El Andalous - Jellyfish Season

Jellyfish Season

Fish seem to be seasonal to a certain extent; there seem to be times when I see turtles, crabs, rays and times when I don’t. But there’s one season, and it must be now, that the jellyfish arrive en masse.

Fortunately, the ones that hang around Sahl Hasheesh don’t sting. There are two distinct types, one is round, smooth and blue-colored and the other is white/transparent and oblong-shaped with a bit of raised ribbing.

I can remember previous years where you’d see them washing up on the beach by the dozens and probably hundreds over the week. Apparently someone initially thought that they were discarded silicon boob inserts!

However, this is the first year I can remember where they’ve actually hindered my swimming. The water is currently really warm for February (in my opinion) after a bit of a heat wave last week when I was ill. Hilda said the sea was 23 degrees a couple of weeks ago and I'd say it's maybe 24 degrees now (she thinks it's colder now, but she hasn't actually gone in). At night, my bedroom temperature rose from 23 to 25 degrees at night, so at least in my little corner it's got warmer. I’m not splashing myself before I get in at the moment and I can snorkel about afterwards without thinking that I need to get out of the water soon if I I’m not to be too cold on exiting. So, maybe the change in temperature's something to do with the sudden onslaught of jellyfish.

Anyway, I went swimming on Thursday and my hands kept on thrusting into a jellyfish, or when I’d push back in my stroke, I’d feel my hand brushing a jellyfish aside, or one would brush against my cheek, or maybe my arm. Sometimes, my fingers thrust inside the jellyfish as I reached forwards and that was the worst. I couldn't stop myself from screeching through the sheer shock of it.

There were hundreds of them all around me. It was impossible to swim without touching them and I swear that they tried to approach me. At least if you have a shoal of fish, the fish are amazingly good at parting and letting you through. The jellyfish, they just seem to aim straight for my face and it almost seems deliberate. Surely not!

If you touch them on the surface, they feel surprisingly jelly-like and quite solid (just like the frozen jelly you eat if you touched it, but not cold). Although it doesn’t hurt, it’s not exactly conducive to swimming (you can’t swim through jelly after all, and if you touch it, you are immediately no longer pulling through the water). It’s a shock and it’s frustrating.

If your fingers somehow dig into its middle (which is what I’m assuming happens when I’m not getting that solid jelly sensation but – I don’t know – a wetter sensation, maybe?), it feels more like soap. If I rub my fingers together afterwards, they feel kind of slippery (but somehow not slimy in the way that soap isn’t slimy). However, in my head, I’ve got something’s innards round my fingers, so conceptually the thought is pretty disgusting and that’s what makes me squeal as much as anything. 

The fish, particularly the butterflyfish, seem to enjoy this season and when I go snorkeling I can see them in crowds diving at a jellyfish and taking bites at them. It's a hive of activity beneath the surface.

Incidentally, even though I was squealing quite loudly as I swam, absolutely nobody paid any attention to me. I’m not sure if this is a good thing (at least I didn’t have the embarrassment of someone trying to save me) or a bad thing (what if I had been in danger?), but maybe they could tell my squeals were just squeals of disgust.

At times, I’d look in the water and there would be hundreds of them all around me – there was no avoiding them and I just had to continue to swim (and continue to bump into them) and this was for a fairly large stretch of my swim. There was no other way back.

I did my full swim, but didn’t do my drills afterwards because I couldn’t face having to go through them again. The jellyfish haven’t started to beach yet, but I guess that will come soon enough. I’m hoping they will move on elsewhere, otherwise my swimming routine may get rather difficult.

El Andalous - Tut's Revenge

Fresh Meat at the Souq

I guess it’s quite an achievement that I’ve kept this blog for over 5 years and never written about an upset tummy – one thing that many associate with Egypt.

I like to think of myself as having a fairly robust stomach in general – I’m not so prone to getting stomach bugs. Maybe it’s because I eat chicken by the truckload and have become immune to any baddies that may lurk.

However, for some reason, I’ve had a run of bad luck since I’ve been back this time. I’ve had three bouts of stomach problems, but this last week was by far the worst. The other two were just minor 12-24 hour affairs and were forgotten as soon as they were done.

