a day at the beach

Yesterday we hopped in the car and made the 90 minute trip along the highway (and I mean THE highway; there's only one road that goes there) to the closest resort area on the Red Sea, called Ain Sokhna. A little Arabic for you: literally 'ain sokhna' translates to 'hot eye' but in reference to the place it means 'hot spring.' Ain Sokhna is a very new beach area, having sprung up just south of the industrial area of the Suez Canal to accommodate the burgeoning well-heeled population of Cairo. Many well-to-do Egyptians have condos here that they frequent during the winter and expats see it as a quick getaway from the city. Connor and I were even joking that we should snap up one of the $30,000 apartments available in some of the lesser-developed neighborhoods.

We arrived at our hotel, which wasn't one we had heard of before but it was the most reasonably-priced one I spotted online, in the late morning and checked in. The place is new and I think desperately wanting to be 4 star digs but seems solidly in the lower-mid-range hotel class to me. We quickly headed to the beachfront. I was hoping for a long walk in the sand, but the coastline allocated to our hotel did not stretch too far and was bordered on one side by a shipping container area and on the other by a brick wall that enclosed a fancier resort immediately to the north. Ahh well, I was looking forward to my first dip in the Red Sea anyway. Well...the second I stepped into the water, a clay squidginess thrust itself between my toes and with each progressive step, I nearly lost my footing and toppled in! Both Connor and I found the sea floor too off-putting to go much beyond our ankles. We knew that Ain Sokhna's waters have nothing on its more established neighbors to the south, the international resorts of Hurghada and Sharm el Sheikh, with their crystal clear waters and world-class scuba areas. However we didn't expect to be, well, grossed out! Hmm.

After a couple of hours reading under a beach umbrella, we were antsy and decided to explore the rest of the greater Ain Sokhna area, partially in hopes of finding a better meal than the pricey buffet our hotel was offering later. Since Ain Sokhna is comprised solely of resort hotels and condos, we only spotted a combo Pizza Hut/KFC, which we were planning to go for in a desire for non-all-inclusive normality. We ended up choosing to do some reconnaissance work at another hotel we'd heard good things about, called the Movenpick, which I thought maybe was as Swiss as Haagen Dazs but does have genuine European roots. We strolled along their beach (acting natural, assuming a confident air of actual Movenpickers), took note of their watersport options and the fact that the bottom of the sea here was covered in stones, not mud, and had a light meal in the waterfront cafe. We both agreed that that is probably the hotel we will choose whenever we do head back for a weekend.

Back at our hotel, in which we were the only Westerners staying, we were kept up by a live folk music show occurring by the pool directly below our window, although it finished mercifully at 11pm. We headed back to Cairo this morning and were back in our own flat watching the latest episode of 'The Office' well before noon, which was great. It was definitely good to see what Ain Sokhna is all about, but I think we'll more often than not save our shekels, and our time off, for beach trips further afield.