El Andalous - Beach Reopened

Sleeping Octopus

I’ve been very grateful to be in Sahl Hasheesh during the coronavirus. We’re relatively secluded (despite the alarming number of illegal, short-term lets in our building!) and we’ve had our private swimming pools (20m and 30m) in operation. As it’s got hotter and hotter, having a swim has become more and more of a must.

Also, it’s easy to walk around without seeing other people, so that’s another easy form of exercise in case you don’t like swimming (or just want a change of type of exercise).

Anyway, the government recently announced that although public beaches should remain closed, beaches in touristic villages (which Sahl Hasheesh is) could open due to the smaller number of people at these resorts. Hurrah! At last!

So, I’m slowly getting back to my old routine of having my afternoon on the beach. When I was swimming in the pool, it was very functional. I’d get in the water, swim my laps, get out, return to my flat. However, when I’m on the beach, it’s much nicer to lie on a sunbed to dry off and read a bit (in the shade at this time of year). It’s surprising how much difference just this small change makes. I guess it’s seeing the sea rather than the pools making me feel like I’m somewhere truly different and sitting somewhere other than my balcony. In any case, it’s almost too hot to sit on my balcony at this time of year, particularly from 11am to 3pm.

I seem to be a bit out of condition / out of practice when it comes to sea swimming. I’m finding it exhausting and am taking lots of rests; on top of this, I’m a lot slower too (but maybe the rests are being timed in with the swimming time – I’m not too sure).

The sea is warm, as warm as the pool, I would say, so approximately 27 degrees, at a guess, maybe a bit warmer. I suppose this might be giving me less incentive to swim fast versus when it was colder. I’m now wondering how I survived those colder months. I still hesitate to plunge in.

Currently, I’m combining my swimming with snorkeling as it’s been so long since I’ve seen the fish. I haven’t seen anything new, or really noticed anything different. We have a resident octopus that sleeps on a small bit of coral quite close to shore, so I’ve seen that a few times and another owner here has taken videos of it going along the sea bed and changing colour as it pretends to be a bit of coral. It’s pretty cool!

I’m swimming in the opposite direction from before as I was getting regularly stung by (I think) jellyfish spores, which are invisible but bring you out in itchy hives under your costume. It’s too hot to wear my rash vest and I’ve read that the spores get trapped in your clothes, which is why they sting, so I’m wondering whether the rash vest would trap more spores or prevent them. I really don’t know! Even though I’ve changed the direction of my swim, I’ve still been stung once, but I think it is better in this other direction. There are also more groups of coral to look at en route, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on whether I want to focus on my swimming endurance or on enjoying my time in the water.

All in all, it’s a relief to be going back to some of my old routines!

El Andalous - Buggy Trip

Turkey

There are still ways to have fun, even when the beaches are closed, restaurants and cafes aren't open, shops shut early and there’s curfew (now actually only midnight to about 4am, I think).

One thing we (four of us) did was to hire an electric buggy for a couple of hours and drive round Sahl Hasheesh. With the sun shining down, the wind going through our hair, and a constant change of scene, life finally felt like a holiday again.

We went up to the villa district to see how all the building work was progressing round there. The pier, where we like to snorkel, is closed (and even as they open up the beaches, they are still closing the pier). It’s hard to believe how hilly Sahl Hasheesh is at times; it’s somehow not what you expect in the desert.

Anyway, we continued driving past the villas (I took a few photos of the men working on the villa beside Kathryn and Stephen, so I could show it to them – however, in my fear of being spotted, I managed to put my finger over the lens), up the hill until we got to a magnificent viewpoint over Sahl Hasheesh. We stopped, took some photos, identified the major landmarks (mostly hotels).

We went past the solar farm and the ERC (resort company) headquarters.

Then back down and behind the hotels. Again, we could see a lot of building work continuing on the projects along the coast. After that, it was the best part: we progressed to the stables. I’ve never been there. Many people have said that it’s a good place to visit. One time I was even supposed to join friends on a horse riding trip along the sea (living the dream!), but something happened. Maybe I fell ill or perhaps a work meeting intervened. Anyway, this was my first visit.

I had been surprised before when people told me that it had more than three or four horses (which is what I had imagined), but somehow seeing it in real life surprised me even more. There must be about thirty stables. It seemed to go on forever. I know they do camel riding, although I didn’t spot any camels. There were quad bikes, turkeys, monkeys, chickens, dogs, cats… Normally, there’s a nice café (so I’ve heard), but it’s not open due to coronavirus. However, they were happy enough for us to come in and wander round at our leisure, petting all the animals.

