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COZY, LIKE AT HOME
Correspondence acquaintance with the hotel "SUNRISE Diamond" 5 *
The Sunrise Diamond Resort 5 * is one of the eleven hotels of the Sunrise Resorts & Cruises chain, three of which, including the one in which you will not have to rest, are located in Sharm El Sheikh, and six hotels are in Hurghada, and one each in Marsa Alam and Makadi. This network also includes seven cruise liners.
The inclusion of the hotel in such a large network of hotels "Sunrise Resorts & Cruises" provides stability and reliability in customer service in each hotel of the network, even with significant financial and economic upheavals in its individual links.
The hotel is located in Sharm El Sheikh, Ras Um El Sid, in the Hadaba area, located on the Om El Seid plateau. It is surrounded by mountains from the northwest and west, which protect it from the winds and guarantee a comfortable stay even in winter. The hotel has a relatively large area - 20 hectares (which is 200.000 sq. m.
), located on the first coastline of the sea (the length of the beach is 230m), 4 km from the city center, and 7 km from Naama Bay.
The hotel is located close to the airport, which provides a quick transfer (20-25 minutes), but on the condition that a shared bus will not deliver to the most distant hotels, then an hour will not be enough. This happened at my departure, when more than an hour was spent on the 20 km road. But, as for me, it was useful in terms of a sightseeing tour of Sharm El Sheikh and its hotels, one of which (by the way, Grand Rotana Resort & Spa 5 *) attracted me in terms of comfort, judging by its appearance most for the next tour in Egypt. Once again I am convinced of the usefulness of turning Evil into Good and the truth of the proverb: "There is no bad without Good. "
In 2015, a new water park was opened and now the hotel has become even more attractive for families with children.
Near the hotel, literally a ten minute walk is Il Mercato - a business district in Sharm el-Sheikh with numerous offices, cafes, restaurants, fashion stores, an amphitheater and a nice "mini-train" for tourists that runs through the streets - a small town in the town. I emphasize that Il Mercato is a luxurious and elite business district. And here there are no longer any original souvenir shops familiar to Egypt with Arabs inviting them to visit, no incendiary Arab evenings with belly dances and skirts, and so on.
A little further is the popular entertainment complex "Alf Leila Wa Leila" ("1000 and 1 night"), where in the daytime you can go to see and take pictures for free against the backdrop of the plots of Arabic fairy tales. I could not help but take advantage of such a happy opportunity, as evidenced by my photos.
Hotel Reviews
In order not to get into trouble and find myself in a very unsightly situation, as was the case during my first, not entirely successful tour on a last-minute tour (the departure was twelve hours after the purchase of the tour), I made it a rule to first get acquainted with the hotel and the conditions in it, and also about the sea, corals and reef, for the sake of which, in fact, I am going to Egypt. And, first of all, I read reviews of vacationers in these hotels. This sometimes takes even a few days. But after reading dozens of such reviews, especially literary, and not dryly statistically stated, one gets the impression that you have already visited this hotel and, if you choose one, then you are already going to a familiar hotel. True, without a compliment from the administration in the form of a bathrobe, slippers or a fruit basket ...
Reviews are objective for the most part and subjective, such as paid articles in the media or in social networks. networks.
The latter, of course, must be immediately weeded out, not paying attention to their laudatory odes. And they are identified by the style of presentation, as if written by one person and a carbon copy. Such reviews can only be written by Russian-speaking animators interested in the hotel administration. So they write, creating a positive, but often false image of their hotel. Their reviews are like chains that set up "low-quality" hotels in order to catch "suckers" - the victims of a credibility swindler. But you learn about the falsity of such reviews only when you believe such reviews, buy a tour and stop by this hotel ...
But, first of all, in the first place is the choice of the resort. It, of course, depends, first of all, on personal financial capabilities and on the season. I like Egypt for all, in relation to me, indicators.
1. Inexpensive, until the Russians flooded into it, as before, and prices are reduced to the maximum level.
So, according to this indicator, I recommend it to everyone with limited material resources.
2. All year round beach season - summer!
3. Amazing Red Sea, one of the best in the world!
Perhaps this is enough to stop at the choice of Egypt as a holiday country. Further - Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada or any other resort - does not matter. But I always choose Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada. And, if possible, the first beach line. If you are going to a resort for the first time, then it is better to choose the category of the hotel in ascending order: from three-star to five-star. But by no means the other way around! On this occasion, I even gave birth to an aphorism: “Alcohol and a hotel should be taken in ascending degrees and stars. ” In the first and second cases, it is clear why ...Although, it happens that these two characteristics - distance from the sea and category - do not really affect the price. Sometimes even a good "five" is cheaper than a mediocre "three".
But my method of identifying specific such exceptions will be discussed below. …
January 7.2017 Saturday
Kyiv. Christmas. Before departure to Egypt
Has the frost hit from -5 since yesterday? From to -18! This is a winter holiday! Not like in previous years, even on New Year's Eve - thaw and slush. And this year and on New Year's Eve there was a slight frost.
And now, for two days already, there is a joy for Nature: there is an opportunity to get rid of all kinds of elements unworthy of life, which can lead the development of Nature not along the best path. And therefore harmful to nature. Still a couple of degrees of frost below, but for a week without interruption - and all the obscene infection froze out - it would have ordered me to live long!
But what about Man? May my inhuman, translucent hint be forgiven me...I do not claim that I am an infection of human society and therefore should freeze like some kind of infection in Nature. But I'm afraid of the cold. And for me -20?
From frost - big negative consequences if I do not warm up. And therefore, it so happened that for these five days of severe frosts, until the thirteenth of January, like a belated migratory bird, I fly to Africa, to warm lands, to no less warm sea. True, since the autumn of last year, this is the second time: then, in mid-November, I flew to Hurghada to celebrate my birthday at the Mirage New Hawaii 4 * hotel. I love myself, more precisely, my mortal body and thus sometimes spoil it. After all, it is not so easy for my body to carry my rebellious Soul within itself. (But this is a separate conversation for another time).
On the way to the airport
And so I packed a small bag (why do I need so much for five days alone? ) And at ten in the morning I left the house to get to the Boryspil airport in two hours by way of check-in for the flight to Sharm El Sheikh.
Trolleybus along Obolon, metro ...It's already half past twelve and we, driving away from Vydubychi, for a while break out of the darkness of the tunnel into the expanse of the Dnieper. We fly with an arrow, shaking our sides. And over the Dnieper there is a gray haze, either from falling snow, or from winter fog. But, it seems to me, it is frost at twenty degrees that froze microscopic droplets of water floating in the air and they silently hover in the space between the ice-covered Dnieper and the sky ...
Away, behind the second bridge - "Hydropark". Snowy and white. And it is felt that the whole is bound by frost. But I remember Hydropark as summer and beach. And, above all, because I am now going towards summer, to the warm sea, which seems unreal in the conditions of Kyiv's twenty-degree frosty winter ...
The metro train walked for a couple of minutes at liberty and will again be pulled by the invisible force of electricity into the underworld - into the labyrinth of the metro construction adit.
Once again the wheels thumped dully at the joints of the rails, echoing from the closely spaced walls of the tunnel. The subway train dived into the dungeon ...And only sometimes, and for a very short time, it jumps out into the “half-light of God” - to the metro station, in order to vomit a couple of dozen people out of itself, take in new ones, and rush further, bringing me closer to the goal - Boryspil airport.
Fascinated by the recording of this whole process, I did not notice how the car rolled up to the next metro station - "Kharkovskaya", which was mine for transfer. And, having come to his senses, at the last moment before closing the doors, he jumped out, not forgetting to grab his bag. I'm leaving the subway. On the outskirts of Kyiv frost even more. And I'm glad that I slipped three more sweaters under the leather jacket. But I didn’t have to rejoice at this for a long time: a new, even greater joy was waiting for me at the bus stop - a brand new “trump card” bus to the airport.
I did not force myself to beg for a long time, and, having handed over my things to the trunk, I jumped into its warm and comfortable interior. And the first surprise: the fare for the past two months has risen in price exactly one and a half times. With a quiet, but angry word, he remembered bankrupt banks, accelerating inflation in Ukraine, and so on ...
We drive slower than usual, the speed is fifty kilometers per hour, no more. And be careful. The road is clear of snow, and there are snowdrifts along the roadsides. But the view of the cleared roadbed does not inspire confidence: it is some kind of unusually gray, apparently, after the day before yesterday's thaw, it is covered in places with an ice crust. This explains our slow traffic...
At the Boryspil airport
Nevertheless, surprisingly quickly, in about twenty minutes, and we are already approaching the terminal "D" of the airport "Borispol".
We unloaded, immediately at the entrance we went through customs control without undressing, but with undressing (outer clothing): the frame metal detector reacts even to a small metal buckle on the belt ...
And we find ourselves in the check-in hall, a kind of “dressing room” of the airport, in which, in addition to numerous check-in counters with large information boards above each, there is also a cafe, many benches for waiting and a paid (70 hryvnia) wrapping machine, nearby scales (free of charge). Just in case, I asked again about the free weighing, in response I received significant confirmation, such as: “I am the kindest person - get it! » I took advantage of the "freebie" - I weighed my luggage and made sure that it was normal. But I was surprised that we, in Ukraine, could have something else for nothing… I was embarrassed to weigh myself, looking at the gloomy face of the packer. I immediately remembered the free packing of luggage at the airports of Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh.
Civilization ...And also about how last time I threw food in the trash can to “adjust” the weight to 23kg ...
Check-in began earlier than expected two hours before departure. This time I didn’t manage, as on previous trips, to contemplate and absorb the impressions of the waiting room, putting them in small handwriting on the “eight” of a sheet of paper ...But I got a seat at the window - convenient for observations in flight and photography ...
And this moment soon came, after short-term passport control procedures, pre-boarding inspection, now, in addition to undressing, but already with undressing, in order to identify terrorist “weapons”, a trip to numerous duty-free shops and boarding the plane.
But, in addition, before landing, for an hour through a huge panoramic window-wall, right up to the ceiling, I watched how rhythmically, with a period of about 10 minutes, planes of various airlines take off and land and bathe in clouds of snow lifted by the propellers of their engines. Slowly rolled up after landing, accompanied by a car with a flashing light, and our plane. Passengers were unloaded from it into a long "gut", and their luggage was onto carts. Then the plane was surrounded by numerous cars and cars, and people in yellow uniforms: they quickly prepared the plane for a new flight ...We loaded everything we needed, including: our luggage, lockers on wheels with provisions, poured food into the belly of the plane and it was enough for a few flights tons of kerosene. And they invited us to board.
This time, tipsy passengers (and they definitely were, how could they do without it after duty-free? ) They didn’t unload their things with their things and therefore reached the runway on time.
We and they were lucky, because there was another, more loyal airline - AZURair Ukraine.
Takeoff - Flight - Landing
As usual, slow and it seems very long, but imposing taxiing to the runway. A short stop, as before a jump. A sharp jerk in the sudden onset of absolute silence, noisy before that in different voices, the crowd of passengers in the cabin. And on the seventh pockmarked transverse strip on the runway, the wheels are off the ground ...
Every time in this situation you experience an unusual feeling, but I can’t explain it in words. At the moment the plane takes off from the ground, you feel as if you have broken away from the earthly world and moved to another, unearthly world, but so far within the Space-Time of our material world ...But you are in this prostration for only a moment, which is interrupted by the stormy applause of two hundred passengers to the captain and pilots airship, so skillfully performed the take-off maneuver
. The echo is muffled, like the blows of large hailstones on the skin of the aircraft from the outside, rolls through the cabin and falls silent, again providing space for the polyphony of two hundred passengers, babbling like geese in a large cage. Except one. I silently listen to all this, and put it from life on a sheet of paper, in the form of sketches of my future articles and essays ...
How many times I have already taken off, but I never cease to be amazed at this power, which lifts an airplane into the air, weighing tens of tons. And only to the fact that it “feeds” on some hundred kilograms of kerosene. That ordinary kerosene, which in my childhood my mother used to refuel "kerogas" and cook food on it, or kindle firewood in the stove of a rural house ...
After one or two, as it always seems to me, dangerous turns, when the plane leans so that it can fall down, climb with periodic laying of the ears and reaching the cruising altitude and speed, there comes a long monotonous “hum” of the engines and the slow movement of the liner relative to the clouds down below. Sometimes it seems that the plane hovered motionless in the air with the engines running.
We are flying, judging by the Sun, to the southwest, although Egypt is directly to the south. This is understandable, we are flying farther than Crimea, Sevastopol with Russian military bases, including missiles - out of harm's way. And in order not to tease the "friend", because anything can happen ...And only after about an hour, we turn exactly to the south. The aircraft sometimes trembles and vibrates heavily in air pockets. I see through the window how the tips of the aircraft's wings vibrate with a large amplitude.
But I believe, and I completely surrender to the designers and developers of one of the most reliable designs of the Boeing-737 aircraft in the world, and therefore I calm down.
We seem to be flying very slowly. The fact that the commander of the ship reported the speed of the aircraft at 800 km / h, observed in the window, is questioned. It can't be! We seemed to be suspended in the air. And below us is a snow-white plain, slightly hilly. And these "snow" hillocks cast small shadows behind them. And just looking closely, you see that relative to this "snowy" plain, our plane is slowly moving forward. And you begin to wonder: how does this slow movement allow you to cover a distance of three thousand kilometers in just four hours? And right there, all 200 passengers of this air liner are probably being fooled. I don't believe!
