Al-Ahram Weekly 3 - 9 August 2000 Issue No. 493
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875

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Everything under the sun

By Rehab Saad

Flashbacks of my last trip to Hurghada came in a rush when my husband suggested we take a few days and holiday there this summer. I pictured us imprisoned by the walls of our "tourist village," chained to the facilities the complex had to offer: if I wanted to swim, I had to use their beach; if I wanted to eat, I had to go to one of their restaurants; and if I craved a little entertainment, then it was the hotel nightclub -- or, for a little variety, another hotel nightclub. I had long since filed Hurghada away, writing it off as a place suitable only to fresh-air fiends and outdoor sportsmen who wake with the sun and retire as it sinks in the horizon.

But that was six years ago and Hurghada was still suffering growing pains. It had the sea and sun that nature had given, but it lacked the spice of holiday excess -- restaurants, shops, nightclubs; not even a coffee shop where friends could meet and chat. The atmosphere was stunning -- but sterile. I preferred to go to Sharm Al-Sheikh, in South Sinai, where it is easy to move around; one can walk along the beach of any tourist village or roam the cafés and night spots for an evening out. For a while, it seemed, "Sharm" was on its way to eclipsing its northern sister.

But Hurghada, 370 kilometres southeast of Cairo, is perhaps the most famous of all Red Sea cities. One of the early pioneers in tourism development, the area is blessed with all the essentials of holiday bliss: good weather all the year round, crystal-clear waters, vast virgin sands and exquisite aquatic life offshore.

CULTURE SHOCK: My holiday spirit marred by peevish reservations, we set out for Hurghada hoping for the best. I was wholly unprepared for the transformation that awaited us; new hotels and tourist villages have brought city-life to this once bare town. Restaurants are scattered everywhere in the city: Oriental, Mexican, Italian, French -- you name it. Coffee shops have sprouted like mushrooms, offering tea, coffee and entertainment. Sun-tanned beach-goers can be seen playing chess, backgammon and dominos, sipping ice-cold lattés and sifting through holiday pictures. All my worries turned instantly to dust.

Visitors as recently as a few years ago found that their transportation options were limited to a few overpriced taxis, but today public buses and microbuses buzz about town, ferrying tourists between beaches, hotels and the now-bustling city centre, populated with all manner of grocers, pharmacies and shops. One can buy anything from toiletries and clothing, to jewellery, toys and snacks.

It was once rare to find an Egyptian family planning to holiday in Hurghada -- it was extremely expensive and hotels actually targetted foreigners and not Egyptians. But all this is in the past; prices have become more affordable and tourist villages now offer very reasonable packages for Egyptians and foreign residents, particularly in the summer months. When Egyptians started flocking there, hotels recognised that they had been excluding a lucrative market and altered their approach accordingly. Arabic is now included in hotel brochures and TV satellite channels now include many Arab channels to satisfy the Egyptian and Arab taste, such as the ART, MBC, Jezira, ANN.

We chose the Hilton Plaza, as it was offering an excellent deal: LE230 for a double room, including breakfast and all taxes and services. The Hilton commands a prime location in the city centre, so all your needs are within a short walking distance. We set our first day aside for rest, as the drive from Cairo can be a gruelling five hours.

For lazing on the beach, of course, Hurghada delivers, and we hung about the water soaking in some much-needed serenity. Stale office air and artificial light were traded for the healing rays of a fierce sun and cool dips in the sea. At night we decided to leave the cocoon and chance a night's walk.

Touring the resort town, I could not shake off a sense of ambivalence. Take care of what you wish for, they say, and I could not help but feel that my earlier scorn for a too-sedate and confining holiday-style in Hurghada had now turned upon me with a vengeance. Successful investment and a consistent tourism boom have produced, in the space of a few years, an obviously thriving and versatile resort. Perhaps too much so, however. The town is crowded and a bit unruly. Cars, shops and people swarm the downtown area and hotels and tourist villages elbow each other for room along the water. Not only had the town become overbuilt -- it had become so too fast. Inadequate urban planning has produced a lack of harmony: a small hotel is annexed to a big resort, which is adjacent to a small shop or even a small house. That there is no overarching aesthetic concept is one thing, but frankly, I could hardly see the water, what with all the hotels, restaurants and villas blocking the view. The moral here is that one thing hasn't changed: if you want to see the sea, you have to enter a hotel or resort.

