First impression of Egypt
First impression of Egypt
Autumn-winter time of slush and dankness has come at home. They decided to go to Egypt to bask. The direction to Sharm el-Sheikh was chosen: the sea, coral reefs and fish.
From a not very large list of proposed hotels (as it turned out, many do not work or have significantly reduced the level of service provided to tourists), the Stella Di Mare Beach Hotel was chosen. Tour operator «JoinUP». Time spent on the Sinai Peninsula: from 14.11 to 21.11. 2016. Since we didn’t really want to travel 500 km to Kyiv, when ordering a tour, one of our conditions was a departure from Odessa airport.
Then, as usual: compiling a list of the necessary (masks with tubes were added, the dose of medicines was increased), packing suitcases, checking documents. We got from Nikolaev to Odessa normally. Airport, check-in for the flight, waiting for boarding the plane. Approximately 40 minutes before landing, our plane taxied to the airport terminal along the runway,
decorated in orange-green colors, the airline "Windrose" (Wind Rose), from the womb of which suitcases rained down on carts, and passengers from the passenger compartment. Our seats are near the porthole, which allows you to see everything that happens overboard. A smooth takeoff (the team knows their business) and there is emptiness around, and snow-white clouds are floating below. We are flying... Only the sun is above...
Without incident, we got to Sharm el-Sheikh airport in 3 hours and 15 minutes. Entering the terminal building, the tourists lined up 218 people (there were so many of us on board the plane) to fill out the migration card. Three Egyptians also took an active part in this, who, for your $ 5, helped to enter the data in your own migration card. We managed without their help, we still know the letters, we saved $ 10. By the way, right there you will be unobtrusively offered to purchase a visa for $ 25, but we already knew how to avoid unnecessary expenses and harassment by representatives of the meeting party,
with great tenacity trying to sell you this visa. Under the vigilant gaze of the Egyptian, rapidly and irrevocably destroying his hope to sell us visas and earn $5 each filling out cards, catching in his eyes the silent question “What about me? Where is my money? ”, with my own ballpoint pen, I proudly printed in block letters in the upper right corner of the migration card two words “ONLY SINAI” (translated as “only Sinai”, I won’t tell you the details of the intergovernmental agreements concluded, who are interested - rummage through the Internet, the principle is simple - you indicate that you will only be in Sinai and you do not need to purchase a visa). By the way, take pens with you, simple ballpoint pens, those that write with blue, black ink, so that later you don’t run around the line with your hand outstretched: “please give me, I need to fill in... ”. Putting the leaflet in the passport with the front side,
so that the border guard could read my declaration about our presence only in the Sinai from five meters away, we passed the control and somehow imperceptibly found ourselves in front of the airport building, where we were immediately shrouded in impending darkness. Despite the fact that it was about 5 p. m. (the time zone corresponds to Kyiv), it was already getting dark and the ensuing darkness was swallowing up everything around. Perhaps the mountains of Sinai exacerbate the imminent onset of night, hiding behind their peaks the sun setting behind the sky. The bus to take us to the hotel was already nearby. On the bus, we were greeted with a smile by a local guide, a young guy who speaks Russian with some difficulty, who briefly told us about their love for us, that everything is calm with them, the authorities control the security situation for tourists in the country, you can’t go anywhere from the hotel without the knowledge of the guide to go out, swim away and even more so leave because....
Here you can draw in your mind all the possible troubles that can happen to you in a foreign country. He gave us a piece of paper with the name of our hotel guide and the time of the scheduled meeting with him. They did not listen carefully, since his speech did not carry anything new and resembled a report on industrial safety. In the direction of travel, the skeletons of unfinished hotels and shops were visible from the roadside haze. They do not save on lighting, but they also have no desire to cover all the details of abandoned construction sites, so we saw the whole picture the very next day. It turned out not to be very happy. But let's not get ahead of things. Our way to the hotel took about 20 minutes, considering that on the way we managed to drop off vacationers in two hotels.
