Egyptian weekdays 2020
Fish, corals, how I missed you, our separation lasted for two whole years! Let's catch up! But in the beginning, it was not us who flew, but our mothers. And so that they would not be bored, they sent their beloved grandson Misha with them. Dasha and I planned to fly literally after them. But at the time of booking a tour for Misha with his grandmothers, I began to feel not very well. And, as always, dumb thoughts about the "crown" begin to climb into my head. The tour was confirmed, they have a flight in a couple of days. The next day, Misha went to school, and my mother volunteered to pick him up from school. Toward evening, I begin to have a slight ache in the body and a slight heaviness in the head. Mom was told that if everyone wants to successfully fly to Egypt, then it’s better not to take Misha to our home. Just in case, I constantly checked my scent.
We have a jar of highly flavored cream. She was a familiar tester for me, which is good. On the third day, everything stopped smelling, except for that very cream. But by evening everything stabilized and the scent returned, we calmly exhaled. The next day, Mom and Misha passed the mandatory PCR test for a flight to Egypt and were waiting for the results. While their results were being prepared, I noticed that the cream no longer smelled of anything to me. Dasha sniffed the jar and said that he most likely weathered. I looked at Dasha and said: "Welcome to the club! ". A couple of hours later, the results came for mom and Misha - both negative. This means that Dasha's mother can go from the dacha to my parents and also take the test. Dasha and I could no longer take the test. Well, at least we didn’t have time to take the tour. Grandmothers with Misha successfully flew away and sent us sunny photos.
We woke up every morning and were glad that our easy form did not turn into a difficult one. In fact, all this lasted about 13 days, Dasha had a cough, I had insomnia for the first few days, then I quickly got tired. Both had no scent and almost no taste. With closed eyes it would be impossible to determine what we eat. The temperature was 35.4. I would say that it was very unpleasant and a little scary, but compared to the problems that people have, we are not complaining one bit and are grateful that we got off so lightly. But now we have passed the antibody test and we know that there are some months left when we can live in peace while temporary immunity is in effect.
During the illness, we tried to maintain maximum isolation, but, to be honest, it did not differ much from our usual life since the beginning of the quarantine. There was only fear that the scent would not return. The illness is over, almost a month has already passed, you can continue traveling. This time we decided to fly together. Since it would be nice for Misha to at least occasionally attend school between trips, holidays in the village with his grandmother and quarantines. It was dumb to take a tour to Egypt, since a mandatory PCR test can show a positive result. We decided to continue our great Turkish journey. We booked an application at night, and then we saw how prices dropped in Egypt. The thought simply could not get out of my head that we would now fly to cool Turkey more expensive than to a good five-star hotel in hot Egypt. In the morning I woke up with even greater determination to take the risk and take Egypt, fortunately, it was not too late to withdraw the application.
Today is Friday, and the flight is on Sunday, so you need to make a booking in time to get vouchers and take PCR tests. They also insured themselves against non-departure. The application for a tour to Egypt was stuck in the system due to a human factor. Fortunately, I was full of determination and started calling the operator and the accounting department directly and asking them to complete all the postings as soon as possible, otherwise we would not have time to pass the test. I "worked" for a couple of hours as an intermediate link between a manager, an accountant and a bank, and achieved a confirmed tour with vouchers in hand. Now we urgently ran to the laboratory, which is open until 16:00, to get the result on the same day. We did it! Then only an exciting expectation.
About ten in the evening the results came. While the letter was being opened, my heart was beating like never before. I have negative! Now Dashin's result. And… login error. What a mistake, with a pounding heart, they restored access to Dasha's account. Negative! Are we really flying? I did not believe until the last, even when we got on the plane, I could not believe it. The best part is that no matter how many trips you have behind you, the joy before going to Egypt is like the first time. It really was my first time, the first time I flew there not to rest, but to work remotely. So there were some worries, will the Egyptian Internet cope?
Egyptian Internet
Many people wonder why we study integrals, analyzes of functions and sines with cosines at school. It took about 10 years and I was successfully able to apply all the higher mathematics to understand how the Egyptian Internet works. Everything starts well, unlike in Turkey, right at the airport you can buy an inexpensive SIM card with a 4g package, the seller immediately inserts it into your phone and activates and configures the Internet. I took the We package for $8 for 10 Gb. It would seem that 10 gigabytes is so much, enough for everything. But do not forget that we are in Egypt, and the gigabytes here are also Egyptian, or rather social, as I later subtracted from the conditions. A social megabyte is equal to two ordinary ones. That is, 10 gigabytes is actually 5 gigabytes. If you sit on social networks, then one will be considered as half a megabyte, but the whole point is that this operator has free social networks... Didn't understand anything? Me too, but the fact that you get half as much remains a fact)
And this is only half the trouble, when the traffic was coming to an end, I decided to replenish my account and connect an additional package for $ 7, which gives 12 Egyptian gigabytes. The problem turned out to be that all replenishment attempts fail, and in the Arabic chat, technical support will simply answer you that in fact everything is fine and there is no problem. I approached the guide and asked if he could top up my account with an Egyptian card, the guide explained that the We operator cannot top up with any card at all. There is also a separate site for replenishing the account, but there is a similar problem, only technical support immediately admits that everything is bad with them and now nothing works. You can top up your mobile account at the cashier in the supermarket. Here, too, there is a nuance: replenishing the account with Egyptian pounds, you also receive Egyptian pounds on the number, but with a smaller denomination. One paper Egyptian pound is equal to approximately 0.70 mobile Egyptian pounds. You can find out about this from the SMS, which will arrive in 10 minutes.
