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Brief information about the hotel
The Royal Albatros Moderna 5 * hotel is part of the Pickalbatros Hotels & Resorts hotel chain, which has been managing and developing hotel and tourism enterprises for over 20 years. The hotels of the chain are located in the best resorts of Egypt (4 hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh: Royal Albatros Moderna 5 *, Albatros Aqua Park Sharm 5 * (with the largest water park in the history of Egypt! ), Aqua Blu 4 *, Beach Albatros Resort 4*; 9 hotels in Hurghada: Albatros Aqua Park 4*, Albatros Palace Resort 5*, Albatros White Beach Resort 5*, Albatros White Beach Resort 5*, Alf Leila Wa Leila 4*, Aqua Vista 4*, Beach Albatros Resort 4 *, Dana Beach Resort 5*, Jungle Aqua Park 4*, and 2 hotels in Morocco: Albatros Garden 4* (Marrakech) and Beach Albatros 4* (Agadir).
The hotel was opened in 2004. Last renovation in 2016
Location of Royal Albatros Moderna Hotel 5*
The hotel is located in the north of Sharm El Sheikh in the resort area of Nabq on the very shore of the Red Sea on the first line in Nabq Bay, 13 km from the International Airport and 25 km from the famous Naama Bay.
Near the hotel
Sunken ships "Lara" and "Lullia"
Entertainment complex "Sinai Golf".
Zoo at the hotel Dessole Royana Rojana.
Amusement park in Soho.
To the right of the hotel is the hotel complex MIRABEL RESORT 5*, to the left is Stigenberger Alcazar 5* (look at the sea).
December 22.2017. Friday
With an early departure from Kyiv at 0:30, at four in the morning we landed in Sharm El Sheikh, and at seven we were already at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel. This despite the fact that for at least half an hour the holidaymakers were transported to all hotels. After all, our hotel is located almost at the northernmost point of Sharm El Sheikh. Behind us is another hotel, however, one of the “coolest” in Egypt “Stigenberger Alcazar” 5 *, and then the lifeless expanses of the desert
But, everything is in order and in detail
Check-in hotel. Lobby. reception
Sharm El Sheikh Airport. It is located in the northern part of the resort city just where my next hotel is Royal Albatros Moderna 5 *.
Knowing from a satellite map from the Internet (which, by the way, I photocopied and take with me) the configuration of the hotel, its buildings and, especially, the pools (the pools in each hotel are different in shape, with obligatory bright illumination at night), and therefore from space , and, moreover, from the window of an airplane on a low-level flight over the Strait of Aqaba, I can find out, and recognize my hotel, which is waiting for me, and, which is not excluded, has already prepared for me a fresh and clean room overlooking the sea, pool or garden. After all, I received my application yesterday. And so each of us from this flight, chartered by the tour operator "Join Up". And there are about one and a half dozen of us, almost half the transfer bus. And it pleases that it will not be boring among their fellow countrymen.
And then I remember my recent fashionable, and therefore several times more expensive, hotels, for example, Grand Rotana, Rixos, Savoy, when we were settled by one or two people from Ukraine and I lived, although in special comfort , but among solid foreigners, as in emigration far from their homeland.
Looking ahead, I’ll say that after checking in, this Royal Albatros Moderna hotel seemed to me to be a small segment of my former homeland in miniature of the USSR: all nationalities and peoples gathered here: Kazakhs (most of all, since direct charter flights are open), Ukrainians, Belarusians , Moldovans, from the Baltic countries, Georgians, Armenians, Russians from other republics Only Russians from Russia for some reason this time ignored the “family” holiday of life (Official statistics, which the Reception employee kindly provided me).
The procedure from landing (with obligatory applause to the aircraft commander for a soft landing), through passport and customs formalities, transfer and up to the hotel is standard and worked out to the smallest detail. Works well, like clockwork. But sometimes with some nuances. So, by the way, I was not on the list for boarding the transfer bus. But the guide of this bus quickly entered me, having learned that I had purchased a last-minute tour six hours before departure. (This happens to me sometimes, so I didn’t panic much).
Before collecting luggage, I have a useful tip for you: stock up on a trolley (there are a dozen, if not more, and for free), even if your suitcases on wheels are much more convenient and will remain unscathed from the “rough” concrete of the local airport. Moreover, the trolley can drive up to the luggage compartment of the bus itself, and if you are a woman, the driver will also help you load them.
(And from men, he usually expects a dollar for his services).
We were the last to leave the airport, when a galaxy of regular buses drove into the parking lot, but already from Anex Tour - to meet the passengers of the next plane, already chartered by Anex Tour. And all because one of the passengers lost her phone. I witnessed an interesting dialogue between her and the guide: “Are you sure you lost your phone? If not, then you may have troubles and problems, ”the guide hinted at the falsity of the statement, especially to the police if theft is suspected. And the guide was very surprised when, ten minutes later, the girl, beaming with joy, returned from the airport building with her expensive phone. According to the reaction of the guide, I realized that this is already a rare exception here. So do not lose phones and other expensive things! The outcome will not always be in your favor.
We go to the hotel for a relatively long time, compared with a short distance (13 km) from the airport, since it is the farthest, compared to those in which we stop by, carrying tourists to our hotels. Each such "delivery" takes at least 5 minutes. Total half an hour on the road, and not 10-15 minutes if we went by taxi
But here our bus, thanks to the art of driving the driver, imposingly enters the gates of the hotel - "Royal Albatros Moderna". Immediately to the left, tall water slides of the Aquapark rush into a five-story building. This is where the real joy is to tickle the nerves of lovers of an increased dose of adrenaline in the blood! And then you remember that the Pickalbatros Hotels & Resorts company, of which this hotel is a part, is a dock in the construction of Aquaparks and a record holder in Egypt for these facilities (Albatros Aqua Park Sharm 5 * hotel).
Further on, a green, well-groomed territory of the hotel opens up with many palm trees, short-cut lawns, flowers in the flower beds, cacti and other exotic plants. on the carriageway or on the fence of neighboring hotels. Why hide the truth, there are such numbers. And you pray to God that you, in the soul of the Poet, pass this fate.
But the inner part of the courtyard of the room with a wonderful view of the pool and water park!
Then we drive up to the main building. Things, as usual, are piled up on the street under the supervision of security guards, and you pass through the metal detector frame into the lobby. In passing, I notice that there is no X-ray installation here.
The lobby is chic and shabby, like a bell that chimes on a ship, glittering from the mirrored marble floor to the vaulted ceiling with colorful crystal chandeliers. And in the center are fresh flowers of incredibly large sizes. And a surprisingly pleasant smell, of course, obviously not from flowers, but like expensive perfumes who you love
In the lobby there are many large soft sofas and armchairs made of leather (of course, artificial, but this does not impair the visual perception of its chicness).
The Reception desk, behind which are tall, slender and very attractive workers (women, apparently, are crazy about them) in light suits and with refined manners. Their smile and goodwill already win you over.
Moreover, they subjugate your will: they put a red bracelet on your hand (after filling out the questionnaire, by the way, for the first time they require you to indicate your home address) and offer to go downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast (after all, it’s already seven in the morning), and you agree; they say that check-in is after 14:00 and you don’t argue, and after breakfast you take a beach ensemble and go to the sea to fill up to the sound of the surf. Moreover, from the experience of previous trips to hotels in Egypt, I knew that the best rooms would appear only after 12:00 a single hours of "check out", and the current, at seven in the morning, "good" rooms are only those that remained after yesterday's release at 12:00 or early departure of vacationers, which is much less common.
In order not to upset the Reception staff with a request for an early check-in, I quietly waited in the wings, making the most of it: I managed to sleep on the beach, got acquainted with the sea and the territory of the hotel, even made a few notes in my diary, some of which I present here.
In addition, lunch time arrived (from 12:30) and I managed not only to get acquainted with the assortment of dishes and taste them, but also recorded them on dozens of photos
Speaking of bracelets. The bracelet is ordinary, made of thin plastic, red, on which the name of the hotel and in capital letters - the chain of hotels are applied with white indelible paint. (For some reason, the name of the hotel chain in this hotel is advertised more often than the name of the hotel itself). I immediately compared this simple standard bracelet with the Rixos body bracelet - a real piece of jewelry that I wore three days ago, which I keep and am not ashamed to show to my friends Yes, I broke the rule: “Visit hotels for increasing star rating and comfort , as well as drinking alcohol in increasing "degrees"
Now, when the bracelet is on your hand, from that moment you already feel 99% the master of the situation, you have the right to use everything that is supposed to be a tourist in this hotel of your status.
And even demand, which I sometimes do when, for example, in some hotels they refuse to pour me beer into my large glass goblet. In this case, I poke the index finger of my free hand into the bracelet and in a demanding tone that does not allow objections, with a strict, unblinking look, I insist: “All-inclusive!! ! And so far there has never been a misfire: the “enemy” surrendered!
With a bracelet on your hand, you feel equal among everyone, since there is no other concept of nutrition, except for all-inclusive, and, consequently, there are no other colors of bracelets that divide vacationers into “castes”: first-class and second-class, here. The only thing that distinguishes us from each other here is the category of the room: “Standard” or more abruptly, up to the presidential suite. But outwardly, this is not visible and no one knows about it until you yourself boast publicly, causing envy in the interlocutor.
And the second is a visit to the Thai restaurant White Elephant, the only paid a la carte in this hotel. I understand that there must be at least some kind of “vent” for the especially rich, who want to get something exquisite for their money, compared to what is “for everyone”. And outwardly, this is very noticeable, as well as the increased service personnel towards such customers due to the widespread distribution of tips. Although, I must say that tips do not increase your status in the hotel: you will always get what you are supposed to according to your status of staying at the hotel, only a little more attention. And if you are used to more attention than others, then pay!
I checked in closer to three o'clock, plucking up the courage and going through the three room options offered to me (here, in this hotel you have the right to choose rooms in their category, they are different from a qualitative point of view).
I chose a standard room, but with an excellent view from the balcony, favorable conditions for creativity.
Looking ahead, but in the subject, after returning to Kyiv, after reading the review of one of the vacationers at the end of December in this hotel about his room with poor repair, I wrote the following comment:
“There are a few unrenovated rooms left in the hotel, one of which you came across. Now the repair of the rooms of the entire right flank of the buildings near the main pool is being completed. From the front side, everything is closed, I passed from the back (from the side of the neighboring hotel - where the laundry is) and saw how hard dozens of builders work there (see photo later in my review). But this does not interfere with the rest at all, you can’t even hear or see that there is a renovation going on! I was lucky and got an ordinary standard room, but with a renovation - after all, the rooms are being restored according to the highest class! Consider that by European standards.
If you don’t like the room upon check-in, ask for a replacement, at the reception they will meet you halfway and kindly provide you with another one. I went through three options ...And besides, I didn’t get impudent - I didn’t require early check-in: they said after 14:00, when most of the rooms were already handed over by 12:00, I came up after 14:00 (however, upon arrival at 7 : 15 there was enough time to swim in the sea, sunbathe, get acquainted with the territory of the hotel, have breakfast and even lunch...Fortunately, I was alone... )" (January 5.2018)
Rooms
Number of rooms in the hotel - 680 (606 standard, 50 family, 16 suites, 7 royal suites and 1 presidential suite):
My impressions of the room
The room is large in terms of visual perception, although only 35 sq. m. , cozy, breathes freshness and homely warmth. After cleaning, it is perfectly clean and with a pleasant smell of deodorant or some other cleaning “chemistry”.
Bedding and towels are white. Change every day unless you take a "break".
Sometimes I did this “lights out”, the only thing I asked was to replenish water, tea / coffee with cream and sugar, water and shampoo with gel in branded bottles. By the way, the shampoo and body wash are of excellent quality and thick consistency, not liquid, as in other hotels. In general, the bathroom is standard in terms of equipment, as in any good 5 * hotel (only the bidet here is combined with the toilet; there is such a technical solution and is used in many hotels in Egypt). What impressed me the most was the shower room. Imagine a shower head, beautifully made of stainless steel and almost half a meter in diameter under the ceiling of the shower room, and from it, like a jet of rain, water is pouring at the desired, most pleasant for you, Lapota temperature
The floor in the room is cool, but not completely cold. Still, I took light slippers with me. Bathrobes and slippers are provided, but for a fee.
TV flat with a large 39? screen.
Only one channel is Ukrainian (28), and fourteen Russian (13-24.29 and 115). The TV on the back has a USB input, which allowed me to charge my camera and watch the footage and photos of the underwater world and corals off the coast of the hotel on the big screen. You can also charge your phone's battery via a micro USB cable.
An exceptional feature of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel, which is not even in some of the most prestigious hotels in Egypt, for example, in the Savoy or the Four Seasons, is free high-speed Wi-Fi Internet, both throughout the territory and in every room There is a Wi-Fi device.
The adapter is provided in the room upon request at the reception.
The room has a lot of different lamps and lights, including two spotlights, individual, on a flexible holder.
The renovated room with voluminous elements on the walls and ceiling, including in the bathroom, allows you to hide all the lamps in the niches, which gives the room a special charm in the evening hours.
However, the room feels a little lacking. For example, from the table with the TV to the balcony there are two meters of emptiness with two restless sockets near the floor. Here a place arises for a floor lamp and a table / curbstone. By the way, I used one of these sockets for a kettle: it is inconvenient to use it in a narrow niche above the safe, and the hot kettle and cups leave ugly and indelible white spots on the lacquered surface of the furniture. Therefore, I do not advise you to put hot on lacquered furniture, so as not to pay the hotel for losses.
Mosquito spray is provided in the room upon request at the reception, but I did not request it. There are no mosquitoes on the territory of the hotel!
The only time one mosquito accidentally flew into my room at night, when I left the balcony door open, but I quickly slammed it, buzzing above my ear, But I still closed the door to the balcony
The balcony is small, semi-circular and has a coffee table and two plastic chairs. It is pleasant here late in the evening, after night festivities, when everything is already closed, or in the early morning, even before breakfast, treat yourself to a cup of coffee with cream: there is an electric kettle, and tea / coffee bags are replenished daily.