Okay, I think, let's wait and see: will we really be in Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh in (already) two hours, or will we land somewhere near Odessa on the Black Sea? ..
Such a visual impression is formed in connection with the inertia of our thinking and the binding of phenomena and our sensations to ordinary everyday situations, when we find ourselves in conditions that are significantly different from earthly ones.
In contrast to the visual perception of slow speed - the rumble of engines. And it is so powerful that even here, in the cabin, behind the seemingly sound-absorbing skin, it should not be heard. I can imagine what a frenzied roar of engines outside the cabin! I remember that even being on Earth, you can hear it tens of kilometers from the plane flying over you. Well, how can you fly slowly with such engine power, practically staying in one place? And you gradually begin to believe that we are flying very fast.
And, surprisingly, this muffled rumble inside the plane, with such evidence of its frenzied roar outside, does not frighten or disturb - as if it sounded under your ear on the ground. On the contrary, it calms and even, to some extent, pleases! Why? Yes, because he is here, at a ten-kilometer height - a guarantee of your life! And what could be sweeter than a life-giving sound? Moreover, stop it buzzing before you find yourself on Earth, it is tantamount to tragedy and death. And so you periodically listen to this rumble and, God forbid, even hear at least some interruption in its monotonous sound! This is how your mind affirms and makes you believe in it. And you believe it, that if this hum disappears, your life will disappear with it! Paradox? - Yes! But it is so.
In addition, under this already “joyful” sound (and not a rumble), I even allow myself to fall asleep for a short time, for about fifteen minutes ...Say what you like, but even though I’m flying for the ninth time during the year, but still, significant anxiety does not leave me, however, mostly in the subconscious: after all, the risk of life here, at a ten-kilometer height above the Earth, is huge! And therefore the organism, at the first opportunity, turns off the physical body, plunging it into a rehabilitation sleep.
This is already the second (after the seeming slow speed) example of the fact that you ended up in another world in which the laws of physics do not apply (in your sensations). And in general, you begin to doubt that our World objectively exists, and, as some philosophers say, this is the fruit of our subjective ideas ...
I wake up from the sharp smell of coffee and instant cream. It was a cart that drove up to your row and a smiling stewardess offers: “Tea? Coffee with cream? Water?
"I choose coffee, and drink water ...I absorb all this: coffee is faster, while it is hot, but in small sips, and I stretch a glass of water for about ten minutes. I am not a big connoisseur of coffee and rarely drink it, but my opinion on this coffee is that it is rubbish! And it somehow reminds me of the chicory coffee drink "Summer" in the same metal cans as real instant coffee, which we were so happy about in the "scarce" eighties of the last century.
And I'm writing...I'm not writing very fast, but I try to write down as many of my impressions of the flight as possible. But I don't have time - there are so many of them. And so I try to remember everything, absorb it into myself, like freshly drunk coffee, so that later I can recreate it all, down to the smallest detail.
And again I fall asleep with a pen in my hand over an unfinished phrase ...“For an hour”, under the roar of engines ...
I wake up from an unusual noise in the aircraft cabin, a changed rumble of engines in a different mode, voices on the broadcast “Fasten your seat belts! We are going to land” ...And a lot of other elusive things.
The sun is already half an inch from the horizon in the porthole, moving slowly towards sunset. The clouds below us became much larger and more curly, and in the thawed patches between them even the earth began to be visible, with strings of tracks and roads on it. And small "toy" settlements that connect these routes.
The light in the cabin is turned off - this is so that if we “crash”, so that we are not like blind kittens, but see what and where ...The engines are turned off, or they operate silently at the lowest speeds, there is a periodically sharp decrease, causing exclamations of passengers in cabin ...Ears also sometimes "lay", as well as during takeoff. You do swallowing exercises, and the balance of pressure in the inner ear is restored.
Until the next pressure drop...
Finally, a runway appeared in the window with a ribbon of lights along its entire length. The aircraft, as if attached to this strip of lights and attracted by the concrete base of the runway, and at great speed, which is noticeable by the rapid flickering of lights and various objects on the side of the runway, comes into approach to the runway and the landing gear wheels touches the concrete base of the runway. Again, the applause of the passengers echoed on the skin of the aircraft, but already more intense and joyful (there is, it turns out, joy in such a sound! ). The body of the aircraft, to the applause of passengers, shudders from the impact of the wheels on the ground, then continues to tremble from the vibration of the rotating wheels on the unevenness of the concrete landing concrete surface. The reverse is turned on (reverse rotation of the engine) and there is a sharp deceleration, as if the plane had entered some kind of viscous substance with its nose.
After a couple of seconds, the reverse is turned off, and the plane, already at a reduced speed, continues to roll along the concrete strip, while still quickly. There is, if not mechanical, then natural braking on dense layers of air and from the friction of the wheels on the concrete strip. So, with a decrease in speed, we move a couple of hundred meters more, until the exit from the runway, where a car with a flashing flashing beacon is already waiting for us, which should accompany us to the place of disembarkation of passengers, and from where, after a couple of hours, after refueling, food and water for passengers, and also after the inspection of the state of the aircraft, the loading of baggage and the departing passengers themselves, the same Boeing-737 aircraft will again take to the air for four hours ...
And we, the arriving passengers, joyful and excited about the upcoming vacation on the Red Sea, quickly go to the exit of the plane, load into the bus and drive up to the building of the Egyptian airport, to go through customs and passport control. After this obligatory procedure, we go out to the opposite side of the terminal building, where at least a dozen, mostly large transfer buses, are waiting for us. But there are also a few small "beads". We load, wait until the last passenger and under the TSU (valuable instructions) of the guide accompanying us from the tour operator, we each go to our hotels - the "alma mater" of our further rest ...
Hotel in Egypt
Even at the entrance to the hotel, you can immediately assess what awaits you, what level of service, comfort, food and everything else during all the days of your vacation.
And if your hotel is the last hotel in the chain of accommodation of bus passengers, then you are already winding your head for the future: where, what and how ...For example, we drove up to the Grand Rotana Resort & Spa 5 * hotel. Already the appearance of the gate assembly is impressive ...Further - even more impressive. In addition, security measures in our alarming non-peaceful-terrorist time: security with a large German shepherd dog inspects the luggage compartment for a possible delivery of explosives to the hotel territory. But this is only the first line of inspection at the entrance gate of the hotel - all passengers, including those who are in transit further on their hotels. There is a reassuring joy that all the other hotels, including yours, will not receive terrorist explosives.
Russians in the resorts of Egypt
Although the question immediately arises: who and why this terrorism is needed here in Sharm El Sheikh in hotels among vacationers?
The main object for ISIS terrorists - citizens of a "harmful" power for them - Russia in such a massive number as it was before October 2015 - the explosion of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, with more than two hundred Russians, is no longer there. Passengers, mostly Ukrainians, are just as enduring Russian aggression and experiencing the hardships of war as the Muslims of Syria. It seems to be like brothers in misfortune. And why should they (that is, us) be blown up? . . And therefore we are relatively calm. Also calm are those few Russians who, by hook or by crook (this is under the law of Ukraine two years ago banning Russians aged 16 to 60 from crossing the border) crossed the border and in transit through Kyiv or Kharkov fly to Egypt on vacation.
True, like a year and a half ago, when I was vacationing in Hurghada in July 2015 at the El Samaka Beach 3 * hotel, during the Russian Airborne Forces holiday, the tipsy "fighters" of the Russian state, to put it mildly, were somewhat "buzzed", now they are much they are more modest and do not stick out their citizenship in front of us Ukrainians and, moreover, their attitude to military service, so as not to run into trouble. By the way, looking ahead, I saw with my own eyes a picture in the main restaurant of the SUNRISE Diamond Resort 5 * hotel, when the director of the restaurant calmed down a tipsy Ukrainian patriot of a fairly solid weight category (and, consequently, heroic strength) and culturally accompanied him to the exit under his cries : "Glory to Ukraine! » According to the reaction and behavior of my fellow countryman, it was obvious that he somehow disagreed with the Russian vacationer here.
The attitude of the Arabs from the service personnel to the Russians is twofold.
The same bartender of a simpler rank, for example, in a pool bar or on the beach, in order to enter into friendly relations with you, can proclaim the slogan: “Glory to Ukraine! ”- our countrymen-vacationers taught this. After that, how not to be friends with such an Arab, friendly to Ukraine and Ukrainians? And then how to resist and not give him a tip?
At the same time, the same bartender transforms and gets all thrilled when he sees a vacationer with a three-headed eagle on a Russian passport, recalling his and his family's comfortable existence two years ago, when an avalanche of Russian citizens brought their petrodollars to the resorts of Egypt ...I already wrote about this in Essay "Sensation! Russian vacationers are back in Egypt! ” above, in the chapter about the Poinciana Sharm Resort 4 * hotel.
And now, a year later, I can confirm the same thing on the following fact. Today I met two vacationers from Belgorod.
So one of them said that the bartender did not believe that he was a Russian citizen and asked to see his passport, which he did. The impression, according to the Russian, was indescribable, what he was incredibly proud of!
It just remains incomprehensible to me how an Arab bartender will behave if a Ukrainian and a Russian are in front of him at the same time: which side will he choose if he is obliged to serve everyone for the previously accepted tip?
Hotel lobby. Porter service (reception)
During my more than a dozen trips to hotels in Egypt and Turkey, I saw many different lobbies (hotel lobby). And they are all different, just like people's faces. There are no absolutely similar ones. Only two essential attributes are the porter service (reception) and the lobby bar.
The lobby of the hotel "SUNRISE Diamond Resort" 5 * is tastefully designed, in a simple classical style, without any frills. I would say, even in a too strict, as for a hotel, style.
Massive furniture throughout the entire area of the lobby is designed in the same colors: single and triple armchairs and sofas, and next to them are rather heavy octagonal glass tables, under the glass of which there is a golden carving on metal in the Arabic style with a hint of antiques. Such a small element of furniture surroundings as this jewelry table at each chair and sofa inspires respect for the hotel…
To the right is the reception desk, a quarter of the lobby in length - also lined with dark brown wood.
Opposite the reception, to the left of the entrance, there is a lobby bar, a permanently shaded room, conducive to relaxation and confidential, friendly and even, I would say, intimate communication with a female person. True, I tried to write this Diary in such twilight with a glass of OUZO or beer on the table, it did not work. And beer and "anisimovka" were absorbed excellently!
The very name "lobby bar" speaks for itself. Lobby - translated from English is a vestibule, foyer, reception. And therefore, even in comparison with the porter service (reception), it has a more significant value for the hotel guest. After all, you came to relax, and a lobby bar with a guaranteed quality of drinks and a higher level of service than at the same bar on the beach or by the pool, as well as a chic and comfortable environment, is more conducive to relaxation. It should also be taken into account that this is the only place where after five in the evening you can easily and naturally sit over a cup of delicious coffee or no less good wine (I have already mentioned beer and strong liquor and therefore I will not repeat myself), since all other bars after sunset close up. Especially the importance of the lobby bar increases in winter, when you can’t sit on the beach because of the cold after 3-4 hours, and before going to bed another 7-8 hours - what to do with? Of course - in the lobby bar!
And not at all in terms of significance, but because I arrived at the hotel late in the evening and there was no question of any sea and swimming in it in connection with creatures crawling out of the depths that are dangerous to health and even human life. But I was given the opportunity to enjoy the architectural forms and landscape design of the hotel territory all night long in the light of night lamps, lamps and other technical means of lighting, which I took advantage of with great pleasure. Naturally, besides, armed with two pens (as in a battle with pistols: suddenly one fails) and several sheets of paper. You can, you say, and run for a pen and paper in the room. But then you, dear, have no idea what the creative process is! And that interrupting it is even worse than interrupting sexual intercourse! Now can you imagine it? ..
But, everything is in order.
Entrance to the hotel.
You enter by transfer bus through a large gate with security on the upper, plateau part of the hotel. To the right are residential buildings. Between these two rows of buildings there are two swimming pools, and below is a water park, which was put into operation recently, in 2015. Closer to the main building, also on the right, there is a new amphitheater for concerts and evening animation. On windy and cold winter evenings, this amphitheater is not entirely comfortable for visiting, and therefore sometimes performances (except for the dance with fire) are transferred to a closed bar. (The old amphitheater was downstairs, almost by the sea, and now it is being dismantled. By the way, I lived just above this old half-dismantled amphitheater (my number is 2116) and I was lucky that at that time its concrete was not hammered with jackhammers to finally take it apart for garbage. But this is so, by the way. )
To the left of the road along which you drive up to the main building there are several buildings for household purposes and at the very entrance there is a medical unit and a number of shops with oriental souvenirs, drinks, vegetables, teas and more ...
At the entrance, you drop your luggage into a common heap and lightly enter the main building to the porter service (reception), where there is also a lobby bar, a restaurant and other services, such as fitness, photo, etc. You don’t have to worry about things: for they are being watched. Yes, and a motorized porter, who is also the driver of a microcar, is waiting for you to deliver you along with your things to your room and get a hood for it. By the way, they perceive a chocolate bar without much excitement; better than a dollar!
At the entrance door to the main building, the plateau part of the hotel ends and its “terrace” part begins.
But what set it apart was the panoramic view of the sea, albeit from afar. Here I was initially settled in absolutely the same located building to the left of the main building, but on the first floor - in room 1144. “Some kind of witchcraft, ” I thought.