One of the plush tourist villages adorning the Red Sea coast photos: Ayman Ibrahim

FROM RAGS TO RICHES: As little as three decades ago, few knew about Hurghada, in Egypt or elsewhere. It was a modest fishing village with small houses. The area was predominantly taken up by a military zone and residents depended mainly on the gifts of the Red Sea to earn their living. Locals claim that virtually no travellers came through town. The few that did were handfuls of backpackers who somehow had found out about the place and came to dive along the spectacular reefs. They would sleep out in the open, their sleeping bags their only form of residence.

In what seemed like a blink of the eye, international hotel chains caught a whiff of the fresh sea air and set their sights on Hurghada's virgin beaches and exquisite coral reefs. The Sheraton came first, followed shortly by Club Mediteranée, which built Hurghada's first tourist village, Magawish (currently run by Misr Travel).

In the early years of Hurghada's tourism boom, Magawish was a legend: a big tourist village sprawling over a huge area with vast beaches, numerous restaurants, several sports and diving facilities, and night-time entertainment. The concept was new to Egypt, but had long been popular abroad and consequently, Hurghada attracted a decidedly European and upscale clientele, particularly from France. And for a while, that was Hurghada: the Sheraton and the Magawish tourist village. The rest was sand and sea.

Then in the early '80s, a few Egyptian investors struck upon the idea of varying the Magawish example. The new tourist villages provided more or less the same facilities as Magawish, but were not so grand in scale. The idea took off, and travellers began to arrive at the Giftun tourist village, Al-Yasmin, Alaa Eddin, Al-Samaka and Arabia. Although these villages were not as luxurious as those of today, they were just what their visitors wanted: a clean, pleasant place to stay with useful facilities and good service.

Today's tourist villages have come a long way from such pretenses of simple efficiency. These are palatial buildings that give their guests the royal treatment. Marble floors, elegant furniture, chandeliers and paintings set the tone of unabashed luxury. Old tourist villages seem rugged and worn in comparison -- although it should be noted that the quality of service is almost the same. Today, the Sheraton Hurghada and Magawish village are no longer operating (the first has been bought by Le Meridien, which in turn has put it up for sale, and the latter has been closed down for extensive renovation); the establishments that set the standard, it seems, were no longer up to snuff.

TESTING THE WATERS: We decided to devote our second day to exploring the wonders of the Red Sea's famous coral reefs and marine life with a snorkelling safari, my first time to do so. We booked the trip with a travel agency that offered us a trip for LE50 each, including lunch. Lunch? The suggestion seemed strange -- where would they cook the food? What sort of food could they provide in the middle of the sea and would it be clean? Tucking these worries in the back of my mind, we signed on.

Our trip began at 9.00am at the marina behind the Hurghada Sheraton. The double-deck Hollandiyya was an average-sized boat, tidy and clean, seating 32 people. Travellers of all nationalities filed in. The upper deck thankfully offered some shade from the sun, and the lower deck included a tiny kitchen and a saloon, where people could sit down and relax. There was also a small bedroom and a shower for snorkellers to use.

We headed toward Magawish Al-Soghra (smaller Magawish) island and stopped for a few hours to snorkel there. I was quick to take note of how the boat affected the delicate reefs, and was relieved to see that it did not anchor on the reefs -- as was the norm not so long ago. Instead, the boat attached its anchor to one of the buoys that were scattered near the islands.

Our next stop was the larger Magawish island, Magawish Al-Kobra, for a short swim. As I was about to jump into the water, the smell of food wafted through the air and I hurried back to the kitchen to see what was going on. I found one of the crew members busy cooking up rice and frying fish. Another was seasoning a big bowl full of green salad. An hour later lunch was served in clean, colourful plates.

