We just came back from a little sojourn in Alexandria. It is a wonderful city, with some classical art deco architecture and of course, the famous library. It is a shame that its beauty barely shines through the layers of peeling paint and ill-advised 1970’s monstrosities lining the Corniche. I’m harsh though: it is improving somewhat.

On a little night time walk to digest the kilos of seafood we managed to consume, I spotted Abu ‘Abbas’ shami hoummus cart on the beach. What a blonde mermaid and a dolphin have to do with hoummus is beyond me, unless it’s a hoummus eating dolphin. Note too please, the bouff as sported by the mermaid. I hear bouffs are coming back people, so get practising your backcombing and stock up on hairspray.

It was pretty chilly, with a stiff breeze coming in from the sea. Summer days at the beach seem far away when hands push down deep against pocket lining in an attempt keep blood circulating and cold air whistles past ears.

Finally, there is a decent hotel on Egypt’s North Coast other than in Alexandria and Marina.

The El Alamain Hotel is, misleadingly, in Sidi Abdel Rahman, which is about 20 mins drive from El Alamain.

There are no signs (apart from a tiny one in Arabic) for the hotel, the entrance is the same as that for Marassi, the mega project that Emaar is constructing.

The hotel is jam-packed in June, July, August and some of September as Marassi is THE place to be seen at the moment on the North Coast during the Summer. Outside those months, it is virtually empty. If you prefer having the beach to yourself and can bear to forego loud music that masks the sound of the waves, Autumn and Spring are your best bets.

If you like your luxuries, then this hotel is not the Four Seasons (but a Ritz-Carlton will be opening nearby in the next few years). Overall the staff are extremely friendly (yes, friendly, not sleazy) and very keen to do what they can to make your stay pleasant. We did have a problem with our bathroom, but it was fixed very quickly and professionally.

The hotel has no website(!) and I cannot give you a phone number because they didn’t print it on their invoice! If you live in Cairo though, you can just drive up (3hrs) and check in outside the summer months, because the chance of them being full is extremely unlikely at the mo (at least until they start providing people with contact info!). It costs about 750EGP for a double room bed and breakfast (outside summer months).

A wee note though. In the past 18 months, this hotel has been totally refurbished and had a change of management too. There are lots of horrific stories on TripAdvisor about this hotel, but it was prior to Emaar getting their organised hands on it and making it somewhere you would actually like to go.

Hundreds of graves.

Hundreds of names on walls.

I went to El Alamain recently. It was the first time I’d found the Commonwealth War Memorial.

Everything is beautifully simple and well maintained.

The Gordon Highlanders

Royal Indian Engineers

Standing in the middle of an overseas graveyard of fallen soldiers, sailors and airmen, it is hard not to think about the individuals who are risking their lives right now on our behalf, whether we want then to be or not.

A long time ago, a certain Misssy went on holiday and took lots of photos of funny signs. “Oooh,” thought I, “I should join in this little funny-photo jaunt, seeing as I’m living in a country where nothing is ever spelled quite right.” The trouble was, I never seemed to have my camera with me at the right moment.

Until now. Misssy, I’ve got a cracker:

In case you think you missed it:

Still bushy-tailed as we set off along a dried river bed.

We recently went on a two day hike to St Paul’s monastery. It was fairly easy going exertion-wise (hey, I could do it!) but the night was horrible. In an attempt to carry as little as possible, I forgot to bring clothes for the night. Then I discovered my sleeping bag wasn’t thick enough for the cool night air (although, perhaps not having my usual camping pj’s was part of that) and then the new camping mats were, well, bloody useless, leaving me pockmarked with bruises the following morning.

Winding up the mountain

But you know, I’m a tough cookie and the discomfort of the night was soon overcome by the walk itself. Being away from crowds of people and the awful smog that has been hanging over the city during recent weeks to walk on clean earth was refreshing.

The last section of the walk brought us to a spot where the Red Sea could be seen in the distance. As great as it is to see where the mountains end and the sand begins, all I wanted to do was jump in!

Finally we arrived at the monastery. It is lucky enough to have a huge new church nearing completion.