First of all, I was struck by the fact that everything else, from the main building and further down to the sea, the layout of the SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel is almost the same as the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel where I was in August of last year, and therefore his paintings are still fresh in the memory. It is possible that this is due to the fact that both hotels are located on the same slope, by the way, on the highest above sea level Om El Seid plateau in Sharm El Sheikh. And therefore such a solution in the form of cascades of residential buildings, gazebos, fountains and other architectural forms from the top to the sea, in such conditions, is the most appropriate.
The hotel grounds are beautiful and well maintained.
And I unmistakably determined this on the very first night of my tour of the hotel terraces and was confirmed in the morning during a photo shoot of the same views. Unlike the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel, there is no elevator so you can easily go down to the sea or go up to the restaurant. What is the connection between the elevator and the landscaped area? - You ask. Yes, the most direct. At first, I considered this a disadvantage, but on the very first evening I was convinced of what a beauty it is to climb a serpentine alley, alternating steps, from bottom to top, while discovering something new and unusual at every step. Can you see such beauty from the elevator? “Obviously you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful. And that's why here, at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, you feel the beauty of the territory open before you, which you can't help but see. And, if you look from below, from the sea, then it appears as if on a huge screen.
And you can't even imagine that here, less than fifty years ago, there were bare rocks. (Sharm El-Sheikh began to be fully developed as a resort only in the seventies of the twentieth century! )
Imagine that after the dullness of everyday bustle and subdued night illumination of streets and squares, even in the capital, you immediately find yourself in a festive, with multi-colored lights, fountains and flowing streams of water, a fabulous performance. And you are not a spectator in the amphitheater, but a direct participant in this show.
From the top of the hotel, I was drawn down to where the cascades of various contrivances of human artistic talent could offer me no less amazing and impressive places and images. (Of course, with a glass of delicious beer, which I periodically “tasted”). And my expectations did not deceive me.
To the right of the exit from the main building, opposite the San Marino Italian restaurant, I spotted an alley with a stone parapet and flowers on top, which descended to the first local masterpiece, passing by which it is impossible not to notice its originality and not stop. This is a gazebo with two wooden benches and sand ashtrays on high bent metal profiles in copper color. The gazebo is a kind of observation platform at a long stage of comprehending the beauty of this resort world. And below, on the right, at a height of at least ten meters above the lowest platform by the sea, as if in limbo (like the Gardens of Semiriad), were the buildings of the relaxation zone with the Relaxing Pool in the center. And below, from the very base of this rock mastered by man and to the very beach - a large pool - "Family Pool". And then to the full depth of the view - the sea ...
After resting in the gazebo and fixing my impressions on paper, I began to descend. And again a miracle: a multi-level fountain with a cascade of small reservoirs, illuminated by multi-colored lanterns. The sight of living water and its murmuring sound in the middle of the night made it clear that even at such a late time, vacationers can enjoy the beauty of the hotel and feel the hospitality of its owners. Unfortunately, the second cascade fountain, on the other side of the alley, more grandiose and majestic, did not work that night. Quietly dozing… I could not walk even a meter or two, so as not to stop enchanted, and not to write down what I saw, in the faceting of the feelings of my soul…
And at the very bottom I went to the main pool of the hotel. It's quiet and calm here. But joyful voices and laughter of vacationers, children, splashing of water, calls of animators for various games and gymnasts were still in the air ...
I went out to the coastal alley, and went along the sea.
But I did not go down to the sea: I was not ready for this meeting. He got carried away so that he quietly got into the territory of the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel and, apparently, went quite deep inside. And I guessed this from familiar places, when I came to reality after the guard called out and explained to me with gestures what and how. I had to return to my territory temporarily, accompanied by him. And it was already well after midnight, somewhere around two in the morning ...
This was my first evening-night acquaintance with the SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel. And I could not have done otherwise: after all, I had only five days in reserve. And "plans - a full head" ...
restaurants and bars
Restaurants
The main restaurant of the hotel "Half Moon", even on the first evening before my arrival, made a favorable impression on me with its design design.
And this stove is similar to those that we had in Ukraine in the past and are now being built in rural houses. And it makes you feel at home.
About dishes - a special conversation
For some reason, I thought that breakfast in hotels in Egypt is limited to one scrambled egg or scrambled eggs. And he was wrong. I, like a lark by nature, wake up very early and therefore by the time of breakfast I was already quite hungry, I quickly took scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs, but, most often, both, and throwing some vegetables on the same plate along the way , quickly absorbed everything and calmed down (until lunch). But today I decided to capture in the photo everything that is for breakfast. This is for a specific report in your Diary. And in the process of shooting all the dishes, I realized what a variety the chefs of this hotel prepared for us during the night! And when do they sleep? I have such respect for them for their overwork for the benefit of our gluttony! ..
I am not a barbarian by nature, and for the reader's (and viewer's) safety, I deliberately did not show my table with an assortment of dishes at dinner and then in an ala carte restaurant, so as not to drive you into wild horror ...But I will simply describe just below the words...
My next “victim” was visiting a la carte restaurants that require a preliminary reservation at the guest relay, sitting at a table with a laptop on the right at the entrance to the lobby (in front of the reception desk). “Khandahar” - an Indian restaurant, with a stunning view of the roof of the main building, and "Blue Bay" - located on the seashore, which offers oriental cuisine. You can sign up for these restaurants immediately, but on different days; time: at 18-00 or 20-00, which I did on the first day of your vacation, signing up for a later session for a well-founded reason.
Indian restaurant "Khandahar"
Expected, according to advertising, a stunning panoramic view did not turn out due to a sharp cold snap in the evening and a piercing wind (it happens in January in Egypt, especially on the hills). And that's why I didn't get two sweaters to compensate for weather disasters and enter the "panoramic comfort on the roof". Yes, and with feeling and arrangement, slowly tasting the provided dishes of Indian cuisine, when the wind blows the self-assembled tablecloth and everything that is collected and displayed on it, I didn’t succeed ...The only thing that I remember well was thick bamboo sticks, and whole tree trunks, of course, without a crown, inserted into impromptu flower beds, each with three pieces. Small, but a piece of the plot of India ...
Oriental restaurant «Blue Bay»
What was my amazement when, after an Indian restaurant with a "panoramic view on the roof", on the second day I visited the Blue Bay Oriental restaurant on the very seashore! I can hardly describe this miracle in words, since there are no such words in our world to convey these feelings.
Imagine. Summer, in the middle of winter, night. Desert coast of the Red Sea. And only in one place are bright lights and moderately loud music. This is a small, thirty seats, restaurant with transparent plastic walls, through which a wonderful panoramic view of the sea, the full moon, the moon path and the barely audible music of the surf opens ...
And I say this not as an amateur, but with knowledge of the matter. I spent more than a dozen, or even a hundred nights (sleeping or awake) to the sound of the sea wave on the Black Sea coast in Alushta - in a wooden beach house ...(I then worked as a lifeguard or on duty on the beach of the Kaskad pioneer camp.
» And they bring the ordered drinks for a “drink” - a slow tasting while the chef prepares the dishes. But here the dishes are already prepared in advance. And they are solemnly carried out on a blazing brazier. Placed on a stand on a table...
What is a brazier? - This is a rectangular metal container with chased walls in an oriental style, inside which there are burning coals, and on top it is tightly covered with foil with grilled meat products: kebab, chicken and liver - each in two large pieces. And from above everything is covered with a thick layer of oriental greenery. The convenience of such a brazier on your table is that you can stretch your pleasure at the restaurant table for an hour or two, and the dish will be constantly hot and therefore especially fragrant and tasty. And not frozen like a stone after ten minutes in normal conditions and restaurants.
Fascinated by the second, but most important, main course, I forgot to say that the table was still served: a side dish and seasoning sauces in bowls. And it's all under strong, at 42? drink "Ouzo" and delicious Egyptian beer ...
An hour and a half flew by. And before leaving, thanks to the waiters, I thought: after all, here we are shown the class level of the hotel, service, service and food - how the SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel can do during its normal, non-crisis existence. And I hope that soon such a moment will come for Egypt!
Only one thing surprises me: why out of more than three hundred vacationers in this hotel, only ten people signed up for such an excellent restaurant (except for me there was a noisy "Ukrainian" company of six people and three young people). Only. And there were more people involved in organizing such a feast than guests. Even somehow it became a shame for the hotel staff and their work with low, due to the fault of vacationers, efficiency.
The next day I asked my friends about this restaurant, so many did not even know about it. Yes, and the hotel guide on the first day at the meeting about these a la carte restaurants mentioned only in passing.
As a result: in the five days of my vacation at the Sunrise Diamond Resort, I visited three restaurants, according to the concept of the All inclusive system. Due to my limited financial resources, I have not been to San Marino, an Italian restaurant with a buffet open for lunch and dinner, and therefore, as an eyewitness, I cannot describe it.
With regard to restaurants and the level of food in them, I have come to a very interesting conclusion. And this is after looking at the reviews of vacationers about hotels, I noted a certain trend. Imagine, you have visited a hotel, you liked the quality and range of food in the main restaurant of the hotel. You, like other vacationers with you, write a positive review, sometimes even with delightful epithets. There is nothing wrong with this
. But sometimes it happens that people, believing your assessment, go to the same hotel and get disappointed in those moments that you really admired. And you are perceived as a liar and a swindler, receiving money or any benefits for custom articles, when in fact everything is much worse. But you are not to blame, and wrote sincerely. And the thing is that the quality and range of dishes is very tied to the time factor. Today is good, but the next few days it will be worse. This is especially true during a crisis. Hotels do not have the reserve of funds to smooth out this sinusoid. And the sinusoid arises due to various periods of mass arrivals of vacationers and dead seasons in the tourist flow. For example, on New Year and Christmas holidays in most hotels the full house and prices for tours increase, even several times: in the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm 5 * hotel - up to $ 800 and more per person for 7 days All inclusive.
And today the price of the same tour is only $324!
In the restaurant, as well as in technology, there is, it turns out, inertia, the essence of which lies in the fact that after such a massive influx of tourists and, naturally, the receipt of significant funds, restaurateurs can continue to keep the bar at the level of holidays for some time . But not for long. Nothing comes from nothing. According to my vacation at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort from January 7 to 12.2017, I can say that the food even in the general restaurant remained at the level of holidays throughout the entire period of my stay at this hotel. Only towards the end, beef began to appear, not melting in the mouth, but a little harsh, apparently, there were not enough funds to purchase more expensive meat. (But this is such a trifle that it did not affect the general level of restaurant service for vacationers, and I brought it only to confirm my theory. And all the objective reviews about this hotel are only positive).
I knew about this in advance, choosing the date of arrival, so that it was both cheap and high quality. And my assumptions were justified in practice. Still, the classics of Marxism-Leninism were right when they asserted that the criterion of truth is practice!
At the same time, looking at the reviews of vacationers in the nearby Royal Grand Sharm 5 * hotel, which I know firsthand, because I recently rested in it. There were significant comments on the quality and range of dishes in the main restaurant. Compared to this hotel, the SUNRISE Diamond Resort 5 * hotel is part of a chain of eleven hotels in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, and therefore can neutralize such "sinusoids" and therefore, as I think, it is more preferable for relaxation, according to compared to other hotels.
bars
The SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel offers seven bars to its guests: Lobby Bar - located in the hotel lobby, Relax Bar - next to the Relax Pool, Family Bar - next to the Family Pool, Blue Oasis - next to the Active Pool, Blue Bay - on seaside, Blu Sky - rooftop bar, Victiria Pub - disco bar.
Lobby bar. The most solid, in my opinion, bar - both in terms of interior, comfort, and in terms of the range of drinks, service and duration (until 24:00) of service. It is located opposite the porter service (reception), practically in the lobby and, as it were, in its continuation, in a small recess. Soft massive armchairs and sofas, as well as glass tables on massive bases - racks - are the same as in the lobby. And that's why it's also, if not more comfortable here than in the lobby. The only thing that is puzzling is that it is difficult to find a free seat and enjoy this twilight of comfort due to the limited area of the bar. And this is with three and a half hundred rooms in the hotel! This is especially sensitive in winter, when almost all bars on the hotel territory close at sunset, and this is until 17-00.
Relax bar. Had the opportunity to taste my favorite Ouzo drink in this bar.
The hospitable and sympathetic bartender offered me to taste, or rather, wash down my strong drink with lime juice with water and sugar! I constantly make myself a similar drink, but I did not know that in some bars, outside the established concept, there is such a thing. The bar and especially the bartender - the soul of a man, I liked it.
Blue Oasis. Great bar! And, most importantly, there is no way around it on the way to the beach and back from the beach. Firstly, it is so located, and secondly, that there is a point for issuing towels next to it. Well, how to bypass it? Every time you have to slow down your hurried step, take two glasses of beer and, sitting right there at the table, drinking beer, enjoy the bright blue of the pool, wooden arched bridges, palm trees and, of course, the sea ...
In winter, I recommend taking bottled beer, not draft beer. It is less cold. But to taste, what else is excellent!
Because the real, and not the powdered “chemical”, as we have in Ukraine, is for mere mortals. And here you can drink a bucket and your head will not hurt in the morning. And, most importantly, that the "roof" will not go, as from our folk beer. And therefore, having known (or rather) remembered real beer, upon arrival in Kyiv, I will completely refuse from my own, even though it is national, and I am a patriot!