Another thing I hadn’t appreciated before was that the stables take in rescue horses. I’m not sure where they are rescued from. We patted one that was so painfully thin, it was heartbreaking. One got jealous when John moved on from him to giving another horse attention and the horse started dragging up dust with his hoof to gain attention.

A group of people were just leaving to go riding on the beach, so we followed them down to the sea to watch. A dog was with them and leapt into the driving seat of our buggy. It took a while to get him out!

After that, we followed the coastline back to El Andalous. It’s really stunning to see all the blues of the sea and some of the beautiful architecture.

I was amazed at how much it felt like a proper day out, even though we hadn’t left Sahl Hasheesh. After having my sole activities as going from inside El Andalous to the pool in our gardens, and the occasional trip to shop at BestWay or Spinneys, this was a wonderful change. It has made me pine for a holiday, though!

El Andalous - Baking

Banoffi Pie

We didn’t have panic buying here in Egypt (thankfully) during the pandemic, but I was amused to see that the toilet roll fiasco in the UK (and elsewhere) later turned into one of flour selling out in supermarkets. Even here, it seems that many of us are baking during this time.

Although I do actually socialise with my friends here in Sahl Hasheesh (we’ve all been stuck here long enough to feel that it’s unlikely that any of us have coronavirus, given that until last week there have been no cases here), we have been careful. Many times, instead of having meals at each other’s, we’ll deliver baked goods.

I’ve yet to make anything successfully with yeast. It might be because I’m mostly using whole wheat flour (in a vain attempt to be a little more healthy) and not doing anything to compensate for that. However, I did buy a whole packet of white flour, and yet my hot cross buns failed, as did my sticky (finger) buns, as did my toasted teacakes. It’s been pretty depressing. They’ve all not really risen properly and I’m not sure why. It’s like I’m not even learning from my mistakes. Maybe it’s the yeast? Or am I just abdicating responsibility? Just as well I wasn’t being paid to do it.

My cupcakes have been more successful (apart from the ones that I grilled, as explained in an earlier blog). Here, I have learned from my mistakes. The big learning is that my little oven that has only one temperature setting also needs me to have items to cook on one shelf only. If I have two shelves of cupcakes, they go wrong. If I have one shelf, they’re fine. It’s annoying as it means twice the electricity to cook double.

Last weekend I made banoffi pie. I’ve only ever made it once before. To my amazement, it went pretty well. The base came out of my cake tin without breaking and looked like a proper base. The Egyptian sweetened condensed milk turned into the toffee-flavoured filling in the allotted time; I’d been fretting over that, because food items over here are always slightly different from what you expect; it was sweeter than I remembered, so maybe that was an Egyptian thing. My memory from years ago is that my recipe said that the condensed milk would turn to the toffee filling within a minute and instead it took hours; fortunately, the recipe I had this time said to allow two hours, so my expectations weren’t thwarted. I was so proud of it that I took a photo (see above). But when I cut it, it was so hot here (over 30 degrees, probably) that it instantly melted onto the plate. Other than that, it was fine.

I’ve received many wonderful items – banana cake, various breads, fruit roll, to name but a few.

More recently, we’ve loosened our resolve and have started having each other round for meals. We mostly see each other by the pool each day, so in a way the caution seems perhaps unnecessary. We started off socially distancing ourselves, but we seem to be having less and less distance as time goes by. But it’s fun to have the company, it’s great to have the occasional evening where you don’t have to cook. And since we know that we've all been either in our flats here or by the pool for the vast majority of the time (barring essential shopping), the risk doesn't seem too high.

This seems to be the way at El Andalous. The different nationalities / language speakers (our group is Belgian/American/British) seem to have their trusted little groups and stick to each other for social events, while also stopping to say hello to the other groups when we’re by the pool.

The beach should be opening up later this week. I’m looking forward to it, but I’m worried that we’ll get crowding. Let’s see what happens!

El Andalous - Dolphins

Dolphins in Sahl Hasheesh!

Public beaches are still closed and our resort management company has forbidden use of the beaches in Sahl Hasheesh. However, one beach claims that it is private and thus not under the regulations. Therefore, they allow swimming (but not use of sunbeds etc).

I’d heard that dolphins had come into Sahl Hasheesh bay. This happens occasionally, but not every year. I’ve only seen them once, and it was some years ago, just before I had to go back to my flat for  work, so it was very frustrating to leave as the dolphins were there (and probably annoying for my team as I spent a bit of the call enthusing how I’d just seen dolphins!).

