the Egyptian masseuse

Our group stayed in a lovely four-star hotel in Cairo:





On the first day, while I was lying by the pool, a good-looking Egyptian young man came up to advertise the hotel's massages. It was only $30 US for a 50-minute massage, so I signed up.

We chatted while he was giving me the massage, and he told me a moving story about his love life. He just broke up with his girlfriend of two years, he said, who he loved very much. One year into their relationship, he approached her father to ask for her hand in marriage. The father replied that his daughter would need a new flat after her wedding, plus new furniture, an automobile.

The masseuse said that he has a small flat, and he could buy new furniture. But it wasn't good enough for the father, who rejected him.

The masseuse dated his girlfriend in secret after that. He claims they did "everything", even though Muslim religion forbids premarital sex. Last month, another man asked his girlfriend's father for permission to marry her. This man is ten years older, and already has the flat, money, car. The father said yes.

"Refuse the other man," said the masseuse to his girlfriend, "and wait for me." But she said she could not persist against her father, and the two of them haven't talked since.

"Are you worried that she's already gotten married to him during this past month?" I said.

He stopped massaging me for a few seconds, and I imagined him thinking, "Well, now I am!"

Later in the hour, he told me that my body is similar to his girlfriend's body, and that giving me a massage reminds him of her and was making him very emotional.

I told this story to cynical ol' Dan, who claimed there is only 10% chance of it being true. The other 90% probability is that it's completely fabricated in an attempt to seduce tourist women. (In case you were wondering, I did NOT do anything with the masseuse. Because that would be sketchy. And I already used up my sketchiness quota for the summer.)

Dan suggested we send in Julie or Mingjing for a massage, to see if he tells every woman that their body is like his ex's body. But we didn't get around to it.

I prefer the version where he's a young man in love, structuring his whole life so that he can marry his girlfriend. It's romantic, especially considering the US stereotypes of commitphobes trying desperately to evade marriage.

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UPDATE: All the comments so far point toward the masseur being a liar. You are probably right.

It is unnerving, because he revealed many details about his girlfriend. He spoke with pride about how he saw her every day, and he emanated embarrassment when he revealed that her family is more wealthy than his.

But at one point during the massage, I asked him how often he uses the computer (always doing market research!). He said 5 hours per day. I asked what he does online, and he said video chat with friends from England, Florida, Europe. I asked whether these "friends" are female tourists he massaged during their Egypt vacations, and he said yes. So ... that's pretty damning.