You can find out your account by executing a digital command, but as they explained to me, these commands may be paid by the operator. When I came to the cashier for the second time and asked why the amount from the check did not match the amount of replenishment, he explained that this was in the order of things, as always. Then there were the most complicated mathematical calculations, how to replenish all the same for the required amount. In the payment history of the operator, it is written - "Replenished by 45 EGP (31.5 EGP)". There are still nuances when choosing additional packages that completely lack a description, but summing up, I’ll say that for full-fledged remote work for 6 working days you need 16 Egyptian gigabytes, take such a package at the airport right away and this will save you from all the difficulties. The quality of local 4G is very good, remote desktops, teamviewer and video chats work with a bang and everywhere, even at sea on a ship. So in terms of distance, Egypt can be considered calmly.
Workdays
Our morning began with breakfast at 7 am, then the sea with fish, then work, for the lunch break the same trick. When we arrived at the hotel, there were practically no people in it. In the sea, I often swam in general myself, it was a personal sea with personal fish. The pool with slides was also personal, the slide with a bar was turned on at my request) It was just gorgeous, some kind of VIP OL inclusive for two. Then we found out that we weren't the only ones who found such a great price, people started coming and coming. Arrived until the load was full.
This time we stayed at the Dreams Beach Hotel. This is a hotel with the coolest reef and such a variety of fish that you will not be offered in any restaurant in the world. Not far from the pier, a two-meter thick moray eel lived with us, when she swam the blood froze in the veins. We sailed on a boat to the island of Tiran, where the reef and the assortment of fish were simpler than in our hotel. The room was a pleasant surprise, we officially attributed it to the most beautiful Egyptian room in our experience. Hygiene during the epidemic is well observed by the workers. True, there are hacks, but according to the experience of Turkey, there are definitely antiviral measures at a higher level. I also managed to communicate with local residents and those who have been living here for a long time. I was tormented by the question of what is happening with the level of morbidity. Of the five people interviewed, none of them or their acquaintances had even close symptoms during the entire period of the epidemic. Only one girl went as a guide to Israel and caught it there, but no one else got sick. What is their secret is unclear. In my environment, many acquaintances have already been ill, including us. But back to the hotel.
Work, work and more work!
Among the shortcomings of the hotel is a small number of staff. When we were here practically by ourselves, it was comfortable. But when the load became full, the restaurant workers literally could not cope with the flow of tourists and long queues began. The hotel representative wrote to us that they would take action, but by that time we had already flown away, so I don’t know how everything was decided there in the end, but it seems that restaurants began to open earlier than the stated time. The days passed at a frantic speed, and when the weekend came, I noticed that they were not much different from everyday life, we have the same sea, the same fish, only there is an opportunity to go somewhere else. In the future, if remote work is allowed to continue, then you can no longer spend your vacation in Egypt, and work calmly during the peak of the heat.
9 days flew by very quickly, Egypt did not even want to let us go. The plane that arrived for us broke down in the morning and could not be repaired in any way so that we could fly. When your plane is being repaired right before departure, then you don’t even really want to fly. And I guess that this is most likely the same plane in which two years ago they could not close the door) But everything turned out well, we took off with a five-hour delay and I even managed to get home before the start of the working day.
P. S. The insurance company paid us 100 euros for the flight delay.
Travel Information
Date of travel: 01.11. 2020-09.11. 2020
Hotel: Dreams Beach. Recommended
Duration: 8 nights (Sharm El Sheikh)
Travel agency in Kyiv: Tasty Travel (self-sent)
Operator: AnexTour
Tour type: Full package - insurance with covid-19 coverage, cancellation insurance, flight, transfers, hotel, all inclusive
Excursions: quad bikes and a boat to Tiran Island
Purchasing a tour: 2 days in advance
Prices
Package tour for two adults - 1.250 UAH.
Insurance against non-departure – 1500 UAH.
Taxi to Nama Bay and back - 5$
Taxi to the Old Market and back – 4$
Quad bike tour per person – 10$
Excursion on a boat per person - $ 20
