Hurgada

Halfway down the east coast of Egypt is hurgada, a popular beach town on the red sea. It takes about 7 hours to get there by bus from Cairo. The trip is long, but there's about a 2 hour stretch of beautiful scenery. The road runs parallel to the water and on the opposite side are desert mountains. I was happy to see that they are taking advantage of wind energy there too.

It is usually packed with tourists from Russia and the UK, but this year we went during eid, so we found more Egyptians on holidays there, than we may have wanted to. See, I've never been one to like any touristy scene. I like to have local, cultural experiences. And I especially don't like to come to Egypt to go where all the Russians are... I want to be here in Egypt. But the only thing worse than too many tourists are too many annoying Egyptians... the kind who tend to ruin everything with their loud, screaming kids; their- not actually a bathing suit but an entire outfit from headscarf to leggings- bathing suits, and the tisk, shame on you for wearing a real bathing suit, glances that are associated with them; and my favorite: the let me sample this bowl of dip from the same spoon that it is served by. This is not typical of all egyptians, this is typical of completely lacking class. so we were initially put off by the crowd when we arrived and were worried about our experience.

I don't really know how to judge hurgada. I mean, ok it is the most popular destination in Egypt, and ok there are nice beaches, and ok the sun is super hot, and the reefs make for great diving. But I've never been one to enjoy staying in hotel resorts or those packaged trips. We eat here, we sleep here, we swim here. And once we go outside, everything is written in Russian. Huh? Where am I?

Don't get me wrong, going to any beach and swimming and sunning is always great in my book, so I can't complain there. I think I just prefer a place like Sahel shimaly where I can relax, and still feel like I'm in Egypt.

On our 2nd day, we took an all day cruise to dive to see the corals. The dive trip helped me reconfirm how much I am not cut out for diving. A few years ago, I began pursuing my PADI certification to get my license. During which, I discovered I have a major claustrophobic fear being deep in the water. The darkness, the cold, the unfamiliarity, and especially that insane reliance on one apparatus to provide me air to maintain my life, make it really difficult for me to relax. You know what, give me a snorkel and I'll float and observe from above. There's nothing I need to see up close.

But in spite of all that, it really is remarkable to see all the different and amazing types of fish there are, as well as the coral reefs. It's like the real-life version of Finding Nemo.

So of course I'm happy to have come, but all it is is a tourist beach destination with prices adjusted accordingly. These 3 days were the most expensive bulk of any short trip I've taken and I can't see the value in that.