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| Fiona Living the Life! |
( 12th - 22nd January, 2015, at Fiona’s with just under 48 hours at Luxor)
I’ve never done the Middle East or Africa before (yes, Egypt is North Africa!). I’ve almost exclusively traveled in Europe and am not known to shun comfort or to be intrepid in any way. I did practically no research for this holiday, not even Google Maps or Fiona’s blog, because I knew Fiona would take care of me and I wanted to be surprised.
I’ve been back in Paris for a few days now; on my immediate return, the cold, grey and wet seemed like a bad waking dream but Egypt was the dream – a fantastic one!
Egyptians would ask if it was my first time in Egypt and then say ‘welcome’ with glowing eyes fixed on me as if envying my fresh encounter with the magic timelessness that is Egypt. Even the ersatz Sahl Hasheesh emanates a sense of primordial mystery.
What follows in 3 blog entries (expectations; surprises; Luxor) are just some of the many impressions that come to mind (and which may serve to assuage the fears of untravelled wimps).
What I Expected From Egypt vs. What I Got
Mosquitoes ravaging me as they usually do – But not one bite! There were some to be seen but they did not attack and I used the deterrents I brought with me very sparingly.
Diarrhoea – Quite the opposite – pocketing white bread rolls for lunch from the Luxor hotel led to particularly unbudgeable constipation. It took some major heaving to be relieved! Fiona left me to it.
Unbearable heat – I don’t like very hot weather but I didn’t expect to feel so chilly when I arrived at Hurghada airport at midnight. For the first week or so, it was hot in the bright sun during the day but the evenings were nippy. Some Egyptian men seemed prepared and wore woolly hats but I noted that the taxi-driver wasn’t sure how to turn the heating on in the car. The end of the second week was perfect. No teeth-chattering shivering on coming out of the sea and warm, humid nights.
To sleep badly – Fiona has the perfect bed and she gave it up for me! At the Luxor hotel they had bolster-type pillows which I eventually chucked off and ended up with my head thrown back and my jaw open like a dead pharaoh waiting to receive choice sustenance in the afterlife, but all I got, unfortunately, was a mouthful of my own stomach acid that led to a hacking cough that woke Fiona. Her pillow turned out to be ok but it didn’t occur to me to phone reception to get a better one.
Tiredness – In spite of the regular hiccups in my sleep routine - there was Running Boy above Fiona’s apartment (he’d sprint from one end to the other interminably), the Egyptian workers having a long and loud mothers’ meeting early every morning in the passage behind the bedroom, and the general insomnia in Luxor - I was unusually alert and energetic and never had any sinking moments at all until bedtime. Egyptian air must be particularly invigorating!
Cowardliness in the face of new challenges – I’m such a bad swimmer that I would fairly be categorised as a non-swimmer – I went very quickly from tentatively paddling and holding Fiona’s hand to snorkelling independently for long stretches round coral beds in among the weird and wonderful (and potentially dangerous) inhabitants of the Red Sea.
I ignored a twitching 3-inch cockroach on the apartment wall (yes, it was 3 inches, Fiona) and went back to sleep.
Similarly, I ignored Fiona’s tall tales of a rat wiggling its tail out of the air-conditioning unit and mice scuffling to get in under the mosquito netting and got to sleep just fine.
I can’t drive but I zoomed around Sahl Hasheesh in a beach buggy, dodging blithely-drunk Russians zigzagging their showy buggy (got up in the style of a car from the twenties) uncontrollably.
I’ve been back in Paris for a few days now; on my immediate return, the cold, grey and wet seemed like a bad waking dream but Egypt was the dream – a fantastic one!
Egyptians would ask if it was my first time in Egypt and then say ‘welcome’ with glowing eyes fixed on me as if envying my fresh encounter with the magic timelessness that is Egypt. Even the ersatz Sahl Hasheesh emanates a sense of primordial mystery.
What follows in 3 blog entries (expectations; surprises; Luxor) are just some of the many impressions that come to mind (and which may serve to assuage the fears of untravelled wimps).
What I Expected From Egypt vs. What I Got
Mosquitoes ravaging me as they usually do – But not one bite! There were some to be seen but they did not attack and I used the deterrents I brought with me very sparingly.
Diarrhoea – Quite the opposite – pocketing white bread rolls for lunch from the Luxor hotel led to particularly unbudgeable constipation. It took some major heaving to be relieved! Fiona left me to it.
