MONEY:
There are a lot of currencies floating around and before I went I had loads of conflicting advice about which currency to take. Most travel agents will tell you that you can only take about £1000 egyptian into the country (About £130 sterling) and get the rest in sterling travellers cheques. WRONG!! Egyptian pounds is the local currency - get as much as you can.. being the scrooge that I am I like to get the best deals for everything and getting the currency at home is the best deal. If you want to take travellers cheques then only take US Dollars. We were not asked to declare how much local currency we had before going in and nobody was asked or checked at the destination or departure.
Use local currency to buy souveniers, food, drinks and pay for tips and those annoying little bastards at the airport. (A little more about this later!). Your hotel bill can be settled up in £Egyptian or $US, most of your food and services will be marked up in the menu as £Egyptian - so try to avoid extortionate exchange rates and pay the right currency. Diving and other big expenses would be best paid with $US - most dive operators will advertise a static US dollar cost.
Annoying little bastards at the Airport:
BE CAREFUL! When you land in Egypt you will be greeted by about 15 eager locals who are there to help you with your bags and with all the commotion and squabbling in the local dialect at the baggage terminal you can stand to lose a small fortune. For each 2 bag's they handle from airport to the bus you should give them £1 egyptian. If they carry them carefully and lovingly then give them £1 egyptian per bag. But be firm with them and you must tell them to be careful and gentle otherwise you will marvel at the site of a little 4ft tall frail chap hurling your bag from the doors of the airport terminal into the baggage storage on the bus like a pissed up basketball player. The exception to the rule here is the hotel bell boys (Baggage handlers) these are a better quality that are more reserved and unfortunately suffered my rage of 'get yer and's off me bags' routine on arrival at the airport. If anything - be cheap on the airport baggies and be nice to the hotel baggies!
Shopping:
WOW - what an experience that was! A few simple rules to obey, on your first night or two.. TAKE NO MONEY, DO NOT BUY WITH A PROMISE TO RETURN AND PAY THE NEXT DAY!! Get accustomed to the prices, tell them you are only looking and that you have no money - you will still be asked to go in to their shop. Get an idea of the prices and ask them for their best deal on that statue of a camel you've always wanted.. then.. go find it in another shop and ask them for a deal, just keep doing it all night and be amazed how that e£200 reduces to e£20 before you know it. But don't stop there - find a shop that sells all that you want - then get to work the next day. Take some money with you, identify what you want, add it all up from the experience the night before - dip into your pockets in a dark secluded corner and take this much out of the wedge of cash - then take some more out of it. Hide this in loads of different pockets. Then let the games begin - ask for the absolute best price - then do the old plumber sucking air through his teeth routine whilst you figure out the difference between this price and the money you've just stuffed in your pocket - when you know the difference - subtract this from what you have in your pocket and offer them that amount. Then you'll meet in the middle and pay what you wanted to for it.
The funniest trick we heard was 'are you English', 'please can you come into my shop and write this card to my girlfriend - she is English and I can not write in this language'! Whhaaaa!! :-)
Driving:
Simple one this - just don't do it! There are no rules, the traffic police are there just for show and these people drive like nutters just out of the funny farm after a 50 year spell!! It's bloody dangerous and I doubt your insurance would cover you anyway.
Food and Water:
Only drink bottled water from a reputable supplier and check the bottles are still sealed. Don't eat food sold on corners unless you have the stomachs of a horse and the arsehole of a 50 year veteran of vindaloo! I personally discovered why they had a shower hose next to the toilet - it is much more soothing to hose down the hole than it is to use the toilet tissue after a 2 day stint running between the bed and the toilet and praying you'll make it before the gods rip aside your tightly clenched butt cheeks.. trying to hold out when you've just suited up and donned your fins and goggles and realise just one last trip to the toilet is needed before your dive and running around on deck trying to get out of your kit in time is no joke - I know, I done it - several times!!
Diving:
Unfortunately for me the whole diving trip thing was a bit of a waste. I was expecting far too much for this place and add to it my loose bowel events - I don't think you should take much notice of my ramblings unless your circumstances are similar to mine. Firstly I had the shits! Not a good time, secondly I've been to the Great Barrier Reef and loads of friends have said that Egypt is far better, thirdly my vision of Australia may be blurred by time and global climate changes. I think Egypt - or should I say parts of Sharm El Sheikh are far too busy. I can see the damage caused by the thousands of divers that visit these parts every year, the main cause of this I would suspect is the financial ability of most of us Westerners to make the short trip to the area whereas Australia is a little out of reach for the most of us on a yearly basis. On far too many occasions I witnessed divers with little skill in the buoyancy department or no regard for what they've come to visit knocking corals and resting on the ocean bed. It all causes damage and when you look at the ratio of divers and time to recover - these reefs are getting hammered. I found there to be far less colour here than in Australia, the coraline algae's seem to be minimal and I just did not walk away with a feeling of it being a great place to dive. Maybe the past 5 years since my visit to Australia has seen the Barrier Reef to decline into this same state - but I'll be visiting there again in December 2002 so I will personally know for sure which is the better place. Those of you that do visit any dive sites - I'm not a loony leftie or lentil sucking conservationist but I would really like to say that when you go diving anywhere 'Please - Touch nothing, Leave nothing and take only memories'! If you ask me, I think the sites surrounding Sharm should be closed and allowed to regenerate, if the local economy can not withstand such an impact then it should be looking to protect it's lively-hood. Ohhhh! and thanks to Anthias divers for bringing my wife around and seeing the light - she now enjoys diving and this is the best present I could have! :-)