Sahl Hasheesh - Return to Snorkeling

Turtle!

Most people I know who have spent some time at El Andalous have remarked on how easy it is to get lazy – you have the whole of Sahl Hasheesh, but you can’t be bothered going any further than your own private beach. It’s so close, you can pop back into your flat if you need something, there’s no time taken up with getting there and back. Before you know it, you’ve been in Egypt for months on end and you’ve not gone any further than your own beach. It sounds terrible, but it’s just so easy to do!

Anyway, I finally got round to picking up snorkeling again. Although our beach has some small isolated bits of coral, or there’s the Sunken City, there’s not so much. Also, the same fish tend to hang out at the same spots at the same time each day, so they soon become your friends (you should all buy 25 New Year’s Resolutions – For Fish to read about my friend Finn!), but you lack the novelty value.

That’s not to say that there isn’t the occasional surprise. I was hovering over one a patch of coral at El Andalous watching the fish (this was before I came back to Egypt this time round), turned around to swim back and realized that two bulky porcupine fish were bombing towards me. I foolishly grabbed my camera and just floated there trying to get a photo whilst thinking that maybe this wasn’t the best idea.

I’d never seen these fish before and they looked fairly solid and rather bizarre. And they were flying through the water with determination right at me. I don’t know if they mistook me for a big lump of coral, but they suddenly halted (phew!) and then swam nonchalantly in another direction, as if pretending they hadn’t made a mistake at all.

Meanwhile, just a foot or two away, people were standing and chatting in the water, oblivious to the amazing creatures just next to them. It’s often the way – you’ve got your attention in one place, when actually all the real action is going on just behind you. There was another time when I saw two or three people snorkeling and behind them a whole shoal of fish was leaping out of the water in unison!

I’d heard that the Baron hotel had a good reef, so I decided to try swimming from one of my normal places (called “the ramp”, because there’s an unfinished hotel there with what looks like a large ramp heading down towards the sea) to the reef at the Baron. I’d forgotten that in the summer months, swimming from these more isolated places in Sahl Hasheesh has its own difficulty. Although you usually have the whole stretch of beach to yourself, there’s no shade, and no loungers, so it’s not so easy to sit and relax; it becomes more of a functional snorkeling trip.

The excitement of seeing fish I’d never seen before refired my enthusiasm. I managed to see a coral grouper for the first time (red fish with blue spots), a red starfish (weirdly, also with blue spots) for the first time, and I was just looking at some fish I knew already when I remembered that sometimes more exciting things are happening behind you, or maybe I sensed something, so I turned around and a Manta Ray was gliding past me flapping its sides together in a graceful movement. I was too surprised and astonished to take a photograph in time, but it was amazing to see it right beside me.

What I really like about looking at the fish is that you get so close that you can even see their eyelids opening and closing; when you see them this near to you, they seem to have distinct personalities and you really start to feel like you are one of them.

Sometimes they appear to be attracted to me and I’m not sure if they think I’m going to feed them, whether they are just curious (they strike me as curious by nature), or maybe they are trying to chase me away while I’m thinking they are trying to say hello. I never tire of seeing so many different types of fish, so many colours, the beauty of the coral and the clams, and the utter privilege of being able to visit them in their home. They always look as if they might actually bite or nudge me – they don’t have any sense of personal space – but they always just narrowly avoid me (apart from today when a cleaner fish decided to nip my arm; it was quite sharp, to my surprise, as it’s just a little fish!). It really is like swimming in an aquarium.

I finally made it to the Baron and went out a bit deeper before swimming (rather than snorkeling) back to where I’d started. A rock seemed to be below me, so I stuck my head in the water to take a look and, after my eyes had focused, I realized that the rock was a huge turtle! It started to swim when it realized I was there, but it’s the only thing I’ve seen in the sea that looks as if it swims more slowly than I do. It looked so ancient; it was like watching a prehistoric creature. Maybe its slow swimming speed made it seem older, like someone who can no longer really walk very well. I’ve wanted to see a turtle for ages, so it made my day. I’d always imagined I’d see a small, young turtle rather than a huge, lumbering item of the species, but that didn’t make it any less special.

