The Charms of Sharm - three weeks after the bombings
8 September 2005
Oakland, California
Three weeks after the deadly bomb attacks of 23 July on Sharm el-Sheikh and despite my family's expressed concern, I flew with friends to the Egyptian resort on the Sinai peninsula.
Had our holiday been planned for the week immediately after the bombings, I would have been reluctant to go - out of respect for the dead and those in mourning. But with a few weeks' space, the only consideration was security and the cynic in me figured that from a strictly statistical point of view we were in fact safer now.
Sharm amply rewarded our "daring" with its plentiful charms!
Originally a small fishing village on the southeastern end of the Sinai, at the mouth of the Gulf of Aqaba, Sharm el-Sheikh changed hands between Israelis and Egyptians a couple of times before finally being restored to Egypt in 1982 as part of the Camp David agreement.
It now lends its name to an area that stretches over 20 kilometers along the coast and includes a number of luxury resorts, many of well-known international chains. The airport roughly marks the northern end; Naama Bay, the bustling and somewhat garish tourist centre, is in the middle; in the south, the original village, Old Sharm, more traditional but still fairly touristy, serves as the gateway to Ras Mohammed National Park. Bays, beaches and resorts span the entire area.
Within a couple of hours of arriving at the Hilton Sharm Waterfalls Resort located in El-Hadaba, a ten-minute drive south of Naama Bay, we had our week planned out: we picked three of the daily organized tours offered by our tour operator, Top Kinisis, allowing ourselves plenty of time for snorkeling which was the main reason behind our choice of destination.
A moto-safari through the desert was terrific fun. As advised, we arrived prepared, having haggled in the bazaar the previous night for head scarves. My romantic ideas of sailing through the desert at sunset with sand brushing my face were quickly squashed. The head coverings were essential protection against the fumes and dust spewed by the four-wheeler demons. The crash helmet slammed on top of the 100% Egyptian-cotton handcrafted scarf served as a rude awakening from my Lawrence of Arabia-like fantasy.
But the ride was as exhilarating as it was rough. The kids with us - and inside us! - loved every minute of it even if various body parts complained occasionally. We headed for the hills that run parallel to the shore and within minutes we were in the desert: sand and bare mountains. Dusk found us enjoying a sweet cup of tea with the Bedouins as the call to prayer - Alahu Akbar... - reverberated through the desert through loudspeakers, another reminder that one can't get too far from civilisation these days.
Opposite our hotel, a huge entertainment centre by the name of Alf Leila Wa Leila - A Thousand and One Nights - with a plethora of tourist shops, restaurants and cafes, was the venue of our second organised outing. Through courtyard upon elaborately-decorated courtyard we reached the Moroccan restaurant. After dinner, through a few more traditionally-decorated halls, we settled in at the open-air arena for a sound-and-light show that outlined the history of ancient Egypt and concluded with some impressive albeit repetitive horse-riding stunts. A masterful dance performance by female and male belly dancers and whirling dervishes rounded off the evening.
Snorkeling was by far the highlight of the trip, the reason behind the Red Sea's reputation as one of the top diving spots in the world becoming as crystal clear as its waters. We didn't need to go far for it, either. The reef just off the hotel's jetty had the most amazing fish and corals. I couldn't help but think of them as designer fish that had been "photoshopped", even though a graphic designer would be hard pressed to come up with so many incredible patterns, in so many colours.
Arabian surgeonfish nipped at my reef shoes as I made my way to the diving platform, Picasso fish crossed the slightly-submerged jetty without batting an eyelid, and when we finally jumped in the water, we might as well have jumped into a tropical tank at Monterey Aquarium. An astounding number of fish swam often barely an inch away from our masks. We were shooing sergeant majors out of our faces to marvel at parrot fishes in the most amazing colour combinations, butterflyfish - always in doting pairs - angel fish, puffer fish, unicorn fish and dozens of other gorgeous creatures.
The sight of a small turtle as well as six lion fishes - poisonous but stunning - was particularly rewarding. And on the very last day, I was thrilled to spot a blue-spotted sting ray dashing along the seabed.
Despite the wealth of underwater sights at our hotel's reef, we did venture further afield. The reputation of Ras Mohammed National Park, an area of 480 sq km at the very tip of the Sinai Peninsula, declared protected in 1983, made a visit mandatory.
The landscape is stark but beautiful to the eyes of a desert-lover. We drove through vast expanses of flat, bare land, surrounded by equally bare low-lying hills and rock formations and interrupted by bizarre stone pyramids and a gate made of giant artificial stones spelling out "Allah". Ras Mohammed being at the confluence of the Gulf of Suez and the Gulf of Aqaba, water would appear on either side of the bus: a mangrove forest, the "Magic Lake" which reputedly changes colours four times a day, the beaches.
At the first beach, the kids were delighted to finally.... find Nemo - the clown anemonefish - in the relatively shallow waters, while the steep drop-off at the Main Beach took our breath away. Seconds later we were engrossed in exploring the vertical coral walls with its over 150 types of coral and 1000 species of colourful fish: barracudas, groupers, cornet fish as well as the by-now usual suspects seen at the hotel's reef.
