El Andalous - One of Those Weeks

El Andalous - Hiding My Stress!

There seem to be phases in life where everything goes wrong. I had this just before I moved over here and now, four years later, it seems that it’s happening again. I hope that it’s just a week of things not going well and not months on end, like it was before!

I don’t really know where to start. My underwater camera has been playing up recently, so I decided to buy a new one. I thought it would be easy since I bought my last one over here, but it wasn’t. None of the shops seem to sell them any more – presumably due to Egypt’s lack of foreign currency and thus inability to pay for imports.

I eventually found one in a stall in Senzo Mall. On the box, it that that it was a high definition underwater camera, but when I opened it up after buying it, the leaflet inside said that some boxes may hold a low resolution model and this should be discussed with the retailer. What a con! And, guess what? Yes, my camera was a low resolution model.

I decided to buy one online on souq.com (Egyptian site) instead. Even they had only one high resolution underwater camera for sale, but it was the one that all the magazines were recommending, so I was happy and decided to swallow the cost. However, the website rejected all three of my credit cards; I have no idea why. 

Reluctantly, I decided to select the “pay cash on delivery” option and took half of the money out in preparation (it was too expensive for me to take all the money out at once). And then I got a message the next day to say that the item was no longer in stock. Now I had all this money in my flat that I didn’t really want to have in cash!

I took the low resolution camera that I’d bought back the next evening when I was doing my weekly shop via our free bus that runs every Monday at 7pm. I went into Spinneys first, bought some food, got to the counter, opened my purse, only to find that none of my cards were in my purse because I’d tried to use them for my online shopping. 

I scraped every last EGP out of my purse and I was about 7 LE short. It was so ironic considering all the money I had at home. The queue behind me was looking impatient and I was feeling very embarrassed. Someone even offered to pay for me so that it would be quicker! I asked the cashier to take off one of my chocolate bars from the bill, but that required the manager to come over…

The next day I had to have an unwelcome conversation with my manager about a complaint that had been made about me about my work in Zurich (first time in my life that I’ve had a complaint about me!!), but what was worse was that during this conversation, a loud clattering, thumping, and squealing emanated from above my kitchen so that I could barely hear. My rats had chosen that very moment to return. I think one of them must have got caught on one of the sticky mats used to trap them. It was hurtling itself all over the place and then (right in the middle of the conversation with my manager). I heard a squirting sound which I imagine was the rat spraying urine all over the shaft above my kitchen. Horrific!

I’ve also been too busy these last two weeks to be able to go swimming during the week, which annoys me, and then we’ve had cloud, yes, cloud, in Egypt!, over the weekends. I know there’s no sympathy for me to be had here because most of you are in the midst of winter, but I’m feeling quite sorry for myself. On top of that, I had a text from one of my credit cards to say that it’s now been blocked due to suspicious activity in Egypt (that was me!).

Please let this be just a bad week and not a bad month or more!

Hurghada - Snorkeling Trips

Where to Look First?

I’ve been on two boat trips to go snorkeling since I’ve been back. One was a 10th Anniversary celebration for a group called Lotus Ladies. This was originally set up as a social group for wives of Egyptian men, but has since turned out to be more of an expat ladies group. It’s really quite an achievement that it’s been going for 10 years – the group holds classes (creativity, Arabic language), charity events, and various trips. Joke (pronounced “yoka”) has handed over to other members to run it, but it’s still going. It must be one of the longest-running groups in Hurghada.

It was a windy day when we went, but it’s often breezy in the morning on the coast and then calms down later in the afternoon. I’ve described one of these trips before. This time, it was a lot easier to get in the water from the boat than having to go in gently and slowly from the beach at El Andalous. The water is still fairly warm, and that’s much more noticeable from the boat.

There were visibly many more boats out in the sea now than when I last went with the Lotus Ladies, so tourism must be picking up. Even the hotels in Sahl Hasheesh are quite well occupied at the moment. The downside, of course, is that all the boats stop at the same places to snorkel and then you’ve got other people around you all floating about in the same patch of sea. I often wonder what the fish think of us!

I’m sure the Lotus Ladies boat trips started earlier before, so I’m quite relieved that the starting time was 9am and we got back somewhere between 4-5pm. Lunch is provided on board – fried fish, fried chicken, potatoes in a sauce, aubergine salad, green salad, rice, pasta with a sauce – and is very tasty after you’ve just come out of the sea! Our boat is hired privately between us, so we stay just as a group.

For the birthday celebrations, we had a cake (well, two cakes) and also some quizzes, prize draws, and raffles. There were over 20 of us there, so most of the rest of the time was spent chatting; on quieter trips, I like to read a book.

The many different blues of the sea never fail to captivate me and, of course, I love to see the fish and to see if I can spot any new ones that I haven’t seen before. This is when I think that being in Egypt beats being in Switzerland!

Sometimes you can see dolphins when you go out into the sea, but we didn’t spot any this time. It’s a super thing to do at this time of year – come February and March, the water will be too cold (I dread February and March – I still swim, but I have to fight with myself each day to get in!). It’s also good to get a change of scene (and some different company).  I'm waiting to see if I can get another trip in before Christmas...

Hurghada - Eating out in Egyptian Style

Sheraton Street at Night (Hurghada)

In my absence a new place called Bus Stop has opened up in Sahl Hasheesh. It’s actually a fairly famous chain in Egypt which is part restaurant, part bar, part night club, and part games area (pool table). It has live music maybe on Thursday to Saturday, and two-for-one cocktails in the early evening.

