1. Return to Egypt 2024 … Dad’s requested a blog!

Do you want to see my packed lunch …. Is avacado a liquid, balm or gel?

Another month, another adventure … this time, a return to Egypt to dive again in the August warmth of The Red Sea. I didn’t think this trip would require a blog - indeed, I could point you back to a similar time last year when there’s a very similar week - but Dad thought I could manage at least two to document my journey to Egypt and then, mostly likely, post dive trip (as it’s unlikely there will be enough signal or WiFi for a mid-sea update, but you never know!).

Currently, I am on the first leg of my travel, which is a flight to Cairo. I’m not visiting their pyramids this time; just the airport as I transit through for a domestic flight down to Hurghada port. While not the most economic or environmentally friendly flight option of a direct flight, it is the significantly cheaper route. My mum is becoming  quite the David Attenborough fan and so as a result, she is much more mindful of avoiding waste and reducing her carbon footprint. Perversely, as a scuba diver, I am increasingly more aware of the cost to our oceans - which we rely on for all life on earth - of our mistreatment of the world. However, this hasn’t yet translated, for me, to a reduction in flights. Quite the opposite in fact. Mum thinks about flying less and reuses her bin-liners (gross) and carrier bags (long live Wilkos) so she believes they are no longer to be classed as ‘single use plastic’. I do try to reduce my single-use plastic use, consume less energy and educate…but I haven’t stopped flying. My carbon footprint is fairly atrocious.

Anyway, my day started with a 4.30am alarm and a drive to the airport where I parked my car in some remote field claiming to be a secure off-site car park. handed over my keys to a terribly trustworthy-looking hooded youth and got a bus to the airport. At the terminal, there was a fair amount of passport scanning, rescanning, huffing and puffing and questions about where I was going then intense keyboard tapping. As I was preparing myself to be informed of what ever disaster had befallen my booking, the check in lady handed over two boarding passes (one for Heathrow and one for Cairo) and attached tags to my bag. The tag included a large, bright green ‘transfer’ sticker which when I checked that it meant it would go all the way to Hurghada without my supervision, the lady answered with an extremely non-committal ‘yesss??’. She then informed me I had to drop it to the oversize luggage place. It’s not oversize, it’s not even that weighty (20kg) but apparently is too long to fit on the belts they have at terminal 2. It’s really not that large, although I do remember when I first got it that I found its 100L capacity is actually big enough for me to get in and be zipped up into, which was exciting and an important quality to look for in a bag.

My baggage has been checked in and dropped off and while full of hope for its successful arrival in Hurghada, I’m not all that full of optimism. Any time there is a transit flight, I travel with as much as I possibly can in my hand luggage having learnt the hard way with no bag in Thailand for 3 weeks and lots of knicker washing and wearing stretchy elephant clothing from the local market. Aside from dive gear, which I’d have to rent, I’ve got a vast array of clothes, toiletries and tea bags in my extremely heavy - and thankfully it wasn’t weighed or declared to be oversized - backpack!

At security, I separated my bag of liquids and my tablet and trotted through the metal detector, which I didn’t set off but still got selected for the full body scanner, which was fun. Although the image they actually get of you to study is enough to make anyone realise a diet is long overdue! Because I got the random beep for scanning, I also got a bag search. I always think that airport security is when I feel most like a potential terrorist. I irrationally start worrying that I’ve accidentally packed a bomb or a fully loaded machine gun that I’ve forgotten about. The security man unzipped and studied my collection of clothing, liquids, tea bags and electronics. He kept asking if I had other liquids, balms or gels … I was a bit worried about my lunch.

Me: Do you want to see my packed lunch?

Security man: is it liquids?

