Saturday, September 30, 2006

Hurghada with a Russian prostitute


A warning to anyone reading this: it is extremely lengthy and loquacious. Read with caution. Well, before I explain my rather recusant title, let me tell you a little bit about Hurghada and my trip there. I have been dying to get out of Cairo for the last few weeks (think oppressive heat, blankets of smog on the Nile in the morning, horrendous traffic, etc.), so I went to the AUC travel office and booked a double for two nights at the Sofitel Hurghada. Now, I had planned on bringing someone, and I figured most anyone would be willing to accompany me, but it was rather difficult to find a travel partner. I thought I might be going alone for awhile, but I convinced my roommate, Frances, to skip her last class on Thursday and accompany me. When we pulled up to the Sofitel complex, I do not think she regretted the decision. So, most of you are wondering what the heck Hurghada is. It is a fairly new resort town on the Red Sea, famous mainly for its diving, but also well-endowed with beaches and beautiful resorts. The Red Sea is only about two hours from Cairo, so trips there are fairly common, especially among those of us who have spent our whole lives in the Midwest ;-) Frances and I took a cab to the Ramses bus station, navigating the usually chaotic amount of zehma, or traffic, and arriving with time to spare, although we weren't sure when our cab stopped moving for 10 minutes, stuck in Zamalek Ramadan rush hour. There are numerous companies that run shuttles to and from the resort towns on the Red Sea, and I booked the tickets through AUC with Super Jet. A rather strange name for a bus company, but it go us there and back safely. It took us over an hour to get out of Cairo, and another hour or so to reach the Red Sea, and another 3-4 hours to reach Hurghada. A few hours into our ride, I woke up from my doze, glanced out the window, and saw a pod of dolphins following our bus, gleaming golden in the setting sun. It was a provident portent for the vacation. I also now know why the Red Sea is labeled thusly: at sunset, the red rock mountains lining its coastline reflect onto the water, casting a muted red shine over the entire ocean. It was wonderful to watch the sun set over the hills and watch the water transmute from silvery blue to molten copper to shimmering vermilion, and then watch the stars come out, twinkling over the horizon as the moon slowly ascended, its crescent shape slowly burgeoning. Now, I mention the shape of the moon because, it being Ramadan, and our entire bus filled with Arabs, the setting sun signaled the end of fasting. Around 5:45, most peoples' phones started ringing, their friends letting them know the exact time of iftaar, and then everyone, literally, brought out food and drink and had a mini feast on the bus. It engendered a bit of camaraderie between myself and the rest of the bus (Frances and I weren't seated together), as we all shared food. We also pulled over briefly to let the men smoke, and continued on our way. The Egyptian highway system was quite impressive, paved all of the way with lighted signs signaling various things and pointing in various directions. Eventually, we pulled into Hurghada, piled out of the bus, and Frances and I grabbed a cab to the Sofitel.
Pulling up to the main gate, I was immediately entranced. We had to go through security and drive down a palm-tree lined avenue until we reached the main complex, designed like a Moroccan castle with a small tower and shining white stucco. We clambered out of the cab, dragging a ridiculous amount of luggage for only two days, and checked in. Walking into the reception area, I glanced around and saw lots of white people. Americans, I thought initially! Or at least Brits. Well, a few of them were Brits, but the vast majority of guests at the Sofitel, and in Hurghada, are Russians, which became apparent when a blonde reception lady appeared and started talking to someone in Russian. I have decided that I must have some Russian blood in me somewhere, as I fit right in next to the brilliantly blonde Russians, although I do not bear the flat head feature. The check-in people were mainly Arabs, so Frances and I got along fine, and everyone was so impressed with our Arabic ;-) We were taken to our room by a luggage boy, and marveled at the endless space and greenery of the place. Winding paths lined with verdant shrubbery and flowering trees opened onto tiled courtyards and white villas that housed the rooms. Our room was in the bull building on the top floor with a commanding view of the gardens, pool, and a bit of the Sea. The room itself was bright and clean and comfortable with a balcony, couch inset into the wall, and harem (at least that's what I call it) over one of the windows. We dumped our stuff down, lavishing in