Unbearable heat – I don’t like very hot weather but I didn’t expect to feel so chilly when I arrived at Hurghada airport at midnight. For the first week or so, it was hot in the bright sun during the day but the evenings were nippy. Some Egyptian men seemed prepared and wore woolly hats but I noted that the taxi-driver wasn’t sure how to turn the heating on in the car. The end of the second week was perfect. No teeth-chattering shivering on coming out of the sea and warm, humid nights.
To sleep badly – Fiona has the perfect bed and she gave it up for me! At the Luxor hotel they had bolster-type pillows which I eventually chucked off and ended up with my head thrown back and my jaw open like a dead pharaoh waiting to receive choice sustenance in the afterlife, but all I got, unfortunately, was a mouthful of my own stomach acid that led to a hacking cough that woke Fiona. Her pillow turned out to be ok but it didn’t occur to me to phone reception to get a better one.
Tiredness – In spite of the regular hiccups in my sleep routine - there was Running Boy above Fiona’s apartment (he’d sprint from one end to the other interminably), the Egyptian workers having a long and loud mothers’ meeting early every morning in the passage behind the bedroom, and the general insomnia in Luxor - I was unusually alert and energetic and never had any sinking moments at all until bedtime. Egyptian air must be particularly invigorating!
Cowardliness in the face of new challenges – I’m such a bad swimmer that I would fairly be categorised as a non-swimmer – I went very quickly from tentatively paddling and holding Fiona’s hand to snorkelling independently for long stretches round coral beds in among the weird and wonderful (and potentially dangerous) inhabitants of the Red Sea.
I ignored a twitching 3-inch cockroach on the apartment wall (yes, it was 3 inches, Fiona) and went back to sleep.
Similarly, I ignored Fiona’s tall tales of a rat wiggling its tail out of the air-conditioning unit and mice scuffling to get in under the mosquito netting and got to sleep just fine.
I can’t drive but I zoomed around Sahl Hasheesh in a beach buggy, dodging blithely-drunk Russians zigzagging their showy buggy (got up in the style of a car from the twenties) uncontrollably.
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| Buggy Drive at Dusk |
Ineptitude at haggling - I got some good deals quite calmly! It helped not having to fake a ‘take it or leave it’ attitude. They were more desperate to ply their wares than I was to have them.
Pricing for tourist attractions and restaurants are fixed but tourists generally pay more than Egyptians for attractions – it’s a fact – there is two-tier pricing. The temples at Luxor are about 100 EGP (£10) each for those obviously foreign. Our Egyptian tour guide at Luxor was gobsmacked when I told her that the British Museum was free. She spluttered ‘But for foreigners?’ and I said ‘For everybody’ and her eyes dazzled.
Desert with soft undulating sand dunes – it was mostly quite solid-looking with clumpy patches and relatively flat until you’re among the awe-inspiring mountains. When we stopped in the middle so I could get into the front seat, I was unsettled by the unfamiliar barrenness all around me, and an irrational fear came over me of being stranded there alone. Safely back in the car, we sped through the Red Sea Mountain Chain accompanied by stirring Egyptian music; a backing singer belting out refrains as if he was calling from the peaks themselves.
Vague fear of hostility against Westerners and the relatively affluent – I found the Egyptians from all walks of life to be amiable and laid-back, almost down to a man, and tolerant and well-disposed to the odd ways and wishes of tourists.
Vague fear of acts of terrorism – police checkpoints are all over the place and active. The security at Sahl Hasheesh have what looks like a golf club with a disc on the end, which, I, initially, stupidly thought was a metal detector (duh!) but was a mirror for spotting bombs on the underside of a car.
Limited and poor quality choice of food – Spinney’s supermarket sells all that you could need in Hurghada’s showpiece Senzo Mall shopping complex; the taxi driver who picked me up from the airport took me for a quick spin round it to show it off.
The choice in the restaurants of Sahl Hasheesh and Hurghada is as extensive as anywhere in the West, you can choose from a wide range of Western to Middle Eastern, and the luxurious settings in Sahl Hasheesh are numerous and affordable. There were relatively few Egyptian specialities – one being stuffed pigeon. Beef bacon (a darkish meat) replaces bacon but is pleasant enough.
A sensitive stomach playing up - I can safely say I never had a bad meal during my stay and I only once had bloating after guzzling down too much pizza.
I was told that salad and veg were washed in boiled water and I ate them with no ill-consequences.
There was often a great selection of freshly squeezed juices available from 12EGP to 25EGP, such as, banana, mango, guava, strawberry and cantaloupe; they were all tasty and refreshing. I never got round to trying fig or date juice.
