So our second week in Egypt was to be at a 5 star all inclusive resort on the red sea. After having experience the *5 star Nile cruise (*Egyptian norm) we were both thinking the same thing when the bus dropped us off: How much’s the water?
To our delight 5 star really was closer to what we imagined 5 star to be. Spacious studio apartment style room, king sized bed, big flat screen t.v. you could watch while taking a bath. You could even make phone calls when on the crapper! The best part was the bottles of water replenished daily at no extra charge.
We spent the majority of our time in the same routine. Get up, eat, beach, eat, beach, ice cream, beach, shower, eat, sleep.
We did go one day to Cairo. Having really enjoyed our visits on the Nile we booked with the hotel, which as a mistake. It’s a 6 hour car ride from Hurghada to Cairo and we were told that they would wake us up and give us breakfast. No one woke is up, and when walked around the almost empty resort looking for food, a guy who didn’t speak English/French shoved our reservation papers on our face and made “follow me” motions.
Turns out not a lot of people want to get up at 2am for a 6 hour car ride to Cairo because there were only 6 people on the trip which meant we had a caravan instead of a bus. We now knew very intimately the poorly maintained Egyptian roads.
Going was much better than coming back because the nice couple we had met on the Nile shared their breakfast with us and I was able to sleep. Coming back however was a different story. The only rule when driving in Egypt is that the person in front has the right of way. Add to this poorly lit roads and a driver on his cell phone the entire way and it’s hard to get any rest. It was also really hot as one of the girls with us was sick and turned off the A/C. She eventually threw up. We stopped once at a rest stop where the driver pointed to some dodgy food stands and then disappeared. We opted for some overpriced Pringles, 2 boiled eggs and leftover crossaints from breakfast, and ate them while waiting indefinitely for our driver to re-appear.
When we were in Cairo there was a guide, though at first we didn’t know it since he never introduced himself, we were simply dropped off at the Egyptian museum and some guy told us to follow him. Once in the museum he provided information on things, based on what I could tell, its proximity to him as he walked speedy through the museum. Not that it mattered much, he had a strong accent so I couldn’t really understand him. Husband told me he stopped listening when he couldn’t make out if he was saying one thing or it’s opposite.
It continued on like this throughout the pyramids and sphinx with him giving us a brief commentary and ample free time whilst discouraging anything costly [read: time consuming thus preventing him from leaving early].
The trip was a bit of a shock for us as we had been sheltered in the tourist bubble for the past week and a half. We had to scrounge for our own food. No air-conditioned bus. People wouldn’t let us pay in Euros and demanded instead Egyptian pounds – I hadn’t even seen Egyptian money until this point.
Brought me back to my backpacking days and it felt nice. But of course, being catered to and lounging around without a care in the world is nice too.
To our delight 5 star really was closer to what we imagined 5 star to be. Spacious studio apartment style room, king sized bed, big flat screen t.v. you could watch while taking a bath. You could even make phone calls when on the crapper! The best part was the bottles of water replenished daily at no extra charge.
We spent the majority of our time in the same routine. Get up, eat, beach, eat, beach, ice cream, beach, shower, eat, sleep.
We did go one day to Cairo. Having really enjoyed our visits on the Nile we booked with the hotel, which as a mistake. It’s a 6 hour car ride from Hurghada to Cairo and we were told that they would wake us up and give us breakfast. No one woke is up, and when walked around the almost empty resort looking for food, a guy who didn’t speak English/French shoved our reservation papers on our face and made “follow me” motions.
Turns out not a lot of people want to get up at 2am for a 6 hour car ride to Cairo because there were only 6 people on the trip which meant we had a caravan instead of a bus. We now knew very intimately the poorly maintained Egyptian roads.
Going was much better than coming back because the nice couple we had met on the Nile shared their breakfast with us and I was able to sleep. Coming back however was a different story. The only rule when driving in Egypt is that the person in front has the right of way. Add to this poorly lit roads and a driver on his cell phone the entire way and it’s hard to get any rest. It was also really hot as one of the girls with us was sick and turned off the A/C. She eventually threw up. We stopped once at a rest stop where the driver pointed to some dodgy food stands and then disappeared. We opted for some overpriced Pringles, 2 boiled eggs and leftover crossaints from breakfast, and ate them while waiting indefinitely for our driver to re-appear.
When we were in Cairo there was a guide, though at first we didn’t know it since he never introduced himself, we were simply dropped off at the Egyptian museum and some guy told us to follow him. Once in the museum he provided information on things, based on what I could tell, its proximity to him as he walked speedy through the museum. Not that it mattered much, he had a strong accent so I couldn’t really understand him. Husband told me he stopped listening when he couldn’t make out if he was saying one thing or it’s opposite.
It continued on like this throughout the pyramids and sphinx with him giving us a brief commentary and ample free time whilst discouraging anything costly [read: time consuming thus preventing him from leaving early].
The trip was a bit of a shock for us as we had been sheltered in the tourist bubble for the past week and a half. We had to scrounge for our own food. No air-conditioned bus. People wouldn’t let us pay in Euros and demanded instead Egyptian pounds – I hadn’t even seen Egyptian money until this point.
Brought me back to my backpacking days and it felt nice. But of course, being catered to and lounging around without a care in the world is nice too.
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