After a week in over 100 degree weather in Cairo, we decided it was time to get out of town. Well, just for the weekend.
We had been hearing about a beach resort located in Ain Sukhna (pronounced sookna) about an hour away from Cairo, situated at the top of the Red Sea close to the Suez Canal. Everybody who’s been there raves about it, so we thought why not check it out. Jim got a room for us at a five star hotel, Stella Di Mare Grand Hotel. The pictures on the internet look awesome. Despite that, Jim was skeptical about the accommodations because as he puts it, “I’ve been to an alleged five star hotel in the Congo, and let’s just say a Motel 6 would have been better.” What made me unconvinced was that the cost of our stay (which was a mere US $91 at the embassy rate) included buffet breakfast and dinner. And a neighbor told me that he would rate it a three star. I thought that after a week of being in an oven whenever you head outside, the number of stars was irrelevant.
Off we go on the road in the afternoon of July 5th. Well, what was supposed to be an hour to hour and a half road trip turned out to be four and a half hours. How did that happen? Pretty easy when you’re in a foreign country and you can’t speak the language or read the road signs. On top of that, nobody seems to give very specific directions and when you’re driving in the middle of the desert with not even a camel in sight, things can turn pretty bleak. We were told to take the Cairo Suez Road, “go straight and you will see it after an hour or so, there will be signs.” Easy enough, right? Well, it’s never that easy in Egypt.
After we were driving for awhile, we saw a sign for Sukhna, so naturally, even though we were not staying on the purported path, we thought that must be where we needed to turn. After another thirty minutes and not seeing any signs for the hotel, Jim decided to do the prudent thing and call the hotel to determine whether we took the wrong turn. After being told that we were headed in the wrong direction, we turned around and followed their directions given in broken English. To make a long story short, we ended up making a big circle and found out after two more calls to the hotel that we were only five minutes from the hotel when we first stopped to call. By that time, nature was calling for me, Megan was screaming at the top of her lungs, and the sun appeared to be setting soon. We had two more hours of daylight and if we didn’t find it within the next mile, we already decided that we would turn back for home since it would be pitch dark out there in the desert and we were warned not to drive outside Cairo at night since Egyptians do not turn on their headlights and camels and water buffalos abound. The only saving grace was that Hannah was an absolute angel for the whole car ride, entertaining herself just fine, now tell me how was that possible?
Well, I’m happy to report that we made it to the resort. And not only that it turned out to be a beautiful hotel, the food was fabulous, and the beach was amazing. There are waiters at the beach who set up your beach chairs and there is full drink service on the beach. We parked ourselves under one of the wooden umbrellas and felt like we were in paradise. The water at the Red Sea is crystal clear blue and warm like bath water, very inviting to splash around and hang out in. And the sand is fine and in a beautiful red clay color. We would rate the hotel a four star only because the service was mediocre. We ended staying for two nights and are sure that we will return again. Hannah announced that she did not want to return to Cairo as we were getting ready to head back and said that “I do like the beach.” We will have to go back because after all we couldn’t answer Hannah’s question of why the Red Sea is not red. We’re thinking that maybe the answer will come to us next time as we are relaxing under our umbrella, having a cold drink, and feeling the hypnotic sea breeze wash over us.
We had been hearing about a beach resort located in Ain Sukhna (pronounced sookna) about an hour away from Cairo, situated at the top of the Red Sea close to the Suez Canal. Everybody who’s been there raves about it, so we thought why not check it out. Jim got a room for us at a five star hotel, Stella Di Mare Grand Hotel. The pictures on the internet look awesome. Despite that, Jim was skeptical about the accommodations because as he puts it, “I’ve been to an alleged five star hotel in the Congo, and let’s just say a Motel 6 would have been better.” What made me unconvinced was that the cost of our stay (which was a mere US $91 at the embassy rate) included buffet breakfast and dinner. And a neighbor told me that he would rate it a three star. I thought that after a week of being in an oven whenever you head outside, the number of stars was irrelevant.
Off we go on the road in the afternoon of July 5th. Well, what was supposed to be an hour to hour and a half road trip turned out to be four and a half hours. How did that happen? Pretty easy when you’re in a foreign country and you can’t speak the language or read the road signs. On top of that, nobody seems to give very specific directions and when you’re driving in the middle of the desert with not even a camel in sight, things can turn pretty bleak. We were told to take the Cairo Suez Road, “go straight and you will see it after an hour or so, there will be signs.” Easy enough, right? Well, it’s never that easy in Egypt.
After we were driving for awhile, we saw a sign for Sukhna, so naturally, even though we were not staying on the purported path, we thought that must be where we needed to turn. After another thirty minutes and not seeing any signs for the hotel, Jim decided to do the prudent thing and call the hotel to determine whether we took the wrong turn. After being told that we were headed in the wrong direction, we turned around and followed their directions given in broken English. To make a long story short, we ended up making a big circle and found out after two more calls to the hotel that we were only five minutes from the hotel when we first stopped to call. By that time, nature was calling for me, Megan was screaming at the top of her lungs, and the sun appeared to be setting soon. We had two more hours of daylight and if we didn’t find it within the next mile, we already decided that we would turn back for home since it would be pitch dark out there in the desert and we were warned not to drive outside Cairo at night since Egyptians do not turn on their headlights and camels and water buffalos abound. The only saving grace was that Hannah was an absolute angel for the whole car ride, entertaining herself just fine, now tell me how was that possible?
Well, I’m happy to report that we made it to the resort. And not only that it turned out to be a beautiful hotel, the food was fabulous, and the beach was amazing. There are waiters at the beach who set up your beach chairs and there is full drink service on the beach. We parked ourselves under one of the wooden umbrellas and felt like we were in paradise. The water at the Red Sea is crystal clear blue and warm like bath water, very inviting to splash around and hang out in. And the sand is fine and in a beautiful red clay color. We would rate the hotel a four star only because the service was mediocre. We ended staying for two nights and are sure that we will return again. Hannah announced that she did not want to return to Cairo as we were getting ready to head back and said that “I do like the beach.” We will have to go back because after all we couldn’t answer Hannah’s question of why the Red Sea is not red. We’re thinking that maybe the answer will come to us next time as we are relaxing under our umbrella, having a cold drink, and feeling the hypnotic sea breeze wash over us.
2 comments:
So jealous! Not about the getting lost part; we do that all the time.
But about the awesome resort. Oh, and I'm also jealous about the kid who behaved in the car.
Howdy From California!
Great to hear that you guys are truly having an Adventure!!
I like Hannas comment about the Red Sea. Tell her your going to next visit Kentucky, "The Blue Grass State" and tell her that the grass is REALLY blue, that should be fun.
My new address is 765 Onyx Ct. San Jose, CA, 95117. Cool house with 2 other guys. It was needed and things are good.
My company is being aquired by Google. I'm not a millionaire but I'll be a pretty good Thousandaire in September :)
Talk to you guys later!
John Mikita
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