Coral Island
Bus - small boat - big boat - small boat - beach
"Where are you from?" I asked the Asians seated across from me in the bus taking us on the first leg of our trip to Coral Island.
"China" came the reply, but their English was hesitant and scant. After several less than successful attempts at conversation, I turned my attention to the only other passenger, a slightly older lady.
"And where are you from?" I asked.
"Je ne parle pas l'Anglais," she replied, shrugging Gallicly.
"Ce n'est pas un problem, je parle francais." And her face lit up. Immediately, she launched into her story.
"I'm here with my friends, 2 couples, and no one speaks French anywhere!"
We found a similar problem as hardly anyone speaks English in our hotel. All the other guests seem to be Russian and as it bears no resemblance to any other language that we know, we just smile politely at each other in passing and can barely exchange the most rudimentary greeting. Although later on the big boat going to Coral Island, I managed some basic communication with a Russian lady who spoke slighly more German than my Russian. It was a short and pretty meaningless conversation consisting mostly of hello, goodbye, and Skoal.
The bus ride wasn't too long, maybe 20 minutes and then we were gathered into a larger group and taken by cigarette boat out into the bay where we transferred onto the biger, 2 storey boat which was taking us to Coral Island.
When I booked the trip I was told it was about a 30 minute boat ride. Not bad. We were scheduled to be picked up at the hotel at 8:45 a.m. but that's when the timeline started to unravel. At 9:10, just as I was thinking of calling, they showed up.
I thought we'd be on the island by 10:00 a.m. but... there came another delay. On the boat a fellow came around with photos of watersports we could purchase, like parasailing, an underwater walk wearing a screw-on helmet and suit, jet ski, etc. I only wanted to snorkel so I declined everyting as did Hans, but quite a number of the passengers decided that a parasail would be just the thing. Little did the rest of us know that ALL of us would now be waiting in our boat while each of the signed up passengers got their lift. Bummer. And it wasn't just a 30 minute boat ride either.
So, we docked at noon. But I was encouraged to see dark reefy looking patches in the water, and huge chunky rocks at either end of the white sand bay into which we were being delivered.
Hans was in need of shade having got a touch too much sun yesterday and luckily there was lots available as virtually each lounge chair was under an umbrella. The water was warm, clear and so inviting I couldn't wait to get in, though the locals cautioned me to watch out for jet skis and speedboats.
Sluggish dark purple and spiky sea cucumbers abounded, curled around rocks. Little crabs scuttled sideways over the rocks and schools of tiny white fish flitted through the filtered sunlight. I saw a small condom attached to the sandy bottom and thought, "How disgusting." But then further on when I saw several more bobbing in the current I realized they weren't condoms at all, but some kind of small sea creature. Then I saw the first sea urchin. Some years back Alethea had the misfortune of stepping on one and ended up in serious pain and in the hospital to have the long spikes removed from her foot and leg. Not wearing any fins, I swam away quickly but saw that all the dark patches towards which I was heading were actually huge numbers of sea urchins. Slight panic now, as it's hard to gauge how deep the water is when it's so clear, and I there was no way I could put a foot down to check. Fear raced through me,that I would accidently kick one as I was furiously swimming off. But I had enough time to notice that despite their long and dangerous spines, they also have beautiful peacock blue spots sparkling like sequins on their core, deep inside the spines.
On the boat over I had a delightful visit with an Egyptian family who spoke perfect English. Their son Mohammad joined me on my second swim and we had a long and very interesting discussion about Muslims and their beliefs. His wife wasn't travelling with the family as she was at home looking after theirf 3 year old twins, but he told me when they married, she had the choice of being veiled or not since it was of no matter to him. Veiling isn't actually required by the Koran, it's a choice. Though that choice has been made in many regions for women who now have no choice.
Hans and I have an invitation to visit them in Cairo. In fact the dad, whose name I forgot, gifted us with a bookmark, an Egyptian sweet made of peanuts and honey which he just happened to have in his bag, and a down payment on our trip to Cairo of two pieces of paper money amounting to 1 1/2 Egyptian pounds - about 50 cents. We'll have to top it up.