The entrance to the territory of our hotel "Stella Di Mare Beach Hotel" allowed us to appreciate the original lighting, palm trees and palm trees of different sizes,
checkpoint with two security officers, barrier. One of the security guards examined the bottom of the minibus with a mirror for the absence of explosives and let it go further. Directly at the entrance to the hotel there is another security guard, a metal detector and an X-ray camera (like at the airport, only smaller), through which all hand luggage of the guests passes without fail. Receptionist, nice hotel clerk who always smiles, speaks good Russian, two glasses of some kind of drink (without alcohol), filling out a questionnaire, receiving a card from the room. Here we are at home, so to speak, or rather, where we will be at home for the next week.
Hotel… Describing seaside hotels is a thankless task, since the majority of them look the same to me, with some differences. However, this one commanded respect. It is located on the mountain and goes seven floors down to the sea. Spacious yard, swimming pools, palm trees,
its own beach (although, of course, it can be a stretch to call it a beach, well, this is for me, who grew up on the Black Sea, where sandy spits border the water cut for many kilometers), in short, let it be a beach, although a beach is more suitable for it. On the beach there is a short pontoon protruding into the sea, from which vacationers jump and dive into the warm waters of the Red Sea, including for contemplating colorful sea fish. We examined the hotel and the territory in more detail the next day. Beautiful, nothing more to say, green, well maintained. The room is normal, air conditioning (noisy, but hardly used), safe, wife found a hair dryer when leaving the hotel (it was a pitiful sight). One remark - their sockets live an independent life and do not want to take in, let alone keep the plug from third-party devices, so this very plug had to be supported either by a table or a chair,
to prevent its loss and ensure uninterrupted power supply to the necessary device. I want to give advice: take a hair dryer, a travel iron (later I will explain why) and a pack of your favorite coffee with you to hotels. There is no normal coffee in Egypt, at least we did not find it. They have a drink called coffee, which, apart from the name, has a rather distant relation to coffee. Every day, one 600 grm was delivered to the room. a bottle of locally produced drinking water per person, which, in principle, is not enough. Cleaning, change of linen and towels daily. The hotel is 25-30% occupied, with residents from Ukraine, France, England, Holland, Germany, as well as local Arabs with their wives and children. There are no Russians, in addition, for the entire time of our stay on the peninsula, we twice met Russian citizens who traveled to Egypt through Turkey and Moldova, since air communication between the countries was closed after the terrorist attack in October 2015,
when 224 people died. There is a SPA center in the hotel on the 4th floor: a sauna, a jacuzzi, a steam room for free at any time from 9 am to 8 pm, I managed to go to the sauna once - their body oil and there, in the sauna itself, it smells, no matter how strange. Mosquitoes didn’t bother me, but I can’t say that they don’t exist at all, a couple of times these Egyptian infections got drunk on Ukrainian blood. Iron - almost forgot to tell about it. We ordered an iron at the reception by phone at 9 am. The answer is "They will bring it now. " While we were doing our own business, the Internet, talking with children, a couple of hours passed - there was no iron. I call: "Where? ". Answer: "Now they are. " We are waiting a little. Let's go to the sea. We returned at about 3 pm. I call: “Where is the iron? ". "Now they carry. " Everything turned out to be simple: due to the reduction of the attendants due to the decrease in the flow of tourists, the cleaner is responsible for all the requests of the guests, including the delivery of the iron.
And he cleans the rooms from about 9 a. m. to 3 p. m. , that is, he can’t immediately stop cleaning and satisfy your request for an iron. No, he, of course, will bring it, but not immediately, but when he finishes cleaning, but then, you will no longer need an iron. The Internet is a separate painful issue that I have not resolved for myself. All Egyptians use 3G mobile Internet, the speed is normal, in the near future 4G will be launched throughout Egypt. In principle, there is Internet in hotels, but some nondescript, sick, unloved one, which at any inopportune moment can disappear somewhere, then accidentally appear, unpredictable, with poor speed, lives its own life. But you can survive it, we survived.
