Mike and Janes Travels

We travelled with First Choice, landing at the international airport; at the time we didn't realise that this airport is or perhaps was then a military airfield and the First Choice agents (who were locals) were not allowed into the terminal; we were told it was because it was military but possibly it was simply heightened security due to the bombs. It was until 1982 an Israeli airforce base (a consequence of the 1967 6 day war)and when it was handed back to Egypt the Egyptian government embarked on an initiative to encourage continued development of the city. Anyway whatever the reason, it was an absolute scramble with over 300 tourists, many like us had no idea of the procedure, trying to get our visas before finally meeting the agents outside and being taken to our hotel. The hotel which was then called the Coral Sea is now the Coral Sea Waterworld.

The hotel was probably typical of most all-inclusive hotels in Egypt and other sunny countries. The food was average the rooms fairly plain but the staff, the pool and the sun fantastic. The hotel had its own beach and there were no Germans to be seen when we came out to find a sunlounger next to the superb pool. Having said the food was plain, it was OK and the breakfasts, especially the eggs were excellent; there was one guy constantly engaged in making all types of egg dishes and I think I had eggs every morning of our stay - no need to worry about Delhi Belly, LOL.

We spent most of our days in the pool, on the sunloungers and in the sea. As you can see the sea was very shallow by the beach; as a general rule, the sea would be no more than 2 feet deep as far as the coral reef which is about 100 yards out from the beach. You are actively discouraged from walking on the coral as it destroys a valuable 'living' plant and a later slide shows the gangway that is provided to walk out from the beach.

We met a couple who we seemed to team up with; I believe they were recently 'together' as they went back to their room at fairly frequent intervals, perhaps it was too hot for them outside, LOL. After so many years we can only remember Brian and cannot think of his partner's name which I know is very bad; it would be nice to meet up again so if either of you read this blog (unlikely I know) please get in touch. Anyway thanks for making our holiday so much more enjoyable.

As I said the pool was fantastic, with a bar in the middle which we were able to swim over to at frequent intervals. The hardest job was balancing the drinks on the way back with spilling them.

This was actually our first trip to Egypt so we were not familiar with the custom of the staff to make almost anything using towels (a form of origami); the following year when we went on a Nile cruise it was less of a surprise. As a cynic, I know this is a custom aimed at getting on your good side so you are more likely to reward them well at the end of the holiday, but having said that I thought it was a nice touch and we both really appreciated the effort our guy had made. I think also that the people in Egypt are amongst the most welcoming and friendly I have met anywhere in the world and I've been to many places as part of my job; it's such a shame that there is this terrorist element who seem determined to make life difficult for their own people who depend on tourism for their livelyhood.

One evening we wandered around the hotel grounds and came across these shisha smokers. This used to be a very popular passtime in Egypt but has now been banned in public places on health grounds as they are not completely harmless, being a flavoured tobacco and molasses mixture that is bubbled through water. I'm a non-smoker and pretended to puff but in fact having read about it I'm now glad I didn't partake. The evening entertainment put on by the hotel 'red-coats' was OK but not overly exciting. I suppose the organisers think we want to see typical Egyptian dance and music but I'm not personally enthused by it; anyway we had some enjoyable evenings and I'm not complaining.

We made friends with one of the traders in the hotel, Abraham, who introduced me to karkadeh (hibiscus), which you can have hot (sokhn) or cold (sa’aa) and I liked it so much that I brought a large bag of it home. He tried to tell me that it was good for arthritis, which I suffer with, and it is used widely in Egypt for the treatment of cardiac and nerve diseases; it's also been described as a diuretic. Anyway very nice but I ran out long ago, so I don't know if it would have helped my arthtritis if I'd carried on.

Not sure about the head-dress.