Another strange thing about snorkeling here was that there are quite a few sandbanks. At one point, I was having to tread water, and just a metre or two away were two people standing on the other side of the coral with the water just round their knees. It made me feel like I was a child and ridiculously small.

Then, when I tried to get out of the water, the closer I walked to the shore, the deeper the water got. I like to see where I’m putting my feet as I walk to shore (it’s easy to tread on a stingray hidden in the sand or a stone or lion fish taking a nap), so when the water kept getting deeper, I kept on having to look up to double-check that I wasn’t walking in the wrong direction. It’s quite worrying when you start off with the water knee-high and then you find yourself up to your shoulders in water. It just doesn’t compute.

Anyway, my enthusiasm for snorkeling has well and truly returned!

Hurghada - Egyptian Arabic Classes

Ali Teaching

And another thing that kept me busy when I returned to Egypt was that Nicole had found a teacher of Egyptian Arabic and so we signed up for classes at the weekends. I was a little bit frustrated at starting again. All I ever seem to do is start again. However, I rationalized that any practice is good and each beginner’s course teaches slightly different vocabulary.

Our teacher is Ali and he works in a language school in Hurghada run by a German woman. The school buildings are on the third floor (no lift) of a building just off Sheraton Road, the main shopping street in Hurghada (although you go to different streets for different things, such as furniture, material, paint, vegetables, etc). Sheraton Road has its fair share of tourist shops, luggage shops, restaurants, some Western chains (KFC, McDonalds, Costa Coffee), and ever-present pharmacies.

Ali has been teaching for 8 years, I would guess he is in his late 20s?, and very fond of offering words of wisdom and uplifting phrases (eg “Smile in your hard time because life doesn't worth to be sad my friend. Enjoy the life as much as you can and don't forget to help the others”). He’s a very likeable guy and always cheerful and patient.

It was a bit of a culture shock going back to Egyptian Arabic because the verbs are conjugated differently from Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and, as I’ve said before, some of the words are different. The one I stumbled on most was the word for “we”, which is “ihna” in Egyptian Arabic and “nahnu” in MSA. My poor brain must be a mush of confusion by now as I’ve switched from one to the other and then back again. It didn’t take long to remember how to conjugate the verbs in Egyptian Arabic, but I did notice myself slipping back into MSA occasionally.

What I liked about his course, though, is that it started off with verbs and sentences. Most books or courses teaching you MSA or Egyptian Arabic spend a lot of time with the cornerstone endings for “my”, “our”, “your [female]”, “your [male]” etc. In both types of Arabic, these endings (which differ slightly between Egyptian Arabic and MSA as well) come at the end of the word and are not separate words preceding the noun. In addition, they are used to say “me”, “us”, etc – so, for example, “see you later” will add the “you” ending after the verb for “you”, as will “how are you?” 

These endings are also used to form the verb “to have” which isn’t really a normal verb, but is a preposition followed by one of these endings. In MSA, there are three different prepositions for the verb “to have” – “with” (a general have), “for” (a lasting have), “alongside” (a with me now have) – and you conjugate them by sticking these endings on. So, “I have a house” is said as “for me house” and “I have the money to pay for the bill” is said as “alongside me money to pay for the bill”. Therefore, you can go a long way with MSA and Egyptian Arabic without learning any proper verbs (since the verb “to be” can be omitted in many cases).

The problem with the traditional approach, though, is that you don’t really learn anything very exciting to say for what feels like forever. When you start off with the verbs, you’re immediately saying interesting things like “I want to drink tea”, “I must go home now”, etc. The sense of progress is a lot faster.