Blue Bay. Well, this is a special bar! Even I would say bar-restaurant! And it differs not only in its huge scale (in the evenings, from 18:00 and from 22:00, by magic, it turns into an oriental restaurant, which I spoke about with such rapture above.
This restaurant complex, during the day from 10:00 to 17:00, consists of a bar with a large number of tables and a kitchen with two ovens: for grilling and for making pizza. And by 12:00 here, from all the beaches of the hotel, and there are more than 5 of them, vacationers hungry after an omelette-egg breakfast come here for delicious pizza!
I once tasted it, but even now, and more than ten days have passed, I still feel its taste on the tip of my tongue and breathe in a delicious aroma with my nose. It’s a pity that I didn’t remember the name of the skillful Pizza Magician, but you will recognize him in my photos!
Some of the vacationers do not even go to the main restaurant for lunch. And not because it’s far and uphill - they are lazy, but simply here they cook tasty and satisfying food. And for pizza there are all kinds of salads, and for a snack - various sweet vegetables (for example, melon - all the time) and fruits. And for children, and adults, this bar also indulges in ice cream every day. I tried. Very tasty too.
What is also impressive about this bar-restaurant is a large oven - for grilling and similar dishes. True, pizza is always cooked in an oven with a gas burner fire. (But I would like at least once cooked on a "natural" fire). And it is prepared very quickly, within five minutes by an Arab chef.
And every time I pass by, having greeted the chef "Asalam alaikum", I can not refuse the invitation and not be tempted to try his pizza. Even if, after a full meal, you “loaded” yourself “to the eyeballs”, there is always a place for such a delicious dish with a cold beer from a bar nearby. His benevolent smile with the words: “Maybe pizza? Ten minutes! - you are completely disarmed and you remain at the mercy of his art of making pizza. With deft movements of his hands, he takes the already prepared pita bread, rolls it slightly and puts the necessary components on it, having previously learned what you prefer. Then the prepared pizza is put into the oven, and after 3-5 minutes it pulls out the finished pizza with a “tack”. You look at these movements and marvel at his dexterity.
Speaking of bars, it is impossible not to mention once again the delicious and, most importantly, natural beer in Egypt.
Yes, tasty chemists have learned to make absolutely everything - and from their product - chemistry. But natural is now a rarity. And I remember natural beer from the 80s of the last century, when we started building Czechoslovak lines in Ukraine. One of which was on Baburka in Zaporozhye, where I previously lived. There was good beer in Kyiv in the early 70s in vending machines on every corner - 10 kopecks. cup! Therefore, there is something to compare ...
Hotel rooms
After all, it’s a sin to hide, the rooms are not all the same, first of all, in terms of location relative to the distance from the sea and the entire basic infrastructure of the hotel, including the main restaurant, bar, pool, etc. And, naturally, they differ in repairs . I knew all this. I knew that the very first number would be offered to me, like to anyone else, not the best.
This is also natural: who will offer the best number when a person, according to the level of his needs and ideas, will be satisfied above the roof and with the most mediocre number. And a harmful and picky client will be dissatisfied with any number, even the best one, and will definitely find more than one drawback in it or in its location. In addition, if there are vacant rooms of a higher category and, therefore, more expensive, then it will be possible to offer the vacationer to significantly improve a comfortable stay for an acceptable surcharge, and, importantly, for a much lower price compared to the price that he would paid according to the original price list at his hometown travel agency.
For example, today on the site "Anex Tour" the price of the cheapest tour to the hotel "SUNRISE Diamond Resort" in two weeks (if not urgently) for the standard 7 nights all inclusive + per vacationer is $ 394 in the Standard room - $ 394, at the same time the same parameters, the price of a Superior room is $603, the price of a Family Room with Bunk Bed is $828, the price of a Standard Beach Front room is $994, and the price of a Royal Suite is $1.578. Can you imagine what the difference is? And why, then, are clients outraged when they are offered the same superior rooms and, naturally, at an increased price, but two or three times cheaper? If you don’t want to, you have the right to refuse, simply not to respond to such an offer. As well as the offer of any services at the resort, whether it be an excursion, massage or diving ...Unless, of course, these services are not included in the price of your tour.
The only thing that can rightfully resent is the decrease in the level of services provided, compared to that which you have already paid for, according to your tour.
For example, you have a Superior room category, and you are accommodated in a standard room, or you have an all-inclusive food system, and you are offered one breakfast (BB) ...
A very delicate issue remains the category of the hotel during the economic crisis, as it is now. After all, if today a 4 * hotel corresponds in terms of service and quality of services to a 3 * hotel in the pre-crisis period, then here, most often, there are complaints from vacationers - regulars. After all, over the many years of their vacation, they have already become accustomed to seeing the same “four” or “five” in the form they should be in normal economic conditions. And therefore, in reviews of hotels, I have to meet numerous negative reviews of hotels. At the same time, these clients forget that the price they paid for their tour is much, if not many times, less!
That is, in order to stay afloat and not go bankrupt, like many hotels in Egypt now, hoteliers allow the maximum reduction in prices for tours due to many of their main indicators, including food ...And vacationers should understand that they are not reduced tour prices at all for their pretty eyes...
Do not forget that in our world nothing happens for free! What you pay for is what you get. And this is almost always in the foreign hotel and tourism business. They look after their faces and think about the prospects of their business, and not according to the principle, as we have: "grab and run away. " And I felt this principle of keeping the brand of my business in one of the hotels of the Sunrise Resorts & Cruises chain at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, starting from the smallest details and ending with global issues.
The rooms in the hotel are almost all with good, and some even with excellent, fresh renovation. I happened to live in two rooms: in 1144 - this is to the left of the main building, on the first floor overlooking the garden.
And only the uppermost edge of the sea was visible. Repairs in this building - as if done yesterday, everything from scratch. And even a plasma TV with a huge screen. The size of the room is much larger than the "Standard" in other hotels, more suitable for the category "Superior Garden View Room" / DBL - these rooms are next to the Royal Grand Sharm Hotel - they are located to the right of the main building of this hotel. I rested there four months ago and I can say that the rooms in this hotel are no worse, and, in my opinion, even better. Due to the original layout of the area - not rectangular, but with a recess where a sofa with a floor lamp is placed. As well as oval arches with a pointed upwards, in the Arabic style - in the openings and at the exit from the balcony. Very impressive!
Room 1144 is convenient because there is a restaurant nearby, but you can go down to the sea on the left along a straight path past the flower beds with Ukrainian Chornobryvians (a unique surprise - you immediately remember your homeland, and the smell - you immediately move to your distant childhood ... ).
Or you can walk to the sea along a wonderful winding path past a gazebo, fountains (one was not working at that time, and the second was a miracle, especially at night with backlighting, and then past the pool, towels and, of course, a bar. How can it be without a bar - they are at every step! (On bars - see below).
The second room is not far from the main pool, from the side of the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel. I was kindly, even at no extra charge, provided at the reception at my request. You understand that for creative inspiration I need not only a view of a wonderful garden, but also at least a side view of the Sea. The second room is also good, but the renovation was done a little earlier. And a plasma TV, but the screen is half the size.
Rooms that start with 2 are on the second floor. And almost always one of them has an excellent view of the sea (directly or, as I had in 2116, a side view of the sea). This room is closer to the sea. But for me (64-year-old "grandfather") it is harder to climb up the mountain to the restaurant.
In such cases, I often remember the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel, where they "managed" to make an elevator in a straight line from the sea to the porter service (reception) and the restaurant ...But in general, this hotel is much better, and not much more expensive.
January 8.2017 Sunday
Moment of morning blessing
The hotel continues to amaze me with many of its small and big surprises...
I woke up early, but in connection with yesterday's acquaintance with the territory of the night hotel, far after midnight, the sunrise still overslept. The sun has already risen for about forty minutes and rushed up to its zenith. And to me, through the half-open heavy curtains, as a greeting on the first day of my stay at the resort, they sent gentle, caressing their warmth, their rays.
And you are two steps away from it, you live on its very shore and sleep to the sound of the sea wave. This is the beauty of the first coastline of the hotel that I chose: to be directly by the sea and with the sea, to feel its direct touch on me with the smell, and the sound of the surf, a light breath of the sea breeze, and many more, so elusive , but clearly and vividly felt not only by a half-naked body, but also by his entire Soul. And on the wings of joy you fly towards the sea, towards your happiness. A minute later you are on the shore and, spreading your arms-wings, are trying to take off towards the sun ...And you take off and fly with your intangible essence, leaving your mortal body on the shore to experience no less happiness than the happiness of this flight ...And this moment turns into an eternity of bliss of the body and Soul .
Intoxicated with all this unearthly and earthly goodness, you return to the earthly existence of this World and, looking around with a wide look around, you realize that the realities of this material life here, in this hotel, are not much worse than sensual fiction. Yesterday's night pictures and landscapes under the moonlight, during the day, in the rays of the playing sun, take on a completely different look: not frozen and sleepy, as it was at night, but alive, breathing every millimeter of its surface and in constant, multidirectional movement - in such that from him even in the eyes ripples. And you perceive all this automatically, and realize it at the subconscious level ...At the same time, your second "I" moves around the hotel and in each new corner of it finds something of its own, original and wonderful, pleasing to the eye and creating a reason for the unrest of the Soul . All this is absorbed into you and fills the vessel of your physical and spiritual being.
And, having filled it “to the eyeballs”, it will transform you into a new form of your existence, which will remain such for a long time after you return home, in autumn slush or in frosty winter. And I clearly feel this now, on the fifth day after returning from the Red Sea to Kyiv, with its blizzards, meter-long snowdrifts and bitter frosts. And, moreover, I don’t just feel all this, but even continue to live with the southern warm sea, exotic Nature and landscape and architectural design of the wonderful SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel. Such is the power of the inertia of thinking, which can continue the wonderful moment of our life not for a day or two, but for many years. And at the same time, our whole life becomes completely different, filled with that inexhaustible happiness of the past existence.
That is why we are sometimes so drawn to the South, to the sea.
And this craving is so irresistible that we drop everything and go, fly towards a dream in order to replenish that vessel of happiness, which turned out to be almost exhausted in the daily sewers of our life. And so, on the first day of my stay at the Red Sea, I clearly felt the filling of this inner vessel of mine with an unearthly blessing...
In order not to be forgotten for a long time and to be resurrected in memory to the smallest detail everything that was written last night in the light of the moon and today it appeared about all the colors of the rainbow, I photograph an incredible number of subjects: a wooden arbor and benches in it, amphorae and metal ones, in the color of copper, bent coasters for ashtrays with sand, paths, young palm trees, fountains ....And everything-everything that I meet on the way during the day bypass of the hotel territory.
Breakfast in the hotel
The Joy of the Soul that I experienced on the first day of my stay at the resort, with a claim to eternity, is good.
But it can be eternal, provided that the body is eternal. Or, at least not the eternity of the body, but the maintenance of its life as long as possible. And for this, in addition to air and water, which are still plentiful today, food is needed, like fuel for a car. Realizing this, I am surprised every time: “However, the eternal Soul managed to get such a harmful and pretentious being as a physical body as a fellow traveler in this World. I could have chosen something more impressive, corresponding to myself, to my level. And then it turns out like an unequal marriage ...
However, the physiology of my physical being on autopilot led me to the entrance of the restaurant. Although it was not so easy to rise from the sea to such a height! But, "hunger is not an aunt ... ", and does not work such miracles. And because of this, I had to break away from the contemplation of spiritual beauty and fix my eyes on the beauty of the earth - skillfully prepared dishes by the hotel's chefs.
And everything that I saw and that my stomach felt, taking inside all sorts of different goodies, I described above in the section “Restaurants. Bars "and therefore, in order not to rouse passions among readers who are currently not full and thirsty, I will not repeat ...
After breakfast, I went out, or rather, rolled out like a bun, from the restaurant and rolled down to the room, and then, dressed in a beach ensemble (swimming trunks), to the beach to relax and lie down, relieve fatigue from incredible work at the restaurant table ...On the beach, by the sea, to the sound of the surf, as always, I fell asleep for a short time ...I fell asleep for half an hour, as there was still a morning photo session of the hotel territory and a meeting with the hotel guide at nine in the morning. I didn’t even have time to dive into the sea and see the underwater kingdom - I postponed everything for later ...
This was my early morning of the first day of my vacation on the Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh, which, by the way, almost unchanged, was repeated every day of my only five days of the resort.
robbery in broad daylight
This morning, on the first day after arrival, as usual, the hotel guide arranges a meeting for new arrivals. I also decided to find out what's new in his repertoire. Everything turned out to be the same: for ten minutes more than twenty people listened to useless, useless information (I listened to it too), and then, as usual, psychological pressure began to “push in” inflated ones at a price of one and a half, two, or even three times, excursion vouchers. From his first words about these vouchers, which sounded very cheerful with a heightened emotional mood, I got up and went to the exit from the hall where this “meeting” took place, which greatly upset the hotel guide.
I don’t specifically name where, from which tour operator this guide is currently, because everything in its style and trying to fool vacationers is almost the same. But in this hotel there are as many of them as there are flies in the resorts of Egypt in late autumn. The same annoying and flickering in their branded attire throughout the hotel lobby. Okay, flies are attracted to honey, sweets in the hotel, but what attracts hotel guides from Anex Tour to the hotel? - Of course, no less sweet dollar harvest from just arrived, fresh vacationers and who have not yet squandered their dollars accumulated over the year.