the luxury, changed, and grabbed dinner in the dining room. We were on a half-board meal plan, which meant that supper and breakfast were included in the meal price. After dinner, we lounged in the chairs by the pool, shared a sheesha, had a cocktail, and observed the singer and dance floor, in particular one woman. First she danced with one man, then she returned to a group of Russians and pulled another man onto the dance floor. Fine, we figured, she's the hostess or something like that. Then she started making out with the first man, and we weren't entirely sure what to think. In the end, we weren't positive, but we decided she was a prostitute, a real, genuine prostitute! Which was strange, because the resort was very classy, but we think she may have been brought from Russia. Who knows, but we were rather exhausted at that time, having endured classes in the morning. We tucked in early and fell asleep in the delightfully comfortable beds.
We were up early for breakfast and then ambled down the the Aqua Center. Since we couldn't scuba dive, the next best thing was snorkeling, so we booked a boat for 11 that day. The price came to about 55 dollars, and it seemed a little high for Egypt, but we paid it. During the hiatus, we paddled around in the sea in front of the hotel's expansive beach. The Red Sea has the most amazing clarity and it was entirely calm! I had never experienced such a warm body of water, either, it was like a very salty bathtub! Very high salinity, so I floated easily, especially with my blubber ;-) We swam around the peninsula, just savoring the sun and clean air, slowing purging Cairo from our system. Eventually, we returned to the dive hut, checked out snorkel gear (which actually ended up being included in the boat price), and got on our private boat. Yes, our private boat! We had two guides all to ourselves. I am really not sure why the Red Sea is not more renowned for its diving and coral, but the underwater environment was exquisite! We saw gorgeous stands of coral, multitudes of colorful, darting fish, a blue-spotted stingray, an eel, and all sorts of other fascinating aquatic life! We visited two sites, and the first consisted of coral islands set amid the sand teeming with fish and other creatures. We saw an absolutely giant parrot fish, probably 3-5 feet long, and the very cool stingray resting on the bottom. We hopped in the boat to the next area, which was very shallow, and, at some points, a sand bar, and saw absolutely amazing coral, great mounds of brain coral alongside branching elk horn coral. Our guide was very eager to find interesting stuff for us, and was only mildly annoying, but he did find one truly amazing specimen: a lion fish. The gravely poisonous, touch-it-and-you-die fish that is garishly adorned with spikes and brown stripes. When I first saw him, I stared dumbly for a few minutes and then paddled away. He was tucked into a crevasse, resting on the bottom, but he seemed so close! I came back, of course, to study him more closely, but I was so much in awe of him it was hard. I tried to take a picture, but it turned out all shadowy. After that, we returned soon after to the boat and headed home.
Our resort truly was all-encompassing, and it included a spacious beach, spa, fitness center, mini bazaar, archery area, tennis and squash courts, five restaurants, amphitheatre, disco, windsurfing and kitesurfing lessons, and horse stables. Of course, the latter of these intrigued me, so I hiked over there after snorkeling and arranged a sunset beach ride at 5. It was rather pricy, but entirely worth it. I rode a sweet mare named Mona Lisa, who was very patient (sometimes a little too much), and had an, as always, friendly guide named Hamtada?. Anyway, I think everyone was a little dubious about my riding ability when I told them I have had a fair amount of riding time, but they let me gallop along the beach. It was truly ethereal! The sun was setting over the hills, painting everything red, and my mare surged up the beach and splashed through the surf, racing my guide's horse. Finding me amusing, as most people do, the guide took about ten pictures for me of me at the beach, and then we had to return. He spoke some English, I spoke some Arabic, so we had an interesting political discussion beginning with one language and ending with another, and I was also called the noor Misr, the light of Egypt ;-) Anyway, I returned rather elated, showered and went off for my next adventure, food. After we nourished ourselves, we sat by the pool, again, and enjoyed the beautiful view. Our little Russian friend happened to be sitting right next to us, in a rather 'interesting' outfit, so we took amusement in that and her flirtatious, well, more like seductive, antics. She was a gorgeous woman, with a slender figure and dance moves that put everyone