I was interested to see one thing that Ali posted on facebook that didn’t translate due to cultural issues. He posted a picture of a very old lady with a cat and captioned it with something like “Mum and her cat – two loving souls meet”. Virtually all the non-Arabic readers started asking him if this was a picture of his mother and he had to explain that no, it wasn’t, the term “mum” is used to refer to any old woman. As I said in an earlier blog, old age is regarded as a positive thing in the Arabic countries, so “mum” is a term of respect. I guess at a push we may use “grandmother” in a similar way, but it wouldn’t be usual and it would have to be used in a specific context for people in the West to understand it like that. Now that I’m getting older myself, I quite like the idea of regaining a positive image for the elderly!

Our lessons are three hours in one go. We started off doing it both Saturdays and Sundays (totaling 6 hours), but then this got a bit much for both of us, so we cut it down to just Sundays. However, it’s been Ramadan and Ali has been in Cairo and now he would really like to move to Dubai, so I’m not sure how much longer these classes will last. He also does lessons over skype (therefore, any of you could also learn with him!), so actually it shouldn’t really matter. 

Unfortunately, I’ve been very lazy and not done any practice or learning of Arabic since he has been away in Cairo. Whoops. This is mostly because I’ve got my novel-writing bug again and prefer to spend my time rewriting the draft of Space Shapes than going over Egyptian grammar. I’d like to do both, but there aren’t enough hours in the day.

El Andalous - The Community

Ramadan Kareem!

As I said last week, I was quite surprised on coming back to El Andalous to find that I had rather a lot to do; my life seemed to be a hive of activity. This is in addition to my hardship of eating out on a number of occasions and spending days on end finding a place for my hard-earned cash.

First of all, I needed to do the newsletter for our residential block. I’ve managed to cut down the frequency over time – at first it was weekly, then it was monthly, then when I returned to Zurich, I promised to keep on doing it, but only quarterly. So, this was now the time for the quarterly newsletter. Since I was returning to El Andalous “fresh”, it was much more obvious than usual as to what was new since I last reported back (which was when I was over for Christmas). When I was in Sahl Hasheesh all the time, I tended to forget what happened when. So, although it was an easier one to write this time, it still had to be done.

Then, to my surprise, Ajaz and Xenia had got very active in finding out about how other apartment blocks were run so that we could have realistic expectations for our complex. Before I knew where I was, we were all going out to meetings with owners of properties in other places and discussing all sorts of things (so quite interesting to get to know some other people).

Nicole had become determined to get more television channels, so before I’d had time to blink, I was trying to get our manager to sign an agreement that we could proceed with a new satellite if need be, and I had a man in my flat (well, two men, with one of them watching the other) setting up a new internet connection to get me more channels. Sadly, it appears that the Astra satellite which used to give UK TV in Egypt is no longer available at all, so I didn’t get any of the UK channels that I really wanted.

In addition, I found myself volunteering to speak to the management on behalf of the owners about putting in back-up lighting for when we have power cuts and to clean up all the disused shop fronts along our building façade. I need to follow up on both of these, but it’s Ramadan at the moment, so you can’t generally expect much to get done during this period. Also, for my own selfish needs, I complained about the bus not running to the local supermarket as often as they'd promised.

Asking for things to be done in Egypt is always quite exhausting because they rarely get done on your first request, and sometimes there are misunderstandings, and at other times you just haven’t got a clue what’s going on. In this case, cleaning up the shops required discussion among several people (that should set warning bells off!) and I don’t think I successfully conveyed why the safety lighting was important, because I was a bit astonished that this needed to be explained (they seemed to think if they did it for my floor only, this would be OK; I said no, all floors, and now they still haven't done anything).

Before I moved over to Egypt, Julian warned me not to get involved with residents’ associations (or the like), since nobody ever agrees and it’s just a lot of aggravation. This is very true and in El Andalous, it’s particularly difficult because the owners are from several different cultures, all of which negotiate in completely different ways, and we're negotiating with Egyptians, which is then different again. And all of this is prone to misunderstandings and misinterpretations of intent. And, of course, for different people, and for different cultures, priorities are also different. However, this diversity makes it all interesting and although it is stressful sometimes, it’s also been a great way for me to integrate. In fact, it's been a great way, too, for all of us to come together and create a mutual ground between us all, regardless of our backgrounds.

