A Break By the Beach
Trip Start
May 07, 2005
1
60
117
Trip End
Ongoing
Nuweiba,
Egypt
Saturday, November 19, 2005
We had an idea we wanted to stay at Domina Nuweiba and planned to take a minibus from the bus station. The driver offered to take us for 10 pounds. We were tired and grumpy so agreed. He dropped us off in the middle of nowhere in front of a nice hotel or government building (we couldn't tell). Later we realized that nice buildings are almost always tourist buildings and a government building would not be as well kept.
We walked in a learned that it was indeed called the Domina but was not the hotel we meant to visit. The desk man told us our hotel had changed names or something but he offered to let us stay at this hotel for a bit more than we had planned to pay. We asked to see the room and he showed us that this wasn't a nice-ish midrange hotel but a really nice resort. We opted to be pampered and stayed there for three days. It was quite nice indeed. It had two pools, a decent buffet (included in the cost), a room with a fantastic sea view, and exceptional beach access. The beach was amazing. We went snorkeling, scuba diving, and a lot of just being lazy. We rode a camel down to the next resort, which was eerily similar to ours. The best part was all the movies we watched on TV.
We went scuba diving one day. Both of us were feeling a bit run down. As the day progressed I felt much better and Kim felt much worse. She had to get out of the water but I was able to dive. It was fantastic although I later realized that most of it could be seen by snorkeling or skin diving. I was told that we dived at the point where Moses parted the Red Sea and some people believe the coral is so dense and interesting because it has grown over the remains of Pharoah's army when the sea flooded back.
After looking around and talking to the scuba diving staff (who rented space from the hotel), we realized that the whole Sinai coast had been suffering heavily since the Gulf War and the current Iraq War was also hurting. Sharm al-Sheik (the most popular spot on this coast) had been bombed in the last few years and tourism was way down. In the past Israelis had been a big part of the tourism but feelings are bad right now and they aren't coming at all. I'm guessing that they only had six rooms rented from their capacity of over 100. All of the guests seemed to be Russian who probably get really good package deals. I don't blame them... who would want to be in Russia during the winter when you can lay on a beautiful beach? I was amused at how popular the oranges were among the Russians. I guess Russia doesn't get many fresh oranges in the winter.
Nuweiba was a great relaxing chance to recharge and give us the energy to get to Tel Aviv in time for Thanksgiving. I would highly recommend it for just about anyone who can manage the transportation (I imagine a plane ticket from the US would be expensive although there are direct flights from London to Sharm al-Sheik).