Food always tastes better after a day at sea, but this wasn't the only reason we were so pleased with our lunch. Everyone got a good portion of rice, some delectable Red Sea fish and salad. Soft drinks followed and then came the fruits. "We usually get the fish from the market and prepare the food here ourselves," explained Rayyes Sayed Ali, the boat's captain. "The water that we use is sweet water. We buy about 200 tons of water from the tourist villages to cook with and for bathing. Each ton is sold for LE30."

LOST HORIZON: Once a fisherman who made his living off the sea, Rayyes Ali turned to running tours after Hurghada was transformed into a tourism sensation. There was good fishing to be had in the area, Ali said, but no longer. "We used to have many different species and lots of fish in the past. Now there are fewer fish, because the engines of boats used for snorkelling and diving activities have frightened away the fish. They've escaped to other places," he said.

Hurghada's transmutation from small fishing village to thriving tourist resort is not to Rayyes Ali's liking, however, despite his relatively firm foothold in the new business. He did not choose to give up fishing, he insists, but was "obliged" to do so. "Working in the tourist trade provides me with a fixed LE1,000 monthly salary. I could not get this from fishing now, it would have been very risky to continue to try and make a living out of fishing," Ali said.

Speaking of Hurghada before the tourist invasion, Ali recalls the days when he was able to go to the seaside and spend a day with his family on the beach. "Now it is all tourist villages. We cannot go anywhere. We feel that the town is no longer ours, but belongs to strangers," he says sadly. "We have no right to enjoy this city any longer."

Locals who want to go to the beach have little choice these days. There are a few "public" beaches, but they're in "miserable condition," says Ali. "There are no facilities, no showers, no umbrellas, no seats. Tourism might have provided locals with money but it has deprived them from enjoying their sea," Ali said.

Tourism has also raised the cost of living in Hurghada, so more money hasn't necessarily translated into better living conditions for the town's original inhabitants. "Now everything is expensive," complains Ali, "including our basic needs: vegetables, fruits, meat and transportation."

As we approached our third stop, the island of Abu Munqqar, Ali pointed to a major consequence of opening the Red Sea's treasures to the world at large. Frequent use of the area by negligent visitors has wreaked havoc on the marine life and threatens Hurghada's once pristine environment surrounding the islands. Authorities tried to counter the threat by declaring Giftun Island a protectorate and imposing a an LE5 charge on Egyptians ($5 for foreigners) for use of the island. But the measure seems to have done little to protect precious marine life in the area. Fees, for what they're worth, are only applied to the Giftun. (Continued on page 2)

norkellers and divers have the freedom to use the other islands without paying a penny," explained Ali. "As a result, they abandoned Giftun and headed over to the other islands. You cannot imagine the number of people who come here every day. In the long run, it will destroy these islands and the marine life surrounding them."

On that note of melancholy warning, the Hollandiyya reached its last station, Abu Munqqar island. Feeling a bit weary from the sun and frequent swimming, the short stay of about half an hour was just right, although the amazing scene below couldn't possibly cease to fascinate. We returned to the shore by around 4.00pm, tanned, spent -- and hungry.

DOING THE TOURIST THING: That night, we decided to spend the evening in a restaurant, but we didn't want to be holed in dimly-lit quarters. We wanted to take in as much of the fresh air as we could before heading back to Cairo's stifling summer weather.

Felfela, the coastal branch of Cairo's downtown landmark, was just what we were looking for. An open-air dining area overlooking the sea, Felfela is located on the so-called Villages road, where most of the new tourist villages are situated. The Oriental fare is excellent, but if you're not there for the food, then you're probably there for the atmosphere. Here, as everywhere else, Felfela is decidedly "original" in its interior decoration; a nice place for families and friends to gather and have deserts, soft drinks, tea, coffee and shisha. Prices, as is common throughout the chain, were reasonable and service was extremely good.