Hurghada - Eating

Il Gusto VIP Lounge - Our Table in Bar Area. Photo (c) Nicole

I arrived back in El Andalous really expecting to sit back in peace and quiet and to have a lot of time on my own. It was not to be (but that isn’t a bad thing!). Somehow, I found myself immediately embroiled in a whirl of activity. As I’ve reported, first of all there was all the hassle of sorting out my savings. Another thing that whisked me into sociability was eating out. There were hello meals for me, goodbye meals as others left, “let’s try somewhere different now that you’re back” meals…. There was always a reason to eat out. It can be a hard life sometimes.

So, today’s blog will be a review of some restaurants in the Hurghada region. If anyone wants to pay me to do this, I’m open to offers!

Maybe one of the most bizarre places I went to was a German restaurant in Hurghada called Zeitlos. It’s on a fairly busy street, just coming off Sheraton Road, so you won’t get sea views or anything like that. The décor is also not fussy and very practical.

The food however was really good and very German. It was honestly like I was in Germany. I’m sure Germans who are missing their home food would love this place. I had something fairly close to Zuerigeschnetzeltes (veal strips in mushroom cream sauce, usually served with Roesti which are huge rounds of fried potato formed into a big circle) – it was beef in a mushroom cream sauce with pasta. I think maybe it originally came with dumplings (very German!), which I don’t like, so I asked for the pasta and they kindly obliged. The portion was huge and it tasted wonderful. The people serving were German. It was like I hadn’t arrived back in Hurghada at all, except that it was April and pretty warm so we were sitting outside and opposite us were shops lit up with Arabic signs, so it couldn’t possibly be Germany. All I can say is that it felt very strange.

About 18 months ago, Il Gusto in Sahl Hasheesh opened up its “VIP Lounge”. I’d heard it was supposed to be upmarket, but I hadn’t really believed it (this is Egypt, after all). Anyway, curiosity finally got the better of me, and so off I went.

To my surprise, the place was huge. I’d heard it was a bit like a British bar, so I was expecting a small place with maybe a few bookshelves and armchairs and a good selection of drinks behind the counter. Instead, you enter a hallway adorned with a collection of original art from local artists and several rooms went off on either side. One room on the right was set up as a high-end restaurant – round tables were impressively laid for six with very grand silverware and full service. One area could be sectioned off entirely (in its own room) if you wanted a private function. It looked completely amazing.

Another room was a billiards room with some chairs and bookshelves, and art on the walls. It was more like a smokers’ lounge, I guess.

The final room, almost two rooms, was the bar and a more casual, but still upmarket, lounge area where you could also eat if you wished. The windows overlook the sea and a lady played very tasteful music (quite a lot of it French) on the piano next to the bar. The bar did have an impressive set of bottles behind it and a bar tender ready to serve. There were sofas and armchairs with coffee tables for you to sit back, relax, and enjoy your drink. By the windows, there were some higher tables for you to sit at. In front of the bar (where we sat) one circular table was set up with the full dinner service. Behind the bar was another room full of sofas and armchairs where you could sit and chill out. It was a tourist attraction in itself!

I had duck a l’orange and I think Nicole took the salmon; both meals were presented very thoughtfully. It made for a great evening and it made me wish I had an occasion where I could invite people to come along and see it. I feel quite proud that something like this is in Sahl Hasheesh and I can only pray that it manages to survive. We were the only customers all evening when we were there.

Another place I went to, that maybe I haven’t mentioned before in this blog, is Heaven (great name, huh!). It’s situated in the marina in Hurghada, so it’s a great location. I’ve been there a few times and at the moment it’s my favorite place for steak – truly delicious. Like many Egyptian places, it has some TVs playing, but they aren’t too obtrusive and the tables are set up with tablecloths so it’s semi-formal but still relaxed. As you would expect with it being in the marina, the boats and sea are just opposite.