Restaurant - looks dignified, clean, tidy. Set tables, shiny cutlery, starched napkins laid out in houses. Good range of dishes
a bit scarce compared to Turkey - many times fewer dishes, but the quality of individual dishes is not inferior in any way. Of course, they lag behind in sweets, especially oriental ones. For the first time I tried fresh dates here, I liked it. I tried it several times, but I did not understand the taste of guava, especially since it was not served ripe. Pears were offered all the time, but the taste was like papier-mâ ché . They turned out to be from Burma, they look classy, but in taste - well, none.
In the morning, strictly at the appointed time, we were awakened by a phone call, a youthful male voice in broken Russian said that he was a hotel guide and was waiting for us to talk. We decided to show respect for the hotel representative, got together and went to a meeting. As we thought, they didn’t tell us anything new, they offered excursions and a visit to a leather goods store. They answered that we would think about it and maybe tomorrow, but most likely the day after tomorrow, we would order almost all excursions at once and preferably two in one day,
not to miss anything. We did not see the guide again, he did not bother us and we did not disturb him. The price for excursions he really turned out to be at least two, and sometimes 2.5 times more expensive than that of local operators, however, as elsewhere in hotels.
Given our indefatigable characters with my wife, on the first day after dinner we were already riding in a hotel bus towards Naama Bay - one of the few attractions of the city of Sharm el-Sheikh. Buses from the hotel start running back and forth from 16:00 every hour, travel from our hotel is free. The last bus from Naama Bay to the hotel leaves at 24:00. On all the roads of Egypt, including Sharma, every 1-1.5 km a police checkpoint is checked, not everyone is checked, but at each checkpoint there is a bulletproof shield and a policeman sleeping behind it. What is Naama Bay - this is the central district of the city.
the only one in Sharm, almost completely cleared of corals, with a gentle sandy entry into the sea. This area is considered the center of tourist life, along the entire area there is a pedestrian promenade, with hundreds of cafes - hookahs, bars, nightclubs and tourist shops, life here begins after sunset and does not stop until the morning. Music everywhere and everywhere, dances, hookahs…. And from everyone you hear - one dollar. I got the impression that everything they have has the same price - $ 1. One thing is bad - given the lack of tourists (in the sense that they were used to in their time), the Egyptians at retail outlets carry out all possible activities aimed at luring you to their point with the aim of further buying you some local rubbish, which you and not needed at all. Persistent inviting, hailing, up to pestering - such is life here.
Arriving on the bus at Naama Bay, we immediately fell into the tenacious "embrace" of local sellers - they invited us to their boutiques in a race, promising any discounts. Having purchased a small flag of Egypt for myself (I bring them along with magnets from my trip), I was shortchanged on the move by a joyfully smiling seller at the currency exchange, well at least the amount was $ 2. Their exchange rate is 1 $ = 15 local Egyptian pounds, money changers in the markets offer 1 to 10. However, ATMs are installed everywhere where you can automatically exchange dollars for pounds at the rate of 1 = 15. Near one of the boutiques selling any fragrant incomprehensible substance, the wife did not even have time to blink an eye, as the seller was already intensively rubbing some sharp-smelling whitish liquid into her forearm, saying in broken Russian that there is no better for her (liquid) for the body and only she (liquid) will make the skin velvety radiant and fragrant. I can't repeat the name
since he is not very strong in Arabic, but Lyudmilka was barely pulled out of the tenacious hands of the Egyptian, and after that it took a pack of wet wipes and about half an hour to remove the remaining liquid on her forearm. Also, the Aleron tablet was immediately taken in order to prevent and prevent an allergic reaction. Who knows what's in there. As I understand it, it was some kind of locally made cream, homemade. He also offered cheap Chanel natural perfumes, poured into containers, of the kind we have bottles in which the characters of old post-war films store moonshine. This did not inspire confidence in us and we parted with them (cream, perfume and seller) without much regret. In the same place, on the order of the daughter-in-law, they bought the herb "Mulukhei" - it is used in the preparation of various dishes, including for the preparation of the soup of the pharaohs (1 kg costs 32 pounds). On Naama Bay, we met Ahmed,
Sometimes it seemed to me, especially in the last days of my stay in Egypt, that I, my wife, things and everything that I have and someday will be, have become or will be completely saturated with these smells and it’s impossible to get rid of them, smell and inhale this will last until the end of his days. From conversations with others, I realized that the Egyptians, according to the ancient traditions of the nation, actively use all kinds of local oils, which are rubbed into the body to eliminate their own smell. Oils replace them with our cologne and perfumes, everything is simple, but not familiar to our sense of smell. The first day of stay in Egypt, on the Sinai Peninsula came to an end. A day filled with a lot of impressions about what he saw, heard, experienced. All night I dreamed of Arabs inviting me to visit and I woke up a little broken, with a slight hatred for the great Egyptian people.
