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Wheeling
El Gouna
- a travel report from Egypt
Our plan was to go to bed early before the big departure
day in the middle of November. But after being inspired from a bad reality
show, one of my neighbours had decided to organize a big wedding proposal on
the lawn outside my apartment building. Numerous candles and roses were
carefully placed, and then the wait for the lucky bride began. Can you
imagine having a wedding proposal like that? Me and my travel companion
Ingrid were really impressed, and sat as lit candles and peeked curiously
out of the window. The proposal didn’t exactly turned out the way it was
planned though. When the young bride finally arrived, she just couldn’t cope
with the fact that all the neighbours were watching the proposal. She
flipped out in hysteria, and looked as if she wanted to disappear into a
hole in the ground. So much for the effort, we thought, and wondered about
volunteering as his bride instead.
But then we realized that
there was no time for that. We were going to Egypt in just a few hours! We
hurried up packing our last things and plunged into bed at 1AM. It was in a
state of coma we got up again a bit over 4AM. And if it had not been for all
the butterflies in my stomach, I wouldn’t have been able to keep my eyes
open. Soon we were in the taxi on our way to Oslo Airport. The taxi driver
wanted to know where the ladies were going. “We are going to Egypt”, we
explained. “To Egypt?” the taxi driver replied. “I guess you are travelling
together with someone then? Two wheelchair users can’t possibly be
travelling alone to Egypt?”. Yes, we had to admit that this was our plan.
And no, we had never been there before. The taxi driver shook his head and
thought we were crazy. But he had to admit that it sounded tempting. I guess
you have to take some risks to live a happy life?
The plane ride with the
Swedish company Novair was all right,
even if five and a half our is a long time without being able to visit the
toilet. But maybe it was good to have some extra fluids upon arrival? When
we disembarked the plane in Egypt, still in a fleece jacket and wool
sweater, we started sweating immediately. On the airport we got our own
wheelchairs (still in one piece) at the plane. We were then transported to
the arrival hall with a lift truck, which is a kind of platform that you
roll onto, and then lowered to the ground. This meaning no carrying,
something we weren’t exactly too unhappy about. The man in the lift truck
was going on and on about something in Egyptian. After a while we realized
that it was probably about money. We gave him 5USD, which was the smallest
bill we had available. Later we found out that this was more than a day’s
salary down there, and maybe it was not without a reason that the guy was
extremely helpful after that? He followed us through the endless lines in
the passport control (and believe me there were many lines) in express
speed. When we reached the luggage hall, we were left to ourselves. We faced
a total chaos of suitcases thrown in all directions, Moslem men lying on
their knees praying to Allah, and more or less confused local
representatives of the different travel agents. A guy approached us and went
on and on about line 4. Our luggage was to come out on line 4. How he would
know such a thing, I didn’t quite understand, and tried to find an
information board instead. Oslo: line 3 it said, but the guy was going on
and on about line 4, line 4, line 4. All the lines were spewing out luggage,
and since all the people who should have been there to collect it, were
still in a passport queue, all the luggage was thrown on the floor next to
the different lines. But nothing that looked like our luggage. When the cash
dispenser digested Ingrid’s credit card, I must say that my stress level was
increasing somewhat. But fortunately the cash dispenser spit out the card
again after the longest 5 minutes ever, and suddenly our luggage turned up
on line 3! So far so good. Now to the challenge: how to get to the hotel,
which was situated half an hour from the airport?
We put our fleece jackets
into our bags, took the bags on our laps and rolled out into the Egyptian
heat. We had decided not to go with Apollo’s
regular but non-accessible charter bus, even if it had a Scandinavian guide
on board. And perhaps that was just as good, because after standing in a
passport queue for hours and hours, the other Norwegians had not managed to
organize themselves and their luggage until several hours later! As opposed
to many of the other people on our plane, we had been clever and brought
visas and one dollar bills with us from Norway. We saved a lot of time and
money because of that.
Outside the airport we
found a taxi…or something vaguely similar to it. This “something” had four
wheels and approximately five doors, but no windows. No meter either, that
the catalogue so nicely had promised us that most taxis in Egypt had. We
negotiated a price of about 10USD, that was supposed to be the normal price
between the airport and the tiny place
El Gouna, where
we were staying. In the taxi the smell of petrol was intense, and it wasn’t
improved after we had a small stop at a local gas station to refuel. When we
were driving along a desert Egyptian road in our wreck, I couldn’t help but
think: “I’m so glad that my mother can’t see us now…”
When we arrived in El
Gouna and Hotel Mövenpick 45 minutes later, the price had increased with
3USD. If this was because of a mysterious toll fee or something, we didn’t
quite understand. But to get rid of the not so pleasant driver, we paid the
13USD without too many protests. If the stay in Egypt had been very
“authentic” up until now,
Hotel Mövenpick
El Gouna was anything else but noisy, hot and dirty. The hotel had five
stars in the Apollo catalogue, and upon arrival we were met by a cool and
clean lobby, welcome drink, polite English speaking staff and people who
walked us to our room with our luggage. Together with our key we were handed
a map of the area, and the Swiss receptionist politely explained where the
different lifts were to be found.
