Russians in the Egyptian Red Sea

Having been in Egypt for 2 weeks Christine and I have learned something interesting about the naming of males either here or in Muslim countries, we aren’t sure which. There are 4 dominant names that seem to come up again and again. Two names that seem to be popular are Ahmed and Mustafa, and probably about ¼ of the men we meet have these names. Perhaps another 2/3’s of the names are either Islam or Mohammed, with Mohammed being far and away the most popular name. The names are so popular that we have started to guess the names of people as we go, usually sticking with Mohammed and often being correct. These names are in addition to the names that vendors usually call me to try and get my attention, which are usually either “Mr. Moustache” or “Mr. Ali Babba”.

After enjoying our river cruise and seeing the sites down the Nile we went off to what is ostensibly our last real destination before heading home. We flew from Aswan to Cairo, where we were stuck for about 5 hours due to a massive sandstorm where visibility was similar to a whiteout. We finally managed to fly out to Sharm El Sheikh, which is a major resort town on the Red Sea. When we were picked up we of course guessed that our guides name was Mohammed, but alas we were incorrect when he told us it was Ahmed. However, it turns out that the driver with him was named Mohammed, so we were close.

We were dropped off at this really nice, brand new luxury resort right on the water for a few days of fun in the sun to end the trip. The resort was very large and had more than 5 major pools, including one with slides and games for children. The main pool right on the ocean was heated to a very comfortable temperature and had a swim up bar. The resort was great and the only thing that didn’t stand out was the food, probably because they had to crank out so much to feed everyone. The hotel also had the requisite Celine Dion music playing. Celine is everywhere over here in hotels, airports, malls, cars, I mean everywhere. There are no posters or promotions, she just seems to be the only music of choice for public places. I’m not sure how this love affair of Celine started, but she is huge in Egypt. (Left - Our resort)

Interestingly Sharm El Sheikh seems to be a major playground for Russians and almost everyone in the resort was Russian. The staff in general had pretty poor English but almost all of them spoke excellent Russian. It was weird when I went to get my omelet and the cooks default assumption was to speak in Russian, not Arabic and certainly not English. This is the only place we have experienced this phenomenon. (Right - the resort beach)

Part way through our stay we noticed something interesting taking place with more than half the Russian tables. The people seemed to bring huge piles of fruit and dessert to their tables in addition to the meal. For some reason the table that had piles of fresh uncut fruit also had huge mounds of tomatoes. I am not talking about people with simply hearty appetites, but mounds of fruit and dessert. One couple had 7 oranges, 4 pears and 3 banana’s in addition to their meals. They would also take 10 or 12 tomatoes to one table along with the fruit. One night we decided to keep an eye on these plates to see what would happen. At first I noticed that the fruit seemed to be disappearing without anyone eating it, so we watched as the women sneakily put them in their purse. Then one women went and picked up about 6 pieces of dessert, in addition to the plate of 8 pieces on her table it was just a ridiculous amount. When a band came in and started playing everyone looked towards the door and she started shoveling 14 pieces of dessert into her purse. The quantities we are talking about is not just evening snacks, so we can’t figure out if they all have small fruit import businesses to Russia or I they just let things go rotten and stale in their rooms. Very bizarre, but entertaining to watch.

We pretty much spent 2 ½ days lying on the beach, lying on the pool, lying in the water, and eating. The only serious activity we undertook was a daily snorkeling trip and they were fantastic. I think living on the Pacific Ocean there is this natural conditioning that the water is going to be cold. When we first jumped into the Red Sea we were surprised at how warm it was, about the same temperature as the heated pool. The water also has a high salt content, so neither of us had to do anything to float along the top of the water. The water is so clear you can see very deep and the coral reefs have so many beautiful fish it was an incredible show of sea life in large numbers. There were fish of all shapes, sizes and colours.

On our last day in Sharm we took a trip on a glass bottom boat and went snorkeling on a more distant coral reef where there were some other types of fish. Even though we knew the water was warm there was still that sensation of preparation for the cold when I jumped off the boat. We were fortunate to spot a manta ray at this location, and that was the most unique sea creature we saw. Christine was hoping to see a giant sea tortoise swimming through the water, but no such luck. (Left - the glass bottomed boat)

Our trip back to Cairo was pretty uneventful and a quiet evening in the hotel room. Our last day was spent repacking, visiting the marketplace to see if there was anything we wanted to pick up before heading home. We have a fairly lengthy journey home that includes us waking up at 1:00 am and traveling for about 30-35 hours including stops. We are hoping to head into Amsterdam when we have our lay-over there.

We have been hearing Christmas music these last few days and those of you who know me, know it’s my favourite season. We are very excited about coming home, seeing our families and enjoying the celebrations of the season.

Stay tuned for the stunning final conclusion to Hovan & Christine’s Travels outlining the adventures of our trip home and some general musings about our trip in general.

All the best,

Christine and Hovan