By the way, all the other souvenir merchants and service sellers (masseurs, photographers, etc. ) on the beach work in the same style. For them, like electronic ionizers and fumigators for mosquitoes and flies, this hotel came up with a “repeller” - a red flag attached to a sunbed on the beach.
The idea is good, but too catchy for us, people from the former, collapsed Soviet Union, it is a symbol of a “happy” communist future. And, since there are 99% of such unjustified hopes and their descendants on the beach, no one used such a service. When they change the color of the flags to blue or green, maybe then this idea will come to life en masse.
Regarding the "pushing in" of tourist vouchers to vacationers at an inflated price. Regardless of the hotel or tour operator. This, it seems to me, is the only place in the tourist business of Egypt where a wild, I would even say, a gangster market of goods and services manifests itself. What a pity it is that all this happens under the roof, mostly decent and crystal clear, hoteliers in Egypt, which involuntarily puts on them an unjustified black spot of swindle and swindle vacationers.
And this is obvious from the reviews on social networks, where almost everyone scolds, almost curses, hotel guides.
But here, it seems to me, is much more complicated than it seems at first glance. The fact is that in this narrow segment of the business, a lot of money is rotated on travel packages, almost comparable to tours in general. Just imagine, in order to sell you a tour and provide a flight and vacation with meals at a hotel, thousands of people are involved, ranging from an agent in a travel agency to a cleaner in the rooms. And a lot of money is invested: in air travel, in a hotel, salary, food, and so on. And now (in winter) the standard price of such a tour per person is $200 - $300 for 5-7 days. At the same time, for half an hour or an hour of working with clients, the hotel guide charges almost $100 - $200 from each for excursions, which are clearly cheaper than air flights from Ukraine to Egypt, along with the cost of accommodation and meals All inclusive in the hotel.
The joy of morning weather grace on the very first day of my stay in Sharm El Sheikh continued no further than before lunch, and ended by four in the afternoon. After all, lunch here, starting at one o'clock in the afternoon and lasts until three o'clock, when the sun already has a tendency to set. And I didn’t have time to get ready for the beach after lunch (and my lunch dragged on for a long time - until the restaurant closed, just up to three hours), when a cold wind blew from land, because of the mountains. At first he was cool and caressing, but soon turned into sharply unpleasant and even angry and cold.
On the beach, for the second time after my arrival, I nevertheless appeared at four o'clock. And this is understandable. Do not stare forever at the beauty of the park landscape and architectural masterpieces, created by Nature and revived by man in the desert, photographing all this. After all, the main thing for which I flew here, far away, is the unique, one of a kind Red Sea.
- And this is not new...But I was waiting for something else - the revelation of the Soul in this wonderful place for it (and not for a mortal body) - on the seashore! And therefore, I ignored all the protests of the body in the form of these useless "goosebumps", "colds" and "sneezes".
I am sitting on a rock. Near the sea. Just two steps away. Sometimes it rolls its waves right at my feet. Seems like he's trying to play with me. But these are small waves near the shore, like little children of the big Sea, which in the distance seems no longer Red and beautiful, justifying its name, but dark blue and menacingly dangerous. I saw it so dangerous in the summer too, but only late at night, when all sorts of different predatory creatures swam out of its depths ...
But now it is January, as for Egypt, a warm month, and it is still daytime. With my mind I understand that the sea is warm, up to twenty-five degrees, and the eyes and the body trembling in the wind suggest the opposite: the sea seems even colder than the air and the prevailing breeze on land.
This is the inertia of our thinking with reference to the weather conditions in Ukraine: water is always colder than air. And therefore every thought of bathing is rejected. In fact, here the warmth and grace of the Sea is powerless against the Evil of the Land.
Nevertheless, despite the discomfort for the body, I continue to sit by the sea. I sit and write. I write from nature. But, most importantly, everything I write about, I feel, literally, and not figuratively, on my own skin, which is already at its limit, trembling and futilely trying to resist the cold and such an unfriendly wind.
Again, experiencing the evil of the Wind, I continue to assert that it is not the cold, but the Wind that is the greatest enemy of man. Even Siberian and Far Eastern extreme frosts are friends to man. But the wind even there turns a friend into a bitter enemy. But not only in winter. But even in summer, a draft, and this is the same modified wind, is a fertile condition for the development of pathogenic bacteria, up to epidemics ...
The sun has already completely hidden behind the towering buildings and palm trees of the hotel, located in a recess on the slope. But it was still above the horizon. And so for a while, but not for long, it was still light. And when twilight began to thicken over the Egyptian land and the voice of the mullah sounded, calling for the evening prayer, I got up from my stone by the sea and wandered to my room in order to warm myself and feel and describe the entry into my dominion of the darkness of night already in comfort for the body ...
I quickly jumped into my room and immediately put on two sweaters. Nevertheless, for a long time, with fading periodicity, I hiccupped like a child after a full meal. But one conclusion was drawn: no matter how many sweaters you take to the sea in winter Egypt, there will still not be many!
And I immediately thought: “But how did I not freeze in my Kyiv in a light leather jacket with three sweaters in the frost at twenty degrees when I was driving to the Boryspil airport, if here, in Africa, I freeze at twenty degrees of heat in two sweaters? »
I was surprised by this cold wind from the desert. I remember that the summer before last, while relaxing in the El Samaka Beach Hotel 3 * (Hurghada) in August, it was comfortable until a sultry, burning wind blew from the desert - so burning and unpleasant that at noon it was impossible to breathe even on beach and many at this time hid in the rooms under the "air-conditioning", and for an hour or two up to the neck, covering my bald crown with a Panama, I plunged into the Red Sea ...
But here, more precisely, in this winter January period, it turned out to be the opposite.
And all my expectations, just like last night, to enjoy the velvety night climate and admire the amazing pictures of the evening, and then the night hotel, sipping beer from a glass, incredibly quickly crumbled to dust. Walking around the hotel in one Swede, and even with a cold beer in my hands, turned me into a freezing donkey, and I hurried to put on two sweaters I had brought with me. The body became a little more comfortable ...
I am also surprised why, just yesterday, I perceived frosty weather in Kyiv at -18? With a much more evil and prickly winter wind, penetrating the body to the very bones, for granted, and today here in Egypt, I perceive a seemingly “fresh” breeze at +18 as an angry threat to my physical existence? No matter how hard I strained my brain convolutions, this paradox remained a mystery to me ...
So get ready and don't chill out at the winter resort in Sharm El Sheikh waiting for the heat around the clock. This happens here only occasionally and as an exception. I nevertheless happened to experience the joy of this exception last evening and night, and, as if knowing this “exception”, I stayed awake for half the night and enjoyed this blessing with pleasure ...
At the same time, I experienced real winter in an Egyptian resort with such strong winds that I did not know them even in Ukraine. And such winds were here, in Sharm El-Sheikh exactly a year ago, on Epiphany on January 19, when I was resting a little higher, at the Poinciana Sharm Resort 4 *, now, since the summer, "dead to die. " But the latter, of course, is not connected with that veil… By the way, based on that plot, I, sitting on the shores of the Red Sea and, imitating Ernst Hemingway, wrote my story: “The Old Man and the Sea Wind” (see above).
Nevertheless, at the end of the cons I raised the white flag and, in order to shorten the waiting time for dinner, I retreated to the cozy and warm lobby bar, where the furious wind did not penetrate. At dinner, which began at half past six, I had a purely symbolic bite, knowing that at eight that evening I had a table reserved for me at the Indian restaurant on the roof. I have described my impressions of this restaurant in the corresponding section of this Diary, and therefore I will not repeat myself. The only thing I remember most of all was that two sweaters were not enough and I regretted not wearing the third one, which was left in the room ...
January 9.2017 Monday
Mystery of the Sea
It so happened that in the late afternoon I was again at the Sea. Maybe because at these hours, when there is no one else on the Sea, it is most disposed to communication and can tell something. And I go to it also because it calls me, pulls me to itself, hoping that I will hear and understand what it will tell me about.
I went.
Sat down on a rock. And all genuine attention to the Sea. While listening to the Sea and looking at it, trying to hear and see the Sea deeper than just its perception. But so far I can only hear a conversation, more precisely, a monologue of his wave with the shore - surf with land. The coast throughout the beach, except for a small area, is rocky and therefore the noise of the wave is special. I am sitting on a rock. And when a wave hits a rock, I hear a voice with notes of indignation that some kind of silent and gloomy block, hanging over the Sea, stands in its way. And the wave with evil hits this rock and splashes in different directions in the form of a fan of splashes and drops ...But on the way of the wave, it happens that there are gentle boulders and a coast with a gentle stone slope. And then, it seems to me, the wave communicates with them, as with brothers, gently, like a sister envelops them, as if hugging them with her arms.
Nearby is a shallow sandy beach and a wave rolls its waters far ashore and therefore makes a completely different noise, as it seems to me, with satisfaction, with a sense of accomplishment. And then, quiet and exhausted, she returns back to her sea element. But the newly oncoming fresh wave, having met on its way the extinct returning wave, hits it hard with its entire long front, foams and makes an indignant sound, as if reproaching the surrendered wave for its shameful retreat. Although she herself, in a few seconds, will be in her place, depressed and extinguished ...And so, with a frequency of 5-7 seconds, it repeats many times. Thus, along the entire long line of the coast, the wave, meeting various obstacles to its movement, makes various sounds, and, like in a symphony concert, the music of the sea surf sounds. And I enjoy listening to this music. Many consider it as just the sound of the surf.
Above the sand, the water seems yellowish, above the stones - greenish from the greenery of the simplest aquatic inhabitants that cover the surface of the cameos, and further, in the open sea, the color of the water changes from turquoise in the reflection of corals - to blue, blue and dark blue - at the very horizon , at the junction with the blue dome of the sky.
At the bottom of shallow water, with magnification, as through a large magnifying glass, even the smallest pebbles and shells are visible. Only sometimes they play unsteadily in the rays of the setting sun. But this is physics with its laws of optics - refraction of light in a transparent medium, showing me its tricks, hoping in vain for my ignorance in its science.
But I only admire this wonderful view, not allowing myself to be deceived by this trick of Nature, since I once studied at school ...And then I catch myself thinking: maybe in vain I irrevocably led myself away from the true perception of the World with my senses. Souls, inherently flawed technocratic-scientific explanation of everything that I see, hear and perceive with the other three senses? And that's why I wanted to shout loudly, to the whole world: “Don't go to school, children! »
And only now, far, too far from my childhood and infancy, when I perceived the world around me in the true light, I am trying to regain my natural abilities to truly see the World, to communicate, as with animated, its inhabitants - the Wind, Cold, Sea ...And I don't give a damn that this will seem to many as an abnormality at the level of a mental disorder.
I stood not just on a rock of stone - magma from an extinct volcano frozen millions of years ago, as it was in the Crimea during my repeated stay there. And I stood on the remnants of life, on the array of the History of Life, which raged here not millions, but billions of years ago. This is how the ancient world on the Crimean Peninsula differed from the Sinai Peninsula: there the Earth trembled from spewing fire-breathing volcanoes, with a hot stream of magma spreading along its slopes, and here, hundreds of millions of years earlier, life was already rampant in its original, elementary form. And here, most likely, there was the bottom of the sea, which receded over time, exposing the multi-layered remains of life - the most ancient relics.
And what kind of life was there in those days!
I judge its diversity by its remnants that I have under my feet: all kinds of tubular, fan-shaped rays of shell valves, openwork constructions in the form of perforated honeycombs, needle-like, flat, in the form of scales and others - it’s impossible to list them all ...Interestingly, many forms of life have survived to this day and they can be observed here, nearby, if you swim in a mask under water along the reef. They are not much different from the ancient ones. But the fact that you are standing on a rock of relic remains of life that flourished here two billion years ago speaks volumes. And, above all, it is a connecting link between you and that ancient world, like a bridge through which you can penetrate into that world, cognize it and describe it in your "travel notes". Which I later did thanks to meditation.
I imagined how for millions of years, far in the past, here, in favorable, as now, climatic conditions, life flourished violently, its various types and forms were created. Separate individuals died and froze on this rock in the form of petrified remains, giving life to new generations. And it all happened right here where I stand.
I am standing at the farthest edge of the beach of the SUNRISE Diamond Hotel on the border with the Monte Carlo Hotel - where the foot of a spa visitor rarely steps, and therefore this foot allowed me to contemplate and even photograph this wondrous beauty of the Ancient History of our Earth.
I realized that it was no coincidence that I was here, and not for three days out of five stays in this hotel, I went to these relics, but went all my life, step by step, approaching this reserved place step by step.
I had to fly to Egypt a dozen times, stay in various hotels in Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh in order to prepare myself for this meeting, so that this ancient World would let me in and reveal its secrets. Which is not given to everyone. And I was convinced of the latter a little later, when leaving, I looked at this place with an independent look from the outside: it did not differ in any way from other, similar coastal cliffs along the entire two hundred-meter coast of the hotel. The same dull beige and rubbed with the feet of vacationers in fine sand ...
This is a reserved place. One of the few on the coast. And I wonder why the Egyptian authorities, who issue environmental laws for the Sinai Peninsula and so scrupulously monitor their implementation, could not identify and protect such unique islands of antiquity from barbaric destruction.
I mentioned “barbaric destruction” - not in the direct and purposeful sense, because the simple location of a sunbed in this place or even walking barefoot, and even more so in beach shoes, means to break the protruding edges of the relics, and in a month or two and turn everything it's a marvel in plain sand. I was convinced of this when I lightly pressed my finger on a tubular relic protruding above the surface with a snow-white smooth pearl surface inside, and it easily broke off at the base ...And even if you enter this relic site in shoe covers and soft museum slippers, it’s all the same it is possible to damage these uniqueness and turn it into an ordinary rocky beach, which are now many coastal areas of the Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh, ten years ago, everywhere keeping the distant Ancient History of the Earth.