I’ve been twice already since I’ve been back, although not to the live music sessions (yet). Their signature dish is steak, which I had on my second visit. Although it was expensive for Egypt (or so I thought; I’ve since been told that some places in Hurghada charge the same now – inflation is high over here, so it’s hard to keep tags of what’s a reasonable price), it was also one of the best steaks I’ve had. The meat was extremely tender and the pepper sauce was also just right. On my first visit, I had an Indian curry dish of some kind, which was also good, but not nearly as good as the steak. I heard today that their beef burgers are also chunky with a good helping of fries, so it’s all very promising.

Another new place (for me) that I’ve tried since I’ve been back is an Egyptian restaurant in Hurghada called El Dar Darak. It had come recommended by a lot of people on a Hurghada facebook group and my curiosity was aroused.

It took a while for our taxi driver to find it – they don’t usually eat out, and consequently don’t really know the restaurants, so you have to know where you are going in order to explain it to the taxi driver (in our case, by saying it was behind the shop T Data, which we didn’t actually know ourselves!).

We were advised to arrive early (5.30pm) in order to get a table because it’s so popular; it gets full very quickly. Apparently, it used to look a bit like a canteen, but they’ve since done it up a bit, so it is actually fairly presentable (but not grand). It became busy soon after and they also seemed to have a stream of people coming in to ask for a take-away.

The duck came recommended, but I ordered the lamb chops, which you had to order in terms of how many kg (or parts thereof) that you wanted. I went for 250g, on the assumption that this was what a large steak would be. There was the national dish of pigeon on the menu, which I was quite tempted to try, but thought I’d leave that for another time. The duck came literally as a half duck (in a single piece).

Behind us there was a table of about 10 Egyptian men and they seemed to be ordering food like there was no tomorrow. The waiters brought out a huge plate absolutely stacked high with cooked pigeons and then several other plates piled up with meat. It looked as if the pigeon was only a starter (it was relatively inexpensive at 50LE, so that’s just under 2.50 GBP at current exchange rates).

One person with us ordered “mashi” which turned out to be stuffed vegetables. I would order that as a side dish if I went again, as it was delicious. But you’d need to share it, because the portion was huge.

It’s always good to find new places. The Yemini restaurant I went to before has now closed, but other than that I’ve eaten out at some of my old favorites (the Heaven in the marina, and Il Gusto in Sahl Hasheesh). I hope I’ll have some more culinary adventures before the year is out!

El Andalous - Language Problems

National Bank of Egypt, Mamsha, Hurghada

I’d brought over some (not many) Swiss francs with me to change. I mentioned in a previous blog that I never managed to do this on my arrival because the taxi driver insisted I change it with his friend. It took me a while to muster up the courage to try again.

In the mean time, Kathryn and Stephen told me that they’d gone to the bank in Mamsha (aka Touristic Promenade) and that it had been really good. I was happier just going to the bank to change my money, so I took a taxi and went. I had a different driver this time – I’d complained about the previous one and I think Esmat’s making sure I don’t have him again.

Anyway, it was a completely different experience in this bank than in the main one in the bank area. I didn’t have to queue at all, the seats were more comfortable, the atmosphere was a whole lot friendlier. The man serving me was very helpful.

But all of a sudden, there was a huge commotion in the bank. The guy serving me stood up, sat down, stood up, sat down, and then asked me if I minded if he went because his “big mother” had just arrived. I understood that he was probably meaning “big manager” since the word for manager in Arabic (Mudeer) is quite similar to “mother”. I looked over and saw a huge circle of employees standing round this very smart looking gentleman. I nodded and said it wasn’t a problem. I quite liked the idea of everyone scurrying around because his big mamma had come into the office, though!

As it turned out, it was obviously not the correct procedure for him to abandon me, since he returned almost immediately and continued to serve me. I felt a bit sorry for him, because in the mean time all the other bank employees were going outside the bank to have a group photo taken with the manager while he was stuck with me. That’s service for you!

I will definitely use that branch from now on since I hate the one in the bank area – I always have to queue for several hours, the staff are overworked and don’t have time to do more than one task for you, and it’s not a very relaxing atmosphere.

Anyway, that language error reminds me of my own difficulty when I went to Senzo Mall on our weekly bus. I’d forgotten to put on my watch and I needed to know how much time I had left to do my shopping. I’m only just back, so I wasn’t really thinking clearly when I asked one of the staff in Spinney’s if he could let me know the time.

He told me it was 7.05pm, but I knew that was wrong, because we didn’t leave El Andalous until 7pm. He then showed me the time on his mobile, saying “5”. I looked at his mobile and got confused as the digital clock was showing V:00.

My first thought was that this looked like 5pm, which was even more wrong than 7pm and I thought it rather bizarre that he had his mobile set to Roman numerals. Then, when it dawned on me that it was in Arabic numbers, and I recovered from my sense of panic at having to read the foreign lettering, I was puzzled because it did look like 7pm, just as he’d said (V in Arabic is 7). I put it down to his mobile being an hour out for some reason. It wasn’t until about ten minutes later that I realized that what I’d seen as “00” was actually, in Arabic, “55” (5 is a bit like a 0 in Arabic numbers). Therefore, the time V:00 had been 7.55pm. The guy had been trying to say that 0 was a 5 but his answer had come out as 7.05pm instead. Doh!

On the one hand it was comforting, because at least then I really did know the time; on the other hand, I was shocked at my ineptitude. I still have a long way to go in learning Arabic, it seems!