The ocean! The Red Sea! So there is still water after all the desert! A recap of Hurghada, capital of Russia in Egypt, where luxurious all-in resorts are standard and snorkling or diving are highly recommended.
A long drive through the desert brought us from Luxor all the way to Hurghada, at the Red Sea. During the drive we passed through desolated lands and desserts, only stopping when we had to at very basic resting stations. Obviously everyone was glad when we finally reached our Hotel Triton Three Corners. Proper rooms, nice staff, average food, too many Russians!
A small siesta later, I went tot discover the Red Sea. Getting there right in time, only two blocks from our hotel, I managed to get some great shots from the beautiful sunset before taking a well-deserved swim in the Red Sea. We had dinner at the hotel, it was all-inclusieve after all, with the whole group and had a few beers, Yes Beer!, at the Peanuts Bar next door where Free WiFi was our main concern.
Our second day in Hurghada began with another buffet for breakfast. Excellent eggs and pancakes by the way. 14/16 (the other two went diving for a mere $55 for two dives) then jumped in a van, off the another resort. From there we got on a boat and set off to the Panorama Reef (outer Safaga Bay). Together with around 15 other boats we waited… for amazing dolphins showing up! We all grabbed our snorkling gear and jumped in the water straight away. Unfortunately my gear wasn’t as good as expected so I couldn’t really keep up with the others. Getting back on the boat, wesay more dolphins and enjoyed an amazing view. We continued our day-trip to a beautiful reef not far from the first one and after receiving a proper mask and mouthpiece, I jumped into the water. What I saw was beyond any imagination. Beautiful corals, a big but manageable reef and hundreds of different smaller and bigger fish everywhere. You all know I love water, but I didn’t know I loved it that much! I snorkled around there for at least an hour by myself before realizing that everyone but an Australian and me had gotten back on the boat already.
We had a great lunch, with fish haha!, and headed to another reef not too far from the previous one. Here the reef was a bit more damaged by tourists from the past, luckily local NGO’s are preserving the reefs nowadays, and less fish but beautiful nonetheless. Another couple of hours of snorkling, combined with jumping from the boat into the Red Sea, enjoying the view and getting badly sunburned, later we headed back to the coast and our hotel. I had a last swim in the pool and headed back up to pack up for the next stop of our trip.
After dinner, most of us went back to Peanuts Bar to enjoy another beer (don’t try the cocktails here, they’re lousy). I ended up having an interesting conversation with our guide, Walid, and his cousin who is a guide for Russians coming to Hurghada. From local tourism, through Egypt’s history AD (finally something non-Pharaotic, haha) to today’s economical issues and the threat of Da’esch, as ISIS is called here. Whatever admiration I used to have about Walid, increased even more as he surprised me with his knowledge on all of these topics, offering me new insights in the Egyptian way of thinking and seeing things locally as well as globally.
This is why I travel.
It’s always nice to see beautiful cities, buildings or hotspots, but in the end they’re always very similar to each other in one way or another. I am not comparing the pyramids to let’s say Belgrade (Serbia) or the Iguazu Waterfalls (border Argentina-Brazil), not at all. All of these hotspots are truly amazing.
What I want to say is that it’s not by visiting a country as a tourist that you get to know the country, it’s by talking to the locals about local topics and issues that your mind gets expanded in ways you cannot imagine. The best way to visit whatever location you can think of, is with a local guide, showing you what the locals do and how the locals live. That’s my goal in travelling, by meeting locals you get a true feeling about a country, broadening at the same time your cultural as well as your intellectual spirit.
Enough of the talking, enjoy Hurghada’s pictures!
PS: Thanks again Walid, truly interesting to have you as our guide!
_safe travels!
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| Beautiful view from the boat. Water followed by the desert. |
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| Enjoying the chilling times |
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