El Andalous - Internet Issues

Beaches are Still Closed

Well, I’m here, so you can safely guess that I got my internet working. It was, however, not without some problem.

I went into Senzo Mall again on the day my visa was due to expire to ask if they could extend the use of my current internet even though I had no visa. This wasn’t so easy to explain (my fault, I should speak Arabic). They seemed quite happy at first until they asked for my passport and saw that my visa had expired. They requested I go and get a new visa first. I explained that I couldn’t because the visa office wasn’t open. I’m not sure what part they didn’t understand, but they showed me my last visa renewal and asked how had I obtained that visa if the visa office was closed. I tried to communicate that the previous visa was before coronavirus and now the visa office was no longer open. There was a lot of discussion.

They said they would have to phone head office, which they did, and then they told me to come back in 20 minutes, when they’d heard back from head office. Okay, not a problem. I didn’t need any shopping, so I went to see if the coffee shop was open for takeaway coffees, but it wasn’t. However, I’d noticed that the ice cream shop was open, so I took a milkshake instead. I was thirsty and hot, so that was probably better anyway, if fattening. It was very sweet!

I went back, but head office hadn’t got back to them yet. So, another thirty minutes wait / wandering round the shopping mall. I went back yet again, but still no news from head office. I told them that my bus back was leaving in fifteen minutes. Somehow, they got through. Head office said I could have an extension of one month. Fine, go ahead.

However, it turned out that they couldn’t extend my visa on the system. It was something to do with the system itself. I’m not sure what. Time was running out. In the end, they said that all they could do was have me purchase an extra month’s internet. I didn’t really want to do that, as I still had three months left on my old package, but they were insistent and my time was running out. They ended up giving me 55GB for one month – I really only wanted 20GB. I did ask if another, smaller (and cheaper) package was available, but he started to look it up on his system to find out and I didn’t have the time for that. By now, the bus was waiting for me.

To their credit (and they were only doing their job, but I was under time pressure!), they put it through really quickly (compared with normal), and agreed to do some paperwork without me being present; I’d just have to wait for an hour before I could use it. I paid in cash rather than by card, because my card had malfunctioned in the ice cream shop and I didn’t want to risk wasting any more time.

I ran for the bus, hoping that they had indeed waited for me (they had). I’d usually wash my hands straight after touching cash, but I didn’t have time, so I did it as soon as I sat down in the bus. I had already washed them several times within the Mall (they have dispenser with hand sanitiser).

Anyway, all’s well that ends well. I have internet, and that’s the main thing! Although, I should probably add the caveat that I’ve had two mornings in the last week where there’s been no internet in Hurghada. It seems to depend on which provider you use. But it’s come back on again by the afternoon each time, insha’hllah!