21
I started writing this whilst, we were in the air somewhere over the English Channel on my iPad listening to music on a flight to Egypt. For the last two weeks we have read daily reports and watched television news about the continuing unrest in Cairo, Luxor, Giza and Alexandria.
Thomson’s parent company Tui whom we are traveling with have cancelled all flights to these cities, and if you live in Germany or any of the Nordic countries all flights to Egypt have been cancelled under guidance from their respective Governments.
The UK Foreign Office however, continue to give the all clear for Red Sea resorts and as a consequence insurance companies are refusing to pay out if you decide to cancel. The plane is only half full and clearly many people and decided to delay, switch or not to go at all despite knowing they will not be able to recover their money.
So we set off this morning for East Midlands airport without the usual euphoria of looking forward to a week away in the sun and the mood on the plane is definitely subdued with everyone feeling slightly apprehensive and wondering what to expect.
A friend of my wife’s returned from Sharm El Sheik the main destination for the Red sea resorts this week and said everything was fine with no sign of any trouble.Unfortunately,pictures are more often more powerful than the spoken word and the terrible clashes seen on television which have resulted in nearly a hundred deaths in Cairo alone with hundreds more injured, has resulted in many visitors disregarding Foreign Office Advice.
To be honest if my wife had shown the slightest reservation, I would not have gone because I would feel responsible if anything untoward occurred. This must be a man thing?
So after a five and a half hour flight we arrive at Sharm airport and file into an empty terminal with only a First Choice plane on the tarmac also from the UK which just adds to what is becoming an unreal situation. We are met outside in darkness and instead of being transported to the Le Meriden hotel by coach we are taken by taxi because we are the only ones going to this hotel at Dahab about an hour from Sharm.
This does little to serve the nerves and I begin think this could be a mistake. We will have to see what the
morning brings.
In the morning we went to breakfast to find about 8 other guests and when we met the representative from Thomsons she told us that there were only English in the hotel and that at the moment there was only 5 couples.
It’s surreal to be staying in a vast hotel with no people where the staff outnumber the guests by about 10 to 1. As beautiful as the hotel is, without people to bring it to life it’s a bit like a show house.
It seems such a shame because the weather is fantastic a brilliant blue sky, the temperature is around 25 centigrade and the sea warm with the coral just 20 yards off the shoreline and full of all kinds of dazzling coloured fish.
The big test is in the evening when we go into the small town of Dahab to see the reaction of the locals and see if the unrest seen in the major cities has spread to the Red Sea resorts.
The place is empty with restauranteurs and shop owners virtually pleading with the few people that are about to visit their establishment, because for them the winter months are the height of their season and critical to their businesses.
But in terms of unrest apart from the desperation of the locals for you to visit their restaurants and shops they could not be more accommodating and to be honest I feel safer here than in London.
