Airbnb in Tunis Village, Faiyum Oasis

The Faiyum Oasis is about two hours drive from Cairo and a favorite weekend getaway for Cairenes to escape the hustle and bustle of city life. After we picked up supplies from Carrefour at Festival City, we made a quick lunch stop at a local falafel joint. We couldn’t read the menu but from the looks of it, the shop served pita stuffed with falafel, fries, potato chips and other savory stuffings like hummus, eggplant and fried vegetables. Everybody in the shop was very friendly and welcoming. I wasn’t exactly sure what I ordered but I hoped it would be enough for the eight of us. While we were waiting for the food, we checked out the shop beside us with lots of young people playing what looked to be mahjong but was actually a kind of dominoes.

The workers handed me a few plastic bags filled with food and I couldn’t believe how cheap all of this food was. Compared to the “tourist” class meals that we had a few days ago that cost USD 10 per person, it was a real bargain to feed 8 people on just over USD 2.

After a two-hour drive, we arrived in Tunis Village in the Faiyum Oasis. The village is a rural area with dirt roads, corn fields and vegetable patches with domesticated animals like cows and water buffalo resting in the shade under date trees. Donkeys seemed to be as common a form of transportation as cars.

We reached our Airbnb and found the well-loved home where Alain and his wife raised their two children. Since the children grew up and moved away, Alain and his wife moved out of this home and into a smaller one-bedroom home, on the property, but next door. Now the children are grown and living abroad. Almost like a time capsule, the house is full of mementos from their lives. There were photos of their family at each stage of the children’s growth. Without ever having met them, I saw them as wide-eyed babies that grew into adventurous adolescents that transformed into taciturn teenagers and ended up as mature young adults. I saw them during their birthdays and weddings, special days and the insignificant every day. There were toys and books, a rocking horse and sand boards that the children must have enjoyed when they were young. It touched me in a special way, making me pause and think of the time which I know one day will come, when our home will be vacant of children. All that will be left are memories of our lives captured in photos, drawings and souvenirs from our travels.

Alain’s home is special in so many ways. It is made using local building techniques, out of clay and stone and just like I imagine a home in a desert oasis. A wide, shady veranda with couches and a foosball table occupy the front of the house. I could see this would be the perfect place to catch a breeze during long, hot afternoons.

The front door enters into the kitchen that appears basic but contains all the necessary equipment for preparing meals. In the middle of the kitchen, there is low, round children’s table surrounded by small chairs. Upon seeing it, EY naturally sat in the chair and began drawing at the table. The size of the chair and the height of the table was perfect for her. It occurred to me that only a happy family would place a children’s table in such a prominent position in the middle of the kitchen.

Just beyond the kitchen was the dining area with a built-in banquette that is lined with cushions. Further beyond that is the living area with Bedouin rugs covering the floor and a number of comfortable low couches upon which are a mixed bouquet of throw pillows and cushions. The furniture and decorations in the room are comfortable and eclectic and reflect the culture of the area and the lives of Alain and his family.

The children all slept in a loft room with one large bed downstairs and one large bed upstairs. There was a wooden staircase to go up and a fireman’s pole to come down. Their bathroom had exposed stone walls and a huge sunken step-down tub for showering.

There was a lovely courtyard that separated the main area from another bedroom that Leo and I stayed in. Our room had a large bed set atop a built-in clay bed frame. The fabrics used in the room including the linens, carpets, wall covering and window shades uniquely reflected the local culture. Our bathroom was spacious and had a stained glass window that allowed colored light to shine into the bathroom.

Upstairs, there was a rooftop sitting area and another small unit where my mom and brother stayed. The living area floor was covered by a large Bedouin carpet with the traditional low sitting area. There was a large bed on a built-in platform, a desk and chair and a few other chairs scattered around that would make this unit a perfect bachelor pad.

During our stay at Alain’s house, we cooked many delicious dinners like beef stew with rice, pasta with bolognaise sauce, chicken strips and stir-fried chicken breast with green beans. EY and I even baked a banana bread with some smashed over-ripe bananas that we had on hand. One evening, Alain helped us to arranged a traditional meal prepared by a local woman that was then delivered to our house in metal pots. The meal consisted of roast duck, rice, mahshi (cabbage stuffed with rice), potatoes cooked in tomato broth, noodles cooked in tomato broth and Egyptian salad. The duck in Fayoum is said to be famous throughout Egypt and indeed, all of it was very delicious. Food cooked in a restaurant never tastes the same as home-cooked food and we were lucky to have a taste of the authentic local flavor.

Staying at Alain’s house gave us a glimpse into local life in Tunis Village. One night as we were walking back from dinner, we bumped into a neighboring family who were enjoying an evening roasting fresh corn on the side of the road. They picked fresh corn from the field beside their home and placed it directly on the grill.  

A few days after we arrived at Alain’s house, he called us to come out and meet the newest member of their neighborhood, a newborn calf. A cow had just given birth that morning. The calf sat in the shade of a grove of date trees beside its mother. As we approached the calf, the mother looked at us disapprovingly as if to say, “Don’t come any closer.”

On the morning that we left Alain’s home, the kids were introduced to a time-tested favorite pastime of many young boys. Jiu Jiu taught the kids how to use a magnifying glass to burn ants. I remember my brother, when we were kids, crouched over a trail of ants in our front yard refracting the sunlight through the magnifying glass to concentrate it on one unsuspecting ant. Forty years later, as if it were a rite of passage, I watched my oldest son in the exact same pose and with the same expression of satisfaction when smoke began rising from that poor ant’s body.