The only drawback of the balcony is its view, as on the stage: ten meters to the right and the same amount to the left. The only joy is that not only do they look at you, sometimes half-naked, but you also look at them in the same way
There is no clothes dryer on the balcony, so in such cases I always take a couple of meters of clothesline and 2-3 clothespins with me.
I advise you here in the period of strong winds without them you will definitely run around the hotel in search of your swimwear, shorts or beach towels (10 euros if you lose it).
Warmth and comfort of the room
December in Sharm El Sheikh is not always as warm and windless as it was this year. I was lucky: only two days out of ten before the New Year, when I visited the usually windy and uncomfortable area of Nabq, was very windy and unpleasant in terms of weather. And about the sincere hospitality of the management and staff of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel - a special conversation: it can a hundredfold block even much greater natural disasters with its blessing. And Nature showed us during these two days what kind of winds there are in December, so that we, comparing, appreciate her grace. But, since we are talking about the number, I will tell you how he showed himself in these conditions, which are usual for winter Egypt.
Evenings in December in Sharm El Sheikh are cool, up to +18?
New swimming pools with a children's water park were built on the site of the amphitheater.
The territory of the hotel can be conditionally divided into two zones: the active (in front of the main building) Active Zone and the quiet Relax Zone. The Active Zone is a horseshoe-shaped residential building for the entire two hundred meter width of the hotel, in the center of which are swimming pools, bars, music, stage, animation and other fun all day long: from ten in the morning (with a rooster crowing) until late at night (23:00) . After the All Inclusive bar closes, all the people disperse in the Lobby Bar and the Sports Bar, which “pour everything” until they close at 24:00. After, until 2:00, fun in the same All-inclusive mode is possible only at a disco, sometimes even when I was a witness, with dancing on the table Not Nizhny Tagil, but ours can have a lot of fun
The Relax Zone has 236 rooms of various categories, two swimming pools, one of which is heated - they are located in quiet courtyards.
The Nabq region experiences hurricane-level winds during the winter months, so having this sheltered area is an advantage this hotel has over other hotels. Although before the New Year (2018), when I was resting here, the whole week was amazing sunny weather, peace and grace, everyone was at the sea, in the Aqua Park or in the main pool of the Active Zone and the advantage of the buildings living in this vicious circle was their disadvantage .
The positive in the location of the Relax Zone and the Water Park is that they can be accessed directly from the Active Zone through the internal passage to the left of the main building with the reception or from the second floor of the 400th building, and it is not necessary to exit through the lobby and the security tweeter frame.
And therefore, purely psychologically, these two zones are like one whole and living in rooms in the Relax Zone do not feel like living outside the hotel, in the middle of nowhere, as is the case in other hotels. For example, I easily and quickly, in a few minutes, got into the Relax Zone, and after a couple of minutes to the Aquapark.
There are a lot of large and newly planted palm trees, green lawns on the territory of the hotel (though grass on square plates, laid tightly to each other, sometimes with empty gaps. There are flower beds. But there are no original author's solutions in terms of landscape and park design. Instead This wide area of the hotel is covered with concrete and stone slabs. There are practically no close-cut shrubs along the paths and alleys.
There are also too few original architectural author's solutions: apart from lamps and a pirate ship in the children's pool, nothing came up for me in the frame.
The slides of the Aquapark are a special conversation and they will not block the lack of everything else. Although all this is easily removable and at low cost and does not require such capital investments.
As for me, by nature a pagan and a passionate lover of Nature, this hotel lacks a small corner of the green Relax Zone, for example, in a quiet place far from the bustle of the beach, as I found and enjoyed it in the August heat at the Grand Rotana Hotel
A feature of the Nabq region, unlike the central city ones, is that there are no rocky shores tens of meters above sea level, and therefore the territory of the hotels is located on an area with a slight slope to the sea and it is difficult to come up with something original in terms of architecture and gardening. - park design without reference to the uniqueness of rocky shores, terraces and slopes, as is done at the Sunrise Diamond Hotel
Nutrition. Restaurants. bars
Food types:
The hotel has only one food system - All Inclusive.
The All Inclusive system is valid 24 hours and includes early breakfast, breakfast, lunch, dinner, late dinner in restaurants, snacks in bars; also a wide selection of local drinks, soft drinks, juices, beer, cocktails, coffee, tea, liqueurs, carbonated drinks and local wine by the glass. Alcoholic drinks are free from 10:00 to midnight, then until ten in the morning for an additional fee.
Early breakfast
If you are a “lark” and used to get up very early, or an “owl” who went out before seven in the morning, or you have a very early check-in at the hotel before seven in the morning, then the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel will kindly treat you to an early breakfast in the Columbus bar the only bar in the hotel that operates around the clock on the All Inclusive system. Believe me, this rarely happens, especially with such an assortment of original drinks.
Breakfast
I first got acquainted with breakfast at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel on the very first day of my arrival, immediately after returning my passport with a registration voucher, even before settling into a room.
Having entered the main restaurant "Mediterranean", and this is the floor below the reception, after a sleepless night and flight anxiety, fatigue, sleep, lethargy, etc. disappear somewhere, but simply disappear when you see such a variety of dishes, salads, vegetables and fruits, and you inhale through your nose and already eat alluring-delicious smells.
Moreover, at the entrance to the restaurant you see the highlight of this hotel: a smiling chef behind the refrigerator counter, pouring cold fresh orange juice. (I clarify: the highlight is not the waiter, but fresh juice). Why highlight? Yes, because there is no such thing even in the most luxurious hotels where I have been (Rixos, Savoy, Grand Rotana, Sunrise Araben). Natural juice is everywhere, and for fresh juice you pay at least a dollar.
This is the highlight of the management of this hotel to us, its guests, and in other hotels I paid three times more for the tour, but for fresh juices, the fee is $ 1-2 separately! And here, in the seemingly ordinary “five”, but in fact unusual, and further we will talk about raisins about crabs, natural fresh orange juice, and in unlimited quantities! And all this, as the Arabs like to say, "freebie"! I always correct them: “Not a freebie, but all inclusive and I paid $500 for it. Although I understood that this was a gesture of goodwill and a benevolent attitude of the hotel management towards their guests, and out of five hundred dollars the hotel gets a minuscule amount: the main share is intercepted by intermediaries (Russians, which is why Russians are not always treated well).
To celebrate, I immediately took two glasses of this juice and went inside the restaurant, took a table by the window overlooking the pool and the sea.
I drank one glass, and good bliss spread throughout my body, reaching every cell of my body and even further, where the Soul lives with its feelings, you feel not in the seventh, but somewhere in the fifth or sixth heaven. Then the second glass of juice, who went after the first one, and I went to repeat With such a start, you still leave a reserve place for your feelings of "seventh heaven" for later, knowing in advance that it will definitely appear
After that, in the next ten days, before I even had time to go to the refrigerator, my first two glasses of juice were already waiting for me, and then repeatedly repeated during breakfast. And no objections, just a pleasant smile of the waiter! I still remember this masterpiece of the hotel. It would seem a trifle, but subtle, long remembered, and best of all in Egypt! A big plus for the hotel management if they keep this zest of the hotel until your arrival!
Worthy of attention and hard cheeses, but only high fat content, not dry: they can be immediately identified by sight.
Here, for the first time in Egypt, a week before the New Year, delicious, like our Kherson tomatoes, appeared! Cucumbers are always on top here: tasty and fragrant. We have a delicacy lime ($8 per kilogram) here freely and unlimitedly: its juice in tea, for main courses and, especially in Ouzo (50? ), is necessary for health, like air.
And about breakfast in this hotel, "traditional" and "like all hotels in Egypt", I thought the first two days. But from the third day, as soon as I got used to it, I always made morning, lunch and evening excursions-jogs to all a la carte restaurants with a plate, but most often with two plates in hand: what if something original and unusual comes across. And you know, I never returned with empty plates to my table in the main restaurant. Moreover, all the original dishes were photographed.
But it was still more difficult with breakfast: the traditional dishes with fried omelets listed above were invariably in every restaurant and made me sad. And only one or two dishes were original, which the chefs of these restaurants shared with me with joy, in response to my invariable greeting: “Asalaam alaikum! »
As a result, by the beginning of breakfast, at least two dozen different dishes, salads, cuts of cheeses and sausages, vegetables, fruits, drinks (I especially recommend cocoa with milk! ) and so on, there was practically no free meta left on the table. I will reveal a little trick: I take just a little, just to taste it, and if I like it, then I take it for the second time and in the following days in full, and I don’t even pay attention to what I don’t like.
Useful advice: take grapes (bubka) and pomegranate (grains) not into a plate, but into deep bowls, which are sometimes only there at the beginning, and then they are always there where soups or tea are. And take a spoon very convenient and nice to absorb them. So is any fruit cut in its own syrup.
With a sense of accomplishment in front of my mortal body, I rise from the table and, having said “Shokran” (“Thank you”) to the owners of the restaurant, I head to the exit, through the terrace. And there already a young Arab waiter hands me another two glasses of fresh juice. Well, how to refuse him, having offended him? And I say: “Know that, bath, pliz! ”, I take one glass of the treasured nectar and sitting at a table near the glass railing, drinking juice in small sips, enjoying a panoramic view of the pool, the hotel grounds and the sea in the distance
About the free choice of both a la carte restaurants and takeaway dishes, and not only for dinner, but also for breakfast and lunch, the third feature, I would say, is the highlight of this restaurant. This highlight brings such a variety of dishes from breakfast to dinner, which I have not seen in any hotel in Egypt, and I had about twenty of them in two years!
Breakfast in the main restaurant "Mediterranean" is extended by three hours, until ten in the morning, so even if you were at a disco until two in the morning or at another similar night event, breakfast will not run away from you. But if you still overslept it, then you will be helped out by a late breakfast until 11:00 nearby in the "Tagine" restaurant, with almost the same range of dishes.
But the second highlight of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel, which I deliberately skipped, is crabs and will describe it at dinner.
Dinner
Lunch also opened up wide opportunities for the creative talent of the chef.
And every time a new plate appeared on my table with original dishes of each a la carte restaurant: how many restaurants were open, there were so many plates with the cuisine of each restaurant of the peoples of the world. And during the ten days of my stay at the hotel, main dishes, except for my favorites, were practically not repeated! Moreover, at lunchtime a bar was opened with access to drinks through the All Inclusive system, and therefore fresh bottled beer (it tastes better than draft), red (pink or white) wine was just the way.
I list the names of the original dishes by photographs, since I photographed not only the dish itself, but also its advertisement.
Most of the dishes at lunch I liked grilled meat and fish dishes. From lunch until late in the evening, from the barbecues and ovens with grills, the aromas of meat, liver, fish, chickens, quails, ducks and even crabs roasted on an open fire spread throughout the hotel.
But the main restaurant and four a la carte restaurants for lunch are for lovers and fans of gluttony. (Sinful, father, this is your obedient servant, despite the post).
But if you watch your figure and are too lazy to walk two hundred meters and go up to the second floor to restaurants, then on the seashore, immediately behind the Beach Bar, there is Club Mac, which I wrote about above in the “Restaurants” section and therefore I will not repeat myself. What is good is that this bar-restaurant opens half an hour earlier than the main restaurant and the especially hungry can get enough here. True, there are no natural packaged juices here, and I had to go to a nearby beach bar for them.
The variety of dishes for lunch, thanks to the a la carte restaurants and the “two plates” system (see below), is incredible and it’s impossible to describe everything in this format, there isn’t enough space, but I recorded it in a hundred different photos.
One of the originalities of the dinner is that each restaurant has one or even two fire-breathing grill ovens both on the street (or terrace) on wood and inside on gas. At the same time, a table for four people actually turns out to be small for one (see photo). And when you get up from the table at the end of dinner, you feel regret that you didn’t come up with a mini crane...
Dinner.
The marathon of gluttony at the Royal Albatros Moderna does not end with lunch, but continues with dinner. Sometimes, watching how crowds of holiday-makers rush to the restaurant in a continuous line in the evening, you think, are they really so hungry? And this is after such a rich breakfast, lunch and all kinds of snacks of pizza, hamburgers, sandwiches and shawarma in pita bread. (I don’t think so about myself; I have such a job: to try and experience everything in order to truly and truthfully describe in my diary for the benefit of you - the future guests of the Royal Albatros Moderna Hotel: these are the sacrifices I make!
And will the hotel administration appreciate my such sacrifices? )
Dinner, despite the popular proverb “give dinner to the enemy”, pleased me most of all, but not with its victims and philanthropy, but with the possibility of the sin of “gluttonism” on the margins of delicious dishes. In addition, an Italian a la carte restaurant was allowed to the evening meal under the All Inclusive system. For breakfast and lunch, it was open only for the hotel's administrative apparatus - as one waiter explained to me, when I, for the umpteenth time, ran into this restaurant at lunchtime and took away exclusive dishes from it.
For dinner, twice in ten days of rest, I was lucky enough to taste grilled crabs. And the second time, along with crabs, quails were fried on the second grill! This is where I took my soul! I ate crabs then, I confess, several dozen, alternating them with fried quails! Naturally, with beer and under beer.
(For the first time, I enjoyed them with red wine, also not bad, but you can’t drink much wine, and therefore the crabs didn’t go without wine at the end)
How? I'll teach you, as I taught all my friends in the hotel: pick up two plates (three? don't be greedy! ) and go to the grill. There is a small queue, when yours comes up, be sure to smile and say hello: “Asalam Alaikum! Wa Rahmatullah! ”And serve one plate, get your three large crabs laid, say “Shokran” (“Thank you! ”) And immediately substitute the second plate At the cook’s dumb question, point your finger towards the tables and say: “Mom! ". To be convincing, wave your free hand: there they will definitely answer you “Mom” - this is sacred and sounds the same in Arabic. And therefore there is no refusal!
After about five ten minutes, when the crabs come to an end, repeat all over again And so on until the "shop" closes at 21:00.
And the “two plates” system will come in handy in other similar cases!
