First, thank you for the warm welcome to my ‘Hello from Amsterdam’ post. Despite initial hesitations concerning online socializing, I find myself pleasantly surprised with the social friendly atmosphere of this site. It helps to see that there is a lot of social contact online and offline between the more established members, meaning that there is some natural form of social control that probably weeds out fakes and creeps. Also the atmosphere is different from the ordinary dating sites since all the members are bound by a passion for diving. I’m glad I signed up.
Since I noticed quite a few members were interested in diving in the Red Sea, I would like to share my experience from my last trip there. The report has become a bit lengthy. Please bear with me.
End of last April, I spent two weeks in Hurghada, halfway down the Egyptian Red Sea coast. I stayed at the Grand Azur Horizon, a four-star all-inclusive on the beach. Comfortable as it was, that was not the main reason I booked that hotel. My main motive was to dive with Easy Divers, a Dutch club with bases in Hurghada and El Gouna. They have two dive centers in Hurghada and their diving boat departs from the pier of the Grand Azur.
The reason I choose Easy Divers was due to their most friendly manner on the telephone. Because I’m an asthmatic diver with a wobbly knee (severed anterior cruciate ligament courtesy of a biking accident) and because I would be traveling alone, I called several Hurghada dive clubs to see how they would accommodate me. The staff at EasyDivers were the only ones who made me feel truly welcome. They didn’t start off about ‘extra charges’ for requiring someone to help with the tanks/fins on entries and exits. The other clubs all started to quote charges ranging from 11 EUR extra per dive day, to 10 EUR extra per dive. In contrast, Easy Divers even mentioned that they would try to hook me up with a DM since they didn’t want to take any risks with my asthma. All this they offered for no extra charge. They told me not to worry and come over, that they would think of a solution.
So I arrived, checked myself into this gorgeous hotel with lashings of marble and sumptuous space, unfortunately void of local ambience except for the waterpipe bar. (I could have been in a resort in Spain, Mexico, or the Dominican Republic…but this what you get with luxery resorts.) The next day, I walked over to the dive center located on one end of the resort’s private beach. While signing up and handling formalities, the Dutch manager Ruud introduced me to a young Scottish DM, Ramsay, who was to be my private DM and buddy for the rest of my trip. First I was hesitant about claiming all of Ramsay’s time since it would mean that he’d be stuck on the boat with me for days on end. And then if I go night diving, he’ll have to cancel any plans he had as well. Well the way it turned out, he didn’t mind at all. He really was available for every and any dive trip I felt like. He enjoyed diving just as much as I did, so in total we did 25 dives in two weeks. At the end of the week, I was approached by some English divers on the boat who wanted to know if I was so posh that I could afford traveling with a personal dive master. We had a good laugh over that. I’m not Oprah. I can’t afford a personal cook, trainer, maid etc etc.
On the first day, we did a check dive on the house reef just off the beach of the resort. Although sections of the reef were sadly damaged from all the construction work in the area, there were pockets of thriving coral with two resident giant moray eels, a black lionfish and a spotted ray as well as shoals of other colorful reef fish and the occasional larger predator fish (tuna?) hunting in the distance by the drop-off. Ramsay did a brief check of all my skills and that was reassuring since I’ve had a two-year hiatus since my previous diving trip.
Then for ten days, I went on two-tank boat trips each day, departing at eight and returning at around four in the afternoon. According to the DMs there are about 40 dive sites within reach. And only on one day did I visit a site for a second time. The selection of sites was dependent largely on the wind direction and weather conditions. Each day was surprise.
The coral is incredible and teaming with life at most of the sites, except for small damaged dead sections where the boats moor. I can’t write down all that I’ve seen here, but here are some highlights: there were plenty of large octopuses, one pair caught in the act of mating, squid ( huge one at night), a long line of dark red squid in perfect formation suspended in the deep blue, free-swimming huge morays and those nestled in the niches, blue spotted rays lurking under the table coral, alligator fish and scorpion fish pretending to be bits of rock and coral, crevasses in the coral pinnacles filled with clusters of lion fish, monster puffer fish, parrotfish nibbling the algae off the coral, midnight blue Arabian angelfish, unicorn fish, napoleon fish, shoals of colorful fish that would ‘rain’ over and around us, a Spanish dancer slowly making its way across the sandy bottom, a group of white tip sharks hunting in the distance, a pair of dolphins who swam over to check us out really close at 10 m deep.
On most the boat dives, the head DM was Mustafa, an amazing local diver with more than 5000 dives in the area. He would give us the most incredible lively and passionate briefings, drawing detailed maps of the coral at each site from memory. He would even add pointers as to where we would most likely see the morays, sea turtles and octopus since he’s been long acquainted with the habits of most of the reef residents. And a lot of the time, yes, the creatures would be there. Just wonderful! I hope he’s still there at EasyDivers when I go back later this year.
So far, this was the positive part. If you don’t want to loose the euphoric feeling don’t read any further about the trials of a woman traveling alone in Egypt but skip through to the last paragraph.