I originally thought my current bout was due to me using some out-of-date cream in my mildly creamy ginger and lemon vegetable dish that I did for myself on Monday evening, but it lasted so long, I’m now wondering whether it was an actual bug (virus) and nothing to do with food that I ate.

I guess you don’t really want to know the gory details, but it was unfortunate in that I woke up on Tuesday feeling lethargic and tired and not really in the mood to eat anything. In the afternoon, Horst and Hilde had invited me to go to the Souq with them and then onto a meal afterwards. I wasn’t really in the mood for it, but I’d already asked them to change the date for this once and it seemed impolite to ask them to change it again and I was really OK apart from feeling so weary.

Anyway, I went along (topic for another blog) and this may have been my downfall. We ended up at a restaurant and I still wasn’t remotely hungry. However, being British, I felt it would be impolite of me not to go along with it. I forced some pasta down me, but my stomach felt full and as if there was no room for the pasta to go. I left half of it and explained that I was full up, feeling a bit embarrassed that I probably seemed less than enthusiastic during the day and ungrateful during the meal when Horst and Hilde had made so much effort to treat me to a great day out.

I went to bed as soon as we got back (before 7pm) and by midnight I was awake and throwing up.

I must have slept at least 12 hours, sometimes more, each day for the next four days. I never actually wanted to get up and felt that I could just spend my life sleeping and never wake up.

I hate the BRAT (banana, rice, applesauce, toast) diet. I tried to eat, even though I wasn’t hungry, in order to regain some energy. One evening I had a plate of rice with some herbs, but it took me forever to eat. I like rice, but on its own, it’s just dull, even with herbs. It makes me realize why the Celebs complain on I’m A Celebrity… when they get relegated to just rice (and no herbs to help). I began to think I would never feel hungry again. There must be something more that you can eat when you have the runs, surely?

I took rehydration sachets in the hope they would get me up and running, but often they would just make me feel really sleepy afterwards and I’d end up crawling back into bed. I think they maybe made my system work a bit and this took the energy right back out of me.

At one point I had a slight craving for scrambled eggs; to my mind this didn’t seem like a good option (wouldn’t there be a risk of salmonella?), but when I looked it up it was one of the recommended foods when coming off the BRAT diet. I do wonder if I should have tried mixing in some whisked egg with my plate of rice as that may have been more palatable.

So, if you’ve got an upset tummy, I say follow what your stomach says. If you don’t feel like eating, don’t. If you can think of something that seems palatable to you, then it’s probably what your body needs. My body wasn’t saying yes to the thought of Maltesers (one of my favorite chocolates) and not even to the thought of chicken.

I read that boiled potato is also good on coming off the BRAT diet. I was feeling better on Saturday evening, albeit not massively hungry, which indicated to me that I still wasn’t 100%. However, on thinking about potatoes, I sensed that shepherd’s pie would go down well. It’s a bit like baby food, not that I can remember eating baby food, but it’s the soft texture of the mash (without too much butter or milk, of course, given my stomach) and the minced up beef softly mixing with it that was appealing. It felt like a soft toy for my stomach to embrace and care for.

It went down well and a few hours later I was even feeling hungry. That’s what I was waiting for as an indicator that I was indeed getting better! My stomach was saying it was back in business and open to offers.

On Sunday, I woke up and felt fine. My legs were no longer wobbly, my brain fog had cleared and I would even have tried going swimming had it not been so windy outside (I need a gentle first swim in case I’m not as strong as I think). I hope that’s it now for the next 5 years!

El Andalous - Dangers of Swimming

Stung Whilst Swimming!

The water is definitely getting colder. Over the last week, before I plunge in, I splash myself with water first and I’m always wondering beforehand if I really want to swim. On the way back, though, the water feels warm, so it can’t be that bad yet.

I’m still wearing my swimming buoy for safety / visibility and it’s bringing me quite a bit of attention. One new owner started asking me if I’d seen the girl who swims out to sea every day with the orange thing tied to her waist (he was sounding impressed, rather than horrified, which was a relief), so I explained that it was me before he said too much. Another person approached me and asked me where I had bought the swimming buoy and he thought it was an excellent idea. A Russian woman managed to mimic to me the question as to what it was I had tied to me as I swam. I tried to mimic back that it was to make me visible. She gave an expression of understanding, but I’m not too sure what she actually understood! One day a boat approached me to see what was floating in the sea, which kind of negated the purpose of the swimming buoy, which I see as to keep the boats away from me.

