War Photographer's Notebook

Chapter 531 Food Scenery and Acquaintances

On the crowded street, the armored pickup truck driven by Wei Ran followed behind the two Ural trucks, and drove slowly towards the outside of the city. Whenever there was a traffic light, the small merchants on the surrounding streets would swarm They rushed up to sell all kinds of small commodities, from the most common olive dates, watermelon and grilled fish, as well as colorful Arabian blankets and scarves, to packs of paper towels, even smoothies made on site and cigarettes sold individually. All in one.

However, it is precisely because of the existence of these small vendors that the road congestion has been exacerbated.

It took nearly an hour to drive through this noisy neighborhood, and just when Wei Ran thought that he could finally increase his speed a little, the two trucks in front stopped at the entrance of a small restaurant.

"What the hell is this?" Wei Ran muttered, but he didn't leave the cool and comfortable compartment.

Under his gaze, the bald middle-aged man walked to a fruit stand on the opposite side of the road, chatting enthusiastically with the stall owner, while the young mixed-race boy had already entered the restaurant.

A moment later, the bald old man crossed the road and walked to Wei Ran's car, raised his hand and tugged at the door of the rear compartment.

Seeing this, Wei Ran quickly unlocked the door, but the old man had already turned around and waved to the opposite fruit vendor.

After a while, the fruit vendor drove his tuk tuk to the open door, and of course parked side by side with Wei Ran's armored pickup truck, blocking half of the road by the way.

"Don't just look around, come and help." The bald old man greeted abruptly in proficient Russian.

"You speak Russian?"

"Why can't I speak Russian?"

While the old man was speaking, he took out two fresh coconuts from the tuk tuk and threw them directly into the compartment.

"It makes sense," Wei Ran responded helplessly, and pushed open the car door to help them load coconuts into the car.

It wasn't until the three of them emptied all the inventory in the tuk-tuk, and the bald old man called the fruit vendor to bring over a basket of oranges and a basket of mangoes and throw them into the car, that they settled the expenses satisfactorily.

After dismissing the fruit stall owner, the bald old man stretched out his hand to Wei Ran, "Saleh Saeed. You can call me Saleh or Saeed."

"Hello, Saleh." Wei Ran quickly shook hands with the other's big rough hand, "I'm Victor."

"I know your name"

While talking, Saleh took out a note from his wallet and handed it to Wei Ran, "This is the radio channel. I see that your car has a car radio. If you have any problems on the road, you can contact me at any time. There will be about 450 Kilometers of road are waiting for us."

"So far?" Wei Ran raised his eyebrows.

"It's true that it's a little farther away, but it's something that can't be helped."

Saleh explained in detail, "This season is not only the best time for shooting, but also the peak season for local tourism. Before October, not only most of the hotels are full, but also the desert around the city They are all people. In order not to be disturbed when filming, and to reduce a lot of unnecessary expenses and unnecessary misunderstandings when the guns are fired, we can only go deep in the desert.”

"So the rest of the road will be in the desert?"

"of course not"

Saleh replied with a smile, "We must first go along the highway to the Siwa Oasis, which is more than 300 kilometers away. If there is no accident on the road, we may be able to arrive before the sun sets. Our shooting location is in Siwa Oasis. It is about 120 kilometers south of the Wa Oasis in the depths of the desert. That part of the road is the most difficult."

Speaking of which, the young mixed-race boy also walked out with a plastic box and a waiter in the restaurant.

In this plastic box, apart from the sheets of Egyptian flatbread, there are also several stainless steel lunch boxes with Chinese characters printed on them, and several disposable plastic knives and forks.

"This is Baja, the guy in my shop. He's a hardworking guy. He's been working for me since he was 15."

After Saleh finished speaking, he switched back to Arabic that Wei Ran could not understand and said something. The young man named Baja immediately called the waiter in the restaurant and opened the passenger door of Wei Ran's armored pickup truck. I bought two newspapers, and then put three lunch boxes and a few Egyptian flatbreads on them.

After Baja led the waiter to the truck to continue distributing food, Saleh pointed to the lunch box and flatbread on the seat and said, "These things are eaten on the road, let me see. This, this blue lunch box It contains ice cream. The ice cream in this store has the most flavors and is the most delicious. The other two lunch boxes are filled with vegetables, which can be eaten in flatbread. I see that there is a refrigerator in your car. If you can’t eat You can put it in."

"I'll finish eating as much as possible." Wei Ran glanced at the rear compartment. There was indeed a small refrigerator in his car, but it had already been buried by those tropical fruits.