Me: no, it’s a chicken roll

SM: sounds pretty solid so nothing to worry about

Me: it’s got avocado in though and to be honest, that’s probably softer and juicier in consistency than the lip balm that gets classed as a liquid

At this point, I had an internal shout at myself to shut up! He might take my lunch away - or require that I pick put all the avocado. Fortunately, he didn’t require either of these actions, did the explosives tests, didn’t find any (phew!) and off I went still in possession of my lunch. I do think that’s a bit of a flaw in the liquids rules, all of which, I think I remember, came in as an emergency panic after 9-11, despite it turning out that none of the dreadful disasters actually involved any explosive liquids anyway. But it’s possible that I’m mixing up my terrorist attack recollections. The lady behind me in the queue was loudly complaining because she wasn’t aloud her 2 litres of water because she thought that 1, the no liquids rules had ended now since Covid was over (what??) and 2, water didn’t count anyway. I just gave her my best ‘you’re an idiot’ glare and continued on worrying about my sandwich.

Once through security, I had time for breakfast but was disappointed to find terminal 2 doesn’t have a Wetherspoons. The only reason this is a shame is because of their unlimited hot drinks machines which I like to take full advantage of having paid astronomical airport prices for food and drink. Today, I had to pay quite a lot for my breakfast (which was way better than a Spoons one to be fair) and for a frothy coffee. The poached eggs were over-cooked small rubbery balls though but rather than be wasteful and request new ones, which I definitely could have, I ate them all up. I think David Attenborough and my mum would be a little bit proud. I also didn’t need the litre of tap water in a fancy bottle that they brought so I drank the few sips that I needed and then poured the rest into my water bottle and added a squirt of squash to turn it into a delicious beverage. I absolutely draw the line at paying then for another drink to get a cup of tea for the journey but the waitress was very nice and she took my cup away and returned it full of boiling water. Tea bag and a couple of sachets of milk powder added and I was all set.

This plane was delayed by almost 2 hours by the time we took off. Rather than give us any information or reassurance, having removed the ‘gate at 8.41am’ signage, it just said ‘please wait’ on the departure board for enough time to start causing concern since every other flight was either boarding, had a gate or had a stated delay. At 10am, were called urgently, with haste, to a gate where we stood about for half an hour before they boarded us. Boarding was the usual incompetent display of people who don’t understand how getting on a plane works. It seems the Egyptians are largely unaware of pre-allocated seating and then when it’s explained, they don’t like it so just stand in the aisle totally disregarding requests and instructions by cabin crew to sit down and clear the aisle. It’s lucky I’m so patient and tolerant of this type of behaviour.

It’s not a totally full flight so everyone has been able to spread out a bit and number of people are having a sleep. I know, because there is a lot of really loud snoring echoing around the place. The joys. It’s also quite a turbulence riddled flight but other than that, ok so far and still in plenty of time to have some of my packed lunch and make my connection to Hurghada.

*****

Arrival at Cairo was fine although I had to get my visa before I could go to my connecting flight. You literally go to the desk marked ‘The Bank’ and request it. The man asked for $25 and was a little put out when I said that I could pay in either pounds or euros (which I’ve read up and checked are acceptable currencies for visa purchase and had the right denominations of both). The man said ‘just pay me whatever you have and think it is’. I handed over a €20 euro note, which he seemed happy with. He then gave me my via and 54 Egyptian pounds in changed the equivalent to 84p in English! I think it’s a process they have based almost entirely on the bank in monopoly. Visa in hand, I was allowed through to my connecting domestic flight, which essentially seemed to entail been allowed through a gap in some boarding and directed over a small barrier then up some back stairs and through a fire escape door where I found myself in the domestic flights hall. I’m sure I went the wrong way but seemed to get to the right place! After all of this I was really quite warm so I found a spot by the aircon machine and enjoyed my packed lunch and another free cup of tea, gained by thrusting my cup at man at the coffee stand and requested ‘just some hot water please’ and again no being asked to pay for it.

Another flight, another show of inability in passengers to sit in their allocated seat and make so much fuss about being split up and people who’d just sat in a seat they fancied even if it wasn’t theirs. It was a 50 minute flight! It was ended though by the air stewardess, really raising her voice and ordering ‘everyone please take a seat. If it’s empty, you can sit in it, I it’s not,  you can’t but you must all be seated. The flight is not full, just SIT IN A SEAT’. I considered giving her a round of applesauce but I didn’t like to add to the chaos.