After arriving we took a
short breath. The time was a bit more than 4PM. And before we had managed to
blink, the sun had gone down! In El Gouna the sun sets at 4:45PM in the
middle of November! You have to get up early if you’re planning on enjoying
some of the sunlight. Well, we had to look around anyway, so after a while
we went for a sight-seeing on the hotel property in the limelight. Hotel
Mövenpick El Gouna is a huge resort, consisting of a reception area and 7
clusters of buildings with over 400 hotel rooms. The buildings had 3-4
floors with pathways (bridges) between them. There were two pool areas, a
sports club, beach area with several lagoons and small bridges. On the
entire area there were plenty of asphalted pathways, that were partially lit
at night. Few or no steps on the area. And if there were some steps, they
had made ramps as well. To put it this way: the first sight-seeing was
beyond our expectations. And it was even better the next morning, when we
could see the resort in sunlight. Because our first impression was pretty
accurate. Hotel Mövenpick El Gouna is probably the most accessible hotel
area I have ever been to in a country with slightly higher temperature than
Norway. And that is from a wheelchair user’s point of view.
The
rooms were
ok when it came to accessibility. They were large with a wide door, level
entrance and there was plenty of space. The bathroom was huge as well, with
a level entrance. There were no grab bars, and it was not possible to move
sideways to the
toilet. The sink was possible to wheel under. The bathroom had a
roll-in shower.
We used the regular plastic chairs we found on our front porch to sit on in
the shower.
After our little evening
sight-seeing, it was time for some food. Our first night we had dinner in
Palavrion, which was the buffet restaurant under the reception. It’s a huge
restaurant where breakfast is served, and in the evenings you can buy an
“eat as much as you want ticket” for about 18USD. For people like us, who
eat like birds, this was not a good deal. So we ate in the other restaurants
the rest of the stay. Bua Khao, right next to the large pool, was a Thai
restaurant recommended as one of the best in El Gouna. People came from
other hotels to eat there. The food was good, and for the small sum of 8USD
you could have a nice meal and a glass of Egyptian beer or wine. Imported
alcohol was quite expensive in Egypt. Almost as expensive as in Norway! Our
favourite restaurant however was El Sayadin, which was a grill- and fish
restaurant with a perfect setting on the pier, above the office of the Dive
Tribe. I think I saw a tv-commercial from this restaurant after I got home.
But I have never seen the commercial again, so maybe it was a Fata Morgana?
Because we didn’t see a
lot of pyramids, oasises, royal tombs and Fata Morganas during our stay in
Egypt. That was not our plan either. Our main goal was to get from A to B,
that is Oslo to El Gouna. And when we had made that, we were actually quite
satisfied with ourselves. The excursions to Luxor and Cairo consisted of
about “hundred” hours in a non-accessible bus with poor air-conditioning,
and could be a physical challenge for even the more healthy. We settled for
a tiny excursion instead. It was a one-hour boatride around El Gouna, which
is an artificial lagoon with a centre, a golf course, a marina, 10-12 big
hotels & resorts and many private villas for rich Egyptians and foreigners.
It was not exactly easy to get into the flat bottomed tourist boat, but not
worse than managing a regular Norwegian pier. And if you’re not that scared
about asking for help, most things work out…
Our days were mostly spent
by the small pool area, that was idyllicly situated down by the sea. You
didn’t have to make a great effort if you didn’t want to, because the
temperature was more or less perfect. If you were thirsty or hungry, you
could order something from the many service minded Egyptian waiters, who ran
around with their trays. Some might claim that they became a bit too service
minded at times, but it was practical for us at least.
One of the things that was
also nice with this resort, was
the possibility to roll down onto the beach. There was asphalted pathways
along the artificial rather small beaches. And some places the sand was so
hard that it was possible to roll a stretch on the beach without help. One
day we decided to test the water in the Red Sea, mostly to cross it off the
list of “things to do before you die”. The water was lovely and warm. Warmer
than in the pool actually, and it was not that deep and little current. No
big and scary waves, so it was possible to take a swim without being thrown
back on land. To get out of the sea on a sandy beach without a pier, and
back into a wheelchair without getting sand all over…well I still haven’t
figured out how to do that. But at least we took a swim in the Red Sea, and
we are a bit proud of it.
In the evening it was
rather quiet on the hotel, so the alternatives was to relax with an
(expensive) drink in the bar accompanied by the local activity guide and
Michael Jackson-clone, take a nightly stroll around the area or relax in our
room with channel 14, that showed American tv-shows and movies. One of the
evenings we were having a good time watching Notting Hill, that we had both
seen several times before. And we were surprised to find that anything that
had to do with intimacy, except from kissing on the cheek, had been cut
brutally from the movie. The film 9,5 weeks must have been really really
short in Egyptian theatres… Egypt has probably become more liberal in some
areas because of tourism. But in some areas, they are still pretty
conservative. It is definitely not the place to walk around in a g-string!
As a summary, I guess we
can say that if you’re looking for an accessible, family friendly place with
good and not too expensive food, where the sun is shining almost all year
long, the Hotel Mövenpick El Gouna is a good alternative. But if you’re into
extensive shopping, party all night and packed beaches, the Canary Islands
are still a good alternative. But you will most likely not get the same
hotel standard, for the price we paid in Egypt.
I could have told you a
lot about my trip back home, which was a chapter of its own. But let’s just
put it this way: Organizing stuff is not the biggest talent of the
Egyptians, and things become quite chaotic at times. If you pay closely
attention to what’s happening around you, and you are not afraid to ask for
help, most things will work out. One tip can be to pay a “luggage guy” when
you arrive at the airport, if you don’t have second thoughts about sneaking
in the line. Another and more important tip, is to get a seat number before
you leave your home country. This can seem as a detail when you leave, but
it will surely pay off when you’re leaving Hurgada International Airport,
also called Ragnarok (The End of the World). Well, at least I got home in
one piece, and I was really happy about managing my small personal
expedition to the land of the faraos. I’d love to go back on a “real”
Egyptian holiday some day, with a strong guy and a few smart tricks in my
back pocket.
November
2003,
Ingunn W.
