Have just come back from another amazing holiday, 2nd
one this year, which is a record for me as I normally do holidays close to
home.
Last year our daughter said that she was off to Sharm el
Sheik for a couple of weeks, I offered to babysit and thereby hangs a tale.
My offer was taken up, and when we looked at the costs for
me it would not be a lot more for another person to join me for double
occupancy. So I said to Himself, why don’t you come – response was, “yes why
not!”
Fortunately we had a little spare cash so that paid for the
holiday, just needed to find ‘cool’ clothes for the trip. I umm’ed and aah’d
about a swimming costume as I don’t swim, just sink, and also my middle has
expanded and I am conscious of it, but I found shorts and skimpy tops which
were fine and I just exposed the bits I was comfortable with and developed a
gentle tan (factor 50 came into play) as I did not want to burn and end up with
skin like blistered leather.
Himself had a pair of swimming trunks from when I first knew
him – they should be in a museum of the 60’s, at least they contained what was
necessary to contain.
We all assembled at glorious Gatwick for the off.
Oh what fun doing a package holiday, first one for us…. And
probably the last!!
We paid for extra legroom on our seats so that we were
closer to our children, not that it made a lot of difference. There was the
jump seat for the hostess just the other side of the aisle and another guy was
in the seat opposite her. He was absolutely enormous. Not tall but his girth ,
to me, was unbelievable. His thighs were like my waist which is not small….. he
was shoehorned into the seat and had an extension for his seatbelt. His family
were elsewhere on the plane and normal size….. I just cannot get my head round
it.
Arrival was late to our destination. Stepping out of the
airport into 40+ degrees of temperature was unbelievable. Like walking into an
oven.
We got to our hotel quite late but there was food available
for a little supper.
Our room was on the ground floor overlooking a couple of
pools, one quiet and one a tad noisy during the day. At least they were quiet
at night.
The bathroom is just how I would like ours done and himself
agrees – yeah, one step in the right direction. It had a walk in shower, superb
basin arrangement and, of course, the obligatory loo. We had twin beds, and
they were huge! In fact the whole layout was good.
Our days were spent lounging around the pool, drifting into
the bar, eating breakfast, lunch and dinner. The only thing missing was bacon to
go with the fried eggs in the morning…
They had 5 a la carte restaurants, Lebanese, Indian, Chinese,
Italian and English. The Lebanese was OK, not like I have had here at all. The
Indian was excellent, Italian passable, English – well what can one say, very
English. The Chinese just had a certain ingredient missing, so no ribs to be
had.
We took a short shopping trip into Sharm el Sheik, it is
like a building site. There are some lovely looking places but others that are
in the process of being finished. I couldn’t find anything untouristy as
souveniers. There was just a load of tat in the shops.
Whilst we were there other holidaymakers arrived, lots from ‘oop
North’. No disrespect meant but overhearing some conversations I got the
impression that the Northerners were financially better off than us Southerners.
They honeymooned in exotic places and holidayed regularly in hot ‘package
holiday’ places. I always thought that they were poor ‘oop North’. There was a lot of ’lard’ being barely contained
in swimsuits and bikinis giving rise to red peeling bodies. What I did find
disturbing was the number of obese children there and watching the families filling
their faces at mealtimes it is no wonder that there is a future health timebomb.
Then the Russians arrived!
Bigger, bolder and very inconsiderate, greedy and rude… Apparently they are buying this particular
complex and most of the staff are being laid off to be replaced. Won’t be going
there again!
A trip to Cairo was booked, by bus, for three of us. Himself
decided he couldn’t do 7 hours on the bus so I went with daughter and granddaughter
leaving the men to look after the grandson, or was it the grandson looking
after the other two, I’m not sure.
Off we went, early start of 1am, trundling into the dark
desert with a lot of strangers. I just sat
and wondered what the hell I was doing that ungodly hour. I had an Egyptian guy
sat next to me, and for the whole journey he snored. I didn’t really rest. I
saw the sun rise and a very bleak outlook.
Question: Jungle or Desert – Jungle every time!!
We went through the Suez Tunnel and into Cairo. Our guide
gave us a potted history of the city and I found it quite interesting but also depressing
as he was so proud of it all. I thought that Cairo was overcrowded, dirty,
noisy and the air grey with pollution. There had been riots a few weeks back and you could
still see the burnt out buildings.
First stop was the Museum to see King Tutankhamun’s treasures but unfortunately it was a whistle
stop tour as the Museum would be closing early due to Ramadan. The artifacts
were absolutely incredible. I felt in awe of them. The detail was delightful to
see. I recently saw a programme about the use of gold in art and apparently in
ancient Egypt dwarves were goldsmiths as they were assumed to have magical
powers, if that was the case then yes they definitely did have amazing powers
to create such beautiful objects.
Our next stop was Giza to see the pyramids. What I found off-putting
was travelling along the main route to
the pyramids and passing a canal that was full of bags of rubbish as well as a
couple of dead horses. When you consider that water is a precious resource it
isn’t a good advertisement for the area!
I felt small and insignificant against the pyramids, yes
they are awesome and I am glad that I have seen them at last.
We didn’t get to the Valley of the Kings or to see Petra in
Jordan, an excuse to go again but will be more selective as to which company I
go with or even go independent. I even have someone who would like to go as
well and I am not talking husband – he does not want to fly again!!
The day we came home we had to wait at Sharm airport –
Ramadan put everything on hold. Also the airplane was 1 ½ hours late taking off
and the big guy was squeezed into a regular seat . Didn’t get into bed at our
daughters until 5.30 in the morning. Such a long tiring day, no wonder Himself
does not want to fly again, me? I can hack it..