Speaking about reserves for this type of places, I involuntarily remembered the Kara-Dag Reserve in the Crimea, where, according to local residents, even a stone cannot be taken out of it. From Egypt (the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada) it is also impossible to take out corals and other marine life, and if you try, it is punishable by large fines. But the increased exploitation of the coastal territory in order to maximize the pumping of finances from the tourism business, the pollution of the coastal waters of the Red Sea both by tourists and by the hotels themselves and pleasure boats, leads to the fact that in the Sharm El Sheikh area, as well as everywhere in Hurghada, in a few decades, according to environmentalists, this amazing world of corals will completely disappear.
Perhaps, for a longer period, corals will remain in the five reserves of South Sinai, as museums of Nature.
There are also two of five such reserves in the Sharm El Sheikh region: this, 25 km southwest of the city, at the extreme southern point of the Sinai Peninsula, is Ras Mohammed National Park, and in the northeast, 35 km from Sharm El Sheikh - Nabq National Reserve.
But so far here, in Sharm El Sheikh, there is still one of the few corners on earth where a malicious person has not put his vile little hands and ruined Nature. Therefore, for the destructive action of man on Nature, contrary to the precepts of Jesus Christ, I began to hate man ...By the way, I myself belong to this species ...So it turns out, I hate myself!
But I am justified only by the fact that with my physiological needs in order to live and survive (of course, there is a share of destructiveness in the realization of such needs), I am aware of this harm and strive to reduce it to zero, for example, by switching to vegetarianism, which will not greatly reduce my evil to Nature, and my attempt to call myself a "pagan" in order to join the god of Nature, Pan, is just my good wish.
In addition, in my life, spiritual priorities prevail over physical ones. And this, in my opinion, is the most important and defining thing for the Man of the Future, whom I called “Ozarwek”.
Have you ever felt Nature?
Have you ever felt Nature? - So, for real, to the very depths of the sensitivity of the Soul. Yes, so as to cry, as they cry from sensitive tenderness.
This little flower answered me the same - the same trusting caress as a baby can answer his mother. Or a truly loving girl - to her beloved. This flower stirred its petals and, surprisingly, emitted such a quiet, penetratingly blissful voice that I, from his voice and, in general, from his gentle response to my caress, silently wept with tenderness and delight. My Soul was crying with incredible joy, which could not contain the whole gamut of feelings perceived from this baby with blue petals like the eyes of a girl. And the feelings were so strong that they could not be kept within its limits and manifested themselves outward in the form of already natural tears of the sensitivity of the soul. I believe that such tears are the highest gift for a person from a world higher than ours, an increasingly pragmatic and stale physical world.
And, for some reason, this bed seemed to me like a cradle for a newborn child ...It also seemed to me that the sky was preparing an elegant retinue for the meeting of the Sun: clouds (which in itself is rare in the Egyptian sky) of a bizarre shape, more and more filled with a solemn crimson color against the blue sky. And even, as it seemed to me, they were whispering to each other about something of their own ...And the whole east, in the place where the Sun was supposed to appear, was heating up, but by no means not in red, as I expected, but with a burning yellowness, which happens when a steel blade is hardened or in a furnace with molten metal.
The bed has already been prepared, and the retinue froze in solemn expectation ...And now this solemn moment has come! In the center of all this expectation, above the sea, on the border between heaven and Earth, to the barely audible music of a silver flute, a small, pea-sized, but incredibly bright dot appeared.
This is by the standards of that world where much more Great Luminaries also live…
And then everything happened naturally, without any special mysteries and secrets. The sun more and more rolled out from behind the horizon, turning into a huge fiery disk in the brazier of the heavenly furnace. And it was already impossible to look at its brightness without dark glasses. But, interestingly, without losing its brightness, but increasing it even more, besides adding ever-increasing warmth and heat to its light, the Sun eventually turned into a small disk, with a size of ten kopecks, which during the day already few people pay attention. Is that sunbathing on the beach resort.
But, nevertheless, the beauty of this process was striking in its perfection and originality, unlike any of its manifestations millennia before and will not be identical for the same number of years in the future.
It's already eleven o'clock. The sun is approaching its zenith in the sky. It, within five hours after its appearance in our World, continues to gain strength and radiates more and more heat, despite the winter month of January, which is futilely trying to appease it. Therefore, at this time, you can even get a good tan, and stupidly, even get burned.
A very interesting geographical position of Sharm El Sheikh and features of the relief surrounded by the city. Here, in the Sinai, in Sharm El-Sheikh, just like here in the Crimea, in Yalta, protected from the cold of the peninsula from the west by high mountains, Summer has found a year-round refuge in the coastal bowl. Only sometimes in January-February the mountains cannot hold back the shaft of cold winds and let them through, forcing holidaymakers on the shore after a twenty-degree sea font to wrap themselves in beach towels, or even drive them into warm rooms.
But for me, on this trip to Egypt, to one of the best hotels in Sharm El Sheikh, on a tour of only five days, these five days were a double pleasure. Firstly, a pleasure for the body - a warm sea, a tan on the beach, an excellent room, service and, most importantly, food and drinks on the All inclusive system. Secondly, for the Soul, this is the realization of creative potential to the maximum extent.
But the question today is not in this, but in the psychology of the creative process. And this is a mystery of mysteries. I have already gathered material for a whole book to present attempts to explain this process. Nevertheless, I believe that in my knowledge of it, as I was, and still remain, practically at zero. And therefore, experiments and the promotion of new ideas in this direction, which may even seem absurd to some, continue with me ...
In this perspective, today on the beach, sunbathing under the rays of the hot midday sun, at the same time, at the same time, at an accelerated pace, I sketched everything that I felt and what was “going on” on a sheet of paper, when I suddenly felt the important role of the Sun in my creative process. I do not rule out that this idea was a continuation of my ideas about the Sun and the World, which originated early this morning during the morning dawn. Surprisingly, the name of the hotel where I am now is translated as "Diamond of the morning dawn. "
Representing the Sun as the dominant phenomenon in our world throughout the day and, especially, during its stay at its zenith, I suggested that it cannot but influence all the processes that take place under it, including the creative process.
And now, basking under its rays, and drawing the symbols of writing onto a sheet of paper, as the final result of the creative process, I saw only three actors in all this action: the Sun, my spiritual and my physical essence. And no one else. Moreover, the first two actors, with the primacy of the Sun, performed the main “creative” role, and the physical essence was assigned a secondary, “routine” role of an extra and fixer on paper what the Sun and my spiritual essence produced.
Within this trinity, the birth of creative ideas took place, their development in the Spiritual world and a "breakthrough" into our physical world through my physical essence. And in the first two stages of this process, the dominant role was assigned to the Sun! And the higher it rose to its zenith, gaining more and more strength in this World, the more it had an impact on my creative process.
The sun, as an influential teacher, dictated to me what I should write down, and I, as an obedient student, wrote it all down on a piece of paper. And everything happened automatically. I was like a robot, not daring to resist his will, and I had no chance to insert at least something “on my own”. But I did not try to do this, because I perceived this phenomenon as a high level of presentation of the Truth by the Sun, against which my reasoning and conclusions looked like baby talk or like primitive rock paintings of an ancient person. And I had to grow and grow to the level of the Sun ...and more than one life. But in this World, I can hardly rise even an inch in this matter. In our World there is a certain bar - the limit level, above which the entrance is ordered to the physical essence of our World. This is the postulate of this world, which concerns everything that is connected with the physical essence.
But I contrived, as in this case, to violate this postulate.
We in our conception of our World are guided, first of all, by physical, and not by spiritual and sensual ideas. And, most often, we are based on the laws of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and other natural sciences laid down from the school bench. By doing this, we put blinkers on our eyes and can look through them only in a narrow segment of the reality around us. It is also a kind of zombie of our consciousness. And only when you break out of the nets of this zombification, as I described above, you begin to see not only our Physical World in all its beauty and charm, you discover previously inaccessible secrets, but also penetrate into other worlds, several orders higher than our World.
For example, in accordance with the laws of physics, we represent the solar system with the Sun in the center and the planets, including the Earth, revolving around the Sun.
Let us imagine the Sun as worthless in the other world, where there are completely different, not physical, but spiritual values, and where its light and warmth do not play any role ...And let us ask ourselves the question: “What is the Spiritual Luminary in the other world? Is there Light or Darkness there? And who is the master of both, who or what dominates there?
In ancient times there were people endowed with the ability to see and understand the worlds beyond the limits of our material World. This did not fit into the concepts of reality, explained by the real vision of things and phenomena, and therefore was difficult to perceive. And therefore, so that everyone who was before us and it was clear to us, due to the inferiority of the Mind, such concepts as God (the Most High) and the Devil, his opposite, were invented ...But this already goes far beyond the scope of this topic and further reasoning will be presented in another section.
Only here it is appropriate to note that creative inspiration from the other world can be drawn from both light and dark forces, and a creative person can walk both under God and under the Devil, which is easy to determine based on the results of his work.
I am not making a discovery with this. Everything that I have now described is experienced by any Master every time in the process of creative inspiration… Only none of them has yet described this process and has not laid a theoretical basis for it.
Reef. Underwater world of the Red Sea
While the beachgoers have not scared away the most shy large inhabitants of the Red Sea, I am on a pontoon and from it I dive in a mask and snorkel into the underwater world of corals and colorful, in our opinion, "aquarium" fish.
First of all, I want to say that the pontoon at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort was installed with skill: the most prosperous part of the reef was chosen. Especially on the right side, if you stand facing the sea.
When I was in the month of August last year at the Royal Grand Sharm Hotel (the one next to it, on the right), it was a mystery to me why all of a sudden the only pontoon is located in the farthest corner of the two hundred meter beach? And now everything became clear: because of the best part of the reef! And the pontoons of these two hotels are located, practically, side by side.
I will describe in more detail the bottom of the sea. From the shore, corals go a hundred meters. Near the shore they are covered with sand and only low stones and rocks protrude from the bottom, and here the sea is knee-deep, and even less at low tide - many corals protrude above the surface of the water. Therefore, not always, but children can swim here on a small, 50-70m long sandy beach (twenty umbrellas and about a hundred sun loungers). Parents also come along with their children, hand in hand with them, to admire the fish swimming on the shallows together. But these fish here, compared to the reef, are very few and they are not so colorful.
After a hundred meters, the corals in such a mass settlement end, and a huge cliff appears under the water - an abyss, fifteen meters deep. And this is the height of a five-story building! And this cliff, or rather the inner wall of this cliff, is called a “reef”. Sometimes, as it was especially evident in ten meters to the right of the pontoon, the corals protrude into the depths of the sea, forming a small island where you can stand and rest after a long snorkeling trip. The coral on this site, apparently, is dead and therefore allows you to safely stand on it. And if you look at the very bottom of this coral ledge, you can see a fabulous grotto through which the rays of the Sun fall into the shadow of the coral.
This stretch of coral reef on the border of two hotels is the most beautiful and with the greatest variety of corals.
But, I must say that from the surface it seems that deeper than three or four meters at a depth there are significantly fewer inhabitants than in the near-surface zone. It is possible that this is due to poor visibility. Although the water is quite transparent and the bottom, although visually blurry, can be seen to the entire fifteen-meter depth. I am convinced that the bulk of the fish are found near people swimming, and this is partly because the resort people often, in violation of the prohibition law, feed the fish. And unique fish, in this regard, with a violation of their diet, may die. Confirmation of the fact that the Red Sea fish are "friends" with vacationers is the fact that the largest number of them are near the pontoon, and under the pontoon even in the form of numerous flocks.
I have witnessed an interesting phenomenon.
When one girl entered the sea from the pontoon, who, as it turned out, had previously fed the fish daily with baked goods from the hotel restaurant (and they are really tasty), she was surrounded by so many different fish that the water “boiled” around her from them. And everyone who was with underwater cameras barely had time to capture interesting scenes in photographs. And at this time the girl did not even feed them. It is explained simply by the conditioned reflex of fish to the familiar smell of a girl, when it appears, they (the fish) start a delicious and plentiful lunch ...And on the opposite side from the pontoon, where the allowed swimming area ends, the beaches of the neighboring Monte Carlo Sharm Resort begin & Spa”, where I, as a researcher, swam out of curiosity, so there are practically no fish, with the exception of one or two who accidentally swam.
Now in more detail about the inhabitants of the Red Sea, which I saw on the reef near the SUNRISE Diamond Resort.
corals
South Sinai is rich not only in a variety of coral species, but also in a mass of beautiful fish. In the Ras Mohammed reserve, which is south of Sharm El Sheikh, there are more than a thousand different species of fish. Near the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, near its reef, I saw no more than a dozen of their species, as I observed them in the near-surface layer of the sea, without sinking to the depths. But here they do not swim alone, but in whole shoals of up to fifty or more “flock” individuals. Butterfly fish live here mostly in such a “collective” way, moreover, all of the same bright colors. And deeper you can see flocks of young fish of various types of fish, which break up into separate independent individuals as soon as they grow up. Separately and in pairs, larger fish swim, up to forty or more centimeters in length - this is a surgeon fish.