New church

Apparently the monks have been disturbed by the numbers of visitors and have decided to move up the mountain. I’m assuming that a bit of Divine intervention is stopping their new building from falling down.

The monks’ home.

One of the lovely things about having visitors is that you have an excuse for touristy trips. In fact, they’re usually not so much fun without the visitors. Right now, Big Mama and Lil’ Bro are visiting. Having visited the pyramids, Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, the museum and various other tourist ‘musts’ multiple times, we decided to take them to the desert.

First stop, the Black Desert. It lies just south of Bahareya oasis (there are numerous spellings of the oasis if you google it).

It’s kind of odd and not being a geologist, or someone who remembers the geological highlights explained by a geologist (more than once..), all I can tell you is that it’s got a lot of black rock. Rather impressive really, though, I think.

I have been hanging onto this photo* for a few weeks now, waiting for a good time to share. ExpatMum gave me just that opportunity with her post about her new fave website. Today, my dears, is World Toilet Day. Why? Well, umm, just because? Because even our most private moments need international days.

Actually it’s quite serious. Coming from Edinburgh, “Garde loo!” is a remnant of bygone days (about the 1600s) when we didn’t have the porcelain goddess. We were even pretty late at developing a system. Four thousand years old remains have been discovered in North-West India of the world’s first WC. All that time has passed and this world of our still has people lacking basic sewage options. ExpatMum has something more about that today.

In the meantime, I will hark back to the politics of peeing in Egypt.  It’s still a pain to find somewhere where you don’t need to hike your trouser legs up while nervously reassuring yourself, “It’s only water on the floor, it’s only water on the floor, it’s only water on the floor..” Some good news is to be had about that long road to Sharm though (the road never ends when you’re waiting to pee): there are now TWO resthouses with clean facilities for women (men, we don’t care about you, we see you relieving yourself willy-nilly at the side of the road). One of them is pictured above and it is right beside the checkpoint at the turn to the St Katherine’s Touristic Road. The other is at the roundabout on the Cairo side of the tunnel.

*You may find youself asking, “What photo?” Well, I can tell you that it was taken, it was uploaded first to my computer, then to flickr and it was linked to this post. Where it has gone, is a complete mystery. I’ll let you imagine it for now.

In the very centre of St Katherine’s Protectorate live these beautiful girls. So ecstatically happy in this picture, because they have just been given a colourful toy. With the cut of their mother’s knife, it will turn into something sweet and juicy to eat.

Up at the crack of dawn Day 2. This little fellow was nestled between some rocks near our camp.

After breakfast, cycling continued down here (of course, first they had to cycle up!). Luckily this was actually a track, unlike the terrain later on.

Later we stopped for a spot of tea.

Then after a particularly arduous (i.e. very lo-o-o-ong, steep and sandy) incline we stopped for lunch. See if you can spot the Jeep in this picture – spaces are just huge.

Lunch involved some of the most delicious bread in the world: Bedouin bread. Baked in embers and then beaten to remove the ash. All I was doing was sitting in the Jeep, so not exactly hunger-inducing, but boy, the cyclists had to fight me for it!

Our last sunset.

Evening campfire…must remember to bring marshmallows next time!

Because of the camel tussle, our ascent of St Katherine’s was held up while the bike wheel was being straightened. A nice spot of bedouin tea in a village was most welcome.

Lolling around in double-wire cages in the village were these guys. Really not pretty little beasts, but apparently hyrax are good after they’ve been in the pot. Luckily, we didn’t stay that long!

So, bike fixed, the gents went up St Katherine’s mountain with the camels and the bikes, while the fairer sex component of the group returned down to the jeep (due to rather annoying, niggly injuries that wouldn’t allow us to bike).

We met these guys on the way to the spot where we would lay our heads for the night. They were so clean – if you’ve seen goats in Cairo, you’ll understand my delight – as well as happy.

Sunset, the gents returned just in time to make last light.

We slept under a starry desert sky and a brilliant full moon, protected from the harsh desert winds by walls of one of the bedouins’ old desert gardens.

(Forgive the last pic’s camera shake – need to get a tripod)