“Experience and practice is a great thing! » (classic)
This is the second, most important, in my opinion, highlight of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel!
Late dinner.
The time is half past eleven. You danced in the Pool bar, where live music and talented singers sing Ukrainian and Russian songs, and naturally, you got hungry. And the bar is already closed. And you are already waiting for the same main restaurant for a late dinner with obligatory meat and fish dishes, salads, vegetables, fruits and cakes. Only the bar in this restaurant is already closed and you have to take beer, wine or Ouzo (50? , I recommend, it is not divorced and impossible to fake: it turns white from a drop of water! ) on the floor above - in the Lobby bar, just warn you what you have with you : in the bars of the hotel they are especially careful not to take out glass glasses from them, but take out as much as you want in plastic cups!
Just don't sit too long at a late dinner.
The bartender, a handsome man with a fashionable youthful haircut, is already waiting for you in the Sports Bar to treat you to the best beer in this Heniken hotel, poured into the same branded elongated glass.
But at twelve o'clock this bar closes. And your only option is to walk five steps to the right of the Sports Bar and go down to the Irish Bar IRISH PUB. There is also a disco until two in the morning, and this is with a working bar on the All Inclusive system!
And in between dances, you can look into the non-alcoholic round-the-clock bar "Columbus", which is opposite the Sports Ball and order Latte coffee or a similar drink there.
See below for more information on all other bars in the hotel.
Having settled in the hotel and got to know many, including those who arrived from Gomel on the second day after the wedding (Oleg and Irina are my friends), or on their birthday (and there are five ten of them daily), with and without children, a couple of lovers or a big company (Belarusians on tours with payment from their company) I saw in reality that they all do not dream of anything better than the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel! This hotel appeals to people of all ages with a variety of interests and hobbies.
Restaurants are open without prior reservation and are included in the AI concept (with the exception of the Thai restaurant White Elephant).
Soft drinks, tea/coffee and water are available 24 hours at the hotel bars, which are open during this time.
From 10:00 to 24:00, alcoholic drinks are available under the All system. The rest of the time for an additional fee.
Beach. Sea
Own, sandy beach, the length of the beach strip: 200m, and a width of about 100m, with a coral reef, entrance to the sea from a pontoon (length 640 meters).
Before reaching the end of the pier, there are 6 descents into the sea with a depth of up to 1.1. 5 m.
Services on the beach: umbrellas, sun loungers, wind protection, mattresses and beach towels.
The weather this year pleased all holidaymakers in Egypt, especially in the Nabq region, which is “famous” for strong winds since October and all winter. And now, ten days before the New Year, only the first two days there was a strong wind up to 12m / s, and therefore the beach was closed. And on the rest of the days it is sunny and windless, the water, as always, did not fall below +24? C, which allowed me to be in the water photographing corals and fish for about an hour. And the constant movement did not allow to freeze.
Today, on the second day of my stay at the hotel, I really got to know the Red Sea. Started from the beach.
The beach at the Royal Albatros Moderna does not mean the Sea in the full sense of the word.
From the beach to the real sea, there is still almost a kilometer (this is at a glance, but according to advertising 650m) along a wooden pontoon, which goes into the distance like an arrow and there, at the end, where on both sides of it the white lambs of the waves, arguing with the coral reef, are visible on a small playground little people, small as insects. The desperate, I thought of them, have gone so far from luxury and civilization, bars and restaurants with drinks and snacks, to experience the true beauty of the real Red Sea. Fans of the Red Sea, I would clarify.
And here, near the coast, the sea is not the sea, and the puddle is not a puddle, since such a puddle of several hundred hectares does not exist. At low tides, the depth near the shore is ankle-deep and many vacationers go a hundred meters from the shore to see something unique in the sea. And they find mother-of-pearl shells of mollusks, admire them and leave them right there to collect, and, moreover, export is prohibited by law and criminal punishment follows under Art. 18.1983.
When the tide is in, the depth of the sea near the shore increases to half a meter and, having walked about five meters from the shore, you can simply plop headlong into the water and refresh yourself, which I often did when the heat finally got out in the sun at noon. It is also nice to freshen up in the sea in the morning after a night of drinking, or after your own wedding, like my friend Oleg, whom I met in such a way and under such circumstances.
And so in appearance, from the beach, the sea, if you do not enter it, then the sea is like the sea
Nevertheless, almost a kilometer zone of corals, although now petrified and inanimate, allows us to draw an interesting logical conclusion that the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel is located in a place most favorable for life, since in ancient times life was so intensely rampant here, there were the most favorable for this condition, compared to other places in Sharm El Sheikh.
I imagined this huge mass of coral from a few centimeters thick at the shore to forty meters thick at the reef and imbued with respect for this array of corals. And why did he die? Most likely, from a decrease in the level of the World Ocean: under the scorching tropical rays of the sun, especially during low tides, who will survive? But there may be other reasons
The thirst to know the Red Sea, the coral reef and its inhabitants off the coast of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel also pulled me into this distance. And I, grabbing a mask with a snorkel and an underwater camera, rushed into this distance.
This is how I started my acquaintance with the Red Sea here.
It took about ten minutes to walk to him, if not in a hurry. For the first two hundred meters, my bare heels rejoiced at the polished first-class pontoon boards. Naturalness and the highest quality could not but rejoice. And with my consciousness I felt the solidity of both this pontoon structure and the solidity of the hotel as a whole.
Indeed, the board was one to one: thick (magpie), even on all sides and smooth.
Further and to the end of the pontoon, there was already a second-rate board, often made of flash and of different thicknesses, but, most likely, the thickness was the same, but on an uneven surface. Yes, and the gaps between the boards were not very pleasing. And therefore, after the first stumbling, I stopped admiring the sea, staring at the shallows and was completely absorbed in contemplating the varieties of tree structure patterns under my feet, so as not to play with my nose at these drawings for a better view of them up close. The lesson, of course, is interesting, but not very useful. After half a kilometer I got tired of staring at the boards under my feet and sat down to rest on a neat and solid wooden bench, here they are every 100-200m of a long journey. It is very convenient for pensioners and young children who ventured to go on such a trip.
About a hundred meters before the end, I saw a real sandy beach with the purest, like a tear, water and a normal depth - up to one and a half meters. There is a platform for the beach and two or three dozen wooden deck chairs with soft mattresses. There were many vacationers, especially with children, and most splashed in the water.
But in order to see corals, alive and beautiful, you need to go all these 700m along a wooden pontoon to the farthest platform, 30x30 sq. m. A real civilized beach is arranged here with soft double sofas and sofas with pillows the same as on the shore. There are twenty-five such double places in total. And each such place is protected by a dense awning from the wind. And in the center is a circle with small soft sun loungers for children with a colored sun umbrella in the middle.
In addition to comfortable sunbeds, this beach also has a dozen or two soft mattresses: for lack of a better option, those who are late for the “holiday of life” are satisfied with them. And at noon all the places are already taken! I was imbued with respect for these people, who civilizations with restaurants and bars, preferred the Red Sea, for which they flew here thousands of kilometers, and to the hotel administration with gratitude for the fact that here, almost a kilometer from the coast, they arranged such a gorgeous beach for their guests !
The “local” Arab told me that here, during the summer heat season, up to a hundred vacationers can be accommodated. I did not argue with him, although I counted only fifty comfortable recumbent places. Because I knew that standing places, like we have in the subway car during rush hours, in such an area you can accommodate half a thousand people
You can not take a mask, snorkel and fins with you from home.
Here, a whole rack with several shelves is crammed with this stuff and of pretty decent quality, and it's nice that "all inclusive".
Unfortunately, only one descent down the steps into the sea is more or less comfortable and safe. Descent down the stairs to the left, I went down it for the first time, it needs repair.
corals
Now more about corals. From the shore and along the entire length of the beach for all 600m, the corals are inanimate. During low tides, they even protrude above the water under the scorching Sun. The depth is small: from “ankle-deep” near the shore to a meter and a half deep at the first pontoon beach with a sandy bottom, and this is about a hundred meters from the end of the pontoon. Here most of all bathes children and adults. But there are no corals. Only clusters of black sea urchins, clearly visible against the background of light sand at the bottom.
Twenty meters before the reef, the depth gradually increases.
And here beautiful corals appear in large numbers, and there are much more fish, even decent sizes (half a meter or more). I called such places a coral clearing: the depth is shallow, it is convenient to take pictures at close range. Unfortunately, the "Red Sea lifeguard" starts to whistle incredibly piercingly as soon as you appear in this zone of living corals. We have to go to a depth that here, behind the reef, reaches fifty meters! Can you see corals at such a depth? Only huge fish from there show their huge mouths. For example, I was so scared by the huge "Napoleon", smacking his fat lips and swimming very close to me. But I did not notice sharks here, although I tried to see something similar at a depth of fifty meters.
In order to deceive the Rescuer and make an hour-long photo shoot of the corals (the temperature of the water made it possible to stay in it for so long), one had to use a trick: to swim a hundred meters to the right, under the Sun, so that its rays would blind the overseer and turn sharply towards the shore, ten to twenty meters cherished meadow of corals. And take as many pictures as your Soul desires, until you finally freeze in the December water.
In general, there are beautiful corals and different species, but there are not as many of them as in other hotels, for example, the Reef Oasis Blue Bay, where I was last month and the impressions of them are still fresh in my memory
Nevertheless, my “catch” is good: I did take at least a hundred good shots!
Pools
The Royal Albatros Moderna has 10 outdoor pools: 6 for adults, 4 for children. 3 heated pools in winter (one of them in the Relax Zone). 6 swimming pools for adults (2 of them in the water park).
Water park with 8 slides for adults (not heated), opening hours from 10:00-12:30 and from 14:00.
In the meantime, before dinner, the holidaymakers “clean their feathers” and put on makeup, and if they wish, they prepare a dress code, I decided to devote this time to a solitary contemplation of the evening Nature on the Red Sea coast.
In thick columns, like well-fed babies, low palm trees stand in several rows, full of life, as if showing their healthy essence. This is in gratitude for the watering and the careful attitude of man to them, they here, on the shores of the Red Sea, where ten years ago there was a lifeless desert, arranged a celebration of life. Their leaves-panicles froze motionlessly, as if nailed to the darkening vault of the sky.
Feeling of some kind of lifeless immobility. And even the Red Sea, that Great Sea, froze in its mirror immobility. And no one can answer my silent question: “But where, where did the movement of Life go?
"Even this question itself, slightly separated from me, immediately froze motionless in front of me. Only my thoughts and feelings are moving, and to me, absolutely alone in this world, it becomes a little even creepy. I am alone, alone, alone - my mute cry echoes into silent silence. Mira
And, oh miracle! I begin to rise and go beyond this dark silence - into the bright world of sonorous and joyful sensations of the Soul! ...
Late evening
Closer to nine in the evening, when the people complete the "holiday of the belly", that is, they taste bread and the thirst for spectacles reaches its maximum value (and where should he go: this way of life has been like this for three thousand years, since the time of Ancient Rome! ) in the hotel and for the whole the district will hear loud, tens of decibels, music to a motive very familiar from youth, and when I listened, I heard Ukrainian songs. And at that moment, here, three thousand kilometers from my homeland, on the shores of the distant Red Sea, I felt that I was at home!
A little further by the pool there are the same soft sunbeds with pillows and tables, if you wish, you can also sit there, lie down comfortably after taking a hearty dinner. And there are painfully familiar faces around, most of which are from the republics of the former USSR. Personally, I didn’t know any of them, but by their reaction to our songs, including Russian-language ones, I felt that I was among my own, as in those distant 80s of the last century. It was as if a time machine had worked and I was again in the multinational Soviet Union.
And then I thought: in 1991, we were sharply, almost forcibly separated, torn to shreds, and I still do not know the true goals of this barbaric action. But people, as members of a single friendly family, remained. And they gather together as one big friendly company for a celebration of life in such places as this Royal Albatros Moderna hotel in Egypt on the Red Sea!
Late evening. I am sitting in the open bar at the pool of a high-end five-star hotel in Sharm El Sheikh and enjoying the Red Sea leisurely, drinking a good beer from an elongated glass. The latter is already pleasing that I am not in a seedy “five” or an ordinary “four”, where beer is served only in plastic cups and only one in hand, and only at dinner I am at a celebration of life! And around me in this youth party hotel are dozens, if not hundreds of people like me, but young, full of health and perky young people of my fellow countrymen. Even on the plane, I noticed that mainly young 80% fly to the resort, 10% of middle age and 5% each are children and the elderly.
Go to foreign resorts, mostly successful in our lives, people of an average and above average level who can afford it. And it does not matter how they earned their rest, and how they earn a living.
In many ways, this determines the society in which they live, and not themselves. And they can achieve their success in any area: in speculation (trade), as now, or as managers or organizers of production, create only favorable conditions for them! And these people determine the face of our society and its future!
They rest in foreign resorts, first of all, because they work well no worse than the same Germans, who are famous all over the world for their ability to work productively, and who now rest next to them.
And at the same time, a provocative thought suddenly arose in me: to relax at the resort at least once, where the majority of Germans rest! And, maybe, to have a rest in such hotels and constantly. It means proving to yourself that you can work productively and earn as much as ordinary Germans earn! I just voiced this thought, but in my subconscious it has been ripening for a long time and only now has matured.
And the subconscious has already been working with this, perhaps for more than one year. And as a result of this work, today I have in my pocket a tour to the best hotel in Hurghada, of course, German - "Steigenberger Al Dau Beach" 5 *!
Catholic Christmas
The resorts of Egypt have three dates a year with a mandatory celebration with increased service, comfort and sophistication of dishes. This is the New Year, Orthodox Christmas (January 6) and Catholic Christmas on December 24. These days, many hotels even set an increased prepaid rate when buying a tour to organize a festive feast. This is understandable: such sophistication requires additional costs. Nothing comes for free!
I got to such a holiday of the Catholic Christmas when I was relaxing at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel.
The holiday started early in the morning. The waiter was delivering Christmas gifts to the rooms with a trolley for everyone who wished to participate in the celebration of this day, since participation was voluntary.
