El Andalous - Sorting Out Visas

How Most People Feel at the Visa Office?
(actually, it's a King Kong Sculpture at Sand City, Hurghada)

When I first arrived back into El Andalous maybe a month ago, I had some immediate admin to attend to. The most important thing was to get my visa.

The visa situation over here seems to have clarified a bit, although I have heard that there have been instances where the “rules” haven’t been applied. Generally, for most people, it seems possible to get a 6-month visa extension after you’ve got the airport visa and at the same time (for a cost) you can apply for a re-entry visa, which will allow you to go in and out of the country. If you don’t have the re-entry visa, going out of the country invalidates your last visa and you have to purchase a new visa at the airport each time. If you want to stay a year, you have to apply for a second 6-month visa, but you can’t get a re-entry visa for those last 6 months. After a year, you have to leave the country for one overnight and then start all over again.

Since I was leaving the country after only two weeks, I needed to get the visa sorted as soon as possible. Fortunately, it went fairly smoothly and was organised, although the system is a bit convoluted. You have to queue to get the form to apply for the 6-month extension. I asked for the form for the multi-entry too. However, I think the guy misunderstood me as asking if it could be for multiple family members, so he said it was included on the form.

Then you queue again at the same place to hand in your completed form with your required documents and they give you a slip to take to the cashier. This is when I found out that my re-entry wasn’t included because I happened to know that the price they were charging on the pay-in slip wasn’t enough to include multi-entry.

For the form for the multi-entry visa, I was told to go and queue in a different office (where they have to check that you’ve only just come into the country), then I had to fill out that form, queue again at the original counter to get my other slip for payment of my re-entry visa. Then you queue at the cashier to pay; they give you a receipt which they advise you to photocopy. You go to another place to get it photocopied and then you queue again when you go back to your original counter to show that you’ve paid the cashier. Then they tell you to come back the next day. And then the next day you queue to get your visa and passport back.

It helped that I knew roughly what the process was and that I managed to catch that they hadn’t charged me for the re-entry. Some other person applying for the visa latched onto me while I was there and asked me to explain the process because she didn’t really know what was going on and how to get the re-entry visa and where to get the forms. She also did not know what the rules were regarding re-entry visas (how long they last, when you can get one, etc). It felt quite strange to be someone who actually knew something!

However, I got it easily enough and I was really happy about that. I’m just so pleased that the re-entry visas are back at last!

I had a bit of a confrontation with my taxi driver, which is unusual, because my taxi fare this time was more than double what I used to pay. In the end, I think I just hadn’t realized that Esmat now charges if the taxi waits for you. Before, they would wait for free so as not to lose the business for the return fare. Also, the fares have gone up with petrol prices having risen.

As usual, there’s always something that’s a bit of a shock on returning!

El Andalous - Returning Again

Back on My Balcony Again!

When I returned to El Andalous a month ago, I was actually longing to be back in Egypt. It’s not that I didn’t want to be in Zurich so much, but I was missing the beach and the sunshine. I feel much more relaxed when I’m in Egypt than when I’m in Europe, despite the stress of things going wrong in Egypt, the crazy traffic, and the hassle of having to barter or to insist multiple times in order to get anything done. Somehow, the warmth just penetrates right into your very bones and before long, it’s impossible for your body not to succumb to a state of relaxation.

This time, just two weeks after I’d left Egypt again, I was much less in the mood to return. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to come back, but I’d only recently breathed in some of my “home” (Egyptian) air and somehow that had been enough to feed my soul for now. Consequently, I would have been quite happy to have stayed in Zurich for another week or two. The weather in Zurich, with temperatures in the high 20s, probably also helped.

I’ll leave another blog to explain all the settling in that I had to do when I came back a month ago; this time, all that admin stuff had been completed, so returning this second time was actually very easy. In addition, in my absence, our management company finally replastered and repainted my bedroom wall after a leak (I think it’s taken about three years to get them to do this) and they’d repaired my balcony wall and ceiling as I’d requested.

I returned with a cold, so I only did some leisurely swimming and snorkeling rather than “serious” swimming for the first week. Surprisingly, for the first few days I was back, I pined a little for Zurich. It may be a bit like when you go on holiday and it takes you a while to switch off. Here, it just seemed that Sahl Hasheesh was very quiet compared with the hectic rush that was my last two weeks in Zurich. I was looking forward to the slower pace, but then when it came, I had itchy feet.