When I first arrived here (more than 5 years ago now!), I was worried about the dangerous fish. At the time, I think I had it in my head that they would attack me; I now no longer think this, but I do worry that I may not see them and accidentally swim into them.

By day, the lion fish are usually fairly placid and hiding under coral. They are brown and white striped fish with long feathery tentacles which, if they touch you, can put you into hospital; beautiful to look at but almost lethal. It’s perfectly safe to swim up to them (carefully, of course); the risk is that they decide to rest on the sea bottom near where you are going to walk back onto the beach. If you don’t look where you step, you could be in trouble.

The same holds for stone fish and scorpion fish, which look like stones on the sea bed (or sitting on top of a coral and disguising itself as part of that coral). They won’t come and attack you, but if you step on one, it has the potential to be fatal. Ajaz’s wife did this as she was paddling and ended up in hospital.

It’s easy to get scared, but basically you just need to keep your eyes open and watch where you’re going. Don’t get too caught up in a conversation and forget to look where you’re putting your feet!

Another phenomenon that I’ve experienced is a slight stinging sensation as I’ve swum. I’ve often wondered what it is, since I can’t see anything swimming away in the water when it happens. At one point, I thought maybe it was the needlefish bumping into me by accident with their needle-like snouts. Other people have suggested that maybe the stinging sensation comes from bits of coral floating in the sea (some coral also sting, but I don’t touch them, so I don't think that this can’t be it).

Anyway, this week I was swimming and had a painful sting and it actually showed up on my arm (see photo). I’ve since searched the internet and I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s caused by stinging plankton. It’s not visible and is not usually in enough quantity to really sting, but I was obviously unfortunate on this occasion. Apparently, some people always wear a rash vest to avoid being stung. I was a bit nervous the next time I went out, but it hasn’t happened again since.

Recently, a baby lion fish has been swimming about in the shallower waters and it hasn’t developed any sense of caution yet. So it came up behind me, quite close, just as I was floating and watching some other fish. It gave me quite a start, but it was unperturbed by my presence.

One time when I was snorkeling, a small fish swam with purpose towards to me and I could see its intention to bite, but I couldn’t quite believe it would dare attack big old me. Surely it was just pretending! However, it did nip me (I'm not sure if thought I was food or if it was warning me away). The bite wasn’t enough to even make a mark, but I certainly felt it (and wouldn’t necessarily want to repeat it).

Anyway, the coral and fish (and boats!) need to be treated with respect!

El Andalous - Egyptian Food

View From the Flat Where we Ate

I quite often get asked what the traditional food is in Egypt. My reply is that the national dish is stuffed pigeon, which I’ve never tried (I have had camel, but I get the sense it’s on menus more for the novelty value than as a genuine local dish). I’m off this week to El Dar Darek for a meal, so maybe I’ll try a stuffed pigeon then. I believe they’re quite small, so can probably be taken as a starter. At least, last time I was in Dar Darek, the men behind us had a plateful of about two each served before other platters were brought out with hefty servings of red meat.

Anyway, I went to a cooking class this week and it turned out that we were mostly cooking Egyptian food. When I say cooking class, it’s really a group of us getting together at someone’s house and cooking lunch together. Last time I went to one of these events, I didn’t even help out (too many cooks and all that).

I was put in the mahshi group and we made stuffed cabbage leaves, which is very traditional over here (along with other stuffed vegetables – I’ve read that mahshi means stuffed and can apply to other vegetables, although I believe in Egypt cabbage leaves are the most traditional). They don’t sound very appetising, but they are truly delicious.

Preparing them is a bit of a faff and the organizer brought the rice ready-spiced (but not cooked, which I found quite odd, but that's how it's done) and the cabbage leaves pre-cooked. We just had to roll the rice in the cabbage leaves like little cigars and then put them into the pot with the stock to cook. Like all cooking, I guess it’s all in the spices you use and I guess the broth for the rice. There seemed to be a bit of an art to getting the right amount of rice in the rolled cabbage leaf (too much and they will explode as the rice expands when you cook it; too little and you’ll just have a mouthful of cabbage). 

It really is very time consuming since you have the preparing beforehand and then all the time rolling the leaves. Apparently, Egyptian women will spend the evening in front of the TV doing this.

