Sharm el Shark
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- Category: Philosofaith
- Written by Aisha Umar Agaie
- Hits: 653
It is hard to imagine the famous Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh without the crowds. But that is what the newshounds are saying.
Even the shark attack of December last year, which left one tourist dead, didn’t succeed in chasing the crowd away. Yes, yours truly has been to Sharm el Sheikh and can authoritatively report that though I arrived just a week after the shark tragedy, the Sharm crowd was having such a ball you’d think the story was a figment someone’s imagination.I remember the first time I heard about the legendary Sharm el Sheikh crowd. It was in the summer of 2009 when we went for a family holiday. An Egyptian lady, let’s call her Zuby had been asked to take care of us by her Nigerian acquaintance. Madam Zuby arranged for us to be picked at the airport, got us an English-speaking driver and booked us an apartment hotel in Giza. She got us a competent cook named Ragdah, purchased our train tickets to Alexandria, booked us a hotel facing the Mediterranean Sea and sent our English-speaking driver ahead to help drive us around in Alex. In fact Madam Zuby did everything to make our Egyptian holiday enjoyable except allow us to go to Sharm el Sheikh. This was how it happened.
My husband: We want to go to Sharm el- Sheikh after we return from Alexandria.
Madam Zuby: Sharm el Sheikh is too far, it’s five hours from here.
My husband: Yes I know. We plan to take a flight.
Madam Zuby: But Sharm el Sheikh is too expensive.
My husband: (Temporarily speechless, too modest to say ‘I know that and I have saved enough to afford it’ so he just turned to me with his better-come-to-my-aid smile.)
Me: You know, he promised us a visit to Sharm. The children and I are all looking forward to it.
Madam Zuby: But Sharm is too crowded this time of the year.
And that did it. Kabiru capitulated and asked her where she thought was more suitable. Madam Zuby suggested Ayn al Sukna, another Red Sea resort only an hour’s drive from Cairo and another hour’s drive to Suez City. We took her advice and headed for Ayn al Sukna soon after our return from Alex. Ayn al Sukna proved to be worth the trouble. Beautiful, palm tree-lined hotels with lush green golf courses. I am not a golfer, but I couldn’t help falling for the incredibly green golf course spread across from our room in our hotel, the Stella de Marie.
Yet this did not chase away my yearning to see the famous Sharm el Sheikh. My chance came courtesy of Media Trust’s directors’ retreat, where I went as an accompanying spouse. And it was well-worth the wait going one and a half year later, especially without the kids, if you know what I mean. For the first time I understood why Madam Zuby emphasised the Sharm crowd. This is really a popular tourist resort. From the hotel lobbies, to the dining areas, the swimming pools and the beaches everywhere were streaming with humanity.
The only time I saw the resort without the crowd was when I went for a stroll down the Sharm-el Sheikh promenade one morning, two days after we arrived. My husband had earlier gone for golf and thinking I needed to keep fit too, I made my way down the beautiful Marriot Hotel stairway to the street. My earlier plan was to walk the whole length of the promenade before returning to our room to freshen up. I soon discovered that that wasn’t a feat achievable on my tired feet. I don’t know how long the promenade is, but almost all of the world’s leading hotels are represented there. The hotels are lined on either side of the street and each of them, I don’t know how the architects achieved it, has its direct private access to the beach by the Red Sea. Some hotel chains, like the Marriot where we stayed, have another Marriot facing it from the other side of the promenade.
I had the long, wide street almost all to myself except for the cleaners and gardeners busy earning their keep. All other tourists I suppose were still in bed, or at breakfast. When my sister Amina sent a text to me saying that since the shark attack, all they see on Al-Jazeera are some bare bums in skimpy bikinis. I had to hasten to assure her that I had seen no bare bums yet. For one I had not gone to the beach then, and though the view from my room opens on to the swimming pool where some more bare bums choose to sunbathe, I hardly spared them a glance.
But for sure, in the five days we spent at Sharm, we were certainly the most overdressed guests in probably the whole of the resort. All six of us, Trust wives, including Hajiya Maryam Abdullahi Shuaibu, Amina Rabiu Garba, Saratu Umar Abdullahi, Amina Dan-Ali and Zainab Ajibola, were always dressed in Abayas, long veils and knee-length hijabs. We probably caused as much curiosity as if we were humans with tails. When I eventually made my way to the beach along with Hajiya Maryam and Amina Dan-Ali, it was after sunset and the beachcombers had all gone in, probably to prepare for dinner. We were definitely spared the sight of bare bums before we also hearkened to our rooms to pray.
Yet today they say Sharm el Sheikh is deserted. Hard to imagine but true because a bigger shark than the killer of December is now a resident. Though reports say that the people’s revolt at Tahrir Square was the first reason for the crowd-less Sharm, now the reason is the arrival of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. Heavy security around him and the fear of the Tahrir fever reaching Sharm must have combined to keep the tourists away. But while a crowd-less Sharm may be bad for business, it is certainly the spiritual antidote for the lone resident of the presidential mansion there.
There Hosni Mubarak will have the chance to wonder whether it was worthwhile sending all that gas to Israel when the domestic demands had not been met. He will wonder whether it was right forcing Palestinian leaders to make all those concession to Israel when they gain nothing in return. Above all Mubarak will be able to contemplate whether it was worthwhile closing the Rafah crossing even when Israeli bombs were destroying homes and families in the last war on Gaza. Hopefully he will also ask himself what he had gained from enforcing the four year long blockade of Gaza when both Israelis and Americans today won’t have a thing to do with him. Yes, a shark is now officially a resident of Sharm.