And when I saw the special splendor of the entrance and the tables covered with white tablecloths all over the area of this tent, I remembered that the next day it was planned to celebrate the holiday of Catholic Christmas.
And so I, immediately after dinner and therefore full to the limit, drove up to this tent. Access by invitation cards only. And that’s why they didn’t let me in right away, even when I said that I only needed to take a few photos for a review of the hotel. By the way, there were many onlookers like me “just to look at”: no one was let through. I went inside only after they gave me the go-ahead from the reception.
And what did I see here? This is, first of all, a wide row of tables and pyramidal racks for the entire length of the tent with countless gourmet dishes that I saw only in the luxurious Rixos Hotel five days ago.
For vacationers at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel and those who visited this holiday, there were a rarity: red fish, sushi, lamb on a spit, turkey and other grilled poultry, grilled meat dishes, boiled and fried, dry-cured meat balyk, etc. , and so on, among which are mountains of strawberries, grapes and all kinds of fruits. For me, who had just returned from the Rixos Charm hotel, all this was everyday life. And so I calmly walked around the mountains of these exquisite delicacies and methodically clicked the shutter of the camera. I didn’t even try anything, because pride and the word given at the entrance did not allow me to take only a few pictures.
The second thing that was great here was the big stage where professional artists performed. And I must say that there was something to see, no worse than the gourmet dishes at the buffet distribution opposite.
It is a pity that I grabbed only twenty minutes of this concert - its end, after which, well-fed and in some cases, well-drank guests, started dancing. And there were a decent number of guests: if we count on the tables for four people each, and there were more than a hundred such tables, then there were at least 500 guests of the participants in this celebration!
And only by ten in the evening the guests began to disperse and the huge festive hall was empty. Until the next two holidays: New Year and Christmas already Christian on January 6
wind in december
For the second day in a row, a strong wind has been falling on Nabq Bay, and today after lunch it proved to be a real monster: it raised such huge waves in the distance near the reef that it was even scary to look at them from afar.
Hundreds, if not thousands of vacationers in the hotels of Sharm El Sheikh were sad and sad due to the danger, but simply the ban on swimming in the sea and were content with pools, when leaving which they were necessarily wrapped in beach towels. And only a handful of snowboarders were incredibly happy with such a wind, because they were already disappointed in the winter Sharm El Sheikh: after all, from all over the world they flew here in anticipation of the winds and sailed. I met one of them, who had flown here from Lithuania, and I saw with what joy he unpacked his “parachute” and board (I don’t remember their exact names) and showed on a six hundred meters wide shallows the class of his control and use of wind power for the benefit of myself. And a little later, over a glass of beer, he taught me his art of "communication" with the Wind. In this we were alike as pagans. I told him about my essay "The Old Man and the Sea Wind. "
And how should I react to them when I've seen them all ten times? And that's why I choose live sound at the Pool pool. Here, under a glass of a drink, interesting topics are sometimes born for promotion in an essay.
Further, in the time interval from 22:00 to 23:00, a late dinner follows, of course, with a 50-degree drink "Sambuk" ("Ouzo"). Fortunately, for such a drink there are, among other things, meat and fish dishes.
Until midnight, you can sit in the Sports Bar with a glass of excellent Heneken beer, and after it closes at midnight, of course, go to a disco with an Irish bar.
And here I tried to objectively, as if from the outside, look at modern fast dance. Imagine, my conclusion was, surprisingly, extraordinary: I saw monkeys on a stone platform, writhing in the rhythm of the music with only one exception, they tried to give their faces an intelligent expression.
A dance, if performed with feeling, is its own inner release, and no one will argue with that. And now, in connection with the above, imagine what a monkey inner essence of these young dancing people I saw! It turns out monkeying not in the sense of copying or imitation of a monkey, but manifestations of oneself as a wild animal. Thinking man, Homo sapiens, falls into his wild prehistoric state. And only one thing ennobles this action to some extent, so this is a sense of musical tact.
I saw monkeys on the dance floor. And it didn’t matter what their attire was, and not shaggy, unkempt wool. Their external attributes went far aside, in comparison with the manifestation of their inner essence. Moreover, this manifestation of the inner essence was so obvious and convincing that I had already seen their shaggy hair. And these visions were like reality.
And, mind you, that night I did not drink hard liquor!
At the same time, the more the dancer drank, the more his rational human essence was oppressed and his wild animal essence, hidden with such difficulty, especially in a sober state, manifested itself.
Having made such a well-known conclusion, even a banal one, you will say, I went further, to an unusual conclusion: maybe it’s really necessary to correctly place the stresses and turn everything upside down? Maybe a person specifically seeks to get drunk in order to get away from the disgraceful human appearance? . . Where? Even at least in that prehistoric past, in which he was more noble and just, moreover, more correct in all respects than now. After all, then he was part of Nature, he was Nature!
And what is this dance? The mind, oppressed by alcohol, deprives a person of that negativity, which is not in Nature, and therefore a person is drawn to his own, animal world.
Nature pulls him there, showing him the real, harmless for man and for Nature as a whole, the path of his development. After all, no one will argue that as a result of the products of the mind (thermonuclear weapons, environmentally unsafe technologies, etc. ), a person has put himself on the verge of self-destruction and the destruction of the World as a whole! And we are not even talking about spiritual fall!
And what's even worse is the world he aspires to! And this is a real horror!
Dancing: Art or Wildness?
Far past midnight. I am at a night disco in one of the five-star hotels in Sharm El Sheikh, more precisely, at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel.
Crazy twitching of all parts of the body to the beat of modern youth music makes me sad and deep sadness. One thought, sadder than the other, predicts the tragedy of the future not only for those who dance, but for all of humanity as a whole. And I am finally convinced that these are Wild Dances! And the Wild because they show the wild essence of man.
And you should not look for an answer to the question: “What is the meaning of these dances? Where is their spiritual, sensual component hidden? "- Such an answer a priori does not exist! But these components of any human action predetermine what a person is in this World, its prospects, and the future of our entire World as a whole.
But here is a second break in rhythmic dances and slow, peaceful music sounds. And everyone leaves the dance floor, most of them to their glasses of alcohol or to an all-inclusive bar for the same purpose.
All but one couple, who join together in a slow, sensual dance. These two are connected by Love, which is not only seen, but also felt by everyone around.
And there are only the two of them in this closed world of love, there is slow music and there is a dance that physically connects them and nothing else and no one around Their souls have been together for a long time, firmly connected by the spiritual bonds of Love, and the dance only brought them closer physically and showed the complete harmony of the two in this world
When I saw and felt all this, I involuntarily compared these two dances: the previous one and the current one. And who dares to call the second dance Wild? And the first dance, with him in comparison, Art?
Entertainment and sports
In addition to nightly entertainment and discos, the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel has many daytime activities, both free, organized by animators and included in the all-inclusive concept, and set on a broad business basis. After all, the hotel also needs additional funds that can be obtained for the provision of exclusive services.
Favorable psychological climate
Fifth day at the Red Sea. Half the term flew by quickly, but not without a trace. First of all, I have the impression that I have been living here for a hundred years! What is it? Do I have such a quick adaptation to the conditions of life that are most favorable to me, as well as to everyone around me? This is because a favorable psychological climate has developed here. And the merit in this, first of all, is the administration and all the employees of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel.
Firstly, it is felt in everything and everywhere that everything is being done to make you have a good and comfortable rest: from the little things every day and at every step, and to the grandiose show holidays of Christmas and New Year.
Secondly, freedom of choice and not only food in any of the a la carte restaurants, both for dinner, and for breakfast or lunch, but also in free access to any of the ten bars, many pools, the sea or the water park, as well as to choose evening entertainment programs, including concerts with live sound.
Thirdly, for all birthdays, the restaurant employees arrange such merry holidays with songs, dances to music with drums and national instruments that many specially adjust their arrival to this hotel for their birthday! And on the day of such holidays at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel from five to ten! I met the same sincere joy and kindness and a show for the birthday, perhaps only in one more hotel in Egypt in "Mirage New Hawaii" 4 *, Hurghada, (November 2016), where I was given a similar arrangement for my birthday I noticed how during such celebrations and congratulations on your birthday, the whole restaurant hall rejoices along with the birthday boy!
Isn't this the best advertisement for a hotel?
Morning on the beach
The wind, compared to yesterday, died down twice. And today he was already affectionate and pleasant. Only the only echo of yesterday's storm was a red flag on the mast at the entrance to the pontoon, forbidding swimming in the sea. To my question: “Why? After all, the storm is gone! ”, the security guard in the booth at the pontoon showed me to the reef in the distance, where the wind still raised high waves and, hitting them against the reef, created white foam caps. And that was the danger of swimming in the sea. Although the passage to the pontoon was free for all vacationers in our hotel. Aliens with bracelets of other colors or without them at all, the security guard, both today and on other days, wrapped. The fact that many of the neighboring hotels tried to get to a comfortable pontoon beach with chic sunbeds and windproof awnings added a fat plus to the beach of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel, and I was proud to be relaxing in such a cool hotel.
What else is good about this beach is that even in a moderate storm, when all other beaches are closed, here you can go to the pontoon beach at the end and sunbathe there without swimming near the reef, or swim in a quiet backwater of a shallow beach a hundred meters from the end of the pontoon, which many vacationers did today.
good manners rule
The mentality and culture of the Arabs is very different from ours, the citizens of the republics of the former USSR. And this is most noticeable to an attentive observer in the details in resort areas, for example, in Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada. I am sure that in the same capital Cairo, everything is different. And all because through these resort areas a huge avalanche of millions of people a year flows through a stream of wealthy holidaymakers who have flown here to enjoy the year-round climate favorable for beach holidays and the Red Sea with its unique corals and beautiful colorful fish, like in an aquarium.
And the wealth of these millions of people allows them to demand special attention to themselves, both in general and in detail, naturally, not for free, but for a fee. Though scanty, but for a fee. And this brings up in all the Arabs who are nearby, and, moreover, in the very stream of these holiday-goers, servile behavior and even, I would say, a servile mentality of life. Of course, for a fee. And the circle closes in a natural logical process: some are waiting for increased attention to themselves (after all, they are rich and used to it) and are ready to pay, others “bend” and are eager to receive. Economics: demand creates supply So far, everything is logical. For example, you landed at Sharm El Sheikh airport and the first thing, naturally, went to the toilet.
There, the cleaner has already sharpened his attention to you and on the alert: where and in what way to serve you, hoping for a bribe for such small services: he opens the door for you, gives you a paper towel for your hands after washing them, indicates where the dryer is, and so on. Although everything is in sight, everything is nearby and does not require a hint. But a rich tourist, flattered by such attention, bestows a “servant” - no, not a cent (he didn’t take cents, as they “ring” on a metal detector frame, and there is no limit to the dollar And the joy of an Arab! So in a year he can earn on " shabku”, to “mahr” and getting married is a bright dream of any young Arab, since any self-respecting Arab woman, without these things (plus a separate apartment) will never get married!
The only thing she could squeeze out was: “No dollar! ”(I had dollars, but I didn’t think of supplying her with them for such an occasion).
Now I’ll tell you about my more subtle observation already here, at the Royal Albatros Moderna 5 * hotel. To so brazenly extort "bakshish" - God forbid! The level of culture is not the same! And the attitude towards the guest is completely different: to create maximum comfort, not only physical, but also spiritual (moral). A tip is the good will of everyone and in no case is there any direct or even indirect hint of them. Although it is obvious to everyone that who gives a tip, there is a much more attentive attitude of the attendants to this. Thanks to this observation and the corresponding conclusions, our compatriot, perhaps, will soon change his "Sovdepovskaya" psychology towards the "Western" one.
But my "subtle" observation is the following.
At the resort, and in general in life, I maintain my status as a writer (and this is true: I write and publish) and not only with my appearance (beard, long hair "in a ponytail", etc. ), but also for greater persuasiveness (but more like a necessity, since I don’t play for the public) I have in my pocket several sheets of paper written daily in small handwriting - the result of my observations with the date stamped. So, to everyone who is interested, I reach into my pocket with my hand and take out these scribbled pieces of paper. But the most interesting thing in this action is only one moment: “lezur hand in the pocket”! At first, I did not attach any importance to this, but after repeated repetition, I realized what was the matter and laughed to tears from my “carelessness”.
“Hand in pocket” is part of a conditioned reflex in anticipation of a dollar, as a present as a token of gratitude for any service. And I, some kind of monster, decided to mock the holy feelings of an Arab and brought him in vain expectations and disappointments almost to tears
Yes, after such a realization of mine, I myself almost cried along with the Arab, but the dollar still did not give! And all because I disappointed him, and he also disappointed me, as a Poet.
As a result, I want to give advice (without the dollar) at the level of good manners in Egypt - to all my fellow tribesmen from the former USSR. When you communicate with an Arab service staff, especially a lower-level one: a waiter, a cleaner, a gardener, etc. , then do not try to put your hand in your pocket (for a cigarette, a lighter, and other knick-knacks), and if you already climbed, then be sure to get from its depths d o l l a r!
crab holiday
I once again noted to myself that hotels in Egypt, and I have visited them over the past two years for about a dozen and a half, and therefore I have the right to say so, each is beautiful in its own way and has its own zest, and not one. How are women! And here I am trying to choose the best one based on previous experience, but, alas, it does not work. Just like with women. I would like to have all the best in one, but this, unfortunately, does not happen in life. And because I'm alone But this is a separate topic of conversation.
In the meantime, the Crab Feast lasted all the time for dinner. And, what's more, when dinner was over, and I had to leave the terrace of the Mediterranean restaurant, and there were a dozen crabs left, I continued the Crab Feast already with music and live sound songs in the bar by the main pool, also with beer from my large glass goblet. There were even friends and girlfriends who agreed to share this holiday with me and with the Crabs
And this is in the usual, not fashionable "five"!
In ten days, I met many vacationers and did not hear a single negative review about this hotel. The hotel is truly one of the best in its category. It remains only to be surprised how, during the period of the tourist crisis in the country, the hotel management manages to keep its level so high!