The brain of my wife also reacted quite vividly to the impressions of the first day: she dreamed of crowds of Arabs who climbed onto our balcony and very persistently tried to open the door to the room, while constantly talking in their Arabic dialect mixed with Russian obscenities. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=ov27Vy2CVL0
The second day began quietly. Having previously checked the absence of Egyptians on the balcony of the room, and having calmed down a bit, we gathered for breakfast. The breakfast did not prove itself to be anything remarkable, standard eggs of various types, salads, tasteless cakes. I couldn’t eat cheeses and feta cheese, they have practically no taste, when they were eaten, I got the impression of slowly chewing pieces of foam. Just as tasteless were their sweets, croissants, pancakes, etc. ,
although the appearance of the products did not cause any premature suspicions and disappointment came already during the direct use of the chosen dish. Moreover, the abundance of all kinds of sauces, jams, gravies did not save my taste buds, respectively, the brain completely refused to give me a signal to enjoy the meal. After breakfast, the warm gentle Red Sea with coral reefs and fish was waiting for us. Having changed into beach clothes, taking masks and tubes with us, we went towards the beach. The beach was pleasantly surprised by the large number of free sunbeds. The Egyptian boy immediately brought us two towels and offered to rent a mask with a snorkel for a ridiculous price - $ 2 until 15 o'clock in the afternoon. Showing our masks, which were no different from his, except for the fact that his pipes were put into his mouth by no one knows who and where, we politely refused. Going down to the pontoon, wearing masks (by the way,
I didn’t take flippers with me and they are not needed there, unless of course you want to develop supersonic speed on a stretch of sea 30 meters long - there are buoys and fences everywhere, just swam to the edge, they are already whistling and screaming, you won’t have time to slow down in flippers), we plunged into the abyss of the sea, and there: corals, fish, fish, fish....All of different colors and shades, all so homemade, almost tame, but they are not given in the hands, it will not work. Leaving for Egypt, in the reviews about the hotel I read that a family of lionfish lives under the pontoon - I searched with rapture, I wanted to see and get acquainted, but I never met. I am not an expert on the varieties and names of fish that live in the waters of the Red Sea, so I don’t want to torment you with their names, who are interested to see for themselves, I want to say that closer to departure, I already recognized almost everyone by their faces and began to give them names to distinguish from each other. )))) There, on the beach,
we met a diving guide who persistently encouraged us to take part in scuba diving on the island of Tiran. We promised to think, realizing that we would see the same fish there as here on the reef near the beach, and we didn’t really want to leave for the whole day (tour from 9 am to 5 pm, $ 30 per person). Subsequently, we communicated with him almost daily, he turned out to be a rather intelligent guy who knows our language and is not intrusive, they were interested in his local life and customs. They learned from him that a fine of $ 15.000 is imposed for feeding fish in the sea, life in Egypt is now not sugar, unemployment, every day you have to think about how to feed your family, there are few tourists, and accordingly there is no work, 1 kg of chicken costs $ 10 , 1 kg of meat $ 20 (beef, pork is not eaten), salaries $ 200-300 (compare with Ukraine), an apartment of 70 m2 costs about $ 40 thousand, 25 million people live in Cairo, on one street (where he lived) 4 million people live. In general, it was interesting to talk with the guy.