I ended up with a bit of a hangover after that meal because Nicole unexpectedly ordered us another round of drinks and then our waiter decided that we must know our wines, so before we knew it, they were offering us free glasses of a new wine that they wanted to test out in the restaurant. They tried to get us to guess the underlying taste, but none of us got it, so I don’t think we passed the test. It turned out to be pineapple (“oh yes, of course!” we all said, once we knew).

I’ve also been back to some of my old favorites (eg, Chez Paul [Paul will be glad to hear!], Thai Garden), and there are some other new ones that I will report back on in a later blog.

El Andalous - The Beach

Beach Now Sectioned Off!

A not so good surprise on my return was that part of our private beach had been sectioned off and given to another apartment block up the road from where I live. It doesn’t really matter just now, because there are days when I’m the only person on the beach, but it may be a problem when tourism picks up again. In fact, I will resent it when tourists come back and I don’t have the place to myself any more. It’s pretty perfect just now!

As I may have mentioned before, it’s nice having a private beach because it means that a lot of the time you know other people there and it’s like a little community. And, in any case, people just start talking to you. I took my Arabic book to learn Arabic while I was on my sun lounger and an Egyptian lady came up to me and started speaking to me in Arabic – we ended up speaking on many occasions after that, but my vocabulary is so limited, it was a bit difficult, and I gave up in the end. But it’s an example of how friendly it all is.

I was surprised on my first couple of swims that I’d forgotten how to see fish. This might sound a bit daft, but actually, you get used to spotting fish and maybe even to looking through swimming goggles. At first, I just couldn’t focus properly. I guess it’s like when you go on a safari and the safari guides always spot the animals so much faster than you do – their eyes are attuned and they also know what to expect where. In fact, I now think of my little snorkeling escapades as fish safaris. I could even maybe set myself up as a fish safari guide. But I digress….

For the first month or so back at El Andalous, I surprised myself by not actually doing that much snorkeling. I think I got a bit put off by my lack of ability to focus. Also, I can’t remember if I mentioned this in any of my Zurich blogs, but I’ve been trying to learn to do the front crawl, so I’ve been concentrating more on that.

I’ve used my Suunto Ambit3 Sport watch which has GPS to find out how far I’ve swum. It’s a bit off-putting swimming in the open water because you lose track of where you are when your head is stuck in the water most of the time. I’ve often found myself careering off into the middle of the sea instead of swimming along the coastline or, conversely, suddenly touching the ground because I’ve veered off back onto the beach.

I finally discovered that using the pause button would make the watch record your last bit of swimming as a lap and then you can have a rest or try a different technique for the next bit and still have a log of how you were doing before. Although I was pleased to have worked this out, the results have been a bit disappointing.

Initially, I was really proud of myself for building up my distance fairly quickly. It took me ages and ages to do 50m easily in Zurich and after that I had the occasional success at 100m and 150m, but they were not anything I could consistently do. Back in El Andalous, I’d swim my best and find I’d only done 90m. However, one day, something just “clicked”. It was almost like I decided not to get so uptight and just relax, and then I found myself doing 350m in one go, shortly after that I did around 500m, and then eventually 1km. I feel 1km is a fairly reasonable distance.

I’ve stopped going further than 1km at the moment and have been trying to improve my technique instead (but keeping to the 1km distance each day, plus or minus 10%). Although I feel theoretically my stroke must be getting better (I have fewer bubbles, I think I’m pulling harder), my speed is getting slower rather than faster, which is a bit depressing. I don’t know if I’m doing something wrong, or if it’s just a matter of needing practice. At the moment my breast stroke is still faster than my crawl and the whole point of learning crawl was to be able to do longer distance public swims that require you to do crawl in order to complete the distance in the time required. I’m not meeting that aim at this point in time!