The Royal Albatros Moderna 5 * hotel is part of the Pickalbatros Hotels & Resorts hotel chain, which has been managing and developing hotel and tourism enterprises for over 20 years. The hotels of the chain are located in the best resorts of Egypt (4 hotels in Sharm el-Sheikh: Royal Albatros Moderna 5 *, Albatros Aqua Park Sharm 5 * (with the largest water park in the history of Egypt! ), Aqua Blu 4 *, Beach Albatros Resort 4*; 9 hotels in Hurghada: Albatros Aqua Park 4*, Albatros Palace Resort 5*, Albatros White Beach Resort 5*, Albatros White Beach Resort 5*, Alf Leila Wa Leila 4*, Aqua Vista 4*, Beach Albatros Resort 4 *, Dana Beach Resort 5*, Jungle Aqua Park 4*, and 2 hotels in Morocco: Albatros Garden 4* (Marrakech) and Beach Albatros 4* (Agadir).
The hotel was opened in 2004. Last renovation in 2016
Location of Royal Albatros Moderna Hotel 5*
The hotel is located in the north of Sharm El Sheikh in the resort area of Nabq on the very shore of the Red Sea on the first line in Nabq Bay, 13 km from the International Airport and 25 km from the famous Naama Bay.
Near the hotel
Sunken ships "Lara" and "Lullia"
Entertainment complex "Sinai Golf".
Zoo at the hotel Dessole Royana Rojana.
Amusement park in Soho.
To the right of the hotel is the hotel complex MIRABEL RESORT 5*, to the left is Stigenberger Alcazar 5* (look at the sea).
December 22.2017. Friday
With an early departure from Kyiv at 0:30, at four in the morning we landed in Sharm El Sheikh, and at seven we were already at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel. This despite the fact that for at least half an hour the holidaymakers were transported to all hotels. After all, our hotel is located almost at the northernmost point of Sharm El Sheikh. Behind us is another hotel, however, one of the “coolest” in Egypt “Stigenberger Alcazar” 5 *, and then the lifeless expanses of the desert
But, everything is in order and in detail
Check-in hotel. Lobby. reception
Sharm El Sheikh Airport. It is located in the northern part of the resort city just where my next hotel is Royal Albatros Moderna 5 *.
Knowing from a satellite map from the Internet (which, by the way, I photocopied and take with me) the configuration of the hotel, its buildings and, especially, the pools (the pools in each hotel are different in shape, with obligatory bright illumination at night), and therefore from space , and, moreover, from the window of an airplane on a low-level flight over the Strait of Aqaba, I can find out, and recognize my hotel, which is waiting for me, and, which is not excluded, has already prepared for me a fresh and clean room overlooking the sea, pool or garden. After all, I received my application yesterday. And so each of us from this flight, chartered by the tour operator "Join Up". And there are about one and a half dozen of us, almost half the transfer bus. And it pleases that it will not be boring among their fellow countrymen.
And then I remember my recent fashionable, and therefore several times more expensive, hotels, for example, Grand Rotana, Rixos, Savoy, when we were settled by one or two people from Ukraine and I lived, although in special comfort , but among solid foreigners, as in emigration far from their homeland.
Looking ahead, I’ll say that after checking in, this Royal Albatros Moderna hotel seemed to me to be a small segment of my former homeland in miniature of the USSR: all nationalities and peoples gathered here: Kazakhs (most of all, since direct charter flights are open), Ukrainians, Belarusians , Moldovans, from the Baltic countries, Georgians, Armenians, Russians from other republics Only Russians from Russia for some reason this time ignored the “family” holiday of life (Official statistics, which the Reception employee kindly provided me).
The procedure from landing (with obligatory applause to the aircraft commander for a soft landing), through passport and customs formalities, transfer and up to the hotel is standard and worked out to the smallest detail. Works well, like clockwork. But sometimes with some nuances. So, by the way, I was not on the list for boarding the transfer bus. But the guide of this bus quickly entered me, having learned that I had purchased a last-minute tour six hours before departure. (This happens to me sometimes, so I didn’t panic much).
Before collecting luggage, I have a useful tip for you: stock up on a trolley (there are a dozen, if not more, and for free), even if your suitcases on wheels are much more convenient and will remain unscathed from the “rough” concrete of the local airport. Moreover, the trolley can drive up to the luggage compartment of the bus itself, and if you are a woman, the driver will also help you load them.
(And from men, he usually expects a dollar for his services).
We were the last to leave the airport, when a galaxy of regular buses drove into the parking lot, but already from Anex Tour - to meet the passengers of the next plane, already chartered by Anex Tour. And all because one of the passengers lost her phone. I witnessed an interesting dialogue between her and the guide: “Are you sure you lost your phone? If not, then you may have troubles and problems, ”the guide hinted at the falsity of the statement, especially to the police if theft is suspected. And the guide was very surprised when, ten minutes later, the girl, beaming with joy, returned from the airport building with her expensive phone. According to the reaction of the guide, I realized that this is already a rare exception here. So do not lose phones and other expensive things! The outcome will not always be in your favor.
We go to the hotel for a relatively long time, compared with a short distance (13 km) from the airport, since it is the farthest, compared to those in which we stop by, carrying tourists to our hotels. Each such "delivery" takes at least 5 minutes. Total half an hour on the road, and not 10-15 minutes if we went by taxi
But here our bus, thanks to the art of driving the driver, imposingly enters the gates of the hotel - "Royal Albatros Moderna". Immediately to the left, tall water slides of the Aquapark rush into a five-story building. This is where the real joy is to tickle the nerves of lovers of an increased dose of adrenaline in the blood! And then you remember that the Pickalbatros Hotels & Resorts company, of which this hotel is a part, is a dock in the construction of Aquaparks and a record holder in Egypt for these facilities (Albatros Aqua Park Sharm 5 * hotel).
Further on, a green, well-groomed territory of the hotel opens up with many palm trees, short-cut lawns, flowers in the flower beds, cacti and other exotic plants. on the carriageway or on the fence of neighboring hotels. Why hide the truth, there are such numbers. And you pray to God that you, in the soul of the Poet, pass this fate.
But the inner part of the courtyard of the room with a wonderful view of the pool and water park!
Then we drive up to the main building. Things, as usual, are piled up on the street under the supervision of security guards, and you pass through the metal detector frame into the lobby. In passing, I notice that there is no X-ray installation here.
The lobby is chic and shabby, like a bell that chimes on a ship, glittering from the mirrored marble floor to the vaulted ceiling with colorful crystal chandeliers. And in the center are fresh flowers of incredibly large sizes. And a surprisingly pleasant smell, of course, obviously not from flowers, but like expensive perfumes who you love
In the lobby there are many large soft sofas and armchairs made of leather (of course, artificial, but this does not impair the visual perception of its chicness).
The Reception desk, behind which are tall, slender and very attractive workers (women, apparently, are crazy about them) in light suits and with refined manners. Their smile and goodwill already win you over.
Moreover, they subjugate your will: they put a red bracelet on your hand (after filling out the questionnaire, by the way, for the first time they require you to indicate your home address) and offer to go downstairs to the restaurant for breakfast (after all, it’s already seven in the morning), and you agree; they say that check-in is after 14:00 and you don’t argue, and after breakfast you take a beach ensemble and go to the sea to fill up to the sound of the surf. Moreover, from the experience of previous trips to hotels in Egypt, I knew that the best rooms would appear only after 12:00 a single hours of "check out", and the current, at seven in the morning, "good" rooms are only those that remained after yesterday's release at 12:00 or early departure of vacationers, which is much less common.
In order not to upset the Reception staff with a request for an early check-in, I quietly waited in the wings, making the most of it: I managed to sleep on the beach, got acquainted with the sea and the territory of the hotel, even made a few notes in my diary, some of which I present here.
In addition, lunch time arrived (from 12:30) and I managed not only to get acquainted with the assortment of dishes and taste them, but also recorded them on dozens of photos
Speaking of bracelets. The bracelet is ordinary, made of thin plastic, red, on which the name of the hotel and in capital letters - the chain of hotels are applied with white indelible paint. (For some reason, the name of the hotel chain in this hotel is advertised more often than the name of the hotel itself). I immediately compared this simple standard bracelet with the Rixos body bracelet - a real piece of jewelry that I wore three days ago, which I keep and am not ashamed to show to my friends Yes, I broke the rule: “Visit hotels for increasing star rating and comfort , as well as drinking alcohol in increasing "degrees"
Now, when the bracelet is on your hand, from that moment you already feel 99% the master of the situation, you have the right to use everything that is supposed to be a tourist in this hotel of your status.
And even demand, which I sometimes do when, for example, in some hotels they refuse to pour me beer into my large glass goblet. In this case, I poke the index finger of my free hand into the bracelet and in a demanding tone that does not allow objections, with a strict, unblinking look, I insist: “All-inclusive!! ! And so far there has never been a misfire: the “enemy” surrendered!
With a bracelet on your hand, you feel equal among everyone, since there is no other concept of nutrition, except for all-inclusive, and, consequently, there are no other colors of bracelets that divide vacationers into “castes”: first-class and second-class, here. The only thing that distinguishes us from each other here is the category of the room: “Standard” or more abruptly, up to the presidential suite. But outwardly, this is not visible and no one knows about it until you yourself boast publicly, causing envy in the interlocutor.
And the second is a visit to the Thai restaurant White Elephant, the only paid a la carte in this hotel. I understand that there must be at least some kind of “vent” for the especially rich, who want to get something exquisite for their money, compared to what is “for everyone”. And outwardly, this is very noticeable, as well as the increased service personnel towards such customers due to the widespread distribution of tips. Although, I must say that tips do not increase your status in the hotel: you will always get what you are supposed to according to your status of staying at the hotel, only a little more attention. And if you are used to more attention than others, then pay!
I checked in closer to three o'clock, plucking up the courage and going through the three room options offered to me (here, in this hotel you have the right to choose rooms in their category, they are different from a qualitative point of view).
I chose a standard room, but with an excellent view from the balcony, favorable conditions for creativity.
Looking ahead, but in the subject, after returning to Kyiv, after reading the review of one of the vacationers at the end of December in this hotel about his room with poor repair, I wrote the following comment:
“There are a few unrenovated rooms left in the hotel, one of which you came across. Now the repair of the rooms of the entire right flank of the buildings near the main pool is being completed. From the front side, everything is closed, I passed from the back (from the side of the neighboring hotel - where the laundry is) and saw how hard dozens of builders work there (see photo later in my review). But this does not interfere with the rest at all, you can’t even hear or see that there is a renovation going on! I was lucky and got an ordinary standard room, but with a renovation - after all, the rooms are being restored according to the highest class! Consider that by European standards.
If you don’t like the room upon check-in, ask for a replacement, at the reception they will meet you halfway and kindly provide you with another one. I went through three options ...And besides, I didn’t get impudent - I didn’t require early check-in: they said after 14:00, when most of the rooms were already handed over by 12:00, I came up after 14:00 (however, upon arrival at 7 : 15 there was enough time to swim in the sea, sunbathe, get acquainted with the territory of the hotel, have breakfast and even lunch...Fortunately, I was alone... )" (January 5.2018)
Rooms
Number of rooms in the hotel - 680 (606 standard, 50 family, 16 suites, 7 royal suites and 1 presidential suite):
My impressions of the room
The room is large in terms of visual perception, although only 35 sq. m. , cozy, breathes freshness and homely warmth. After cleaning, it is perfectly clean and with a pleasant smell of deodorant or some other cleaning “chemistry”.
Bedding and towels are white. Change every day unless you take a "break".
Sometimes I did this “lights out”, the only thing I asked was to replenish water, tea / coffee with cream and sugar, water and shampoo with gel in branded bottles. By the way, the shampoo and body wash are of excellent quality and thick consistency, not liquid, as in other hotels. In general, the bathroom is standard in terms of equipment, as in any good 5 * hotel (only the bidet here is combined with the toilet; there is such a technical solution and is used in many hotels in Egypt). What impressed me the most was the shower room. Imagine a shower head, beautifully made of stainless steel and almost half a meter in diameter under the ceiling of the shower room, and from it, like a jet of rain, water is pouring at the desired, most pleasant for you, Lapota temperature
The floor in the room is cool, but not completely cold. Still, I took light slippers with me. Bathrobes and slippers are provided, but for a fee.
TV flat with a large 39? screen.
Only one channel is Ukrainian (28), and fourteen Russian (13-24.29 and 115). The TV on the back has a USB input, which allowed me to charge my camera and watch the footage and photos of the underwater world and corals off the coast of the hotel on the big screen. You can also charge your phone's battery via a micro USB cable.
An exceptional feature of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel, which is not even in some of the most prestigious hotels in Egypt, for example, in the Savoy or the Four Seasons, is free high-speed Wi-Fi Internet, both throughout the territory and in every room There is a Wi-Fi device.
The adapter is provided in the room upon request at the reception.
The room has a lot of different lamps and lights, including two spotlights, individual, on a flexible holder.
The renovated room with voluminous elements on the walls and ceiling, including in the bathroom, allows you to hide all the lamps in the niches, which gives the room a special charm in the evening hours.
However, the room feels a little lacking. For example, from the table with the TV to the balcony there are two meters of emptiness with two restless sockets near the floor. Here a place arises for a floor lamp and a table / curbstone. By the way, I used one of these sockets for a kettle: it is inconvenient to use it in a narrow niche above the safe, and the hot kettle and cups leave ugly and indelible white spots on the lacquered surface of the furniture. Therefore, I do not advise you to put hot on lacquered furniture, so as not to pay the hotel for losses.
Mosquito spray is provided in the room upon request at the reception, but I did not request it. There are no mosquitoes on the territory of the hotel!
The only time one mosquito accidentally flew into my room at night, when I left the balcony door open, but I quickly slammed it, buzzing above my ear, But I still closed the door to the balcony
The balcony is small, semi-circular and has a coffee table and two plastic chairs. It is pleasant here late in the evening, after night festivities, when everything is already closed, or in the early morning, even before breakfast, treat yourself to a cup of coffee with cream: there is an electric kettle, and tea / coffee bags are replenished daily.