On arrival at Cairo, as I suspected, my bag did not arrive along with the ones from my flight. However, an extremely helpful airport man came to ask me - and a few others - if we were waiting for bags. When he learned I’d come from the UK, he said that was international (I know, but via Cairo I explained) so I needed to go and pick up my bag from the intentional terminal. I explained I’d come from Cairo but he was adamant that because I hadn’t actually seen my bag in Cairo, I needed to go to the international terminal. That was another, this time escorted, trip through some boarding, various locked doors and then into another terminal where my bag was there, all on its own, abandoned on a baggage carousel. It obviously arrived before I did and I wonder if it got flown direct or something. However it travelled, I was thrilled to see it! In Egypt, they make you put your big bag through a scanner before you leave the airport. I go summoned round to the screen by the checker man who pointed at part of the image and said ‘what’s that?’. I studied the round metal looking disk and said it was probably part of scuba diving equipment or reel or something but he wasn’t happy and was about to request a full open and search when I realised what is was ….

Me: Oh, it’s the base of my travel kettle

Man: what?

Me: you know, a kettle (did a little mime of pouring water into a cup then drinking delicious tea from said imaginary cup).

Man: you’ve brought a kettle? (He said this not with the respect and admiration it deserves but more in slight disbelief, which is odd)

Me: yes!! For making tea!

At this point he waved me on through to collect my bag, no search required, and be on my way.

Getting a taxi from the airport was another slight trauma as there is no proper taxi firm or system at the airport so I wandering about a bit and located men by a line of white cars who all started shouting ‘taxi’ at me. After brief conversations, which included them attempted to take my bag and load it into their cars before we’ve agreed a price, I was getting annoyed and demanded a price first. At this point, they requested payment in American dollars or euros. I had my newly acquired ATM wodge of Egyptian pounds but they don’t want that an kept saying ridiculous things like ‘you really don’t have dollars?’. No, you ingrate, I don’t because I’m British and I live in Britain and we don’t trade in cash American dollars in the UK. I know it should be a £5ish taxi fair so was cross when he requested €20. In the end, I walked off away from him and back to the terminal building to try and get WiFi to summon an Uber. I did this with a trail of several of the rip-off taxi men following me. At the entrance to the airport, the guard didn’t want to let me back in, the cleaners were slopping buckets of water all over the place and cleaning the floor and the taxi men were still in pursuit while all of them just kept firing questions at me and trying to offer me either taxis or internet or asking about dollars. I settled it all by bursting into tears and raising my voice back at the taxi men to say I did want a taxi, I just wasn’t going to ripped off for on and that no matter how many times he demanded it, I still don’t have dollars. The guard wasn’t budging on re-admittance so I threatened to just sit in the floor in the puddle of cleaning water and get online and sort out my own transport. At this point, a nice man from inside arrived again and said he’d help me because he’d finished shift and could drive me. I said I didn’t think I should get in a random car with a stranger but he showed me his Uber app because sometimes he works for them on the side so I decided he seemed like the right kind of stranger to get in a strange car with, in a strange city in another continent and trust. It all went excellently, he found the my hotel on maps and drove me all the way there and only requested 100 Egyptian pound payment. I gave him 200 (less than £4) and thanked him profusely. I actually gave him 400 but he point blank refused to accept it and would only take 200.

Found my hotel, aircon on to cool it down from the 36° we landed in at 10pm, showered and kettle on and now for bed and a good rest!

Today, I’ve had a day of lunch, pool, beach and but mostly sheltering in a lovely cafe I like, inside in the aircon to get some relief from the 39°C it had got to by 10am. I navigated the ‘new and approved for better standards of safety’ pavements (that’s what they’re advertising at the airport about hurghada town - not sure they’ve quite got it right yet!). I head to my boat later in the afternoon and experience from last year tells me it will a bit cooler at sea and mostly a lovely gentle breeze for I between visiting with the fishes!

The boat I’m going on doesn’t have wifi so I’ll report back in a week!