Truth be told, Egypt was not my favourite destination to move to. Well, at least not in 2021. You see, I planned to be in Melbourne, Australia, right now living in St Kilda, having a barbie every weekend, hanging at Melbourne Cable Park every free minute I can spare when I get time off from my dynamic job at a vibrant digital marketing agency.
Well, as 2020 has struck and life has turned out a wee bit different for everyone, Egypt it is for now. Not a bad place after all I must say but it did not start out that way.
On Sunday Jan 10 Dan and I flew into Hurghada sometime in the evening. I remember it was around 7pm while we were still in the air, but the sky was dark like in the middle of night. We arrived on a one-month visa to start with, picked up our coffin sized wakeboard bag and not much smaller backpack and left the airport. Not gonna lie, I was a bit nervous at that time and unsure what to expect from Egypt as a country and its people.
The struggle begins at Hurghada Airport
Tired from the more than 12-hour trip and also being mentally exhausted by the last few months’ struggle to organise moving abroad during a pandemic, we left the airport building for our final taxi ride to our accommodation. Nearly there!
On our way walking to the taxi pick up spot we passed by a handful of taxi drivers all noticing us at once. All eyes on us – there were not a lot of touristy looking people around as you know we’re still in Covid times and leisurely travel from Europe at least was highly frowned upon and from some countries even illegal. Being the only pale looking people there, soon we had that handful of taxi drivers follow us shouting left, right and centre “Taxi, taxi”, “Where are you going?” “Good price, good price, taxi, taxi!”. And the worst about it, they will not shut up. You can shake your head as much as you want and say no. They will not shut up.
Once we finally got to where we hoped to order an Uber taxi from Hurghada airport to El Gouna the handful of taxi drivers had doubled now all trying to sell us their services to El Gouna while we were attempting to figure out our Uber pick up spot on the phone. Again, they won’t shut up no matter what you say. First, we told them politely to back off. Then, firmly and louder. No luck. Dan even shouted at one of the guys to step back as private space was a thing unheard of to these people. “Good price!” “Where are you from?” “Where you go?” “Taxi! Taxi!” It’s still ringing in my ears. The annoyance was beyond acceptance. I was questioning whether we made the right decision to come to Egypt – it hasn’t been even ten minutes on Egyptian ground and I am already fed up with this shit.
Also, what they tried to sell us as a good price was of course the tripled tourist rate they try to squeeze out of us – one reason why we insisted to get an Uber with a fixed price in place. Anyway, trying to concentrate on the app again, we finally found an Uber driver who shows up in the end and gets us to El Gouna.
The struggle continues in the cab
Relieved to have finally some space, peace and quiet, the struggle continued in the taxi. The Uber driver was a sneaky weasel, I can tell you. He stopped the car in the middle of freaking nowhere and let us cancel the Uber order so that we would pay him cash as he said Uber won’t pay him before the end of the month and he does need the cash. Lie or half lie, I don’t know – as it was late and dark outside and we had no clue where we were and surely did not want to get in an argument with that guy leading us to get kicked out of the car, we stupidly agreed to the scam and cancelled the Uber order on the app. The car started again and we were back on track towards El Gouna.
Once we arrived at the destination, our lovely driver then would ask for even more money than the taxi drivers at the airport. We were shocked, but also laughed straight at his face and showed him the price Uber suggested on the app which surely, we were happy to pay. As an explanation why he would charge that much more he said our bags were so heavy that he hurt his back lifting them earlier. He hasn’t mentioned his back strain when it allegedly happened or during the whole ride. He seemed to hop out of the car very quickly as well to unload our luggage once we got to Gouna. What a weasel! What a lie! On the one hand we were shocked by level of dishonesty of the driver, but also were wondering how bad in life he must be doing to be behave way he does. We gave him a bit more than the Uber price suggested in the end and managed to send him away. At this stage I had enough of Egypt already.
The first hour on Egyptian ground suggested we’ve made a bad mistake to come here. However, stay tuned! It only went upwards from here!
El Gouna, thanks for the peace and quiet!
Oh Gouna, El Gouna! As soon as we drove through the secured gates of El Gouna that night, where we had to show our reservation and passports to enter the village, I felt much of a different vibe than in Hurghada. The first impression was: It’s so peaceful and quiet and tidy and pretty. Obviously, Gouna being a gated community which we actually did not know when we chose the place people here surely pay for the pleasant peace and quiet bubble on the Red Sea. However, after arriving from Hurghada airport thinking we have made a massive mistake due to the first encounters there I immediately became fond of this little village.
After the journey from Liverpool to El Gouna that day and after we finally arrived at our apartment Dan and I received a very warm welcome from the accommodation’s property manager Bibou. He showed us the facilities of the apartment and the most important apps and services of Gouna has to offer. And it has a lot to offer. I started to like it even better.
Started off with El Gouna Downtown
The night we arrived Dan and I decided to go to town since we were hungry and didn’t have any food at our new home. So, as Bibou told us, Tok Toks are the way to go around in Gouna. Uh, man, I’m digging the tok tok! You order them to your doorstep or you just stop them on the road and hop on. Best part about it for me, no haggling involved and the drivers are chill as. Love it!
We went to Downtown actually to check out the supermarket only and get a bite to eat from there before going to bed, but the charm and cuteness of the town centre was so inviting that we didn’t have a choice but sit down in one of the little bars and have food and a drink. It was beautiful and just what we needed. The town, the cafes, the squares. I couldn’t help but looking around, spotting nicely arranged palm trees throughout the town centre, enjoying the fairy lights all over the cafes, restaurant and bars. The whole town is so clean and tidy. No one seems hectic, no rush, people hear you out. Such a lovely place. This definitely exceeded our expectations and also calmed my nerves a lot after the frantic hour we just had coming from Hurghada airport. Love it even more!
We ended our day of arrival with a tok tok ride home and in fact were looking forward to our first days exploring this cute little town of El Gouna on the Red Sea.
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