The only drawback of the balcony is its view, as on the stage: ten meters to the right and the same amount to the left. The only joy is that not only do they look at you, sometimes half-naked, but you also look at them in the same way
There is no clothes dryer on the balcony, so in such cases I always take a couple of meters of clothesline and 2-3 clothespins with me.
I advise you here in the period of strong winds without them you will definitely run around the hotel in search of your swimwear, shorts or beach towels (10 euros if you lose it).
Warmth and comfort of the room
December in Sharm El Sheikh is not always as warm and windless as it was this year. I was lucky: only two days out of ten before the New Year, when I visited the usually windy and uncomfortable area of Nabq, was very windy and unpleasant in terms of weather. And about the sincere hospitality of the management and staff of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel - a special conversation: it can a hundredfold block even much greater natural disasters with its blessing. And Nature showed us during these two days what kind of winds there are in December, so that we, comparing, appreciate her grace. But, since we are talking about the number, I will tell you how he showed himself in these conditions, which are usual for winter Egypt.
Evenings in December in Sharm El Sheikh are cool, up to +18?
New swimming pools with a children's water park were built on the site of the amphitheater.
The territory of the hotel can be conditionally divided into two zones: the active (in front of the main building) Active Zone and the quiet Relax Zone. The Active Zone is a horseshoe-shaped residential building for the entire two hundred meter width of the hotel, in the center of which are swimming pools, bars, music, stage, animation and other fun all day long: from ten in the morning (with a rooster crowing) until late at night (23:00) . After the All Inclusive bar closes, all the people disperse in the Lobby Bar and the Sports Bar, which “pour everything” until they close at 24:00. After, until 2:00, fun in the same All-inclusive mode is possible only at a disco, sometimes even when I was a witness, with dancing on the table Not Nizhny Tagil, but ours can have a lot of fun
The Relax Zone has 236 rooms of various categories, two swimming pools, one of which is heated - they are located in quiet courtyards.
The Nabq region experiences hurricane-level winds during the winter months, so having this sheltered area is an advantage this hotel has over other hotels. Although before the New Year (2018), when I was resting here, the whole week was amazing sunny weather, peace and grace, everyone was at the sea, in the Aqua Park or in the main pool of the Active Zone and the advantage of the buildings living in this vicious circle was their disadvantage .
The positive in the location of the Relax Zone and the Water Park is that they can be accessed directly from the Active Zone through the internal passage to the left of the main building with the reception or from the second floor of the 400th building, and it is not necessary to exit through the lobby and the security tweeter frame.
And therefore, purely psychologically, these two zones are like one whole and living in rooms in the Relax Zone do not feel like living outside the hotel, in the middle of nowhere, as is the case in other hotels. For example, I easily and quickly, in a few minutes, got into the Relax Zone, and after a couple of minutes to the Aquapark.
There are a lot of large and newly planted palm trees, green lawns on the territory of the hotel (though grass on square plates, laid tightly to each other, sometimes with empty gaps. There are flower beds. But there are no original author's solutions in terms of landscape and park design. Instead This wide area of the hotel is covered with concrete and stone slabs. There are practically no close-cut shrubs along the paths and alleys.
There are also too few original architectural author's solutions: apart from lamps and a pirate ship in the children's pool, nothing came up for me in the frame.
The slides of the Aquapark are a special conversation and they will not block the lack of everything else. Although all this is easily removable and at low cost and does not require such capital investments.
As for me, by nature a pagan and a passionate lover of Nature, this hotel lacks a small corner of the green Relax Zone, for example, in a quiet place far from the bustle of the beach, as I found and enjoyed it in the August heat at the Grand Rotana Hotel
A feature of the Nabq region, unlike the central city ones, is that there are no rocky shores tens of meters above sea level, and therefore the territory of the hotels is located on an area with a slight slope to the sea and it is difficult to come up with something original in terms of architecture and gardening. - park design without reference to the uniqueness of rocky shores, terraces and slopes, as is done at the Sunrise Diamond Hotel
Nutrition. Restaurants. bars
Food types:
The hotel has only one food system - All Inclusive.
The All Inclusive system is valid 24 hours and includes early breakfast, breakfast, lunch, dinner, late dinner in restaurants, snacks in bars; also a wide selection of local drinks, soft drinks, juices, beer, cocktails, coffee, tea, liqueurs, carbonated drinks and local wine by the glass. Alcoholic drinks are free from 10:00 to midnight, then until ten in the morning for an additional fee.
Early breakfast
If you are a “lark” and used to get up very early, or an “owl” who went out before seven in the morning, or you have a very early check-in at the hotel before seven in the morning, then the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel will kindly treat you to an early breakfast in the Columbus bar the only bar in the hotel that operates around the clock on the All Inclusive system. Believe me, this rarely happens, especially with such an assortment of original drinks.
Breakfast
I first got acquainted with breakfast at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel on the very first day of my arrival, immediately after returning my passport with a registration voucher, even before settling into a room.
Having entered the main restaurant "Mediterranean", and this is the floor below the reception, after a sleepless night and flight anxiety, fatigue, sleep, lethargy, etc. disappear somewhere, but simply disappear when you see such a variety of dishes, salads, vegetables and fruits, and you inhale through your nose and already eat alluring-delicious smells.
Moreover, at the entrance to the restaurant you see the highlight of this hotel: a smiling chef behind the refrigerator counter, pouring cold fresh orange juice. (I clarify: the highlight is not the waiter, but fresh juice). Why highlight? Yes, because there is no such thing even in the most luxurious hotels where I have been (Rixos, Savoy, Grand Rotana, Sunrise Araben). Natural juice is everywhere, and for fresh juice you pay at least a dollar.
This is the highlight of the management of this hotel to us, its guests, and in other hotels I paid three times more for the tour, but for fresh juices, the fee is $ 1-2 separately! And here, in the seemingly ordinary “five”, but in fact unusual, and further we will talk about raisins about crabs, natural fresh orange juice, and in unlimited quantities! And all this, as the Arabs like to say, "freebie"! I always correct them: “Not a freebie, but all inclusive and I paid $500 for it. Although I understood that this was a gesture of goodwill and a benevolent attitude of the hotel management towards their guests, and out of five hundred dollars the hotel gets a minuscule amount: the main share is intercepted by intermediaries (Russians, which is why Russians are not always treated well).
To celebrate, I immediately took two glasses of this juice and went inside the restaurant, took a table by the window overlooking the pool and the sea.
I drank one glass, and good bliss spread throughout my body, reaching every cell of my body and even further, where the Soul lives with its feelings, you feel not in the seventh, but somewhere in the fifth or sixth heaven. Then the second glass of juice, who went after the first one, and I went to repeat With such a start, you still leave a reserve place for your feelings of "seventh heaven" for later, knowing in advance that it will definitely appear
After that, in the next ten days, before I even had time to go to the refrigerator, my first two glasses of juice were already waiting for me, and then repeatedly repeated during breakfast. And no objections, just a pleasant smile of the waiter! I still remember this masterpiece of the hotel. It would seem a trifle, but subtle, long remembered, and best of all in Egypt! A big plus for the hotel management if they keep this zest of the hotel until your arrival!
Worthy of attention and hard cheeses, but only high fat content, not dry: they can be immediately identified by sight.
Here, for the first time in Egypt, a week before the New Year, delicious, like our Kherson tomatoes, appeared! Cucumbers are always on top here: tasty and fragrant. We have a delicacy lime ($8 per kilogram) here freely and unlimitedly: its juice in tea, for main courses and, especially in Ouzo (50? ), is necessary for health, like air.
And about breakfast in this hotel, "traditional" and "like all hotels in Egypt", I thought the first two days. But from the third day, as soon as I got used to it, I always made morning, lunch and evening excursions-jogs to all a la carte restaurants with a plate, but most often with two plates in hand: what if something original and unusual comes across. And you know, I never returned with empty plates to my table in the main restaurant. Moreover, all the original dishes were photographed.
But it was still more difficult with breakfast: the traditional dishes with fried omelets listed above were invariably in every restaurant and made me sad. And only one or two dishes were original, which the chefs of these restaurants shared with me with joy, in response to my invariable greeting: “Asalaam alaikum! »
As a result, by the beginning of breakfast, at least two dozen different dishes, salads, cuts of cheeses and sausages, vegetables, fruits, drinks (I especially recommend cocoa with milk! ) and so on, there was practically no free meta left on the table. I will reveal a little trick: I take just a little, just to taste it, and if I like it, then I take it for the second time and in the following days in full, and I don’t even pay attention to what I don’t like.
Useful advice: take grapes (bubka) and pomegranate (grains) not into a plate, but into deep bowls, which are sometimes only there at the beginning, and then they are always there where soups or tea are. And take a spoon very convenient and nice to absorb them. So is any fruit cut in its own syrup.
With a sense of accomplishment in front of my mortal body, I rise from the table and, having said “Shokran” (“Thank you”) to the owners of the restaurant, I head to the exit, through the terrace. And there already a young Arab waiter hands me another two glasses of fresh juice. Well, how to refuse him, having offended him? And I say: “Know that, bath, pliz! ”, I take one glass of the treasured nectar and sitting at a table near the glass railing, drinking juice in small sips, enjoying a panoramic view of the pool, the hotel grounds and the sea in the distance
About the free choice of both a la carte restaurants and takeaway dishes, and not only for dinner, but also for breakfast and lunch, the third feature, I would say, is the highlight of this restaurant. This highlight brings such a variety of dishes from breakfast to dinner, which I have not seen in any hotel in Egypt, and I had about twenty of them in two years!
Breakfast in the main restaurant "Mediterranean" is extended by three hours, until ten in the morning, so even if you were at a disco until two in the morning or at another similar night event, breakfast will not run away from you. But if you still overslept it, then you will be helped out by a late breakfast until 11:00 nearby in the "Tagine" restaurant, with almost the same range of dishes.
But the second highlight of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel, which I deliberately skipped, is crabs and will describe it at dinner.
Dinner
Lunch also opened up wide opportunities for the creative talent of the chef.
And every time a new plate appeared on my table with original dishes of each a la carte restaurant: how many restaurants were open, there were so many plates with the cuisine of each restaurant of the peoples of the world. And during the ten days of my stay at the hotel, main dishes, except for my favorites, were practically not repeated! Moreover, at lunchtime a bar was opened with access to drinks through the All Inclusive system, and therefore fresh bottled beer (it tastes better than draft), red (pink or white) wine was just the way.
I list the names of the original dishes by photographs, since I photographed not only the dish itself, but also its advertisement.
Most of the dishes at lunch I liked grilled meat and fish dishes. From lunch until late in the evening, from the barbecues and ovens with grills, the aromas of meat, liver, fish, chickens, quails, ducks and even crabs roasted on an open fire spread throughout the hotel.
But the main restaurant and four a la carte restaurants for lunch are for lovers and fans of gluttony. (Sinful, father, this is your obedient servant, despite the post).
But if you watch your figure and are too lazy to walk two hundred meters and go up to the second floor to restaurants, then on the seashore, immediately behind the Beach Bar, there is Club Mac, which I wrote about above in the “Restaurants” section and therefore I will not repeat myself. What is good is that this bar-restaurant opens half an hour earlier than the main restaurant and the especially hungry can get enough here. True, there are no natural packaged juices here, and I had to go to a nearby beach bar for them.
The variety of dishes for lunch, thanks to the a la carte restaurants and the “two plates” system (see below), is incredible and it’s impossible to describe everything in this format, there isn’t enough space, but I recorded it in a hundred different photos.
One of the originalities of the dinner is that each restaurant has one or even two fire-breathing grill ovens both on the street (or terrace) on wood and inside on gas. At the same time, a table for four people actually turns out to be small for one (see photo). And when you get up from the table at the end of dinner, you feel regret that you didn’t come up with a mini crane...
Dinner.
The marathon of gluttony at the Royal Albatros Moderna does not end with lunch, but continues with dinner. Sometimes, watching how crowds of holiday-makers rush to the restaurant in a continuous line in the evening, you think, are they really so hungry? And this is after such a rich breakfast, lunch and all kinds of snacks of pizza, hamburgers, sandwiches and shawarma in pita bread. (I don’t think so about myself; I have such a job: to try and experience everything in order to truly and truthfully describe in my diary for the benefit of you - the future guests of the Royal Albatros Moderna Hotel: these are the sacrifices I make!
And will the hotel administration appreciate my such sacrifices? )
Dinner, despite the popular proverb “give dinner to the enemy”, pleased me most of all, but not with its victims and philanthropy, but with the possibility of the sin of “gluttonism” on the margins of delicious dishes. In addition, an Italian a la carte restaurant was allowed to the evening meal under the All Inclusive system. For breakfast and lunch, it was open only for the hotel's administrative apparatus - as one waiter explained to me, when I, for the umpteenth time, ran into this restaurant at lunchtime and took away exclusive dishes from it.
For dinner, twice in ten days of rest, I was lucky enough to taste grilled crabs. And the second time, along with crabs, quails were fried on the second grill! This is where I took my soul! I ate crabs then, I confess, several dozen, alternating them with fried quails! Naturally, with beer and under beer.
(For the first time, I enjoyed them with red wine, also not bad, but you can’t drink much wine, and therefore the crabs didn’t go without wine at the end)
How? I'll teach you, as I taught all my friends in the hotel: pick up two plates (three? don't be greedy! ) and go to the grill. There is a small queue, when yours comes up, be sure to smile and say hello: “Asalam Alaikum! Wa Rahmatullah! ”And serve one plate, get your three large crabs laid, say “Shokran” (“Thank you! ”) And immediately substitute the second plate At the cook’s dumb question, point your finger towards the tables and say: “Mom! ". To be convincing, wave your free hand: there they will definitely answer you “Mom” - this is sacred and sounds the same in Arabic. And therefore there is no refusal!
After about five ten minutes, when the crabs come to an end, repeat all over again And so on until the "shop" closes at 21:00.
And the “two plates” system will come in handy in other similar cases!
“Experience and practice is a great thing! » (classic)
This is the second, most important, in my opinion, highlight of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel!