I suppose it's inevitable that as you are based most of the time at the hotel, that you will meet many of the staff and make friends. The manager of the restaurant we ate at during the day was Alex and for many years afterwards, Jane communicated by text with both Alex and Abraham who both came from Cairo and we did at one time think of going to Cairo to meet Abraham's family but as time goes by we lost touch.

To avoid damaging the reef by walking on it and to make it easier for visitors to get beyond the reef for snorkelling, a wooden gangway is provided which takes you out just beyond the reef which at this point is about 2 metres deep. This is as far as beginners like us can go without scuba training (one day maybe) but with a good snorkel you can still see some amazing coral and small fishes. There was one particular fish, quite small, that enjoyed eating your skin, I suppose it's a bit like those fishes that eat your feet in health spas. Jane was particularly good at snorkelling, whilst I was not; even though I'm a good swimmer, I couldn't get the breathing right.

As we were unable to scuba dive, and not really enough time to learn, we decided to take a trip in a glass bottom boat which enables you to see the coral without going into the water. So we went into Sharm and boarded our 'yellow submarine'. The boat takes you out beyond the main reef where the depth is around 30-50ft and whilst you get to see the reef and the shoals of fishes, the colours are lost and everything appears to be a bit bluey-grey. The picture, bottom right, taken from the internet shows what it really looks like and must be an amazing sight.

We saw some scuba divers below us and can only envy them that they were able to do this. The staff on the boat took videos of the trip, which unfortunately I cannot find after all these years, but from memory, I think the video was quite disappointing and a bit overpriced for what it was. We did consider going on a snorkelling trip from a boat moored off Ras Mohammed which I believe is quite good, but my inability to grasp the basics of snorkelling put me off a bit and we gave that trip a miss.

Cocktails in the evening.

Janes birthday is on the 25th October so we made a special evening by going to one of the many restaurants (an Italian on this occasion) where you pay and had a great meal and a good evening. The staff were superb and gave Jane an evening to remember

When we returned to our room, our attendant (name escapes me) had gone overboard with the decorations on the bed which just about rounded off a fantastic evening.

The beach attendant who we had also got to know well (why can I not remember all their names?) being Egyptian and moslem was adhering to Ramadam and during the day was unable to eat or drink. I think he was suffering a bit but he looked after us every day, laying out the towels on our favourite sunloungers (it's OK when the staff do it!). We met Alex regularly every day and he spent many a lunchtime at our table chatting about his family back in Cairo and how difficult life was with the travelling away for months on end to work and the political problems that Egypt had at the time.

We saw for ourselves how the terrorist activities had changed things when we went to Dahab which is half way up the east coast of Sinai on the Gulf of Aqaba. This is a very popular diving resort which we went to in the evening with a guide on a coach and the first indication that all was not well in Egypt at the time was the presence of two armed military guards on the coach and the military checkpoints we had to stop at on the route there. Nevertheless we did not see any trouble as we travelled through the Bedouin lands of the Sinai desert to reach Dahab and the evening was thoroughly enjoyable.

Jane has a soft spot for children and of course as we ate our meal they came to our tables selling their cheap trinkets; others on the trip ignored them but Jane engaged them in conversation and bought some of their junk. In all honesty though what harm did it do even though we all know that the adults who run the operation are taking the money and if they had tried to sell to us directly we would also probably have walked away. Just another nice memory for us to take home. Jane also bought a thumb ring which she wears to this day in one of the many jewellers shops along the main market road.

We arrived back to find our most creative and best towel origami made by our attendant which was a Nile crocodile; he also left a rotating fish light next to it which our grandchildren had in the bedroom until quite recently as a night light and a very nice handwritten letter to say thank you and goodbye. We gave him a nice tip and will always remember the kindness of the staff and everyone we met in Egypt.

On out last day in Sharm we spent most of our time on the beach where camel rides were on offer (we declined). We left Sharm at the end of our weeks holiday having had a great time and with fond memories of the hotel, the staff and the wonderful climate for a relaxing, stress free break from cold, wet England.

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