However, the sun is starting to eat its way back into my system, and I can feel my body entering a deep relaxation zone and I’m starting to feel blessed again for this laid-back lifestyle. On thinking about it, I also believe there’s something quite special about Sahl Hasheesh. A bit like the way some houses or flats somehow feel “happy”, Sahl Hasheesh, to me, as a place has a very particular feel about it. Even though it’s totally modern, it’s a tourist resort and not really very Egyptian at all, the air somehow holds a bit of Egyptian mystique to it, something that calls to me, to my very being, and embraces me in its warmth, welcomes me with the sand, the sea, and the mountains, if I only breathe it in and allow it to let me join its cocoon.

Possibly more than with expats going to France or Spain (or maybe not!), most of those who have chosen to buy here in Egypt and have stayed with their investment feel drawn to Egypt in some way, and seem to assume that others feel the same. I’m not sure I was ever drawn to Egypt, but I do feel it has now entered my soul. I feel it is now a part of me.

Zurich - Busy Schedule

An Autumn Stroll in Basel

And wham, that’s two weeks already gone.

I’ve hardly had time to think while trying to pack everything in I wanted to do.

Much to my joy, the Zurich Film Festival went on until 8th October this year, so I was back in time to see some films there. I don’t get the chance to go to the cinema when I’m in Egypt, so it’s a luxury I enjoy while I’m over in Europe. And, of course, at the Film Festival, you get the chance to see some non-mainstream films that in any case you might not usually get to see.

I saw one documentary about a rinpoche (reincarnated Buddhist monk) waiting to be recognized as the reincarnation he was, although it was as much about the relationship between the young boy (the rinpoche) and his uncle. The other two were films, one called Custody (apparently the word in French also means something like “kill by strangulation / stifling” or something) about a custody fight over their son; the other one was weird (I like weird!) and called Animals and blended the distinctions between space, time, dream, and reality with a basic story about a woman who thought her husband was cheating on her. I wished I could have seen more films but there are only so many hours in a day!

I also went to Cirque de Soleil’s Ovo, which, as ever, made me marvel at what the human body is capable of (not mine, though!) and how amazing it is that we are equipped with this wonderfully flexible tool!

It’s also been busy at work, which is why I’m over in Zurich, and I’m blaming the fact that we had to start a meeting at 7.30am, and the dinner out the evening before, for the fact that I’ve got a cold (which is also why today’s blog is a little bit late). I’m just not used to working these long hours any more!

As for food, well, I’d lost my appetite a bit when I returned to Egypt. I think it was the heat. But as soon as I arrived back in Zurich, I just couldn’t seem to stop eating. I’m sure I’ve eaten more than the two weeks of less food that I had when I was in Egypt. And I’ve had plenty of opportunities to eat – whether catching up with people at work over lunch, eating out in the evening before a film or show, going to a friend’s place for dinner to see her new flat which overlooks the lake, having a lovely bit of cake before embarking on a walk…

This last week it’s been unseasonably warm, but wonderful. The trees are all looking amazing this year, particularly when the sun shines, and I feel privileged to have been able to experience this again. I was a bit disappointed, but also happy, to discover that the plants on my balcony had actually fared better in my absence than when I was tending them. Several are still in bloom even though it’s mid-October. My neighbours will have to get the benefit of that.

And now I need to pack up and leave. It’s been a wonderful , if short, two weeks.

Zurich - Brief Visit

Zurich - Boats Closed for Winter

And so I’m back in Zurich again, but just for two weeks.

I’d been warned that the weather had turned colder, but it wasn’t as bad as it could have been and I was lucky that the day after I returned, it was bright blue sky. This time, coming back to my flat finally felt like home. After all the effort I’d put into getting curtains hung, sorting out my finances, buying extra furniture, arranging my internet access, etc, this time, there wasn’t really anything to do to the flat and I could settle right back in.

The flat itself was also surprisingly warm. My rental contract states that I have to leave the heating on even if I’m away, so I’d turned it all right down, but the flat was plenty warm enough. It’s sufficiently cold at night that I need to shut the windows, so I’m spared the noise of the planes now. I’m also using my duvet, but I’m sleeping pretty well.

There’s still quite a bit of admin that I wanted to get done and almost a week has gone and I haven’t made much progress. I sometimes feel that everything goes wrong for me much more often than for other people!