Late dinner.
The time is half past eleven. You danced in the Pool bar, where live music and talented singers sing Ukrainian and Russian songs, and naturally, you got hungry. And the bar is already closed. And you are already waiting for the same main restaurant for a late dinner with obligatory meat and fish dishes, salads, vegetables, fruits and cakes. Only the bar in this restaurant is already closed and you have to take beer, wine or Ouzo (50? , I recommend, it is not divorced and impossible to fake: it turns white from a drop of water! ) on the floor above - in the Lobby bar, just warn you what you have with you : in the bars of the hotel they are especially careful not to take out glass glasses from them, but take out as much as you want in plastic cups!
Just don't sit too long at a late dinner.
The bartender, a handsome man with a fashionable youthful haircut, is already waiting for you in the Sports Bar to treat you to the best beer in this Heniken hotel, poured into the same branded elongated glass.
But at twelve o'clock this bar closes. And your only option is to walk five steps to the right of the Sports Bar and go down to the Irish Bar IRISH PUB. There is also a disco until two in the morning, and this is with a working bar on the All Inclusive system!
And in between dances, you can look into the non-alcoholic round-the-clock bar "Columbus", which is opposite the Sports Ball and order Latte coffee or a similar drink there.
See below for more information on all other bars in the hotel.
Having settled in the hotel and got to know many, including those who arrived from Gomel on the second day after the wedding (Oleg and Irina are my friends), or on their birthday (and there are five ten of them daily), with and without children, a couple of lovers or a big company (Belarusians on tours with payment from their company) I saw in reality that they all do not dream of anything better than the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel! This hotel appeals to people of all ages with a variety of interests and hobbies.
Restaurants are open without prior reservation and are included in the AI concept (with the exception of the Thai restaurant White Elephant).
Soft drinks, tea/coffee and water are available 24 hours at the hotel bars, which are open during this time.
From 10:00 to 24:00, alcoholic drinks are available under the All system. The rest of the time for an additional fee.
Beach. Sea
Own, sandy beach, the length of the beach strip: 200m, and a width of about 100m, with a coral reef, entrance to the sea from a pontoon (length 640 meters).
Before reaching the end of the pier, there are 6 descents into the sea with a depth of up to 1.1. 5 m.
Services on the beach: umbrellas, sun loungers, wind protection, mattresses and beach towels.
The weather this year pleased all holidaymakers in Egypt, especially in the Nabq region, which is “famous” for strong winds since October and all winter. And now, ten days before the New Year, only the first two days there was a strong wind up to 12m / s, and therefore the beach was closed. And on the rest of the days it is sunny and windless, the water, as always, did not fall below +24? C, which allowed me to be in the water photographing corals and fish for about an hour. And the constant movement did not allow to freeze.
Today, on the second day of my stay at the hotel, I really got to know the Red Sea. Started from the beach.
The beach at the Royal Albatros Moderna does not mean the Sea in the full sense of the word.
From the beach to the real sea, there is still almost a kilometer (this is at a glance, but according to advertising 650m) along a wooden pontoon, which goes into the distance like an arrow and there, at the end, where on both sides of it the white lambs of the waves, arguing with the coral reef, are visible on a small playground little people, small as insects. The desperate, I thought of them, have gone so far from luxury and civilization, bars and restaurants with drinks and snacks, to experience the true beauty of the real Red Sea. Fans of the Red Sea, I would clarify.
And here, near the coast, the sea is not the sea, and the puddle is not a puddle, since such a puddle of several hundred hectares does not exist. At low tides, the depth near the shore is ankle-deep and many vacationers go a hundred meters from the shore to see something unique in the sea. And they find mother-of-pearl shells of mollusks, admire them and leave them right there to collect, and, moreover, export is prohibited by law and criminal punishment follows under Art. 18.1983.
When the tide is in, the depth of the sea near the shore increases to half a meter and, having walked about five meters from the shore, you can simply plop headlong into the water and refresh yourself, which I often did when the heat finally got out in the sun at noon. It is also nice to freshen up in the sea in the morning after a night of drinking, or after your own wedding, like my friend Oleg, whom I met in such a way and under such circumstances.
And so in appearance, from the beach, the sea, if you do not enter it, then the sea is like the sea
Nevertheless, almost a kilometer zone of corals, although now petrified and inanimate, allows us to draw an interesting logical conclusion that the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel is located in a place most favorable for life, since in ancient times life was so intensely rampant here, there were the most favorable for this condition, compared to other places in Sharm El Sheikh.
I imagined this huge mass of coral from a few centimeters thick at the shore to forty meters thick at the reef and imbued with respect for this array of corals. And why did he die? Most likely, from a decrease in the level of the World Ocean: under the scorching tropical rays of the sun, especially during low tides, who will survive? But there may be other reasons
The thirst to know the Red Sea, the coral reef and its inhabitants off the coast of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel also pulled me into this distance. And I, grabbing a mask with a snorkel and an underwater camera, rushed into this distance.
This is how I started my acquaintance with the Red Sea here.
It took about ten minutes to walk to him, if not in a hurry. For the first two hundred meters, my bare heels rejoiced at the polished first-class pontoon boards. Naturalness and the highest quality could not but rejoice. And with my consciousness I felt the solidity of both this pontoon structure and the solidity of the hotel as a whole.
Indeed, the board was one to one: thick (magpie), even on all sides and smooth.
Further and to the end of the pontoon, there was already a second-rate board, often made of flash and of different thicknesses, but, most likely, the thickness was the same, but on an uneven surface. Yes, and the gaps between the boards were not very pleasing. And therefore, after the first stumbling, I stopped admiring the sea, staring at the shallows and was completely absorbed in contemplating the varieties of tree structure patterns under my feet, so as not to play with my nose at these drawings for a better view of them up close. The lesson, of course, is interesting, but not very useful. After half a kilometer I got tired of staring at the boards under my feet and sat down to rest on a neat and solid wooden bench, here they are every 100-200m of a long journey. It is very convenient for pensioners and young children who ventured to go on such a trip.
About a hundred meters before the end, I saw a real sandy beach with the purest, like a tear, water and a normal depth - up to one and a half meters. There is a platform for the beach and two or three dozen wooden deck chairs with soft mattresses. There were many vacationers, especially with children, and most splashed in the water.
But in order to see corals, alive and beautiful, you need to go all these 700m along a wooden pontoon to the farthest platform, 30x30 sq. m. A real civilized beach is arranged here with soft double sofas and sofas with pillows the same as on the shore. There are twenty-five such double places in total. And each such place is protected by a dense awning from the wind. And in the center is a circle with small soft sun loungers for children with a colored sun umbrella in the middle.
In addition to comfortable sunbeds, this beach also has a dozen or two soft mattresses: for lack of a better option, those who are late for the “holiday of life” are satisfied with them. And at noon all the places are already taken! I was imbued with respect for these people, who civilizations with restaurants and bars, preferred the Red Sea, for which they flew here thousands of kilometers, and to the hotel administration with gratitude for the fact that here, almost a kilometer from the coast, they arranged such a gorgeous beach for their guests !
The “local” Arab told me that here, during the summer heat season, up to a hundred vacationers can be accommodated. I did not argue with him, although I counted only fifty comfortable recumbent places. Because I knew that standing places, like we have in the subway car during rush hours, in such an area you can accommodate half a thousand people
You can not take a mask, snorkel and fins with you from home.
Here, a whole rack with several shelves is crammed with this stuff and of pretty decent quality, and it's nice that "all inclusive".
Unfortunately, only one descent down the steps into the sea is more or less comfortable and safe. Descent down the stairs to the left, I went down it for the first time, it needs repair.
corals
Now more about corals. From the shore and along the entire length of the beach for all 600m, the corals are inanimate. During low tides, they even protrude above the water under the scorching Sun. The depth is small: from “ankle-deep” near the shore to a meter and a half deep at the first pontoon beach with a sandy bottom, and this is about a hundred meters from the end of the pontoon. Here most of all bathes children and adults. But there are no corals. Only clusters of black sea urchins, clearly visible against the background of light sand at the bottom.
Twenty meters before the reef, the depth gradually increases.
And here beautiful corals appear in large numbers, and there are much more fish, even decent sizes (half a meter or more). I called such places a coral clearing: the depth is shallow, it is convenient to take pictures at close range. Unfortunately, the "Red Sea lifeguard" starts to whistle incredibly piercingly as soon as you appear in this zone of living corals. We have to go to a depth that here, behind the reef, reaches fifty meters! Can you see corals at such a depth? Only huge fish from there show their huge mouths. For example, I was so scared by the huge "Napoleon", smacking his fat lips and swimming very close to me. But I did not notice sharks here, although I tried to see something similar at a depth of fifty meters.
In order to deceive the Rescuer and make an hour-long photo shoot of the corals (the temperature of the water made it possible to stay in it for so long), one had to use a trick: to swim a hundred meters to the right, under the Sun, so that its rays would blind the overseer and turn sharply towards the shore, ten to twenty meters cherished meadow of corals. And take as many pictures as your Soul desires, until you finally freeze in the December water.
In general, there are beautiful corals and different species, but there are not as many of them as in other hotels, for example, the Reef Oasis Blue Bay, where I was last month and the impressions of them are still fresh in my memory
Nevertheless, my “catch” is good: I did take at least a hundred good shots!
Pools
The Royal Albatros Moderna has 10 outdoor pools: 6 for adults, 4 for children. 3 heated pools in winter (one of them in the Relax Zone). 6 swimming pools for adults (2 of them in the water park).
Water park with 8 slides for adults (not heated), opening hours from 10:00-12:30 and from 14:00.
In the meantime, before dinner, the holidaymakers “clean their feathers” and put on makeup, and if they wish, they prepare a dress code, I decided to devote this time to a solitary contemplation of the evening Nature on the Red Sea coast.
In thick columns, like well-fed babies, low palm trees stand in several rows, full of life, as if showing their healthy essence. This is in gratitude for the watering and the careful attitude of man to them, they here, on the shores of the Red Sea, where ten years ago there was a lifeless desert, arranged a celebration of life. Their leaves-panicles froze motionlessly, as if nailed to the darkening vault of the sky.
Feeling of some kind of lifeless immobility. And even the Red Sea, that Great Sea, froze in its mirror immobility. And no one can answer my silent question: “But where, where did the movement of Life go?
"Even this question itself, slightly separated from me, immediately froze motionless in front of me. Only my thoughts and feelings are moving, and to me, absolutely alone in this world, it becomes a little even creepy. I am alone, alone, alone - my mute cry echoes into silent silence. Mira
And, oh miracle! I begin to rise and go beyond this dark silence - into the bright world of sonorous and joyful sensations of the Soul! ...
Late evening
Closer to nine in the evening, when the people complete the "holiday of the belly", that is, they taste bread and the thirst for spectacles reaches its maximum value (and where should he go: this way of life has been like this for three thousand years, since the time of Ancient Rome! ) in the hotel and for the whole the district will hear loud, tens of decibels, music to a motive very familiar from youth, and when I listened, I heard Ukrainian songs. And at that moment, here, three thousand kilometers from my homeland, on the shores of the distant Red Sea, I felt that I was at home!
A little further by the pool there are the same soft sunbeds with pillows and tables, if you wish, you can also sit there, lie down comfortably after taking a hearty dinner. And there are painfully familiar faces around, most of which are from the republics of the former USSR. Personally, I didn’t know any of them, but by their reaction to our songs, including Russian-language ones, I felt that I was among my own, as in those distant 80s of the last century. It was as if a time machine had worked and I was again in the multinational Soviet Union.
And then I thought: in 1991, we were sharply, almost forcibly separated, torn to shreds, and I still do not know the true goals of this barbaric action. But people, as members of a single friendly family, remained. And they gather together as one big friendly company for a celebration of life in such places as this Royal Albatros Moderna hotel in Egypt on the Red Sea!
Late evening. I am sitting in the open bar at the pool of a high-end five-star hotel in Sharm El Sheikh and enjoying the Red Sea leisurely, drinking a good beer from an elongated glass. The latter is already pleasing that I am not in a seedy “five” or an ordinary “four”, where beer is served only in plastic cups and only one in hand, and only at dinner I am at a celebration of life! And around me in this youth party hotel are dozens, if not hundreds of people like me, but young, full of health and perky young people of my fellow countrymen. Even on the plane, I noticed that mainly young 80% fly to the resort, 10% of middle age and 5% each are children and the elderly.
Go to foreign resorts, mostly successful in our lives, people of an average and above average level who can afford it. And it does not matter how they earned their rest, and how they earn a living.
In many ways, this determines the society in which they live, and not themselves. And they can achieve their success in any area: in speculation (trade), as now, or as managers or organizers of production, create only favorable conditions for them! And these people determine the face of our society and its future!
They rest in foreign resorts, first of all, because they work well no worse than the same Germans, who are famous all over the world for their ability to work productively, and who now rest next to them.
And at the same time, a provocative thought suddenly arose in me: to relax at the resort at least once, where the majority of Germans rest! And, maybe, to have a rest in such hotels and constantly. It means proving to yourself that you can work productively and earn as much as ordinary Germans earn! I just voiced this thought, but in my subconscious it has been ripening for a long time and only now has matured.
And the subconscious has already been working with this, perhaps for more than one year. And as a result of this work, today I have in my pocket a tour to the best hotel in Hurghada, of course, German - "Steigenberger Al Dau Beach" 5 *!
Catholic Christmas
The resorts of Egypt have three dates a year with a mandatory celebration with increased service, comfort and sophistication of dishes. This is the New Year, Orthodox Christmas (January 6) and Catholic Christmas on December 24. These days, many hotels even set an increased prepaid rate when buying a tour to organize a festive feast. This is understandable: such sophistication requires additional costs. Nothing comes for free!
I got to such a holiday of the Catholic Christmas when I was relaxing at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel.
The holiday started early in the morning. The waiter was delivering Christmas gifts to the rooms with a trolley for everyone who wished to participate in the celebration of this day, since participation was voluntary.