After the sea, at about 15 o'clock in the afternoon, a bus called for us and we headed to the Old City for a trip on a bathyscaphe. About 30 of us, who wanted to see the underwater views of the Red Sea, gathered at the gathering place on the seashore, and, after a short wait, they all were taken to the boat, in which observation windows were made in the hull below the waterline. Having reached the center of the bay, the ship circled the reefs for about 1.5 hours, and through the windows we observed the diversity and abundance of corals and fish living in symbiosis with them. The second day was drawing to a close, and in the future, standard procedures awaited us: dinner, a walk, some TV (five Russian-language channels, not a single Ukrainian one), lights out. In the evening we went back to Ahmed and booked a motorcycle safari in the desert the next day ($10 per person). We immediately talked about other excursions and stopped on a tour to Israel with a visit to Bethlehem, Jerusalem, the Dead Sea.
Initially, the price was $80 per person, but after half an hour of trading, we agreed on $135 for two. If someone had told me a week ago that I would go to Israel, I would not have believed it. But Lyudmila caught fire with this opportunity, and her arguments were convincing. That's what they decided on. In general, initially, we wanted to get to Cairo, but the downpours that took place a couple of weeks ago washed out the roads, it was possible to get there only by plane for $ 200 per person, in connection with this, Cairo was postponed until later, Israel was chosen. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=kXCD2Pj0XU8
On the second night, the Egyptians and Arabs no longer dreamed, the dream was like that of a baby. The air temperature outside the hotel was +28, water +25 throughout the holiday. I almost forgot, I want to share with you a sketch: on this day, an Egyptian came to our hotel and brought his four wives to do aqua aerobics in the pool, because, in his opinion, they had become very fat. Would you see
how they dressed in burkini (swimsuits for Muslim women) repeated the exercises in the pool after the instructor, and he sat on a chair and condescendingly shook his head to the beat of the music. I think that one lesson to bring his wives to the standards of 90-60-90 will not be enough, but the interesting thing is that all four wives unquestioningly put on their swimsuits and did the exercises. I will not discuss their family traditions, customs, relationships, etc. , but I cannot call those Egyptians whom I saw with their wives and children despots - they enthusiastically fiddled in the water with babies and wives.
The morning came unnoticed. The brain unobtrusively reminded that we had a motorcycle safari today. Next: breakfast, beach, coral, fish, which have already begun to get used to their names, pronounced by me indistinctly from the breathing tube. In my opinion, they have already come to terms with this, understood their names, took it for granted,
We were seated on ATVs and we drove in a slender column led by a young Egyptian in the direction of the desert and mountains. Before that, an Arab girl ran up to us and tried to sell us sand glasses for $3 apiece, we refused, and when we were already moving, the price dropped to $1 a piece, then $1 a pair, but we were already on our way, we were already on our way , the Egyptian was left with glasses and no money. The excursion program was announced for two hours of skiing and tea drinking at the Bedouins. When we left, it was already getting dark, somehow it quickly got dark and we had to turn on the headlights. We drove out into the desert, headlights could be seen in strings around. There were dozens of people like us, different bands, from different tour companies. We are rushing through the desert at night, the wind with sand in the face, the roar of engines is great. We stopped behind the first ridge of mountains (maybe there are still mountains further, but at night, nothing is visible), stop. The guide sits everyone down and we start shouting our names in chorus, listening to the mountain echo in response.