I’m also still not good enough at the crawl to be able to say I really enjoy it, like I do breast stroke. With breast stroke, it’s like a gentle stroll in the park, whereas the crawl feels like running a marathon. I feel good afterwards, and I’m not absolutely dead at the end of it, but by the time I’ve completed the distance, I’m definitely glad to stop. I think it’s like how 50m used to feel, so I guess in time, I’ll get used to it and can then progress again.

El Andalous - The Weather (and Mosquitoes, Again)

One of my Nastier Bites!

We had a bit of a heat wave when I first got back. At first, I was surprised at how hot I felt and I wondered whether I needed to (or even could) adjust back to the heat, but then when I passed one of the Egyptians on the way to the beach, he commented that it was hot (I don’t think he was trying to be funny). That’s when I knew it really must be hot and it wasn’t just me.

By “hot”, I mean instead of low 30s, it was low 40s. It’s a dry heat here, so actually it could be worse. Moreover, since it was still only Spring at that point (this was in late April / early May), the evenings were cooler. It was manageable and it helped the sea to warm up nice and quickly. The water was noticeably warmer within a period of two weeks; everybody was commenting on it. Therefore, if you are thinking of coming over for sea activities, I’d say come in late April or May rather than early April. You can still swim all year round, though. I’m just being picky these days.

It is kind of strange, though, having a heatwave in Egypt. In Europe, a heatwave basically just means that we're having good weather for a change. One day, it's cloudy and rainy and not so warm. The next day, the sky is blue, it’s not raining, and it’s summer, so it’s hot. It’s all quite logical. In Egypt, you wake up and you look out of the window. You see the blue sky, watch the palm leaves sway in the breeze, observe the cacti standing upright in the bright sunshine. Everything is just how it always is. But you take one step outside and you're blanketed in air that is ten degrees hotter than the day before. Why? What’s changed? It's completely unexpected. There’s no obvious logic to it (obviously, there is, but it’s not something you can see as an ordinary person just getting up in the morning).

Anyway, it was still fine to be on the beach as long as I kept in the shade, where it’s considerably cooler. There’s often a gentle, barely noticeable breeze, which also helps. All I’m doing on the beach is reading, so I’m not exactly exerting myself, so no sweat (literally). But another thing that I found quite bizarre was that, although I spent all my time in the shade (apart from when swimming), my skin very quickly tanned again. Within a fortnight, it looked as if I’d never been away from Egypt.

I remember when I first arrived here, it took quite a while for my skin to change colour (I had the broken foot and was in the shade of my balcony most of the time) – when I returned to Europe, several people remarked at how white I still was. This time, I’m as brown now as I was when I left after 18 months. I don’t know if maybe my skin has adapted (clever skin!)?

I’d totally forgotten that this climate encourages mosquitoes. If I’d ever built up any tolerance (last blog on this was 25 May 2015: Sahl Hasheesh - Mosquitoes, so this must be mosquito season), it has certainly completely worn off now. Even my mosquito repellent (“Off” spray) is only able to do so much. I’ve been bitten on my lip, by the side of my eye, in the middle of my back where I can’t reach, on the top of my head, under the hair behind my ear, all across the neckline where my hair is. I’ve even been bitten in my nether region. You name it, if I can’t spray mosquito repellent there, that’s where I will be bitten.

I can’t even put antihistamine cream in these places! Well, I did try, but it gunged up my hair and my eye stung, which is all fairly predictable. The gunged-up hair was actually worth the relief in itching; whereas the stinging eye was worse than having it merely itch and I had to wash off the antihistamine straight away. But it was worth a go. And, sometimes, of course, I simply haven’t used the deterrent or have forgotten to reapply it and then it’s a free run for the mosquitoes.

I might try the vitamin B complex again, although I don’t think it worked last time.