to shame, but, ahhh, her profession is…I don’t know. I’ve just never seen a prostitute at work before, I guess. Just in case you think all Russian women in Hurghada are prostitutes, think again. Most were with their spouses or families just enjoying a nice holiday at the beach. I had my first rum and coke, which was rather good, and then we saw a show going on in the amphitheatre and decided to see what was up. Very strange, that performance was. A mixture of belly dancing, Russian techno, and cheesy 80's music, all amalgamated into stage production appealing, apparently, to the Russian guests, who were soaking up every minute of it. It was still fairly early, by Egypt standards, so we wandered down to the beach to check out the beach party that had been advertised. Apparently, we had chosen the sketchy route to walk, because, on the way down, a man appears next the volleyball courts and asks us if we want to join a 'private' party. Well, no, we really didn't, especially not one organized by him, so we fled back to pool. A few hours later, we saw the party seemed to be hopping, so we took a more direct route to it, traversing the pathway lighted with torches (much less sketchy) and sat down on little Bedouin poofs and observed the dance floor. It was a rather incredible set up, with disco lights and a dance floor surrounded by tables and poofs and cushions right next to the sea. Also, strangely, there was a giant screen that seemed to be projecting, of all things, some CNN-like channel. Anyway, I got another drink, settled down to observe for awhile, and eventually was pulled onto the dance floor by Shakira (My Hips Don't Lie). Russian guys are kind of scary, so I only danced with Frances, but it was still pretty fun. You really can't beat dancing to American hip-hop at one in the morning on the beach at the Red Sea. Soon after that, we retired to our room, following the parade of sweethearts back to their rooms, got up the next morning, sunned (me), studied (Frances), and swam (both of us). I must say, this trip does prove my natural blondeness. I am definitely much blonder now than two days ago, and several shades darker as well. Our bus left at 2:30, so we checked out and had a delicious lunch by the pool before catching a cab back into town. The Sofitel was a wonderful hotel, and everyone was very friendly, some people genuinely so, like the shopkeeper who served us tea and chatted with us for an hour about stuff, and some people more annoyingly so, like some members who attempted to compete for our attention and drag on conversations unduly and with the ubiquitous “Where’s your boyfriend?” We didn't really talk with many Russians, as most of them were packaged tourists that stuck to their own groups, but I chatted with a few who had a grasp of English, and they were very nice and quite fascinating. I had never really seen the middle to upper middle-class of Russia before, and they seemed both foreign and entirely familiar. They wear the same brands that we wear, and enjoy some of the same music (although Russian techno is just not my thing), but their men do enjoy wearing speedos ;-) It was rather depressing to come back to Cairo, but I think I'll be alright ;-() There's always next month....

18 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very interesting!
The red sea is amazing indeed.
Prostitute in Hurghada, well, maybe you can look at it in a different manner. Usually when people travel away from home, they tend to do things that they would not do back home. For girls, they might seem to act like prostitutes when they are away from home and basically having pure fun, or that's what they call it. That's very common. Also men tend to act like "the lady's man", when they are away from home and on vacation and are trying to score as much as they can with women.

That's normal that the so called prostitute, seemed more like one, when really she was just away from home trying to have as much fun, including getting laid.

Salam,

Anonymous said...

Russian prostitutes have been coming to Hurghada for years! Still not as bad as cairo, where they are at all the 5 star hotels, usually on the arm of a Gulf Arab.

Anonymous said...

some how what you said is true....
but i wanna say that it is not just the russian women.....

most of western women do the same in hurghada indeed !!!!!

free life style and fun.... do what ever you feel is right....that is what a vacation is all about....

nothing new...

Jack Peter

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bombshell said...

Maybe she was just enjoying her time, or maybe she was a real prostitute. The last time I went on a last minute trip to Egypt, it seemed to me that Arab guys seem to come alot to Egypt (and Lebanon) especially because of this; Sharia wont prosecute them their and they can do what they want.