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| Arriving into Egypt |
Whoops, sorry, I forgot about last week’s blog. I flew back to Zurich early Monday, meant to write it as soon as I got back, but in the end I was just too tired.
Anyway, I booked my flight to Zurich with a plan to stay there for ten days. As soon as my taxi arrived at Hurghada airport, a porter took my trolley and pushed it to the airport building (maybe 200m). Then he asked for a 50LE tip! I ended up giving him 20LE, which I still thought was quite generous, given I didn’t even want him to provide me with the service in the first place.
My luggage was scanned; I don’t think distancing was too much enforced (but not too huddled either), but everyone was wearing masks (compulsory). I checked in, then had my luggage scanned again. They made me take my laptop to an additional desk where it was swabbed for bomb detection (that was new!) and then I had to sign my name on a list.
Once into the gate area, I was thirsty and thought I’d buy myself some water. However, when I went to the café I usually go to, their water was on “special offer”, down from 90LE to 60LE for 500ml, if I recall correctly. The normal price is about 5LE, at the very most 20LE if you’re dining out somewhere expensive. There was no way I was paying those prices, so I decided to remain thirsty and grab a drink on the plane (I was in Business, so it was all included anyway). A cup of coffee would have been cheaper, but I didn’t want coffee.
On the plane, I had two free seats next to me, an aisle, then two free seats, then another person. Two people were sitting in the row directly behind me. I felt pretty safe, and we had to wear masks whenever we weren’t eating or drinking (Business class still served hot meals and as much as you wanted to drink). They gave a nice explanation that the air wasn’t being recirculated, so with that and the mask wearing, experts had deemed risk of infection as very low. I found this very comforting and felt very safe during the flight.
Before they showed the safety video, they added that if the oxygen masks come down, you should take off your face mask! All these little things they have to think about.
For some reason, I took my mask off to go to the toilet. The air stewardess looked at me a bit strangely, but didn’t say anything. Afterwards, I read that someone got infected by not wearing a mask in an airplane toilet, but I don’t actually believe that (my theory is that the person didn’t adhere to quarantine strictly; they didn’t show symptoms until day 14 of quarantine). Anyway, I do think I should have kept my mask on, so that’s something to bear in mind if you are going to fly!
Wearing the mask didn’t bother me too much. I was wearing my summer clothes and I’d forgotten that sometimes planes can be cold, so I fretted for a while about that, but in the end I was fine. Over here, wearing the mask makes me ridiculously hot and I find it very uncomfortable because of that, but that wasn’t a problem on the plane as I wasn’t in a 40 degree heat.
On my return trip, my flight was very early (06:45), so the business lounge wasn’t even open. I was delighted to see that a Pret A Manger had opened in D gates and was open, so even though I’d had breakfast, I took a coffee and a chocolate croissant. I’d forgotten just how heavenly that combination was; I’m so glad I added that into my culinary experience of being in Switzerland!
The return flight was fuller since in the mean time Egypt had brought out a ruling that from September 1st, everyone entering Egypt had to have a PCR test to show negative for coronavirus. The regulations are continually changing with countries changing (mostly adding) countries on their quarantine lists daily, it feels. That’s a major stress of travelling just now; will you be able to get back? My return flight was 31st August, so I was extremely lucky with my timing. I guess many people rebooked to my flght to avoid the expense of having the test done. I did feel less safe with more people on the flight (particularly since the woman (next to one) beside me kept on shouting back to her husband behind her – I’m sure her breath must have been coming out that mask!), but it was fine. Again, everyone wore masks, of course.
On arrival into Hurghada, I was proud of Egypt, since they sanitized all the luggage handles as the bags dropped onto the conveyor belt. I got a wet hand grabbing my luggage, but I’m happy that it was a safe hand and a safe piece of baggage.
I’d ordered a taxi and requested the driver wear a mask. He was there waiting for me and wearing a mask with the company logo, so, again, I was impressed.
All in all, traveling wasn’t such a bad experience. The uncertainty of constantly changing regulations is probably the biggest stress.
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