Nearing Egypt
Even at Glasgow Airport, I was making last-minute arrangements for our holiday in Sharm el-Sheikh. Finally the email came through from Emperor Divers to say that they had our details and I could pay for the courses and dives we had organised. Yay for mobile broadband and a smart phone!
This was my first “family” holiday with a family of my own, and the first trip abroad with my parents since I was 12. They’d decided to accompany us as they’ve never been to Egypt and they thought we might want someone around to help with the kids. Nice as it meant Gillian and I could spend a day diving together.
As usual, we had a meal in the Wetherspoons at the airport with its ridiculously malformed cutlery. Stocking up on drinks for the flight, we found out that it’s far cheaper to get your water and snacks from Boots than WHSmith. Noted for next time. I’m still gutted they closed the Greggs down a few months ago.
I was sat next to Little Mister for the flight, which was about six hours. Quite a long time for a 3 year old, but he coped really well. He conked out as the plane was accelerating down the runway and slept for the first hour or so. There were a few toilet issues as he filled his nappy and managed to get it all down his legs in the loo. Fortunately, he was fine afterwards apart from getting bored and deciding he needed the toilet every 30 minutes, which meant asking the very nice man at the end of our row to let us past far too often!
Little Miss had hijacked my headphones, so I watched Ong-Bak on the netbook as it’s subtitled.
We landed in Sharm el-Sheikh at around 10pm local time and I checked into FourSquare. I then got a text message from Three telling me that I had spent £3.50 and perhaps I’d consider a roaming package? Instead, I switched all data roaming off on my phone instantly. If it costs £3.50 to check into FourSquare via an app, what kind of cost would it be to check email? Ridiculous.
Our hotel, the Hauza Beach Resort, was only a ten minute ride down the road and we were soon there and unpacking.
Time enough for a quick drink by the pool (after Little Miss decided to go wading in it and didn’t see where it got deeper… *sploosh*) with the folks as we planned out the week. One hint, and I guess this holds for most all-inclusive resorts, is to bring your own large drinking vessel. A tumbler, plastic pint “glass” and so on. Otherwise you’ll find yourself traipsing back and forth a lot as the ones they provide are like thimbles.
Sunday was easy to plan – we were going to sit on our arses by the pool all day. Sorted.