A note about Hurghada. My impressions of the town of Hurghada itself are not very favorable. Hurghada is divided into two centers, El Dahar in the north and Sikkala in the south. The Azur Grand is right in the middle with the town centers only a few minutes by car to either side. To get to either center for the banks/ATMs, shops or pharmacies, you have to flag down a local shared minibus and haggle about the price. Because I was obviously a tourist, the divers will all try to charge me 10 Egyptian pounds, 10x more than I should have to pay as a tourist. The locals pay only 25 piasters (quarter pound) for a short ride. The haggling becomes very tiresome after a while.
Once you arrive in the town center (not much difference between the two centers), it’s one large messy stretch of souvenir shops accentuated here and there by a gaudy grand façade of yet another beach resort. The streets are filled with vendors and beggars all constantly asking for your attention and tourists trying to evade the advances. As a woman alone, I got hassled a lot even though I know a few words of Arabic, such as ‘la shukran’, ie no thank you. The fact that I dressed conservatively helped a bit; long pants, light cotton long-sleeved shirt over my tanktop, and large light sarong scarf just in case I would want to cover up more. The presence of a male companion, Ramsay or other diver, definitely reduced the hassle factor. When alone, men would trail after me yelling “China? Japan? Taiwan? Korea? Ruskie? (Russian)”. Once in a while I would yell back in exasperation, “Netherlands!” and leave them confused. Some would try to grab my arm with the opening “My friend…” or inquire about my marital status. One bus driver tried to grab and kiss me. I fought him off and stepped out, a bit shaken but not harmed. I wore a ring on my left ring finger to make-believe I was married and that they would have to face an irate husband should they make any further moves. (The ring didn’t make an impression on that bus driver.) Unfortunately on other occasions, the ring really did give an impression that I was spoken for and worked as an unwelcome deterrent when it came to meeting other single divers.
Unfortunately, this hassle factor for women is present in many parts of the world. Girlfriends who have gone traveling solo in Turkey have faced similar situations. I also got a lot of attention although much more flirty and friendly rather than annoying in Spain and Italy.
I’ve also been in Pakistan 20 years ago, all the way up by the frontier region near the Afghan border (no not running guns but accompanying my art history professor on a tour of the archeological sites). The hassle factor for a single woman there was just about the same then as it was in Egypt today. However in Pakistan I dressed even more conservatively. Also there was the same culture of bargaining and haggling for every purchase you make be it a clutch of grapes or a souvenir. It’s a tiresome practice since we’re not used to haggling over a pound of T-bone steak at a SafeWay supermarket. But it is a way of life in a range of Middle Eastern and central Asian cultures. Hence it would be of help to brush up on your bargaining and negotiations skills as well as training your patience to stretch a bit further.
Thus, unless you’re the type that enjoys roasting in a beach chair confined in the artificial world of the resort, Hurghada is really not a recommendable destination. If it weren’t for the spectacular diving, I would have been quite miserable. At the resort where I stayed, divers were a minority. Most of the Dutch divers seemed to migrate towards the low budget end. The largest group evident at the resort where I stayed were trashy overweight nouveau riche Russians bent on staking out their favorite beach chairs and storming the food the buffets and bars. Hence, having quickly assessed the situation, I changed my dive plan from a conservative 5 dive days on the boat to 10 and 3 days of shore diving (one at night). I had no reason to spend time on land. Most of the time, on the resort I kept to myself, practicing taichi on the deserted evening beach.
Having said all this, I would still go back and stay at the Grand Azur since it was great to just step out of my room in the morning, wrap a sarong over my swimsuit, walk onto the boat and go diving with Mustafa and Ramsay. None of the hassle of being picked up from another location, having to cover up decently since you’re leaving one resort terrain to go to another. (Easy Divers does provide complimentary transport for divers and their gear if they are staying at other locations). Perhaps I’m a bit lazy but I liked the setup. Also I liked the fact that I could still snorkel at the end of the day and try to find that black lionfish again.
For fairness, I should add, there are a number of camel trips, trips out into the desert monasteries, trips to Luxor and Cairo available. And the people who signed up for these trips were happy doing so. I just preferred diving and didn’t fancy being stuck in the bus for 10 hours, spending 5 hours or so each way to rush around the monuments on a tight schedule. Also I might add that the towns of Marsa Alam to the south and Sharm el Sheikh to the north may be marginally better than Hurghada, although I’ve heard other Dutch divers complain that these towns are also being carved up into beach resorts. Dahab in the north also has a good reputation as a ‘laid back’ ‘hippy’ place. However, most dive centers in Dahab offer only shore dives which given my ‘wobbly knee’ situation is not really suitable.
Well, all things said, it was a wonderful diving vacation. I was devastated about leaving Hurghada, the reefs and the friendly Easy Divers team. And the minute I returned to Amsterdam, I began plotting my next getaway. This will most likely be a liveaboard departing from Hurghada or Marsa Alam combined with a few days of boat dives with EasyDivers. I’m aiming for the end September or mid October and would like to welcome any SD members who would like to join me.
Greetings from Amsterdam,
happy2dive
Edited by happy2dive, 17 May 2004 - 03:25 AM.