I can’t take responsibility for the end result, but really it was superb. There were also stuffed aubergines (also very yummy), kofta, and a spicy lentil-type dish.

The dessert was a typical Egyptian item called Gabl Al Hareem (beautiful mountain, apparently, although I thought gameel was beautiful in Arabic, thus illustrating yet again the difficulty of learning Arabic). It was pumpkin, mashed presumably with some sugar, and then béchamel sauce on top. You eat it hot. I’d never heard of it before (I’ve eaten Om Ali, which is a bread pudding with nuts and raisins and is also very tasty and quite filling). However, quite a few were already familiar with Gabl Al Hareem (and the Egyptians knew it, of course) and were very excited to be eating it again. I don't think there were any leftovers.

All in all, a very pleasant day!

El Andalous - More Food

Happy Birthday, Margaret!

Well, I’m quite tempted to skip this week’s blog since I don’t have an awful lot to write about. This is a good thing, since sometimes having something to say just means that something’s gone horribly wrong.

Life continues as usual and luckily for me this means more socializing and more going out for meals. It was Margaret’s birthday so a small group of us went out for some Thai food in Hurghada. We went to the White Elephant and I’d never been there before, but had heard that it had a good reputation. It’s situated on Mamsha. Drivers don’t usually know where restaurants are, so our taxi, true to form went right past it, while pretending that he knew where it was. We  had to stop him and point out that he'd already gone too far. Still, it was a nice enough evening and not so far to walk back.

To my astonishment, Mamsha – a semi-pedestrian street (that doesn’t make sense, but there’s a wide road for cars but an equally wide or maybe even larger area that’s pavement) – has had some very arty sculptures erected along some of it and they are very tasteful. It really makes the area seem a lot more upmarket, although the shops are still full of the same touristy items that are always sold. However, it is a vast improvement over what it used to be.

The food was good – quite spicy – and we had our own champagne with us to toast Margaret (and Yuen, happy birthday Yuen back in Zurich!).

On the way back, on arrival into Sahl Hasheesh, we had a group photo taken by the Christmas decorations at the top of the Entrance Plaza (or is it Piazza, I can never remember), which you can see at the top of this blog; I really like this photo (courtesy of Stephen, but taken by the security guard) because we all look so happy and the decorations themselves are lovely too.

I was also invited round to Jeff and Ness’s for a meal because I’d printed out their boarding passes for them. It wasn’t necessary for them to do this, but it was a good evening; last time they were here, they brought me spaghetti Bolognese (I felt like I was a Meals on Wheels charity case!) and this time they have given me beef stew, tarte tartin, and peach crumble on leaving. They are so kind; everyone here is very generous and I’m lucky to have such good friends.

On another evening, I went out with Stephen, Kathryn, Wendy and Les for a meal in Sahl Hasheesh. I was hungry, so took 3 courses (tomato soup, fish and chips, and banana split). It was all very nice. The fish and chips was actually battered fish (in several bits rather than one large ones) and French fries, so not a million miles off proper fish and chips. Banana splits here are always a bit of a gamble since each restaurant has its own interpretation. This one was a glass of vanilla ice cream with banana all round the edge of the glass (a bit like flower petals) and then M&Ms sprinkled on top with a little bit of chocolate sauce. I really enjoyed the meal but had diarrhea the whole of the night and an unsettled stomach for the next day, so maybe it wasn’t so good. I’m quite surprised as it didn’t seem there was so much that could have gone wrong.

So that’s me, really. I was tempted not to write because every week seems to be variations on the same at the moment (and so a bit too dull for a blog), but I’ve written it now!

El Andalous - A Cold Start and Hot Dinners

New Indian Restaurant at Sunrise Romance, Sahl Hasheesh

Unfortunately, January seems to have brought with it a change in weather and it’s been pretty cold (for Egypt) over the last week or so. Today it was even misty. When I say cold, I mean about 19 degrees during the day. And that means it’s really too cold to swim. Disaster!

Two years ago, we had an exceptionally cold winter, but I'm pretty sure all previous  years were sunny and beautiful. However, I went to the hairdresser and she said she keeps on forgetting that Africa can be cold (relatively) in the winter. I’m back in my jeans and thick cardigan today. So, I’m doubting my memories of the earlier years now. Hopefully this cold spell will pass and then my mind will blot this cold phase out from my mental archives, as it's apparently done for the last five years.