However, I have been given a new and wonderful tip – apparently camel milk is supposed to deter mosquitoes. Yes, camel milk – how cool is that?! I’ve only used it twice so far, but I haven’t been bitten on either occasion. Coincidence? Maybe. If it works, it will be great. The camel milk that I have is scented with Lotus Flower (so the scent doesn’t seem to stop it from working; rose was another option). It’s a lovely smell and the essence of Lotus Flower is associated with eternal youth. In addition, camel milk is a great moisturizer and was allegedly at least in part responsible for Cleopatra’s legendary beauty. So, I may not only become bite-free, I may also transform into an Egyptian goddess. I live in eternal hope!

Sahl Hasheesh - Absorbing the Changes

Progress in Sahl Hasheesh

I’ve mentioned before that although living in Egypt is like living in a timeless bubble where it’s always summer, there’s also always constant change with shops opening and closing all the time.

This time, it was a bit bizarre. When I came back to Egypt last year for Christmas, there was the first ever horse jumping competition taking place in Sahl Hasheesh. This time, when I came back, the first ever international horse jumping competition was taking place. I had a strange sense of déjà vu. There are never any horse jumping competitions here, and now I’ve returned on two occasions running, and each time there’s been a horse jumping competition. Weird.

I’d really enjoyed the spectacle in December, so I went to watch. It was still free to attend, although the this time announcements were in English and I didn’t see trainers shouting at their jockeys across the fence. Although it was international (there were Dutch and French, for example), it was predominantly the Arabic countries and maybe even predominantly Egypt.

I walked round the whole arena, but only the VIP tented area was shaded and the day was very hot. I tentatively went into the VIP lounge and sat on the edge of a comfy armchair positioned right at the front, overlooking the competition arena. Everyone else in the tent seemed to be wearing a blue armband and seemed to be related to the jockeys. I felt quite nervous, but once I decided I wasn’t going to get thrown out straight away, I sat back and tried to put on an air of entitledness that only the wealthy seem to be able to carry off. I hoped that this might stop anyone from daring to challenge me. I probably just looked like a prat.

The backdrop to the competition had also changed. The new building behind the Premier Romance hotel had come on leaps and bounds and instead of looking like a half-building of bricks, it was now standing tall behind the competition area with flags draped down it, presumably in honour of the competition. Although shops open and close with great regularity, buildings tend to remain unfinished for years on end, if not for decades. So, to see such progress was a surprise.

There were more surprises. Ever since I’ve lived in Sahl Hasheesh, a piece of ground by the Entrance Piazza has been blocked off advertising that a boutique hotel would be coming soon,. I’ve been told it was like that for years before I came, too. However, I now saw that building had actually started –its skeleton was rising up from behind the billboards. I was astonished.

Also to my surprise, just by the competition arena, large posters were advertising that apartments (and a spa, and a café) were going to be built behind the boutique hotel. It seemed that things were really starting to progress in Sahl Hasheesh rather than staying stationary with just a change of occupancy. It was as if I’d been away for a decade rather than just four months.

Safi drove me and some other friends to the back area of Sahl Hasheesh, where only a few villas previously used to stand. Now, there was a hive of building activity. It seemed that apartments and villas were sprouting up as we looked. With tourism so bad at the moment, I hadn’t been expecting this. But it was good to see, even if I can’t understand how they are going to sell these places. However, as others have said, they are maybe preparing themselves for when tourism does pick up again. Or maybe it will just be another group of skeleton buildings, never fully developed, that will end up just staring out at an empty expanse of desert for decades to come. Who knows!

In complete contrast to all the building activity, the shops were very sad. Many units had closed. My favorite ice cream place has shut down. There are hardly any shops left selling tourist souvenirs and clothes. The places that remain have no customers and I don’t know how even they can survive. I just have to hope for Egypt that this is temporary and that tourism will return. Even in Hurghada, I heard that a new Lebanese restaurant had opened, only to discover two weeks later that it had already closed. A supermarket that had opened during my year away had been shut down before I’d even had time to look at it.

Times are tough just now, but in Egypt there is always hope.