All fish are constantly pecking at something, taking out invisible living creatures from the surface of corals. Fish swim calmly, without fear of humans.
It happens that a school of butterfly fish swims right at you, then “washes” you from all sides and then swims without paying attention to you. Only if you make a sharp movement with your hand in their direction, they instantly rush into the scatter.
But these are all reference materials in dry clerical language. And what feelings did I experience, plunging into the waters of the Red Sea? Everything from the beginning and in order.
When you go with a mask to the edge of the pontoon to the reef for the first time, you do not know what awaits you in the underwater kingdom. What you see from the air is distorted by the refraction of water and is hidden behind the glare of the sun on the surface of the water. But when you put on a mask and dive, all barriers and distortions disappear, and you see the underwater world in its natural form. True, with some increase, but this does not spoil, but even improves the visual effect of what he saw.
) into a decrepit old woman ...Do not take your eyes off the morning or evening dawn, which suddenly arises and disappears just as quickly, giving way to either a sultry (rainy, frosty, etc. ) day, or the dark horror of the night ...And all this is a rare and fleeting beauty against the background of dullness and everyday life. By the way, sometimes we don't see, we don't even pay attention to individual manifestations of the beauty of Nature in our world because of the inveterate routine.
But when you dive into the water world in the Red Sea near the reef, not only do your eyes open wide, but the pupils expand with surprise and a desire to see the unearthly beauty of the underwater kingdom as much as possible. And, moreover, the impression from what he saw is so strong that it does not leave the feelings of the Soul indifferent and indifferent. Impressions penetrate into your inner spiritual world and awaken it, which usually, if not sleeping, then dozing.
You see and perceive with your senses this eternal beauty that lives and continues for centuries, not interrupted for a second in subsequent generations of the same growing corals or fish. The beauty of the fish does not depend on the mating season: they are no less beautiful both in "infancy" and in adulthood, right up to their natural death.
Having written this, I thought why in our airy world beauty, which, according to philosophers, should save the World, is so fleeting and turns into its opposite - into ugliness, but in the watery world of the Red Sea - eternal? Conservation properties of sea water and redox reactions with increased rates in the air, I do not take into account. Here is something different, fundamental from the standpoint of the existence of our World as a whole.
But these are all passing thoughts.
The main desire is to absorb this beauty as much as possible and keep it in yourself, take it home, to Ukraine and live with it until the next visit to Sharm El Sheikh.
And, importantly, to share this beauty with friends, which I am currently doing on the pages of my Diary.
Again on the relic shore
Evening. Less than half an hour is left before sunset. I am again at the farthest corner of the beach at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort 5 *. This place, remote from the local “civilization”, somehow reminds me of my favorite island on the Dnieper under my balcony in Kyiv. Here and there the foot of a man rarely sets foot and such places are for people who are calm and focused on their own inner world, trying to comprehend at least a small part of the Truth. This, I would call, those notorious gates on Earth through which you can enter other Worlds.
There are many such places and they are tied not only to the geographic coordinates of the Earth, but to the essence of a person and the inner mood to make such a transition. And favorable places for this are just catalysts for this process. I was convinced of this more than once in Kyiv. When in any place, whether it was a bus stop or in a subway car, I immersed myself in the creative process and drew information from these subtle worlds.
Here, on the shores of the Red Sea, in this reserved place, a special magic found its manifestation, which cannot be described in words. And feelings are not transmitted by any means of our world ...And no matter what I do during the day, wherever I am, and in the evening this invisible magic draws me to itself.
Here, for the benefit of vacationers, hoteliers drove three vertical columns into the rock and hung umbrellas from dried palm leaves of intertwined vines on them and placed four sun loungers - they made something like a mini beach. But still, a vacationer here is a rare guest. This is a place for a hermit. Now I am also a hermit: the sea, the rocks and I, no one else and nothing. Everything else recedes into the tenth plan. A rare vacationer comes here: and go far to the bar on the beach for a cocktail or beer, pizza for lunch, or just swim in the sea: the cliff does not allow you to enter the sea so easily. And therefore, as for me, this place is reserved - this is how I feel it. My soul is drawn to this place.
I see a futile attempt to make money on equally poor Ukrainians - now, perhaps, the only mass tourists in Egypt after Putin's blockade of tourist Egypt by Russia, as well as thousands of closed retail shops, the owners of which have switched to work as taxi drivers or to small part-time jobs. Tightly closed hotels, such as Poinciana Sharm Resort 4 *, where I had such a wonderful vacation a year ago and wrote a lot of kind words about it, sadden with nostalgia and bring tears to tears.
I understand that the state, and even more so the hoteliers, do not have the funds to make those small territories with unique relics, which I wrote about above, into reserves and protected areas.
With a little, and you can’t enjoy underwater views for hours - you have to go to the beach every half hour and bask ...
And between all these stages, and even during these stages, especially in the underwater kingdom (it’s just a pity that they didn’t come up with waterproof paper and a ballpoint pen under it) - intense creativity with active “scribing” of paper with words, phrases and expressions that appear from nowhere in my mind. It was the latter that caused considerable surprise among others. However, none of my new acquaintances around me bought any of my books, even about the resort and about love. But they read with pleasure and, to no lesser extent, praised ...Such, apparently, is the fate of the Poet. And such is the contingent of tourists of this 5 * elite hotel: in 3 * and 4 * hotels my books, especially aphorisms about the resort, about a woman and about love, were in great demand ...
And all this cannot but cause a desire to write - to get rid of the exorbitant load of positive emotions that overwhelm your soul. And, if you give them free rein, then in a free stream they pour, in addition to your participation, onto a piece of paper in the form of endless beads of small letters and words. The desire to quench your thirst is to write, forgetting about time and space, day and night, in any conditions: be it in a restaurant, on the beach or during excursions around the hotel. Is there any joy in this world greater than this? And I doubt that under these conditions, if I had 7 or 14 days, the impressions could be exhausted, both in quantity and in the depth of their perception. And the reason for this lies not in my subjective peculiarity of creative nature, but in the objective reality of not only the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, but also the nature of Egypt and the Red Sea in general.
By the way, I remember how I began to comprehend the Crimea in the 80s of the last century.
Now, on the Red Sea, as then in the Crimea in Alushta, a new level of cognition of the Truth is revealed to me. Only then was the truth created by the Nature of the subtropical climate in natural conditions. And now - natural only in the Red Sea, and on the shore - man-made. But even here, on the shore, the role of man in the birth of this beauty, only as a catalyst: more fresh water, skillful planning, planting and careful care ...And everything else will be done by Nature herself and a climate favorable for this - an oasis will grow in the desert, pleasing to the eye and healing body and soul! Nature will raise palm trees to a ten-meter height, reveal amazingly beautiful flower buds, cover lawns with a fluffy carpet of grasses, pour fruits and berries with healing nectar ...
And I observed all this at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort and wrote these lines from the nature of this beauty.
Is there any joy in this world greater than this?
Farewell exit to the relic corner
And, not restrained inside - this storm was so strong, it broke out. At first, it manifested itself in the form of tears that non-stop splashed from the eyes, and then a real cry of despair escaped from within, comparable to the cry of a wounded beast ...
“Look around! Look around! ”, - sounded a plea behind me, gradually fading away, “Look! Look around! . . "But for some reason I knew that, looking back, I would forever and firmly tie myself to this relic world, perhaps even forever remain in that world and would never be able to leave it. And that is why he moved farther and farther away from him, gradually thinning the thread of connection with him. My physical essence triumphed, and only the spiritual essence suffered more and more, manifesting its suffering in an already unrestrained roar and a stream of tears ...
I went to the barbaric world of my fellow tribesmen - "humans". I, in fact, returned to myself, to the world of my material essence, physical reality.
And in order to fulfill the testament of the relic coral world, I must blow up this (and mine, at the same time) physical world from the inside. And this is clearly not for me.
I moved further and further away from the relic world. And this departure was not calculated in steps or meters of distance from the coast, where the history of the Earth manifested itself and the agony approaching it was felt ...I was leaving something more significant and incomprehensible to the human mind and consciousness ...At the same time, I blamed myself for leaving away from those who trusted me so much and expected that I could help them at least somehow ...
I wrote all this from nature, not missing a single detail, because I knew that in a moment or two other material and physical problems would appear and all my visions of the subtle World, like a dream, despite their brightness and impressionability, would disappear forever, and I can't even remember it in general terms.
The full moon replaces the daylight in its place in the sky. “A holy place is never empty, ” a popular proverb aptly says. And now I see confirmation of this: the Moon took over from the Sun, although it does not shine so brightly, but still the visibility of its presence in the night, as a night star, shows. The moon also has its own retinue - from numerous stars. There would be much more of them if the Moon did not extinguish them with its brighter light.
But no one in this night world, except me, knows that the Moon does not have its own light: it is she, like a mirror, that reflects the rays of the Sun, which has gone to rest after the evening dawn, where the peaks of the mountains have posted their guards for the calm sleep of the day master of the sky. . And I know that because I went to school and studied Physics. If it were not for this unfortunate fact in my life, I would perceive this World in a completely different way, in all its charm - with the sensations of the Soul, and not with my flawed mind ...
But the past cannot be erased.
The Moon on Earth also has its followers. Waves in numerous numbers, from the horizon and almost to the very shore, reflect its light, play with it, as if they want to throw it above the surface of the water. And from these yellow reflections on the surface of the sea, a wide lunar road was formed, going into the distance and there narrowing to a point. This road is so enchanting and seductive that you just want to jump on it, right from the cliff and run along it, barely touching its golden coating with your feet ...But, alas! Again, the same malicious school Physics does not allow me to do this and deprives me of such pleasure ...
The entire coastline is completely exposed to moonlight. Everything is illuminated by her milky-matte light. And therefore, every object on the shore casts a blurry shadow on the ground. And in these shadows you try to find nocturnal inhabitants: various monsters and kikimors. You know exactly what they are.
After all, there can be no night without its permanent inhabitants. And where can they hide, if not in the shadows? Do not go out into the bright moonlight! I would be afraid of them and run away to my safe haven - to a hotel room, but curiosity and the desire to paint the night from nature and everything that happens in it take over. And I hasten in the light of the moon to record everything I see, and moreover, what I feel, in my clumsy handwriting on a piece of paper until this or that night phenomenon or impression from it has disappeared.
It's windless down here by the sea. Only there, at the top, the breeze is still walking and the pink flag is waving on the flagpole. In Egypt, in January, it is rare that at night, starting in the evening, the windmill does not show its violent temper. And so I have the opportunity, with some relative comfort, to admire and enjoy the night over South Sinai.
Daytime noise and discordant din of vacationers was replaced by night silence.
Some deep, as if at the bottom of a wide well of our World, this night silence is hidden. Only waves measuredly rustle their crests along the coastal strip, sometimes making a splash when they hit the rock. In general, they are calm and obedient at night. After all, she is now the mistress of the world. And this even surprises me a little: the Sun cannot appease the exorbitantly frisky “crown of nature” - man and other inhabitants on land, and the Night has found control for everyone! Great power (or maybe spell? ) of the night! But I am not afraid of these nocturnal charms, if they really exist: on me, consecrated in the Pechersk Lavra, a wooden cross on a harsh thread ...
The night put everyone to sleep, immersed them in their night trance. Everyone except Sea. The sea continues to be awake, especially in its depths.
Despite the stupid and half-blind night (it was already about three o'clock), I was still allowed (Her Majesty the Night allowed) to examine the sea and sky, their color. Moonlight makes its own adjustments to all colors and shades, and they are mainly black, gray and silver. And all of them are reflected in the sea and in the sky. Gray near the shore from shallow underwater corals, and then black, maybe even dark blue closer to the shore. And the sky above the horizon, between the black sea and the rest of the sky, interestingly, is gray, like a dim glow. And such a color of the sky above the horizon is explained by optical phenomena ...
Without finishing the sentence, I caught myself thinking that again I explain all the phenomena of our World by the laws of physics, forgetting that in our World a significant place is occupied by the astral World, the Spiritual World, which pervades it everywhere, the concepts and images of which can describe any process in an accessible and colorful way. or a phenomenon in our World, which was done above with several examples.
January 12.2017 Thursday
Last day of the winter resort
Eleven o'clock. Consider my winter spa already over. Ahead, in the coming hours - the fuss of packing bags, leaving the room, handing over the keys to the room and a card for a beach towel at the reception, the last lunch and departure to the airport.
Since the plan - be sure to check out the room before 12-00 and early transfer (15-10), with a late departure (19-00). I still don’t understand why you need to leave the hotel four hours before the plane’s departure, when the road to the airport takes no more than twenty minutes ...
And therefore, my daily routine is compressed to the limit: breakfast, a couple of hours at sea, and at half past twelve I should already be in the room - to pack my things so that by twelve, as expected, I can vacate the room.
Everything was going well until I went into my room to start packing. And that was half an hour before check-out. And then there is a knock on the door and the cleaner, without asking, tumbles into the room and starts cleaning. And it's only half past eleven! I have my personal time for another half an hour! I tolerate it.
I have already put everything in my bag. The janitor is messing with something in the bathroom, sometimes staring at me . . I tolerate his impudence, it seems like my upbringing does not allow him to be removed from the room just like that.