"Where are you from?" I asked the Asians seated across from me in the bus taking us on the first leg of our trip to Coral Island.
"China" came the reply, but their English was hesitant and scant. After several less than successful attempts at conversation, I turned my attention to the only other passenger, a slightly older lady.
"And where are you from?" I asked.
"Je ne parle pas l'Anglais," she replied, shrugging Gallicly.
"Ce n'est pas un problem, je parle francais." And her face lit up. Immediately, she launched into her story.
"I'm here with my friends, 2 couples, and no one speaks French anywhere!"
We found a similar problem as hardly anyone speaks English in our hotel. All the other guests seem to be Russian and as it bears no resemblance to any other language that we know, we just smile politely at each other in passing and can barely exchange the most rudimentary greeting. Although later on the big boat going to Coral Island, I managed some basic communication with a Russian lady who spoke slighly more German than my Russian. It was a short and pretty meaningless conversation consisting mostly of hello, goodbye, and Skoal.
The bus ride wasn't too long, maybe 20 minutes and then we were gathered into a larger group and taken by cigarette boat out into the bay where we transferred onto the biger, 2 storey boat which was taking us to Coral Island.
When I booked the trip I was told it was about a 30 minute boat ride. Not bad. We were scheduled to be picked up at the hotel at 8:45 a.m. but that's when the timeline started to unravel. At 9:10, just as I was thinking of calling, they showed up.
I thought we'd be on the island by 10:00 a.m. but... there came another delay. On the boat a fellow came around with photos of watersports we could purchase, like parasailing, an underwater walk wearing a screw-on helmet and suit, jet ski, etc. I only wanted to snorkel so I declined everyting as did Hans, but quite a number of the passengers decided that a parasail would be just the thing. Little did the rest of us know that ALL of us would now be waiting in our boat while each of the signed up passengers got their lift. Bummer. And it wasn't just a 30 minute boat ride either.
So, we docked at noon. But I was encouraged to see dark reefy looking patches in the water, and huge chunky rocks at either end of the white sand bay into which we were being delivered.
Hans was in need of shade having got a touch too much sun yesterday and luckily there was lots available as virtually each lounge chair was under an umbrella. The water was warm, clear and so inviting I couldn't wait to get in, though the locals cautioned me to watch out for jet skis and speedboats.
Sluggish dark purple and spiky sea cucumbers abounded, curled around rocks. Little crabs scuttled sideways over the rocks and schools of tiny white fish flitted through the filtered sunlight. I saw a small condom attached to the sandy bottom and thought, "How disgusting." But then further on when I saw several more bobbing in the current I realized they weren't condoms at all, but some kind of small sea creature. Then I saw the first sea urchin. Some years back Alethea had the misfortune of stepping on one and ended up in serious pain and in the hospital to have the long spikes removed from her foot and leg. Not wearing any fins, I swam away quickly but saw that all the dark patches towards which I was heading were actually huge numbers of sea urchins. Slight panic now, as it's hard to gauge how deep the water is when it's so clear, and I there was no way I could put a foot down to check. Fear raced through me,that I would accidently kick one as I was furiously swimming off. But I had enough time to notice that despite their long and dangerous spines, they also have beautiful peacock blue spots sparkling like sequins on their core, deep inside the spines.
On the boat over I had a delightful visit with an Egyptian family who spoke perfect English. Their son Mohammad joined me on my second swim and we had a long and very interesting discussion about Muslims and their beliefs. His wife wasn't travelling with the family as she was at home looking after theirf 3 year old twins, but he told me when they married, she had the choice of being veiled or not since it was of no matter to him. Veiling isn't actually required by the Koran, it's a choice. Though that choice has been made in many regions for women who now have no choice.
Hans and I have an invitation to visit them in Cairo. In fact the dad, whose name I forgot, gifted us with a bookmark, an Egyptian sweet made of peanuts and honey which he just happened to have in his bag, and a down payment on our trip to Cairo of two pieces of paper money amounting to 1 1/2 Egyptian pounds - about 50 cents. We'll have to top it up.
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