, anyway. . . • Sheep, goats, and chickens, wandering through back streets almost in the heart of Cairo, are there for all to see After the first surprise, such pastoral scenes within a teeming city come to be taken for granted. By the same token, there would be no cause for undue alarm if any newcomer was to emulate the New Zealand soldier who pinned a roaming cow to the hard pavement in true outback style. His story was that he was a farmer, and the sight of the cow had made han homesfck. The sights, sounds ana smells of Cairo are so exagg !F^ e^ fl t ’ e they set the dullest imagination afire Rather less conspicuously the Ntew Zealander may taste such othei. < „ tures as visiting a native night club or watching heavily humoio s Mab-c love scenes at an open ai , ’’ daily training, too, will binproexperiences—mock waifa ;wastes shimmering with c J and nights in the open with the san brushing his face as he tnes_ io sleep.