A couple days in Hurghada

It was after 2am when Ferda and I arrived at our pre-booked accommodation in Hurghada on flights from Antalya via İstanbul. Nothing really looks good after traveling all day (~11 hours) and arriving in the middle of the night, but Ferda and I really enjoyed our short stay with Adam at his Bob Marley Homestay. He made us yummy breakfasts every day — at about 11am the first day (we really managed to sleep in) and much earlier the following morning so we’d be well fed before our snorkeling excursion. We also ate dinner with Adam two nights.

No one has anything nice to say about Hurghada, but I’m glad we had a couple days there. It was cold and windy when we got off the plane and ended up being cold and windy our entire 11 days in Egypt. Blowing sand was a problem at times.

We walked around dusty Hurghada a bit, stopping at the Coptic Church near our hotel.

IMG_20220310_141257 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20220310_141529 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20220310_141719 by bryandkeith on flickr

More picturesque was the Al Mina Mosque near the fish market, an area that Adam said was worth visiting.

IMG_20220310_160547 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20220310_160602 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20220310_161549 by bryandkeith on flickr

Here’s Adam on the couch with me. Across is Rob from England. We enjoyed talking with both of them and also Emily, Alfonso, and Summer who joined the four of us for a fish dinner that Adam put together one night.

Rob, me, Adam by bryandkeith on flickr

Egypt is not known for its cuisine so it was nice to have Adam cooking for us, but I was excited to try kushari again, the dish I most remembered from my first trip to Egypt 24 years ago.

Rice, pasta, lentils, garbonzo beans, caramelized onions, and tomato sauce — here’s Ferda trying kushari for the first time.

IMG_20220310_145916 by bryandkeith on flickr

Our main objective in coming to Egypt was to snorkel at Makadi Bay (next post!), but I planned an extra day in Hurghada to see what’s underwater there. Adam recommended a dolphin tour. They take you to two spots and with a little luck you snorkel with dolphins at the first stop.

I was most excited to snorkel, but the dolphins sell the trip so we spent the whole morning motoring NNW of Hurghada trying to find them. It was windy, cold, wavy — apparently not good weather for finding dolphins — but we went snorkeling twice so I was happy.

20220311_120627A by bryandkeith on flickr
20220311_121143A by bryandkeith on flickr
20220311_142640A by bryandkeith on flickr

The guides had wetsuits, but of the ~17 tourists I think we were the only ones with wetsuits. Most people were shivering by the time they got out of the water.

Ferda and I were quite cold snorkeling in Indonesia without wetsuits. One of our goals for this trip was to try our new wetsuits. Here’s Ferda.

20220311_121020A by bryandkeith on flickr

I was one of the few people who was motivated enough to get back in the water for the second snorkel. The snorkeler in the water was even more motivated. He must have been freezing.

IMG_20220311_141151 by bryandkeith on flickr
20220311_141952A by bryandkeith on flickr

I guess you can see the same thing on the wall outside the vegetable market in Hurghada.

IMG_20220312_110545 by bryandkeith on flickr

That market was our last stop in Hurghada, stocking up on groceries for our week in Makadi Bay.

IMG_20220312_112545 by bryandkeith on flickr

I’ll end with a few Hurghada cityscapes.

IMG_20220319_095605 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20220319_095321 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20220310_155941 by bryandkeith on flickr
This entry was posted in Egypt, Traveling and tagged . Bookmark the permalink.

2 Responses to A couple days in Hurghada

  1. Curt Bradner says:

    Ha, now that you have wet suits you’re one step closer to enjoying Peniche – not sure if I told you or not but we decided to buy a house here – old place in the center of town – extra bedroom for drifters from Turkey 🙂 and from everywhere else for that matter, living in Peniche means we have a lot of guests!
    Ate ja,
    Curt

  2. Mike Painter says:

    Looks nice! The underwater pics are beautiful. Looking forward to the next report.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.