Maybe the weather is cold because it’s retaliating to my desire for hot food. This time that I’ve been across, I’ve been trying out several new Indian restaurants that I heard about. The first one was in the Tropitel across the Bay, which I’ve already written about briefly at the end of last year (set menu, good, but expensive).

However, when Nicole and I wandered over to look at the Thai restaurant at the Sunrise Romance hotel, we noticed that it now (after many, many years of having an empty façade) had an operational Indian restaurant as well.

Nicole, Ann and I tried it out one evening – the nights were still warm at this stage, so we sat outside and there was a live singer as well, so it was all very pleasant. I asked for my dish to be made a bit spicier and actually it was very tasty. They also had a peshwari naan, much to my delight. It wasn’t quite like the Indian restaurants in the UK, but still good. I’m delighted it’s there.

Then I bumped into Jo and Ian who said (without any prompting from me) that there was a really good Indian restaurant in Hurghada, so I went there with Stephen and Kathryn to try that one out. The place has had loads of really good reviews, but my own impression was that the Sunrise Romance Indian restaurant was just as good.

I’d really like to go back to the Indian restaurant at the Baron Palace hotel in Sahl Hasheesh. I have memories of that being one of the best curries I’d ever had (although there wasn’t much choice on the menu). Now I’m not sure if it’s got exaggerated in my head (given that my memory doesn't seem to be up to much) or maybe it’s changed hands since then and it’s no longer so good. But I’d like to know. I’m getting hungry just thinking about it; that’s what this cold weather does for you!

El Andalous - Welcome to 2019

Better Late Than Never - Ho, Ho, Ho!

Happy new year, everyone and thank you for reading my blog. If you’re stuck for a new year’s resolution, try out my 50 New Year’s Resolutions – How to Make Them, How to Keep Them.
It was a busy festive season for me and it goes on for a long time over here, since there are the Europeans, who celebrate either on 24th or 25th December (or in my case, both, well, why not?) and then there are the Christian Egyptians who are mostly Coptic Christians, and they celebrate on 7th January. Merry Christmas to any Coptic Christians who are reading this. Santa Claus (pictured) didn’t appear in El Andalous until 26th December, which was a bit strange for the Europeans! We didn’t have any lights up in the garden this year, maybe due to the ever-increasing electricity costs.

Anyway, I joined the Lotus Ladies for a Christmas meal on 24th December, where we sampled food from many nationalities. One of my favorite dishes was from Syria; it was a creamy aubergine concoction with garlic – very yummy!

For Christmas Day I was invited round to Stephen and Kathryn’s for the full UK works (turkey, stuffing, trifle). We didn’t start until the late afternoon to give us the opportunity to have time on the beach beforehand (hurrah!). More people piled in from 7pm onwards where we continued to nibble, drink, and generally socialize.

The owners at El Andalous had been trying for ages to get our annual meeting with the operating company to discuss our maintenance fees. They finally relented and suggested meeting them at 3pm on Christmas Day (whilst wishing us a Merry Christmas, oh the irony). We refused but we ended up having the meeting on Boxing Day. It didn’t get us very far this year but it was at least a polite meeting. We are nevertheless saddled with increased fees.

A week later, it was time for the New Year celebrations. A group of us hired a minibus to take us into Hurghada and we went to the Caribbean Bar for a buffet and dance. The food was really good (turkey, beef, some cheese dishes, salads, lovely desserts) and I completely stuffed myself. I had very little alcohol since I wanted to be able to enjoy the first day of 2019 and not be hungover. However, as it turned out, we didn’t leave until around 3.30am, so I ended up feeling wrecked anyway. I won’t do that again next year! Nevertheless, it’s nice to feel that I saw in the new year properly.

The new year also began here with our old manager at El Andalous leaving and a new manager being appointed. Our new manager, Ahmed, is someone who has already been working in El Andalous and we all like him, so we have hopes that things may improve. I am however, sad to see Medhat go as he was a very nice guy. He has a new job in Hurghada, so with any luck he has a good future ahead as well.

We're only one week into 2019 and the new year has started by ringing in the changes already. Let’s see what else it has in store!