Apparently, Saleh also noticed this small mistake, but he pretended not to see it and said, "We will take about four to five hours on the road, as long as we don't stop halfway, you don't have to stop, even if we stop , you don't have to come down."

"Understood"

Wei Ran nodded, and asked before the other party left, "Saleh, one last question."

"What's the problem?" Saleh asked, hiding in the shadow of the car again.

"Why don't we resupply at the Siwa Oasis you mentioned just now, instead of traveling so far?"

Faced with Wei Ran's doubts, Saleh just pointed to the refrigerated container truck in front of him, "Some things you can't buy in Siwa, even if you can buy them, the price is much more expensive. Okay, You will know the rest when we arrive at the destination, get in the car quickly."

After speaking, Saleh walked towards the oil tank truck parked at the front.

Seeing this, Wei Ran didn't ask any more questions, closed the passenger door, walked around to the other side and got into the driver's cab, and adjusted the radio channel before setting off.

Soon, amidst the roar of the engine, the convoy of only three vehicles, led by the tank truck driven by Saleh, continued to move out of the city.

For the rest of the way, apart from a detour to a somewhat crude gas station to fill up the fuel tank before going out of the city, and by the way, each of them loaded a box of cold mineral water in the car, there was nothing else. any stay.

When the car drove out of Matruh City, the speed finally picked up.In the cool cab, Wei Ran held the steering wheel with one hand, and held a slightly crude plastic spoon in the other. From time to time, he dug out a large spoonful of ice cream from the lunch box at hand and stuffed it into his mouth.

As Saleh said before, these ice creams taste really good, but in comparison, what is more attractive is the tempting aroma coming out of the other two lunch boxes.

Just when he was suffering from pain in his brain from mouthfuls of ice cream one after another, the fuel tank truck in the front stopped. At the same time, Wei Ran also saw two dilapidated police cars parked by the side of the road.

Slowly stepping on the brake, Wei Ran stretched out his hand to pick up a large pancake, opened the other two lunch boxes, got some grilled chicken and roast beef from inside, rolled them up randomly, and took a big bite.

hungry?Of course not, it's just greedy.And I have to admit that no matter the Egyptian flatbread or the side dishes in the two food boxes, the taste is pretty good.

Before he could swallow the big cake and vegetables in his mouth, the two policemen blocking the way had stepped back and waved to let him go.Seeing this, Wei Ran immediately put down the food in his hand, slowly stepped on the accelerator and followed.

In the following journey, except for the cross-country convoy occasionally overtaken by them and the bus full of tourists, the three vehicles never encountered obstacles again, and the desert on both sides of the windows became more and more desolate.

Of course, even so, from time to time, they can also see tourists taking pictures in the desert on the side of the road, as well as camel caravans that appear a little more frequently than tourists, and all kinds of white garbage floating in the wind in the desert.

Until this time, he also really understood why he chose such a deserted place for shooting.This is too close to the range of tourists' activities, and maybe the appearance of a random plastic bag will make the camera pass through.

Eating ice cream and Egyptian flatbread, Wei Ranquan, who was completely relaxed, thought he was traveling by car, enjoying the scenery outside the car window.

"Victor, the Siwa Oasis is ahead, do you want to rest here for two hours?"

On the radio channel that was silent all the way, Saleh asked just as the sun's buttocks touched the top of the sand dunes in the distance, "When we leave Siwa Oasis, we will sleep in tents in the desert for the next few days. It may not be convenient to take a shower then."

Hearing this, Wei Ran drove the car to the opposite lane and glanced at the small town in front of him surrounded by olive trees and date palm forests. After hesitating for a moment, he held his radio microphone and replied, "I'm not tired yet, so look at you guys. Well, if you are tired, take a rest."

"Then go in and refuel, and then continue on your way." After Salim responded, the radio station fell into silence again.

After a while, Wei Ran's car also returned to the original driveway, continued to follow the two trucks, and drove into the Siwa Oasis at a leisurely pace.

However, when Wei Ran followed into the gas station, he found two Ural 4320 trucks that were also pulling a large stainless steel tank parked not far away.

"These won't be for filming too."

Before Wei Ran had time to make a guess, a bearded man and a bald man standing next to the two trucks waved towards them enthusiastically, and Saleh, who was leading the way, immediately responded by honking his horn.

"It looks like it must be"

Wei Ran shook his head dumbfoundingly. He had just recognized that the two truck drivers were the ones who had acted as babysitters for him when he was being assessed in Yakutsk.

Back then, in the thermal power plant that could be used as a crematorium, they drank together, but they were just dazzled.

(End of this chapter)