Then back to the saddle, headlights, the roar of engines. We drove up to the Bedouin camp, there are already about 20 people like us. Dirty mats with pillows, tattered semblances of tables, ashtrays from jars. You understand that civilization makes adjustments in the life of even the Bedouins. A man in a dirty galabya (Bedouin clothing looks like a nightgown) comes out and offers to buy Pepsi for $ 2 per bottle, then brings tea in cups, which, most likely, were clean at their birth in a glass factory and have not been seen since. washcloths, no water, no powder. How many and what mouths were applied to them, one can only guess. We politely refuse, just as we refuse to purchase incomprehensible bundles with some kind of dried vegetation for $ 1-2. After sitting for a while and observing the lives of these people, which are incomprehensible to a normal person, we set off on our way back. Passing some disco right in the middle of the desert
many Egyptians with signs of drug intoxication. Parking. We got to the hotel without incident, dinner, rest. Another day of Egyptian life is over. Tomorrow we will travel to Israel, the Dead Sea, Bethlehem, Jerusalem. But this is a slightly different story, I will tell it separately so as not to confuse the reader. I note that we arrived from it in full health. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=7MmULQ0z3ZI
What haven't we seen, where haven't we been yet? Square "SOHO" - that's where we will go in the evening of the next day. At the reception, they found out that every day a bus drives there from the hotel, for which the appointment opens at 11 o’clock, the duty officer calls and says how many people are going. Departure at 20:00, departure back at 22:30. We left, not long to go, the square is located near the airport of Sharm el-Sheikh. At the entrance, the usual control for explosives, at the entrance there is another control on a metal detector. And now a fairy tale opened before us, just a fairy tale generously flavored with light, garlands,
figurines of various fairy tale characters. Lots of people, both tourists and locals. Promenade. We had two hours to get acquainted with almost everything. There is even an ice skating rink! There is a musical fountain, it works by the hour, there is a stage. As elsewhere, there are many eateries, but we don’t risk eating local food, although they are supplied with medicines for all occasions. Looking at goods in boutiques, we accidentally meet a Ukrainian woman from the Dnieper. Lives and works in Egypt for 8 years, a chemical technologist. We exchange impressions. She tells her opinion about Egypt: all the Egyptians were dirty, poverty is everywhere, there is no money, they don’t want to think, because of poverty and high cost, cases of incest have become more frequent in recent years (in order not to spend extra money on a wedding, a brother marries a sister, because of which in many families there is an increase in hemophilia, mentally retarded children, etc. Egyptians do not want to work.
what happened to her recently: they were driving to work, she and four Egyptians, the car stalled, they had to push, they got out: one Egyptian stood behind and pushes the car, the second pushes this Egyptian, the third climbed into the body and pushes the cab. Here, he says, think about their development. Somehow, before our eyes, there is a complete degradation of the nation that built the pyramids and had a developed civilization. https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Z5u_pkPplF8
Meanwhile, tomorrow morning home: in the slush, cold, frost, but home. In the evening, a paper was found at the door indicating the time of transfer to the airport. Departure at 4:00 am. The airport. Increased security measures. Passports were checked about 7-8 times. Double X-ray control, metal detector twice, take off shoes, put on shoes and take off again. Manual inspection of all things on you by airport security. They took the lighter. The case of the Russian plane blowing up in Sharm had a significant impact on the organization of the security services.
It seems that all the posts went through normally, we are waiting for the plane. I had a talk with my wife on the issue of an emergency landing of a plane from Sharm in the Dnieper last week. The bus was brought up and taken. But, as it turned out, not everything is over yet - the last control, already directly near the plane on the runway. The bus with us was driven up to our suitcases put up on the runway, which had previously been checked in as luggage, they did not let us out. On the other side, another empty bus approaches. They opened the door, the pilot came in and announced: “Everyone finds out, takes his suitcase, hand it over for loading onto the plane and board another bus, which will be taken to the gangway. ” They took it, loaded it, like there were no extra suitcases left. Involuntarily I think - and if a suicide bomber, he will take the suitcase and get on the plane. Takeoff, three hours of flight, Odessa meets with coolness. We're home.
Summarizing what has been said, I want to say that we liked the rest,
despite the small and insignificant roughness in the organization of life and excursions. In winter, getting a lot of extra sun, the sea was great for us. All good mood and wonderful travels. Sincerely, Yu. S.