Anyway, I decided I would try swimming in the sea for a change (I’m still a bit nervous as to whether it really is allowed, so I do it only very occasionally). I’d almost forgotten about the dolphins as my mind had wandered on to thinking how much harder it was to swim in the sea after a long break and how I wasn’t used to doing distance swimming. And then a dolphin swam right underneath me!

If I hadn’t heard that dolphins were around, I’d have been scared. They move so fast that you don’t have time to see exactly what it is. Anyway, one of them swam round me for a little while. It took me a few seconds to remember to get my camera out (which I have shoved down my swimsuit).

The dolphins lost interest in me once I pointed my camera at them (which I regret a little – maybe I should have focused on playing with them). Nevertheless, they stayed very close to me and continued to play, and even shot over towards me once or twice.

There were two of them; traditionally it’s been a mother and her calf, so I assume it was the same two that have visited before.

As they drifted away from me, I tried to swim after them, but they were hard to spot. Shortly after I saw a frenzy of birds circling and diving, and fish leaping out of the water in all directions. I assume the dolphins had gone over there to feed and the birds were coming in to join the feast. It’s not uncommon to see the fish shimmering as they jump out of the sea and the birds coming in for the kill, but it’s not usual for it to be dolphins underneath.

I haven’t seen the dolphins again since. Maybe one day! But I was glad I took the chance and went out into the sea that afternoon. It was such a huge privilege to have shared the sea with them and I didn’t even have to pay an entry fee. It was just one hundred percent natural.

If COVID-19 can just go away and Oceanman (an open water swimming competition) can take place at the end of October as planned, I’d love for the dolphins to come over and greet the swimmers. It would just show how fantastic Sahl Hasheesh can be!

El Andalous - Same Old, Same Old

Monkey Business in El Andalous

Coronavirus has finally reached Sahl Hasheesh as we had our first case recorded yesterday. It was an employee of the company that runs the resort. He’s head of the electricians and was working night shift since returning from holiday, so fortunately he hadn’t had too much contact with other people. All the workers tested negative and are in isolation. Everything has been thoroughly sterilized.

I’m hoping this might inspire the resort company management to be more strict about implementing the rules they’ve put down. I’ve already mentioned that we have short-term lets that aren’t allowed, people flouting curfew, and nothing is done. We suspect that the lack of action may be due to money exchanging hands. Egypt is not a wealthy country, so many people are struggling to survive (literally) when there’s no money coming in and the government cannot afford payments to its citizens like the wealthier countries. So, perhaps it’s not surprising that people flout regulations and try to earn a bit of money by organizing or allowing short-term lets and day passes. But, at the same time, Sahl Hasheesh can’t afford to let coronavirus run rampant within the resort. Flights are beginning to resume soon and they’ll need a top record.

Even our (El Andalous) management company is trying to get us (the owners) to help finance them as their hotels close and they have debts to pay. Meanwhile, we get annoyed because we paid our maintenance up front for the year and now they’re trying to tell us that there isn’t even enough money for a can of paint. Really? What exactly happened to that maintenance fee we paid back in January – it’s enough to pay for seven years (as we are paying over the odds) and somehow there’s nothing left by June. This is despite the fact that they’ve reduced the wages of our staff by fifty percent (so the rumour goes). We don’t want our staff to suffer (they are not paid much in the first place!), especially not just to fund the management company’s fancy lifestyle.

I can’t complain too hard as I’m happy and still feel blessed to be here. The pools are operational, the building is being maintained (apart from the paint), and I’m leading a relaxed life. We are in continual arguments with the El Andalous management company as to how they spend our money and the lack of transparent accounting, so in a way not much has changed. It’s always the same problem in some guise.

But, nevertheless, the effects of coronavirus are beginning to bite, as these issues demonstrate. There are quite a lot of people here stranded because they cannot fly back, which is also why it’s busier than usual, even without the added short-term lets and day guests, and everyone using the pools because the beaches are closed. But it’s still not rush hour in London!

El Andalous - Applying for a Visa

Sahl Hasheesh / El Andalous From the Plane

The beaches may be closed (Egypt is now up to approximately 40 deaths a day from coronavirus), but the visa office has opened. This is quite a relief as, once I have a visa, I’ll be able to buy a six month internet package again.

After I was refused a year’s visa last time (and if I’d have got that, I wouldn’t have had to bother with this now!), I was feeling a little apprehensive about this coming visit.

Safi kindly took me in her car. I’d read that the visa office was well organized and it seemed, from comments online on FaceBook (I use FaceBook as much for information gathering as anything else), that the queues were getting smaller.

