I am generally opposed to the term 'bucket list'. It comes from the phrase 'kick the bucket', which comes from Middle Age suicide and/or pig slaughter. Yikes. But that's not the point. Here we are talking about the list of those things you would like to do, see, or try some day, before you kick the bucket. Several months ago, Brian added "learn to scuba dive" to his list.
Several internet searches later, we booked a trip to Hurghada, Egypt. This, we decided, was the ideal budget destination for a four day diving course, because there is nothing else to do. We wouldn't be missing out on anything except maybe getting lost in the desert and/or abducted by terrorists. And we were right.
Remember those movies where you see a group of nomads riding camels through the desert, with nothing on the horizon but more rocks and sand? And finally, they see an oasis in the distance. Instead of a mirage, it turns out to be a swim-up bar full of sunburned Russians.
Hurghada is just like that. Except our hotel did not have a swim-up bar.
Normally, Brian and I are not all-inclusive resort tourists. We are more like nothing-at-all-included tourists, so we felt a little out of place. But the price was right and the reef was waiting. Our low-rent resort had around 70% Russians, 29.5% Germans, and us. I had never seen so many Russians before. They are like American or British people who go to cheap resorts, except they drink more vodka. The Russians at our place were a little loud, a little fat, and a lot sunburned. A few had Putin t-shirts, and one couple even brought their own Russian flag to hang from the balcony.
In a political sense, it's funny to have Russians and Germans mingling together at the lunch buffet. Their governments are not exactly getting along. For the most part the Russians and Germans seemed to stay out of each others' way. But Brian told the bartender he should wear a light blue UN helmet, since he was keeping the peace while mixing mai tais.
We were just lucky that other people were staying in our hotel. We passed a lot of resorts that were half-built and abandoned, and visited a few that seemed to have more staff than guests. Tourism is down in Egypt these days, and even the camels are out of work.
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| BYO flag |
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| The "animation team" (summer camp counselors) leading water aerobics |
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There were lots of hotels that never got finished... |
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