(There are often amusing misspellings like ‘lamb shake’ and ‘rice quakers’ (or something like that); Fiona, has promised to collate other chucklers. Well-known desserts like tiramisu are given an Egyptian twist but I was puzzled at how one dessert came to have that appellation, having nothing but whiteness in common with a tiramisu. )
The town and resorts being fairly close together and similar – you need a taxi or a car to get places and you cross largish stretches of desert. Hurghada and Sahl Hasheesh are like night and day; one is buzzing and burgeoning with life and commerce, and the other is spruce, spacious and still. And after Luxor, I found Safi’s comparison of Sahl Hasheesh to Disneyworld quite apt.
More camels – There were lots of donkeys and horses to be seen in Luxor and Qena but the only camels I saw were in Hurghada – just two adult ones and a very cute baby one.
Next week I’ll tell you about What I Didn’t Expect (which, admittedly, is similar to What I Expected vs. What I Got, but never mind!)
Pricing for tourist attractions and restaurants are fixed but tourists generally pay more than Egyptians for attractions – it’s a fact – there is two-tier pricing. The temples at Luxor are about 100 EGP (£10) each for those obviously foreign. Our Egyptian tour guide at Luxor was gobsmacked when I told her that the British Museum was free. She spluttered ‘But for foreigners?’ and I said ‘For everybody’ and her eyes dazzled.
Desert with soft undulating sand dunes – it was mostly quite solid-looking with clumpy patches and relatively flat until you’re among the awe-inspiring mountains. When we stopped in the middle so I could get into the front seat, I was unsettled by the unfamiliar barrenness all around me, and an irrational fear came over me of being stranded there alone. Safely back in the car, we sped through the Red Sea Mountain Chain accompanied by stirring Egyptian music; a backing singer belting out refrains as if he was calling from the peaks themselves.
Vague fear of hostility against Westerners and the relatively affluent – I found the Egyptians from all walks of life to be amiable and laid-back, almost down to a man, and tolerant and well-disposed to the odd ways and wishes of tourists.
Vague fear of acts of terrorism – police checkpoints are all over the place and active. The security at Sahl Hasheesh have what looks like a golf club with a disc on the end, which, I, initially, stupidly thought was a metal detector (duh!) but was a mirror for spotting bombs on the underside of a car.
Limited and poor quality choice of food – Spinney’s supermarket sells all that you could need in Hurghada’s showpiece Senzo Mall shopping complex; the taxi driver who picked me up from the airport took me for a quick spin round it to show it off.
The choice in the restaurants of Sahl Hasheesh and Hurghada is as extensive as anywhere in the West, you can choose from a wide range of Western to Middle Eastern, and the luxurious settings in Sahl Hasheesh are numerous and affordable. There were relatively few Egyptian specialities – one being stuffed pigeon. Beef bacon (a darkish meat) replaces bacon but is pleasant enough.
A sensitive stomach playing up - I can safely say I never had a bad meal during my stay and I only once had bloating after guzzling down too much pizza.
I was told that salad and veg were washed in boiled water and I ate them with no ill-consequences.
There was often a great selection of freshly squeezed juices available from 12EGP to 25EGP, such as, banana, mango, guava, strawberry and cantaloupe; they were all tasty and refreshing. I never got round to trying fig or date juice.
(There are often amusing misspellings like ‘lamb shake’ and ‘rice quakers’ (or something like that); Fiona, has promised to collate other chucklers. Well-known desserts like tiramisu are given an Egyptian twist but I was puzzled at how one dessert came to have that appellation, having nothing but whiteness in common with a tiramisu. )
The town and resorts being fairly close together and similar – you need a taxi or a car to get places and you cross largish stretches of desert. Hurghada and Sahl Hasheesh are like night and day; one is buzzing and burgeoning with life and commerce, and the other is spruce, spacious and still. And after Luxor, I found Safi’s comparison of Sahl Hasheesh to Disneyworld quite apt.
More camels – There were lots of donkeys and horses to be seen in Luxor and Qena but the only camels I saw were in Hurghada – just two adult ones and a very cute baby one.
Next week I’ll tell you about What I Didn’t Expect (which, admittedly, is similar to What I Expected vs. What I Got, but never mind!)
By the way, 'traveled' is American spelling. Something that I'm not guilty of!
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteThanks for editing the name of mountains as the Red Sea Mountain Chain - I'd written Luxor mountains - but I meant it in the sense of 'the mountains on the way to Luxor'.
ReplyDeleteI should just have named them properly at the beginning of the paragraph.