The west coast of the Red Sea is under construction. All of it. ALL. OF. IT! The Red Sea part of my trip was to be MC’ed by a friend of a friend (isn’t it great to have connections?) My friend, lovely Linda from Diversity Scuba, is a videographer who used to work in Egypt. She connected me with Mido, who is an Egyptian videographer working the southern coast of the Red Sea. So I was off. Took the 6-hour fancy, ice-cold air-con luxury bus from Cairo to Hurghada where I was met like royalty and shown around town via personal vehicle, thanks to Mido. It was so nice to be shielded from the usual hassle that accompanies showing up in a new town with that disheveled deer-in-the-headlights look and a backpack in tow. He chauffeured me around and got me settled into a place to stay, made my life very, very easy. My room had a LOVELY little balcony that looked out over the dark of night but I knew the water was just across the street so I was excited to see what morning would bring.
It brought a construction site on the water. Shame. Went into the centre of town and the entire stretch of water front is either a construction site or fenced off as it belongs to one of the endless resort / hotels along the water line. A HUGE tourist town; this I didn’t know. But oddly enough, although there were dozens and dozens of half erected structures absolutely everywhere, I didn’t see any people working on the sites. Nowhere. Noone. Couldn’t tell if some of the buildings were going up or coming down as everything looked to be in such a bizarre state of abandon. The main street was overrun with shops catering to tourists but the hassle wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The traffic was intense and I choked along in the dust and dirt but all in the fun of exploring. I found my way to the marina stocked full of gazillion dollar boats of every size and luxury. Serious money and again, construction everywhere. Not too much else to see so decided to keep heading south.
The next stop was a quaint little town called Al Quseir (spelled differently on every sign posted). Getting to this town, only about two hours away, was much more my style. I asked at the place where I was staying in Hurghada to please explain to the taxi driver that I needed to get to the bus station heading to Al Quseir. The guy was quite distressed as he made many phone calls on my behalf (I was thoroughly confused) only to inform me that none of the tourist bus companies were heading there today. No, no, no… I want a local bus. Puzzled look… pause… pardon, miss? Yes, yes, a local bus is fine, no tourist bus. Are you sure, miss? Yes, yes I ‘m sure. Can you please explain to the taxi? Oh, okay miss. Well, good luck miss. Bahahaha! Poor guy. The local bus turned out to be a fleet of old school Peugot station wagons. Mine was a lovely shade of 70’s green, each of the three rows of bench seats AND the dashboard lined in thick brown faux fur, and random bits of tape and string holding various things together. Oh yeah, and a bunch of men who weren’t really sure what to make of me. After waiting around for enough people to make sure the car was full full, we all piled in and barreled down the desert highway, 7 Egyptian men and me, at no less than 140km/hr. This is my kind of traveling.
Al Quseir is small and old and lovely. It’s a fraction of the size of Hurghada although it too is being built up with tourism, but for now, it was much more local than not. This is Mido’s home base. There, he set me up in a room of one of his offices, which is a proper apartment (also currently under construction), where I crashed on a mattress on the floor and felt like a proper squatter. It was awesome! Met friends and ate local food and was treated like an absolute queen. Overwhelming generosity and kindness everywhere. Amazing. Visited Safaga, another town just north of Al Quseir, super posh dive resort area, and finally got to hang out at the water. Not at the resort, just popped in to drop off his video staff, but I got to peek around inside. Wow, much money. But weird because the area was miles and miles from town, completely isolated by desert, had to pass through security to even get into the resort area and show id to get in and out. People come all this way to be completely shut out from Egypt. Strange.
Walked around a local beach, cold, much too cold for this princess to get in, but watched the local scene. Most boys would go in in shorts of some kind but all of the girls were fully clothed in either long pants and shirts or their burkhas, including head scarf. Can’t imagine something as freeing as swimming and having to do it wrapped in layers of fabric. But everyone looked like they were having fun, picnicking by the water for the day. The beaches so far have been just dirt, more or less, which isn’t what I was expecting. The WATER is every shade of crystal clear you could ever imagine, you can see straight down to the bottom, but the beaches aren’t really beaches. A few metres of sand / dirt / rock then the water. Not the lounging area that I was thinking. But then again, I was pretty spoiled in Mozambique.
Al Quseir has one tiny market street, all of about two blocks long, and one of Mido’s friends has a shop there so it was the perfect place to hang out and watch the world go by. Again, one of those places where nothing is open until mid-afternoon but the whole place is swarming and alive after dark. Cairo was a complete circus atmosphere full of neon lights and a spider’s web of streets choked with cars and people and vendors and places to sit drinking tea and smoking shisha – all local! This is what happens even when the tourists aren’t looking. It’s SO beautiful. No early mornings here, it’s all about after dark, in every town big and small. Social and busy and alive. As I left Mido to wander the street in Al Quseir, I was befriended by one little girl who was very good at practicing her English. She was quickly joined by some of her friends and before I knew it, 10 kids and me were at her house, visiting with her mom and an aunt, while Mido’s frantically calling me on my phone asking me where I’ve disappeared to?! Again, just SO nice!
Easter Monday is a big Egyptian holiday, a new year kind of thing where families all head to the beach for the day to wash out the old and welcome in the new. Thousands and thousands of people crowded miles of narrow beach to celebrate the sunny and hot day. I wandered in and out of the throngs of people, drawing a fair share of looks and stares, but remained fully clothed, out of the water, and simply an observer. Love, love, LOVE that the few times I did sit to watch the parties, it never took long before a kid or two would simply plop themselves down beside me and chatter away in Arabic which would of course have to default into a game of charades. Didn’t see one single white face so fair enough that I was an odd sight in the midst of the crowds. But again, nothing but smiles and kindness. This is why I travel.
Back to the “under construction”… I’m not kidding. There are hundreds of buildings up and down the coast, along the desert highway, on the water, and everywhere in between all in the process of being built apparently. Half done, brick outlines with protruding re-bar, piles of construction material, but no people. Mido says it has been like this for 10 years. People build what they can until they run out of money, leave it, then come back when there is more money. New and old, everything covered in varying degrees of dirt and dust, definitely a country based on tourism as there seem to be more and more resorts coming every single day. Rightfully so; some pretty amazing thing to see here!
The plan is to start heading inland, towards the Nile and the rest of history. Want to try to cruise on the river, see further south, and find some more of those impressive temples. The people here have been so warm and wonderful this far along. Way less harassing than I thought, so friendly and helpful and just happy, happy people. Thumbs up from this Canadian traveler!
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