Hurghada - Lotus Ladies

Steps Up! When I Almost Missed the Boat.

Before I came over to Egypt, I’d heard (from one of the many expat online forums that are around) about a group called Lotus Ladies. I believe the group was originally set up for women married to Egyptian husbands who wanted to meet up socially during the day and it ended up turning into an expat group for women in Egypt. I didn’t know if I’d ever to get to know anyone in Egypt when I first went over, so I’d earmarked this group as a possible means of kick-starting a social life. As it was, I didn’t really need it, because everyone in El Andalous was so friendly.

Nevertheless, I do attend their events occasionally, as you will have seen from at least one of my Christmas blogs. It’s good to have a change of social scene and to hear different topics of conversation.

In the summer months, maybe also in winter, Lotus Ladies organize boat trips on a fairly regular basis. It’s a good way to escape the heat and to get a change of scene. We generally have the boat to ourselves and we often get a group discount. Anyway, I decided to join the boat trip one week, since I love being in and on the sea.

I dithered about it for ages in part because they wanted you to be there for 8am, which to me seems ridiculously early (I had to allow at least 30 minutes to get there). Who wants to get up early voluntarily? I don’t really get it. It’s not even in the Egyptian mentality to do this. But hey ho.

This time of year it’s a relief to get out on the boat and enjoy the breeze. I’m usually going round wondering if I should remove my sunglasses because just having them on my nose makes me sweat too much. Each time I open the freezer, the blast of cold air is a magical sensation that I just want to prolong. You wish you could just stick your head in there for a good five minutes. I remember relishing the nip of cold air when I first went back to Zurich in April. Actually, one thing I noticed in the UK just the other week was that even though it was hot, the air still had a little chill to it; I don’t know if that was just symptomatic of the 2016 bad summer or if it’s always been a feature of British summers that I’ve never known existed before.

Anyway, it was a fairly typical boat trip. We went to three different snorkeling locations; the first one was supposedly to see the dolphins, but they weren’t around that day. Lunch was served on board and included the usual mix of good salads, rice, pasta, fish, chicken, and kofta (all warm, apart from the salads).

The snorkeling was fun. It always surprises me how much bigger the fish are when I go right out into the sea as opposed to staying in the bay at Sahl Hasheesh. It’s also quite scary to see the mountainous reef below and to understand just how deep the water is that you’re floating on top of. Our final location was quite busy; at first we were the only ones moored there in the sea but another four boats joined within the next half an hour. Apparently, it used to be really crowded and this was regarded as practically dead.

I’ve also been out for dinner quite a few times now with the Lotus Ladies. It’s rather an experimental experience where we try places that no-one has been before (or just once), or new places that members have spotted and think may be worth trying out. It’s all bit hit and miss. All of the places have been OK, but I’m not sure I would deem any of them yet as worthy of a write up in the blog.I don’t want to damage anyone’s business by being less than glowing because life is hard enough as it is. It’s a good opportunity, though, to try out some places where you may not normally dare to go if you were on your own.