I’d applied for some credit cards with Swiss airlines so that I could build up some airmiles – and mostly, to take advantage of their 20,000 miles welcome bonus so that I could upgrade my flight to Miami in December (more about that later this year). The credit cards arrived, but my welcome miles haven’t been credited and my flights to and from Zurich to Hurghada also haven’t been credited, so something’s gone wrong there. Also, they require an MTAN (a code sent to your mobile phone) for you to login to their internet banking, but the MTAN is just not arriving to my phone for some reason. So one step forward (got the cards), and three steps back (need to get my flights credited, need to sort out the MTAN, need to get my welcome bonus miles).

Another thing that went wrong was my bike pump. I bought a new one when I was here last and took it back to me to Egypt, since I can’t seem to get my pump over there to work on my Flying Pigeon. I brought my hand-held pump with me back to Zurich to see if that would be OK for my Zurich bicycle. I pumped up my back tyre without too much problem, but when I did my front tyre, I couldn’t unscrew the pump from the valve afterwards. At the moment, the pump is still hanging from my front wheel as I just can’t remove it. I can only hope that if I try every day, it’ll gradually budge and I’ll get it off. I spent ages on the internet to see if anyone had a similar problem, but this seems to be fairly unique to me.

On the plane coming back to Zurich I wondered why I’d been so keen to come back to Switzerland so soon, but actually on entering my flat, everything suddenly felt good and the time too short. Time is always too short, wherever I am!

El Andalous - My Return

El Andalous and Bougainvillea

My return to Sahl Hasheesh was, as usual, a bit of a jolt as events unfurled to let me know that I was back in a different culture again.

One of Esmat’s drivers was at the airport to meet me punctually, which was a relief. I’d informed Esmat that I wanted to go to the bank to change some money before going to El Andalous.

Unfortunately, my driver started insisting that I use his friend to exchange my money, which I didn’t really want to do and I didn’t really want to tell him how much money I wanted to change. But it’s hard to say no, because he made it into an issue of me not trusting him. I was definitely back in Egypt! Fortunately, it turned out that his friend could only exchange Euros or USD and then I refused the next place he took me to on the basis that the rate wasn’t good enough. So, it ended up with me not changing my money after all and just paying more taxi fare for the longer journey to the exchange places. Only I couldn’t pay the taxi, because I didn’t have any money, but fortunately I knew Esmat wouldn’t mind if I paid a few days later.

Anyway, I arrived back at El Andalous. This time I hadn’t had any apprehensions at all about returning and it had completely escaped my mind that every time I come back, something always goes wrong.

So, the first thing that went wrong was that I entered my flat only to find it hadn’t been cleaned. I rushed out, initially thinking I would have to complain to Medhat, the manager, but then realized when I saw him sitting in the reception, that to be polite I would have to shake hands and exchange niceties. This gave him enough time to apologise for the flat not being clean and to arrange for the cleaners to come straight away.

It was a bit of a nuisance because I couldn’t settle back in straight away, but I unpacked a bit, put my swimming costume on, and went to the beach for a few hours while the cleaners did their job (it’s a hard life).

When I got back to the flat, after their working hours, I discovered that my kitchen tap was now no longer working. Well, actually, it had come off completely, although they’d balanced it on in place so that it wasn’t obvious when you first come in. That’s also very typical here – they always try to cover up breakages rather than letting you know about them.

Luckily, the plumber sorted it out the very next day and gave me a new tap, but unfortunately I still didn’t have money at that point to pay him.

I was a bit horrified at seeing all the water come out in a solid brown colour when I turned on the taps in my bathroom and for my shower, but it’s like this any time when you’ve been away for a while. It’s the sand that builds up while you’re away. I let the water run for a while and it was soon back to normal. I’d just completely forgotten about that.

Another thing that I soon realized had broken in my absence was my power bank, which I use with my solar panel to charge all my appliances, including my laptop. I suspect that the power bank just got too hot when it was left in the flat with no air conditioning over the summer. It’s still under guarantee, and I’m hoping to be able to get a replacement, but it’s not going to be easy because I suspect it will have to be delivered to the UK and I’m not planning on being there for quite some time. Electricity prices have risen a lot over the last year, so I had been looking forward to using it so that it could earn some of its cost back.

Otherwise, though, it wasn’t so bad. My internet purchased at the airport worked straight away, and my phone was still able to make and receive calls. I’m always astonished that my phone sim in Egypt just keeps on functioning even after I've been away for 6 months; most other people say theirs doesn’t work after they've been away. I feel like I have a magic phone! Anyway, I’m very grateful, because I would really rather not have more hassle with my phone than need be. My return journeys are definitely slowly improving!