Marsa Alam:1st-5th June
I admit to having a few second thoughts over the last couple of weeks, about some of our travel plans in Egypt. The Sinai Peninsula, that is shaped like a sharks tooth and sits between the mainland of Egypt and Israel, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, has a government travel warning and this was one of the places on our original itinerary. Whilst we have chosen mostly to ignore travel warnings (which are more risk-averse from the Australian government than they are from ours), the Sinai area is recommended as a no-go from both.
After the Russian air crash near Sharm el Sheik last November, there has been heightened media reporting of possible danger to tourists and with another Egypt air plane still missing, we start to feel nervous about journeying to that side of Egypt, especially with the kids.
We choose instead, after picking up a good affordable flight, to fly directly to Marsa Alam on the Red Sea Coast and we check into the most outrageous resort that has water slides, food, alcohol and unlimited ice-cream all included. It also seems a popular choice with Eastern Europeans who look like they’ve all just arrived from a night-club in Henderson. I’ve never seen so many mullets and bad tattoos. Most have obviously had too many all-you-can-eat buffets and spend way too much time in the sun.
The kids are in Hi-de-Hi heaven!
We also feel really relaxed because they can order whatever they like and don’t need to keep within our daily food budget. Roger is particularly enamoured of the free beer.
The snorkelling on the Red Sea Coast is supposed to be really good and the coastline around Marsa Alam is fairly undeveloped, although there are massive resorts with desert in between, dotted all along the coast. There is a 46 degree wind blowing constantly until the cool of the evening, due to the differential temperature of the desert and the sea and the red no-snorkelling flag is up for most of our stay.
To be honest, when you come from the South Pacific, the snorkelling is sometimes a little disappointing, particularly if you’re looking for beautiful coral, and compared to water slides and free poolside ice-cream, perhaps less appealing. The snorkelling gear is not included in our all inclusive package and we are becoming more and more mindful of the cost of our extra-curricular activities.
Plus, we are constantly too full from the all-you-can-eat buffet, to go into the sea.
Roger and I have found the place where we can all retire, all-inclusive for less than $100 a day. I may have to update my wardrobe and get a bad peroxide dye job and some shredded leopard-skin leggings and a gold sequinned top, but I think we’ve found our happy place.
There’s even aqua aerobics in the pool if you get too fat from all that food. It’s a bit like the space ship on the movie Wall E where everyone wears alternative-reality goggles and lays around on deck chairs, drinking liquid through straws and losing their bone mass from lack of movement.
Jasper formed such a close attachment to the poolside bar-tender that he cried when we left. There may have been an element of ice-cream withdrawal too.
We are heading to Aswan on the Nile, the next day, to board a Felucca for the next two nights. We had planned to do three but the temperature is a bit alarming and doesn’t get much cooler at night, so we have shortened our stay.
Apparently, this is the only Felucca with a small toilet on board, which is the clincher for us.
The five hour drive through the desert is quite bazaar.
At one point Louie needs to stop for the toilet and we park on the side of the road. The heat is absolutely intense and as the boys wander behind the car for privacy, Roger starts freaking out about breaking down and being kidnapped by terrorists. You’d think we were in a land-mine area the way he was shouting. Louie had toilet performance anxiety (as you would if you thought the situation was as dangerous as Roger was making out) and took considerably longer than he would have otherwise.
The trip across the desert is obviously uncharted territory. There are few cars and at times, no phone reception. There are check-points on either side, where we are stopped and our passports checked and there is a machine gun pointing straight at the car at all times.
The hyper-vigilance of the Egyptian military does make you feel a little safer. As a tourist, your steps are traced wherever you go, so if you go missing between two points, they know where to find you.
It’s a bit harder if you’re planning on breaking the law. (Not that we are.)
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