Articles
Sharm el Shark
Category: Philosofaith Written by Aisha Umar Agaie Hits: 653
It is hard to imagine the famous Egyptian resort of Sharm el Sheikh without the crowds. But that is what the newshounds are saying.
Even the shark attack of December last year, which left one tourist dead, didn’t succeed in chasing the crowd away. Yes, yours truly has been to Sharm el Sheikh and can authoritatively report that though I arrived just a week after the shark tragedy, the Sharm crowd was having such a ball you’d think the story was a figment someone’s imagination.I remember the first time I heard about the legendary Sharm el Sheikh crowd. It was in the summer of 2009 when we went for a family holiday. An Egyptian lady, let’s call her Zuby had been asked to take care of us by her Nigerian acquaintance. Madam Zuby arranged for us to be picked at the airport, got us an English-speaking driver and booked us an apartment hotel in Giza. She got us a competent cook named Ragdah, purchased our train tickets to Alexandria, booked us a hotel facing the Mediterranean Sea and sent our English-speaking driver ahead to help drive us around in Alex. In fact Madam Zuby did everything to make our Egyptian holiday enjoyable except allow us to go to Sharm el Sheikh. This was how it happened.
My husband: We want to go to Sharm el- Sheikh after we return from Alexandria.
Madam Zuby: Sharm el Sheikh is too far, it’s five hours from here.
My husband: Yes I know. We plan to take a flight.
Madam Zuby: But Sharm el Sheikh is too expensive.
My husband: (Temporarily speechless, too modest to say ‘I know that and I have saved enough to afford it’ so he just turned to me with his better-come-to-my-aid smile.)
Me: You know, he promised us a visit to Sharm. The children and I are all looking forward to it.
Madam Zuby: But Sharm is too crowded this time of the year.
And that did it. Kabiru capitulated and asked her where she thought was more suitable. Madam Zuby suggested Ayn al Sukna, another Red Sea resort only an hour’s drive from Cairo and another hour’s drive to Suez City. We took her advice and headed for Ayn al Sukna soon after our return from Alex. Ayn al Sukna proved to be worth the trouble. Beautiful, palm tree-lined hotels with lush green golf courses. I am not a golfer, but I couldn’t help falling for the incredibly green golf course spread across from our room in our hotel, the Stella de Marie.
Yet this did not chase away my yearning to see the famous Sharm el Sheikh. My chance came courtesy of Media Trust’s directors’ retreat, where I went as an accompanying spouse. And it was well-worth the wait going one and a half year later, especially without the kids, if you know what I mean. For the first time I understood why Madam Zuby emphasised the Sharm crowd. This is really a popular tourist resort. From the hotel lobbies, to the dining areas, the swimming pools and the beaches everywhere were streaming with humanity.
The only time I saw the resort without the crowd was when I went for a stroll down the Sharm-el Sheikh promenade one morning, two days after we arrived. My husband had earlier gone for golf and thinking I needed to keep fit too, I made my way down the beautiful Marriot Hotel stairway to the street. My earlier plan was to walk the whole length of the promenade before returning to our room to freshen up. I soon discovered that that wasn’t a feat achievable on my tired feet. I don’t know how long the promenade is, but almost all of the world’s leading hotels are represented there. The hotels are lined on either side of the street and each of them, I don’t know how the architects achieved it, has its direct private access to the beach by the Red Sea. Some hotel chains, like the Marriot where we stayed, have another Marriot facing it from the other side of the promenade.
I had the long, wide street almost all to myself except for the cleaners and gardeners busy earning their keep. All other tourists I suppose were still in bed, or at breakfast. When my sister Amina sent a text to me saying that since the shark attack, all they see on Al-Jazeera are some bare bums in skimpy bikinis. I had to hasten to assure her that I had seen no bare bums yet. For one I had not gone to the beach then, and though the view from my room opens on to the swimming pool where some more bare bums choose to sunbathe, I hardly spared them a glance.
But for sure, in the five days we spent at Sharm, we were certainly the most overdressed guests in probably the whole of the resort. All six of us, Trust wives, including Hajiya Maryam Abdullahi Shuaibu, Amina Rabiu Garba, Saratu Umar Abdullahi, Amina Dan-Ali and Zainab Ajibola, were always dressed in Abayas, long veils and knee-length hijabs. We probably caused as much curiosity as if we were humans with tails. When I eventually made my way to the beach along with Hajiya Maryam and Amina Dan-Ali, it was after sunset and the beachcombers had all gone in, probably to prepare for dinner. We were definitely spared the sight of bare bums before we also hearkened to our rooms to pray.
Yet today they say Sharm el Sheikh is deserted. Hard to imagine but true because a bigger shark than the killer of December is now a resident. Though reports say that the people’s revolt at Tahrir Square was the first reason for the crowd-less Sharm, now the reason is the arrival of deposed President Hosni Mubarak. Heavy security around him and the fear of the Tahrir fever reaching Sharm must have combined to keep the tourists away. But while a crowd-less Sharm may be bad for business, it is certainly the spiritual antidote for the lone resident of the presidential mansion there.
There Hosni Mubarak will have the chance to wonder whether it was worthwhile sending all that gas to Israel when the domestic demands had not been met. He will wonder whether it was right forcing Palestinian leaders to make all those concession to Israel when they gain nothing in return. Above all Mubarak will be able to contemplate whether it was worthwhile closing the Rafah crossing even when Israeli bombs were destroying homes and families in the last war on Gaza. Hopefully he will also ask himself what he had gained from enforcing the four year long blockade of Gaza when both Israelis and Americans today won’t have a thing to do with him. Yes, a shark is now officially a resident of Sharm.