We left early (for me), so we arrived at around 9.15am. It was difficult to work out what was going on. There were people queuing by the entry with tickets, people sitting around outside, and the queue wasn’t a British queue; it was a mass of people crowded by the entrance.

I asked someone how they got their ticket and he said to get it from the guy at the entrance.
After (with some stress), getting a form and a ticket, and completing the form (outside), there was then the question of how to enter the building. They weren’t calling out numbers and they were asking us not to queue. Everyone was asking who had which number so that they could tell if they had a chance of getting inside yet. Outside, it was very hot.

I’m still not sure how it worked, but we somehow realized they must be letting in those with numbers close to ours, so we ended up being allowed in. I had number 79 and was shocked when I got in to find that they were only currently serving number 27. There was a long wait to go!

Masks were compulsory and our hands were sanitized as we entered. Every other seat could be occupied. When I was there, most people did seem to be wearing their masks, although it seemed to be fewer as time went on.

It was cooler inside, but still hot. I arrived at around 9.15am and my number wasn’t called until around 1.15pm. At around 10am, they were refusing any additional people, so it’s just as well we arrived relatively early.

It turned out that this was the first day of a new system. They took fingerprints, a photo, and scanned your passport into the system. This was partly why it was taking so long. I applied for only 6 months, as I knew that was all I was entitled to, but in retrospect I wish I’d tried for one year, just in case.

They seem to be switching over to a card system, which has been trialed in Cairo over the last year. This is a good thing as it saves your passport from being crowded with stamps (I had to renew my passport early last time because all my pages were full). There’s a rumour that renewal is going to be brought online (I hope this is true!). And I believe, but am not sure, that the card visas allow you to go in and out of the country as you like, without you having to get a re-entry visa on top of the normal visa. So, I’m hoping this was short-term pain for long-term gain!

I got a stamp in my passport and was asked to return in a week to collect the visa. Let’s see!

El Andalous - War of the Sunbeds

El Andalous Pools (Old Photo)

All the beaches here are still closed.

An upshot of this is that people have moved from sitting on our beach to sitting by our pools. The sunbeds are placed in pairs, 2m apart. Actually, there aren’t so many of them; I guess they are trying to discourage people from gathering.

I don’t ever sit by the pool. I’m not sure why, because I used to sit on the beach. Possibly, it’s because I feel I can more easily access drinks, my books, etc when I’m on my balcony and also I have a fan, so I can keep cooler there than when sitting outside. It’s possibly also to do with the fact that I see the pools from my balcony anyway, so I don’t see the point in sitting by them, whereas when I'm on the beach, it's a proper change of scene.

Quite a few people are complaining that the Russians are reserving all the sunbeds by the smaller (adult) pool from around 8am and then going off to sit on the balcony at the (closed) diving centre from 10am to 3pm (it’s about a ten minute walk away). Meanwhile, other people come out, want to sit by the pool and have a quick dip during the day, but can’t because the Russians have reserved all the sunbeds.

There was initially some kind of truce, as at least one of the Russians would usually be there and would clear a sunbed every time they saw anyone looking round for one. However, nowadays, they are spending more of their time at the diving centre, and people are looking at the sunbeds in despair.

A friend of mine happened to wake early (we’ve had a heatwave, so it’s been extremely hot, and the only cool time is early morning), so she went and used one of the sunbeds at 6.30am. The Russians turned up at 8am and appeared not to be very happy. The next day, they got up and reserved the sunbeds at 6am.

A few more days passed and my friend woke up early again. This time, she was down by the pool at around 5am. Again, the Russians appeared quite disconcerted when they discovered that one of their sunbeds had been taken. The following morning, they got up and reserved the sunbeds at 4am.

What will be the next part of this saga?

It’s also been very busy here this past week because of Eid, the big celebration after Ramadan. The large pool has been packed with children. Fortunately, our pool guy and the security guy have been very good at asking children to keep out of the adult pool, so I’ve been able to get a proper swim (if children are in the pool, it's impossible). One day I was even brave enough to tell a guy, in Arabic, that the small pool was for adults only. Fortunately, he replied in English, and said that nobody had been there, but he’d move his children over to the other pool (which was fine).

We’ve had problems with the smaller children (the children of our previous manager, no less!) throwing large rocks into the larger pool. Obviously, this could damage the pool and we don’t want a load of rocks at the bottom of the pool (even if the children are diving to collect them, they don’t always do it). Several of us have told the children off and in the end a security guy had to sit there all day to make sure they behaved. Their father (our previous manager!) didn’t do a single thing to apologise or to stop them. No wonder nothing ever got done when he used to be in charge.

So, that’s what life is like when you lead a privileged existence!