Hurghada - El Kawser (Part 1)

Metro Supermarket at El Kawser

It was a sunny but windy day. I could have used it to focus on my writing, but decided instead that it was a good day to explore Hurghada a bit further; it’s been a long time since I last had a trip to town. I’d been invited round to Nicole’s for dinner the other day, along with Kathryn, and I’d used the opportunity to ask them where I should go if I wanted to walk around town. They suggested I go to Esplanada Mall, because then I would be close to Village Road and El Kawser. So, this is what I did.

I ordered a taxi from Esmat. He had a booking from another two people in El Andalous to go to the same place, so he said I could share the taxi with them. It turned out to be a young couple (Ajay and Sunita – apologies if they are reading and I’ve misspelled and/or got the names wrong!). To my delight Ajay is planning on coming over here to live in August, so that will be another permanent resident in El Andalous. Slowly, slowly, we are building up!

When we arrived at Esplanada Mall, I realised that I’d been there before with Holger, so initially I was disappointed to be somewhere familiar. I didn’t need to see Mamsha / Touristic Promenade again, so I tried to recall what Kathryn had said regarding directions and decided that the road just opposite the mall must be Village Road (and now I’m not so sure!). I think this was the street that I kept on wanting to go up when I was with Holger at night and Holger kept on saying he thought it was too dangerous.

Anyway, it was daylight now, so I finally fulfilled my desire to walk up there. Whether or not it was Village Road is a bit immaterial, because it still led me to where I wanted to be. I saw the gleaming Orbit building (the company that built and now manage El Andalous), which Kathryn had mentioned, so I knew I was on the right track.

Then I turned the corner and saw the Egyptian hospital. Again, further confirmation that I was in the correct place! I had no idea it was so close to the Touristic Promenade. I briefly thought I should go in and say hello to my consultant and show him my perfect foot, but it was but a passing fantasy.

I was really looking for a study desk / dining table and maybe a standard lamp; Nicole had said that two good furniture shops (one bathroom, one interiors) had just opened near the Egyptian hospital, so that’s also why I was pleased to see the hospital.

By the way, there are lots of hospitals in Hurghada and this one is called the Egyptian hospital; it’s not my name for it, nor is it the Egyptian hospital as opposed to the German hospital, for instance, which is what I first thought when people kept on asking me which hospital I’d been to. There’s a Nile Hospital as well, for instance, and a whole load of others, too. Hurghada is full of hospitals!

Anyway, satisfied that I had arrived in the correct area, I carried on up the road and came across Metro, a supermarket chain in Hurghada / Egypt, so I went in to see what it was like and whether it differed much from Spinneys. I’d heard a lot about it, so I was curious.

I think prices were comparable; they had larger milk cartons and water containers than in Spinneys, plus some more exotic items such as pesto, half-coffeinated coffee, oyster sauce, etc. I really felt I should use the opportunity to buy something, but I’d only recently stocked up at Spinneys and I still couldn’t decide what to cook for Ann and Brigitte (whom I owed a dinner invitation). As usual, in my indecision, I ended up not buying anything at all.

I continued up the road and came across a kitchenware store. Like most Egyptian shops, it was a collection of random items on a theme shoved into one small space (well, it wasn’t really so small, by Egyptian standards). I did wonder if I could get some picture hooks there, but I only found hooks that you stick onto a wall and they weren’t heavy-duty enough for my requirements.

Next to it was a light shop, so I went in, but they didn’t have anything that grabbed my attention. In neither place was I hassled at all, so it was a pleasant experience.

The road itself was typical for Egypt, well, Hurghada. Two lots of two-lane traffic with a pedestrian bit running in the middle between the two roads. There were pavements either side, but they would occasionally suddenly stop and you’d be left having to walk out into the road, and at times they would just change into sand, so I ended up using the middle section. That way, I was already half-way there whichever side took my fancy. Also, it’s not really that you have shop after shop; you have a couple of shops, followed by some empty buildings, followed by a couple of shops, etc. Shopping isn’t particularly easy here!

After the kitchenware shop, I decided to turn round since I hadn’t yet found the furniture shops that Nicole had mentioned and quite a lot of empty buildings lay ahead. After negotiating the traffic, I managed to get onto the road by the Egyptian hospital. I now think that this is Village Road, but I’m not too sure. Lo and behold, just by the hospital, there were two large furniture shops, one for interiors and one for bathrooms. Success!

Rather than make this blog too long, I’ll continue this adventure in the next blog!