Our third day was another sally into Red Sea waters. This time we decided to take a glass boat to see the corals and reefs that we could not see while snorkelling. The lower deck of the Sea Dolphin was made of glass, allowing us see the marine life below while sitting comfortably in an air-conditioned area. The hour and half trip costs from LE35 to LE65 depending on where you book from, but children up to 12 years old are free of charge.

There are about two or three places particularly abundant in coral that these boats usually go to. You can see corals entwined like a human brain and elaborately coloured fish of every shape and size skitting about among them. Regrettably, you can also see the dead corals that are the inevitable result of mass tourism in the area. These lost treasures now simply look like rocks.

Biscuits, soft drinks and mineral water were served on the upper deck, and children on board received caps and flags bearing the name of the boat.

SPEND, SPEND, SPEND: At night we decided to break away from our now almost routine evening of supping and strolling the more peaceful parts of town and decided to plunge into the bustle of Hurghada's cabaret of shopping spots. Al-Sakkala, the area where most of the shops are situated, is closed off to cars evenings, and people fill the streets, either shopping or gawking at the shops selling virtually anything you could need.

It may seem silly to suggest shopping if you are making the trip from Cairo, but jewellers and clothing stores in Hurghada offer surprisingly different styles, and in many cases I found them preferable. Store owners say that their main clients are foreigners, and have tried to offer what suits foreign tastes. The downside, of course, is that the prices are significantly higher.

There are grocers, supermarkets and spice shops, but we weren't in Hurghada to whip up a culinary feast, we were there to indulge ourselves, so we headed out to a place suggested by a friend of ours as "incomparable". The Aka International Duty Free in Al-Sakkala, a spectacular pyramid-shaped, five-storey building, is a testament to the love affair all travellers have with duty-free shopping. One can find everything here: cigarettes, jewellery, watches, perfumes, cosmetics, china, gifts, toys, sunglasses, leather goods, tapes, CDs and much more.

Remember that if you want to buy anything here, you need your passport -- hardly a problem for foreigners who usually carry it with them, but it could be a problem for Egyptian visitors, who are unlikely to bring their passports along to Hurghada. I wanted to buy a few things, but was unable to do so, since I didn't have my passport with me. If you do buy anything, you can have your goods delivered straight to the airport for collection on the day of your departure. Now that's service.

Not to be deterred in our urge to buy, we returned to the shops in Al-Sakkala and bought a few momentos -- T-shirts and some of that nice silver jewellery that had caught my eye.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE: My worst fear was that Hurghada would be a prison, but instead I found enough to keep us busy for far longer than our four-day trip, and needless to say, the luxury was priceless. But don't think you need to be willing to spend big to live large during a longer stay in Hurghada. On the day of our departure, we spent the morning on the beach drinking in our last rays, and decided to have lunch somewhere in town.

We were craving seafood, but not the oppressive atmosphere of a deluxe air-conditioned restaurant. Instead, we headed over to a nice baladi spot, Al-Mina fish restaurant, situated in the city centre and famous for its sea food. In Al-Mina, you pick your choice of fresh fish, and they cook it for you. We had fried Red Mullet, grilled Germ Bayad and calamari. The setting isn't exactly luxurious in places like Al-Mina, but in many ways, they are superior: you always get quicker service, fresh food and significantly cheaper prices.

In half an hour, salads, bread, fish, calamari and rice were all served. After we finished our meal it took the waiter five minutes to clean it all from the table. We ordered some soda and it came in a minute. We finished our meal in an hour and the bill came to LE150 for six people. Fish in Hurghada is much cheaper than it is in Cairo, but for some reason, shrimps are expensive everywhere.

As we piled into the car and headed home, I was already thinking about my return to the daily grind, but I knew that Hurghada was back in the mix and that we would be there again soon. Resorts have been popping up in the areas around Hurghada faster than you can say "cheap real estate," but something tells me that this former coastal village has hardly hit its peak.

	Clockwise from top: O what a splash; Diver gets set for the plunge; Animators whoop it up for the guests; Row, row, row your boat; Snack time! photos: Ayman Ibrahim

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