And when I saw the special splendor of the entrance and the tables covered with white tablecloths all over the area of this tent, I remembered that the next day it was planned to celebrate the holiday of Catholic Christmas.
And so I, immediately after dinner and therefore full to the limit, drove up to this tent. Access by invitation cards only. And that’s why they didn’t let me in right away, even when I said that I only needed to take a few photos for a review of the hotel. By the way, there were many onlookers like me “just to look at”: no one was let through. I went inside only after they gave me the go-ahead from the reception.
And what did I see here? This is, first of all, a wide row of tables and pyramidal racks for the entire length of the tent with countless gourmet dishes that I saw only in the luxurious Rixos Hotel five days ago.
For vacationers at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel and those who visited this holiday, there were a rarity: red fish, sushi, lamb on a spit, turkey and other grilled poultry, grilled meat dishes, boiled and fried, dry-cured meat balyk, etc. , and so on, among which are mountains of strawberries, grapes and all kinds of fruits. For me, who had just returned from the Rixos Charm hotel, all this was everyday life. And so I calmly walked around the mountains of these exquisite delicacies and methodically clicked the shutter of the camera. I didn’t even try anything, because pride and the word given at the entrance did not allow me to take only a few pictures.
The second thing that was great here was the big stage where professional artists performed. And I must say that there was something to see, no worse than the gourmet dishes at the buffet distribution opposite.
It is a pity that I grabbed only twenty minutes of this concert - its end, after which, well-fed and in some cases, well-drank guests, started dancing. And there were a decent number of guests: if we count on the tables for four people each, and there were more than a hundred such tables, then there were at least 500 guests of the participants in this celebration!
And only by ten in the evening the guests began to disperse and the huge festive hall was empty. Until the next two holidays: New Year and Christmas already Christian on January 6
wind in december
For the second day in a row, a strong wind has been falling on Nabq Bay, and today after lunch it proved to be a real monster: it raised such huge waves in the distance near the reef that it was even scary to look at them from afar.
Hundreds, if not thousands of vacationers in the hotels of Sharm El Sheikh were sad and sad due to the danger, but simply the ban on swimming in the sea and were content with pools, when leaving which they were necessarily wrapped in beach towels. And only a handful of snowboarders were incredibly happy with such a wind, because they were already disappointed in the winter Sharm El Sheikh: after all, from all over the world they flew here in anticipation of the winds and sailed. I met one of them, who had flown here from Lithuania, and I saw with what joy he unpacked his “parachute” and board (I don’t remember their exact names) and showed on a six hundred meters wide shallows the class of his control and use of wind power for the benefit of myself. And a little later, over a glass of beer, he taught me his art of "communication" with the Wind. In this we were alike as pagans. I told him about my essay "The Old Man and the Sea Wind. "
And how should I react to them when I've seen them all ten times? And that's why I choose live sound at the Pool pool. Here, under a glass of a drink, interesting topics are sometimes born for promotion in an essay.
Further, in the time interval from 22:00 to 23:00, a late dinner follows, of course, with a 50-degree drink "Sambuk" ("Ouzo"). Fortunately, for such a drink there are, among other things, meat and fish dishes.
Until midnight, you can sit in the Sports Bar with a glass of excellent Heneken beer, and after it closes at midnight, of course, go to a disco with an Irish bar.
And here I tried to objectively, as if from the outside, look at modern fast dance. Imagine, my conclusion was, surprisingly, extraordinary: I saw monkeys on a stone platform, writhing in the rhythm of the music with only one exception, they tried to give their faces an intelligent expression.
A dance, if performed with feeling, is its own inner release, and no one will argue with that. And now, in connection with the above, imagine what a monkey inner essence of these young dancing people I saw! It turns out monkeying not in the sense of copying or imitation of a monkey, but manifestations of oneself as a wild animal. Thinking man, Homo sapiens, falls into his wild prehistoric state. And only one thing ennobles this action to some extent, so this is a sense of musical tact.
I saw monkeys on the dance floor. And it didn’t matter what their attire was, and not shaggy, unkempt wool. Their external attributes went far aside, in comparison with the manifestation of their inner essence. Moreover, this manifestation of the inner essence was so obvious and convincing that I had already seen their shaggy hair. And these visions were like reality.
And, mind you, that night I did not drink hard liquor!
At the same time, the more the dancer drank, the more his rational human essence was oppressed and his wild animal essence, hidden with such difficulty, especially in a sober state, manifested itself.
Having made such a well-known conclusion, even a banal one, you will say, I went further, to an unusual conclusion: maybe it’s really necessary to correctly place the stresses and turn everything upside down? Maybe a person specifically seeks to get drunk in order to get away from the disgraceful human appearance? . . Where? Even at least in that prehistoric past, in which he was more noble and just, moreover, more correct in all respects than now. After all, then he was part of Nature, he was Nature!
And what is this dance? The mind, oppressed by alcohol, deprives a person of that negativity, which is not in Nature, and therefore a person is drawn to his own, animal world.
Nature pulls him there, showing him the real, harmless for man and for Nature as a whole, the path of his development. After all, no one will argue that as a result of the products of the mind (thermonuclear weapons, environmentally unsafe technologies, etc. ), a person has put himself on the verge of self-destruction and the destruction of the World as a whole! And we are not even talking about spiritual fall!
And what's even worse is the world he aspires to! And this is a real horror!
Dancing: Art or Wildness?
Far past midnight. I am at a night disco in one of the five-star hotels in Sharm El Sheikh, more precisely, at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel.
Crazy twitching of all parts of the body to the beat of modern youth music makes me sad and deep sadness. One thought, sadder than the other, predicts the tragedy of the future not only for those who dance, but for all of humanity as a whole. And I am finally convinced that these are Wild Dances! And the Wild because they show the wild essence of man.
And you should not look for an answer to the question: “What is the meaning of these dances? Where is their spiritual, sensual component hidden? "- Such an answer a priori does not exist! But these components of any human action predetermine what a person is in this World, its prospects, and the future of our entire World as a whole.
But here is a second break in rhythmic dances and slow, peaceful music sounds. And everyone leaves the dance floor, most of them to their glasses of alcohol or to an all-inclusive bar for the same purpose.
All but one couple, who join together in a slow, sensual dance. These two are connected by Love, which is not only seen, but also felt by everyone around.
And there are only the two of them in this closed world of love, there is slow music and there is a dance that physically connects them and nothing else and no one around Their souls have been together for a long time, firmly connected by the spiritual bonds of Love, and the dance only brought them closer physically and showed the complete harmony of the two in this world
When I saw and felt all this, I involuntarily compared these two dances: the previous one and the current one. And who dares to call the second dance Wild? And the first dance, with him in comparison, Art?
Entertainment and sports
In addition to nightly entertainment and discos, the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel has many daytime activities, both free, organized by animators and included in the all-inclusive concept, and set on a broad business basis. After all, the hotel also needs additional funds that can be obtained for the provision of exclusive services.
Favorable psychological climate
Fifth day at the Red Sea. Half the term flew by quickly, but not without a trace. First of all, I have the impression that I have been living here for a hundred years! What is it? Do I have such a quick adaptation to the conditions of life that are most favorable to me, as well as to everyone around me? This is because a favorable psychological climate has developed here. And the merit in this, first of all, is the administration and all the employees of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel.
Firstly, it is felt in everything and everywhere that everything is being done to make you have a good and comfortable rest: from the little things every day and at every step, and to the grandiose show holidays of Christmas and New Year.
Secondly, freedom of choice and not only food in any of the a la carte restaurants, both for dinner, and for breakfast or lunch, but also in free access to any of the ten bars, many pools, the sea or the water park, as well as to choose evening entertainment programs, including concerts with live sound.
Thirdly, for all birthdays, the restaurant employees arrange such merry holidays with songs, dances to music with drums and national instruments that many specially adjust their arrival to this hotel for their birthday! And on the day of such holidays at the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel from five to ten! I met the same sincere joy and kindness and a show for the birthday, perhaps only in one more hotel in Egypt in "Mirage New Hawaii" 4 *, Hurghada, (November 2016), where I was given a similar arrangement for my birthday I noticed how during such celebrations and congratulations on your birthday, the whole restaurant hall rejoices along with the birthday boy!
Isn't this the best advertisement for a hotel?
Morning on the beach
The wind, compared to yesterday, died down twice. And today he was already affectionate and pleasant. Only the only echo of yesterday's storm was a red flag on the mast at the entrance to the pontoon, forbidding swimming in the sea. To my question: “Why? After all, the storm is gone! ”, the security guard in the booth at the pontoon showed me to the reef in the distance, where the wind still raised high waves and, hitting them against the reef, created white foam caps. And that was the danger of swimming in the sea. Although the passage to the pontoon was free for all vacationers in our hotel. Aliens with bracelets of other colors or without them at all, the security guard, both today and on other days, wrapped. The fact that many of the neighboring hotels tried to get to a comfortable pontoon beach with chic sunbeds and windproof awnings added a fat plus to the beach of the Royal Albatros Moderna hotel, and I was proud to be relaxing in such a cool hotel.
What else is good about this beach is that even in a moderate storm, when all other beaches are closed, here you can go to the pontoon beach at the end and sunbathe there without swimming near the reef, or swim in a quiet backwater of a shallow beach a hundred meters from the end of the pontoon, which many vacationers did today.
good manners rule
The mentality and culture of the Arabs is very different from ours, the citizens of the republics of the former USSR. And this is most noticeable to an attentive observer in the details in resort areas, for example, in Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada. I am sure that in the same capital Cairo, everything is different. And all because through these resort areas a huge avalanche of millions of people a year flows through a stream of wealthy holidaymakers who have flown here to enjoy the year-round climate favorable for beach holidays and the Red Sea with its unique corals and beautiful colorful fish, like in an aquarium.
And the wealth of these millions of people allows them to demand special attention to themselves, both in general and in detail, naturally, not for free, but for a fee. Though scanty, but for a fee. And this brings up in all the Arabs who are nearby, and, moreover, in the very stream of these holiday-goers, servile behavior and even, I would say, a servile mentality of life. Of course, for a fee. And the circle closes in a natural logical process: some are waiting for increased attention to themselves (after all, they are rich and used to it) and are ready to pay, others “bend” and are eager to receive. Economics: demand creates supply So far, everything is logical. For example, you landed at Sharm El Sheikh airport and the first thing, naturally, went to the toilet.
There, the cleaner has already sharpened his attention to you and on the alert: where and in what way to serve you, hoping for a bribe for such small services: he opens the door for you, gives you a paper towel for your hands after washing them, indicates where the dryer is, and so on. Although everything is in sight, everything is nearby and does not require a hint. But a rich tourist, flattered by such attention, bestows a “servant” - no, not a cent (he didn’t take cents, as they “ring” on a metal detector frame, and there is no limit to the dollar And the joy of an Arab! So in a year he can earn on " shabku”, to “mahr” and getting married is a bright dream of any young Arab, since any self-respecting Arab woman, without these things (plus a separate apartment) will never get married!
The only thing she could squeeze out was: “No dollar! ”(I had dollars, but I didn’t think of supplying her with them for such an occasion).
Now I’ll tell you about my more subtle observation already here, at the Royal Albatros Moderna 5 * hotel. To so brazenly extort "bakshish" - God forbid! The level of culture is not the same! And the attitude towards the guest is completely different: to create maximum comfort, not only physical, but also spiritual (moral). A tip is the good will of everyone and in no case is there any direct or even indirect hint of them. Although it is obvious to everyone that who gives a tip, there is a much more attentive attitude of the attendants to this. Thanks to this observation and the corresponding conclusions, our compatriot, perhaps, will soon change his "Sovdepovskaya" psychology towards the "Western" one.
But my "subtle" observation is the following.
At the resort, and in general in life, I maintain my status as a writer (and this is true: I write and publish) and not only with my appearance (beard, long hair "in a ponytail", etc. ), but also for greater persuasiveness (but more like a necessity, since I don’t play for the public) I have in my pocket several sheets of paper written daily in small handwriting - the result of my observations with the date stamped. So, to everyone who is interested, I reach into my pocket with my hand and take out these scribbled pieces of paper. But the most interesting thing in this action is only one moment: “lezur hand in the pocket”! At first, I did not attach any importance to this, but after repeated repetition, I realized what was the matter and laughed to tears from my “carelessness”.
“Hand in pocket” is part of a conditioned reflex in anticipation of a dollar, as a present as a token of gratitude for any service. And I, some kind of monster, decided to mock the holy feelings of an Arab and brought him in vain expectations and disappointments almost to tears
Yes, after such a realization of mine, I myself almost cried along with the Arab, but the dollar still did not give! And all because I disappointed him, and he also disappointed me, as a Poet.
As a result, I want to give advice (without the dollar) at the level of good manners in Egypt - to all my fellow tribesmen from the former USSR. When you communicate with an Arab service staff, especially a lower-level one: a waiter, a cleaner, a gardener, etc. , then do not try to put your hand in your pocket (for a cigarette, a lighter, and other knick-knacks), and if you already climbed, then be sure to get from its depths d o l l a r!
crab holiday
I once again noted to myself that hotels in Egypt, and I have visited them over the past two years for about a dozen and a half, and therefore I have the right to say so, each is beautiful in its own way and has its own zest, and not one. How are women! And here I am trying to choose the best one based on previous experience, but, alas, it does not work. Just like with women. I would like to have all the best in one, but this, unfortunately, does not happen in life. And because I'm alone But this is a separate topic of conversation.
In the meantime, the Crab Feast lasted all the time for dinner. And, what's more, when dinner was over, and I had to leave the terrace of the Mediterranean restaurant, and there were a dozen crabs left, I continued the Crab Feast already with music and live sound songs in the bar by the main pool, also with beer from my large glass goblet. There were even friends and girlfriends who agreed to share this holiday with me and with the Crabs
And this is in the usual, not fashionable "five"!
In ten days, I met many vacationers and did not hear a single negative review about this hotel. The hotel is truly one of the best in its category. It remains only to be surprised how, during the period of the tourist crisis in the country, the hotel management manages to keep its level so high!
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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