Day 13: Chillin Out with the Russians in Hurghada

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We arrived last night at about 9pm and got checked in. We got walked to our room at snails pace cos the bag boy – bless him – was trying to wheels 6 peoples luggage on the trolley and wanted to do it all alone with no help. So we patiently walked behind him and half way Ben and Mike (another guy on our tour) had had enough and snatched 2 bags off him and started marching up the stairs to our rooms! We were pretty hungry and tired and tolerance levels were low! Haha 😊 We got to our 'double' room and once again we had 2 single beds so thought 'oh we may as well ask if they have a double room spare' cos it was a massive resort with id say maybe 500 rooms! So eventually after a long painful process of trying to communicate with the guy on the front desk he got another guy to show us to a new room which was miles away across the other side of the complex and it was a much smaller room, stunk of eggs and we just thought 'flag' we'll keep the singles its just one night! But trying to explain this to them again proved difficult! We thought we had the message across as the 2 of us, the bell boy and a russian lady hopped into a lift which got to the bottom and got stuck! It made a horrible noise and the inside doors kept opening and shutting but the outside door was jammed! The guy called about 5 diff people and no one came to help! We thought we were gonna miss dinner which was our biggest concern as we were starving, so Ben got on the phone to someone and said 'help get us out of here NOW!' and someone came running! Dont cross and angry, tired, hungry Aussie! So we got out, smelt the fresh air and raced to dinner to load up our plates with a really yummy buffet! The others had all been drinking a lot on the bus but neither Ben or I had felt like it so they continued on and we went to bed and were out like lights!

So we woke up this am feeling refreshed! It was an option to go snorkelling or diving today on a tour and most of the group did this but we decided we were doing a lot of that in central america and we needed a day to just chill out! So chill out we did! We got up about 9 and wandered to breakfast which was really yummy. The resort was all inclusive so we could just go nuts. We both had pancakes and an omelette which were both good, a cappachino to top it off also. Then while changing into our togs I went into my top zip on my pack (my undies and socks pocket that is the only pocket without a lock) to get out my new summer dress mum got me for my birthday which I had worn the day before when I was packing my bag on the cruise and knew I would need first thing today so just slid it in the top zip, and it was gone!!! We tipped everything out of my pack and it wasn't there. It must have been swiped by one of the crew on the cruise which seems weird but there is absolutely no other explanation! So gutted. We got Michael to call the ship and see if I had left it in the room even though we knew we hadnt left anything behind, and no luck. Oh well I guess these things happen and we will just have to shopping in the US to replace it and buy a new lil summer number!

After getting over the distraughtness of the swiped dress we sunscreened and togged up and went down to the lil private beach. We found a lounger (literally the most comfortable beach chair we have ever lain on!) and chilled out reading and doing sudokus for a few hours. We were amazed with the number of russians, humungous Russians in this resort and on the beach, all in bikinis, sprawled over the loungers! What a sight! From every direction. They were all so rude and especially at meal times they literally pushed you and pushed in front of you, snatched food and piled their plates so high there was no cake left for the rest of us! And trust me, most of them did not need any cake! Anyway we had a lovely day just chilling out and swimming at the beach and then the pool. We got our 'tan' on a bit and felt really refreshed! We knew we had an overnight bus trip tonight in a mini van and 8 of us so were glad to relax a little knowing we wouldnt get much sleep if any! They decided to save us money and not pay for accommodation tonight so it was decided that we would leave the resort at midnight and do a 7 hour minivan trip to get us to Cairo in time for the days tour to start around Cairo! Not ideal and the one thing we would change about the tour! We would have happily paid an extra nights accomm, as would have everyone on our tour to leave at say 6pm and get there just after midnight! But it worked out ok. We had a lot of time to kill at the resort till midnight and none of us had rooms. We had one shower room for 8 of us to get ready in and our best friend and most fav person ever (NOT) – Lucy went first and took over an hour!!! So we all took a very long time getting through showering after her! Ah well at least it killed time! We played cards for a while , taught Ben last card, and had the longest 2 last card matches potentially in history, and then all piled on the bus. We had 2 options with our bags. Either to be tied on the top of the minivan with very thin rope or be piled in the van with us. We quickly offered our bags inside as didnt wanna loose any more possesions! And had something to put our feet on! The roads and driving in Egypt is absolutely mental so the chance of something flying off was relatively high we thought! Better safe than sorry! We had a sleeping pill and slept on and off for the 7 hours but neither of us very well and the whole van load arrived into Cairo in the morning very tired and irritable ready and rearing to go for our last big day!!

That blog potentially sounds a bit moany! But we actually had a really good time in Hurghada and we were so pleased we decided to change out tour and go there as we were originally meant to have a free day in Luxor, stay in a hotel there and then get the train back to Cairo. So we were stoked we were given the option!

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Photos

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The view from our 'suite' :)

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The resorts private beach

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Fumigating the resort for mossies