The rest of our time in Sharm, we lazed by the pool or browsed in the markets of Old Sharm and the modern shops of Naama Bay, enjoyed delicious fish dishes and shopped for saffron at spice shops.
Egyptians continue to be the friendly, good-natured and kind people, with a wonderful sense of humour, I've remembered from past visits. The mention of Cyprus typically pushed their smiles a few notches up and prompted a standard phrase which translates roughly to "Sweet people" (even though our tour guides had a few things to say about the punctuality of our fellow countrymen!)
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It's hard for the first-comer to judge how much Sharm has changed in the aftermath of the bombings. It's harder still to imagine the first harrowing hours after the attack.
Ashraf El Nahas, General Manager at the Hilton Waterfalls and a longtime veteran of the Hilton chain and of Sharm, provided The Cyprus Weekly with a vivid description. He received the grim news while entertaining guests in the desert, a few minutes away. His first action upon returning to the hotel was to park two of the hotel's buses at the front in order to block the entrance. Then began the gruesome task of taking inventory of both guests and staff. After waking up all the guests and waiting in the hope that those absent from their rooms would eventually return, an Anglo-American couple was sadly added to the official list of victims.
As most of the hotel guests arrive on chartered flights, they stayed put until their flights returned. Only a day or so later, activity at the hotel appeared normal, said El Nahas, even though guests did not venture out.
But the cancellations did come - as one would have expected. Sharm's hoteliers coordinated their response to the crisis with the Egyptian government. One of the measures they took ensured that no staff would be made redundant regardless of the significant decrease in the number of tourists. Instead, they were asked to take time off. As tourists were now returning, El Nahas was finding himself short-staffed.
Budgeted for 90% occupancy, El Nahas was satisfied that his 401-room hotel stood at 70% - much higher than he could have hoped for under the circumstances.
El Nahas explained that there is no high season for Sharm el-Sheikh as, with its all-round-the-year warm weather, it caters to different markets at different times.
For Cypriot tour operator Top Kinisis, which has been running packages to Sharm for at least three years, the summer season corresponds strictly to school holidays. As such, half the season was adversely affected by the bombs. Out of 180 people booked on the 25 July flight, two days after the bombings, all but 27 cancelled, Niklis Alexandrou, a Top Kinisis director, told The Cyprus Weekly.
The next couple of weeks saw some improvement if only, surmises Alexandrou, because it was too late for alternative arrangements to be made and availability at competing destinations, like the Greek islands, was limited. Our own flight, the third weekly one following the attacks, had 66 people from Top Kinisis which Alexandrou found satisfactory under the circumstances even though it was originally sold out at 180 seats with a lot of demand going unmet.
But there were still not enough people to continue with the Eurocypria chartered flights so we were switched to an Egypt Air flight which then continued on to Cairo.
Special packages aimed at promoting the destination at that difficult time no doubt contributed to the continuing trickle of Cypriot tourists to Sharm. A change of hotel translated to half the original cost for my friends and I - a not unwelcome bonus.
Alexandrou is confident that Sharm will continue to be a profitable destination for his company, particularly for long holiday weekends, provided that the Finnish operator with which they have been cooperating to share flights has not been affected to the point of giving up on the destination.
Some uncertainty is shared by others. In a casual chat a representative of the Thompson group expressed concern over a shortage of bookings for the remainder of the year. On the other hand, an Egyptian tour guide who works with Italian tourists reported that they had returned in force.
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Had we not been aware of the events, we would not have been able to tell that less than a month ago three bombs had killed about 90 people, injured many others and caused substantial damage.
The two of the three sites we saw - the Ghazala Gardens Hotel on Naama Bay, which suffered the most extensive damage, and a market at Old Sharm - are entirely concealed behind canvas panels which may well have been for general construction projects. Restoration on the Ghazala Gardens has begun and is expected to be concluded in six months.
One of the few hints at the potential for trouble were the several police check-points along the highways, which focus on locals. According to El Nahas, they have been there all along only now they tend to provide more scrutiny.
Security has also been stepped up at all hotels. Buses and cars are no longer allowed up most hotels' private drives but rather are required to stop at the entrance by the main road. Hotel staff then transports luggage to the reception.
As hotel beaches tend to be private, walking along the beach from one hotel to another was not possible, at least in El Hadaba. Guards were posted where hotel fences met the seafront and courteously interrupted my attempt at an early morning beach walk.
Naama Bay's sandy beach was, however, open to all. And with enough visitors all over, the resort presented a semblance of normality. Sharm appeared to have made a swift if not full recovery.
PRESERVED FOR THE FUTURE: Ras Mohammed National Park
ACT OF FAITH: Gate of artificial stones reading "Allah" in the Ras Mohammed desert
TASTES OF THE EAST: Spice markets abound in Sharm
ANCIENT DANCES: Whirling dervishes
BARGAINS: Nadia, the little Bedouin girl and her wares
UP AGAIN: The Ghazala Gardens Hotel reconstruction
NATURAL WONDERS: Bizarre pyramids in the desert
MOTO-SAFARI: The author on a four-wheeler demon