Sharm El-Sheikh: Egyptian Los Cabos

Just finished three days in Sharm El-Sheikh, an Egyptian resort city at the tip of Southern Sinai on the Red Sea famous for its diving. The whole area is, geographically speaking, basically mountain deserts coming right up to the ocean with deep indigo blue waters. I made 4 dives in the Ras Mohamed National Park here to discover massive underwater landscapes with sheer cliffs dropping off into the deep, caves you could move in and out off, and teeming with lush multi-colored corals and tons of schools of fish. The underwater visibility here was stunningly clear and stretched far. I saw a new fish – Crocodile Fish. Didn't see what people claim here is pretty common – sharks, mantaray, hammer heads, and few others.

The town by itself (with its two parts, Old Sharm and Naama Bay, that are 10 minutes apart) has been turned into a European tourist destination with almost nothing Egyptian about it. Predominantly the tourists are from Russia, Italy and UK. The town is pretty deserted during the day when people are either diving or snorkeling or lallygagging on the beaches of major resorts runs by the likes of Hilton, Marriott, Sofitel, and some European outfits like Movenpick and Iberotel. The evening comes alive with tourists wandering the promenade trying all kinds of non-Egyptian food (Hard Rock cafe', TGI Fridays, Italian food places, etc.), smoking sheesha (hookah) at upscale versions of Cairo coffee shops and shopping for souvenirs.

And then the whole place explodes after 11pm when the discotheques dance music. start pumping out loudAll three of major clubs - Pacha (best space - partly open air), Little Buddha (best music), and Hard Rock Cafe (so-so) were jumping till 4am. At night the whole place does not have a hint of Egypt, the Egypt I discovered everywhere else - traditional conservative muslim society. The only exception was that in all the clubs there was a noticeable feature - multitudes of Egyptian men hanging out at the periphery of the dance floor staring and feeling awkward. The younger ones are much more adventurous to hit the dance floor and mingle with the tourists but majority abstain from such outings. A crazy dynamic!

The weird thing about the whole place is you see almost no Egyptian women. Since they do not work in any of the establishments (restaurants, souvenir shops, boats in the marina, etc.) its basically Egyptian men running everything. May be if Burqini's take off in Egypt the women here can enjoy the beaches and so many other water sports activities available to them.

People mentioned that the government is heavily promoting Sharm El-Sheikh as the new face of Egypt. I think that is unfortunate! On my first day of dive I noticed two warships off the coast and my dive master (an Australian) mentioned that the President was in town hosting some conference. Because of recent history of terrorists attacks here the security is very tight and police sets up road blocks at the drop of a hat. I almost missed my flight out of town because of one such police check post where the police officer harassed my hotel minibus drives for good 15 minutes!

In the end though, Sharm El-Sheikh is a fabulous place to dive. And I guess if you are trying to escape the cold of St. Petersburg, a good place to chill out by the beach and party hard at night. But nothing else if you want to experience real Egyptiana! It can be a good break and a nice stop as you continue along to other attractions up the Sinai coast (more diving!) and peninsula, including hiking up to Mt. Sinai and exploring Bedouin life.