Let, I think, a person enjoy cleaning, because he didn’t clean the room every five days (my kind soul sometimes relieved him of such a duty, since I, as a bachelor with many years of experience, could keep clean and tidy myself). But, to my regret, the cleaner did not understand me, or pretended, as the Arabs know how, that they do not understand when it is beneficial for them. And when I began to seal the bag in film and tape, he briskly jumped up to me and also, no less intrusively, began to “help” me, or rather, interfere. Moreover, at the end he also asked for a thin tape as a gift. Of course, I didn’t give it, because I counted on it as a unique seal on the bag, because such adhesive tape is sold only in Kyiv. In the end, the Arab got me and I kicked him out.
I'm guilty, I even provoked the Arab cleaner to some negative action.
This is followed by a chain: porter (or microcar driver) - storekeeper. And who can take under personal guarantee the safety and security of things along this chain? The hotel owner? - Not at all! When you check into the hotel, you are given instructions for review, which clearly states that the hotel administration is not responsible for things left outside the safe ...But you have already moved out of the room and said goodbye to the safe. And therefore, the passport, the remaining money, the camera, the laptop, the phone and other valuables are obliged to carry around the hotel in the form of a huge bag for three hours. And the rest, sometimes, is no less valuable and significant for you? - You leave it to "uncle. " I left my bag, sealed with film and tape, on the "uncle" and I.
Assuming that the salary of a cleaner, a porter and a storekeeper during the economic crisis is meager, and they can “earn extra money”, as they say in Odessa, “to steal on trifles”, I still left something in my bag.
But, by no means, not like the Serpent-seducer of Eve with an apple of paradise, but because you won’t carry everything with you for three hours before departure! ..
What was my surprise when, three hours later, twenty minutes (! ) before boarding the transfer bus, I found barbarously torn film, adhesive tape and household items rummaged upside down: clothes, food prepared for the journey, and so on. Only small things were missing, some of the food and drinks in cans that can be quickly “fused”. At the same time, my protest against the unauthorized opening of my personal belongings on the eve of departure met with misunderstanding both among the representatives of the hotel administration and Anex Tour.
Full text: "Holidays in Egypt" https://www. facebook. com/sashasim. Egypt/
And in the book: Sasha Sim. Red Sea: Corner of the earthly Paradise. Travel notes from Egypt. - Kyiv: SIM & HAM Publishing House, - 2017. - 535 p. , illus. ISBN 966-8802-17-9
© Sasha Sim (Alexander Golovko), 2017
Correspondence acquaintance with the hotel "SUNRISE Diamond" 5 *
The Sunrise Diamond Resort 5 * is one of the eleven hotels of the Sunrise Resorts & Cruises chain, three of which, including the one in which you will not have to rest, are located in Sharm El Sheikh, and six hotels are in Hurghada, and one each in Marsa Alam and Makadi. This network also includes seven cruise liners.
The inclusion of the hotel in such a large network of hotels "Sunrise Resorts & Cruises" provides stability and reliability in customer service in each hotel of the network, even with significant financial and economic upheavals in its individual links.
The hotel is located in Sharm El Sheikh, Ras Um El Sid, in the Hadaba area, located on the Om El Seid plateau. It is surrounded by mountains from the northwest and west, which protect it from the winds and guarantee a comfortable stay even in winter. The hotel has a relatively large area - 20 hectares (which is 200.000 sq. m.
), located on the first coastline of the sea (the length of the beach is 230m), 4 km from the city center, and 7 km from Naama Bay.
The hotel is located close to the airport, which provides a quick transfer (20-25 minutes), but on the condition that a shared bus will not deliver to the most distant hotels, then an hour will not be enough. This happened at my departure, when more than an hour was spent on the 20 km road. But, as for me, it was useful in terms of a sightseeing tour of Sharm El Sheikh and its hotels, one of which (by the way, Grand Rotana Resort & Spa 5 *) attracted me in terms of comfort, judging by its appearance most for the next tour in Egypt. Once again I am convinced of the usefulness of turning Evil into Good and the truth of the proverb: "There is no bad without Good. "
In 2015, a new water park was opened and now the hotel has become even more attractive for families with children.
Near the hotel, literally a ten minute walk is Il Mercato - a business district in Sharm el-Sheikh with numerous offices, cafes, restaurants, fashion stores, an amphitheater and a nice "mini-train" for tourists that runs through the streets - a small town in the town. I emphasize that Il Mercato is a luxurious and elite business district. And here there are no longer any original souvenir shops familiar to Egypt with Arabs inviting them to visit, no incendiary Arab evenings with belly dances and skirts, and so on.
A little further is the popular entertainment complex "Alf Leila Wa Leila" ("1000 and 1 night"), where in the daytime you can go to see and take pictures for free against the backdrop of the plots of Arabic fairy tales. I could not help but take advantage of such a happy opportunity, as evidenced by my photos.
Hotel Reviews
In order not to get into trouble and find myself in a very unsightly situation, as was the case during my first, not entirely successful tour on a last-minute tour (the departure was twelve hours after the purchase of the tour), I made it a rule to first get acquainted with the hotel and the conditions in it, and also about the sea, corals and reef, for the sake of which, in fact, I am going to Egypt. And, first of all, I read reviews of vacationers in these hotels. This sometimes takes even a few days. But after reading dozens of such reviews, especially literary, and not dryly statistically stated, one gets the impression that you have already visited this hotel and, if you choose one, then you are already going to a familiar hotel. True, without a compliment from the administration in the form of a bathrobe, slippers or a fruit basket ...
Reviews are objective for the most part and subjective, such as paid articles in the media or in social networks. networks.
The latter, of course, must be immediately weeded out, not paying attention to their laudatory odes. And they are identified by the style of presentation, as if written by one person and a carbon copy. Such reviews can only be written by Russian-speaking animators interested in the hotel administration. So they write, creating a positive, but often false image of their hotel. Their reviews are like chains that set up "low-quality" hotels in order to catch "suckers" - the victims of a credibility swindler. But you learn about the falsity of such reviews only when you believe such reviews, buy a tour and stop by this hotel ...
But, first of all, in the first place is the choice of the resort. It, of course, depends, first of all, on personal financial capabilities and on the season. I like Egypt for all, in relation to me, indicators.
1. Inexpensive, until the Russians flooded into it, as before, and prices are reduced to the maximum level.
So, according to this indicator, I recommend it to everyone with limited material resources.
2. All year round beach season - summer!
3. Amazing Red Sea, one of the best in the world!
Perhaps this is enough to stop at the choice of Egypt as a holiday country. Further - Sharm El Sheikh, Hurghada or any other resort - does not matter. But I always choose Sharm El Sheikh or Hurghada. And, if possible, the first beach line. If you are going to a resort for the first time, then it is better to choose the category of the hotel in ascending order: from three-star to five-star. But by no means the other way around! On this occasion, I even gave birth to an aphorism: “Alcohol and a hotel should be taken in ascending degrees and stars. ” In the first and second cases, it is clear why ...Although, it happens that these two characteristics - distance from the sea and category - do not really affect the price. Sometimes even a good "five" is cheaper than a mediocre "three".
But my method of identifying specific such exceptions will be discussed below. …
January 7.2017 Saturday
Kyiv. Christmas. Before departure to Egypt
Has the frost hit from -5 since yesterday? From to -18! This is a winter holiday! Not like in previous years, even on New Year's Eve - thaw and slush. And this year and on New Year's Eve there was a slight frost.
And now, for two days already, there is a joy for Nature: there is an opportunity to get rid of all kinds of elements unworthy of life, which can lead the development of Nature not along the best path. And therefore harmful to nature. Still a couple of degrees of frost below, but for a week without interruption - and all the obscene infection froze out - it would have ordered me to live long!
But what about Man? May my inhuman, translucent hint be forgiven me...I do not claim that I am an infection of human society and therefore should freeze like some kind of infection in Nature. But I'm afraid of the cold. And for me -20?
From frost - big negative consequences if I do not warm up. And therefore, it so happened that for these five days of severe frosts, until the thirteenth of January, like a belated migratory bird, I fly to Africa, to warm lands, to no less warm sea. True, since the autumn of last year, this is the second time: then, in mid-November, I flew to Hurghada to celebrate my birthday at the Mirage New Hawaii 4 * hotel. I love myself, more precisely, my mortal body and thus sometimes spoil it. After all, it is not so easy for my body to carry my rebellious Soul within itself. (But this is a separate conversation for another time).
On the way to the airport
And so I packed a small bag (why do I need so much for five days alone? ) And at ten in the morning I left the house to get to the Boryspil airport in two hours by way of check-in for the flight to Sharm El Sheikh.
Trolleybus along Obolon, metro ...It's already half past twelve and we, driving away from Vydubychi, for a while break out of the darkness of the tunnel into the expanse of the Dnieper. We fly with an arrow, shaking our sides. And over the Dnieper there is a gray haze, either from falling snow, or from winter fog. But, it seems to me, it is frost at twenty degrees that froze microscopic droplets of water floating in the air and they silently hover in the space between the ice-covered Dnieper and the sky ...
Away, behind the second bridge - "Hydropark". Snowy and white. And it is felt that the whole is bound by frost. But I remember Hydropark as summer and beach. And, above all, because I am now going towards summer, to the warm sea, which seems unreal in the conditions of Kyiv's twenty-degree frosty winter ...
The metro train walked for a couple of minutes at liberty and will again be pulled by the invisible force of electricity into the underworld - into the labyrinth of the metro construction adit.
Once again the wheels thumped dully at the joints of the rails, echoing from the closely spaced walls of the tunnel. The subway train dived into the dungeon ...And only sometimes, and for a very short time, it jumps out into the “half-light of God” - to the metro station, in order to vomit a couple of dozen people out of itself, take in new ones, and rush further, bringing me closer to the goal - Boryspil airport.
Fascinated by the recording of this whole process, I did not notice how the car rolled up to the next metro station - "Kharkovskaya", which was mine for transfer. And, having come to his senses, at the last moment before closing the doors, he jumped out, not forgetting to grab his bag. I'm leaving the subway. On the outskirts of Kyiv frost even more. And I'm glad that I slipped three more sweaters under the leather jacket. But I didn’t have to rejoice at this for a long time: a new, even greater joy was waiting for me at the bus stop - a brand new “trump card” bus to the airport.
I did not force myself to beg for a long time, and, having handed over my things to the trunk, I jumped into its warm and comfortable interior. And the first surprise: the fare for the past two months has risen in price exactly one and a half times. With a quiet, but angry word, he remembered bankrupt banks, accelerating inflation in Ukraine, and so on ...
We drive slower than usual, the speed is fifty kilometers per hour, no more. And be careful. The road is clear of snow, and there are snowdrifts along the roadsides. But the view of the cleared roadbed does not inspire confidence: it is some kind of unusually gray, apparently, after the day before yesterday's thaw, it is covered in places with an ice crust. This explains our slow traffic...
At the Boryspil airport
Nevertheless, surprisingly quickly, in about twenty minutes, and we are already approaching the terminal "D" of the airport "Borispol".
We unloaded, immediately at the entrance we went through customs control without undressing, but with undressing (outer clothing): the frame metal detector reacts even to a small metal buckle on the belt ...
And we find ourselves in the check-in hall, a kind of “dressing room” of the airport, in which, in addition to numerous check-in counters with large information boards above each, there is also a cafe, many benches for waiting and a paid (70 hryvnia) wrapping machine, nearby scales (free of charge). Just in case, I asked again about the free weighing, in response I received significant confirmation, such as: “I am the kindest person - get it! » I took advantage of the "freebie" - I weighed my luggage and made sure that it was normal. But I was surprised that we, in Ukraine, could have something else for nothing… I was embarrassed to weigh myself, looking at the gloomy face of the packer. I immediately remembered the free packing of luggage at the airports of Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh.
Civilization ...And also about how last time I threw food in the trash can to “adjust” the weight to 23kg ...
Check-in began earlier than expected two hours before departure. This time I didn’t manage, as on previous trips, to contemplate and absorb the impressions of the waiting room, putting them in small handwriting on the “eight” of a sheet of paper ...But I got a seat at the window - convenient for observations in flight and photography ...
And this moment soon came, after short-term passport control procedures, pre-boarding inspection, now, in addition to undressing, but already with undressing, in order to identify terrorist “weapons”, a trip to numerous duty-free shops and boarding the plane.
But, in addition, before landing, for an hour through a huge panoramic window-wall, right up to the ceiling, I watched how rhythmically, with a period of about 10 minutes, planes of various airlines take off and land and bathe in clouds of snow lifted by the propellers of their engines. Slowly rolled up after landing, accompanied by a car with a flashing light, and our plane. Passengers were unloaded from it into a long "gut", and their luggage was onto carts. Then the plane was surrounded by numerous cars and cars, and people in yellow uniforms: they quickly prepared the plane for a new flight ...We loaded everything we needed, including: our luggage, lockers on wheels with provisions, poured food into the belly of the plane and it was enough for a few flights tons of kerosene. And they invited us to board.
This time, tipsy passengers (and they definitely were, how could they do without it after duty-free? ) They didn’t unload their things with their things and therefore reached the runway on time.
We and they were lucky, because there was another, more loyal airline - AZURair Ukraine.
Takeoff - Flight - Landing
As usual, slow and it seems very long, but imposing taxiing to the runway. A short stop, as before a jump. A sharp jerk in the sudden onset of absolute silence, noisy before that in different voices, the crowd of passengers in the cabin. And on the seventh pockmarked transverse strip on the runway, the wheels are off the ground ...
Every time in this situation you experience an unusual feeling, but I can’t explain it in words. At the moment the plane takes off from the ground, you feel as if you have broken away from the earthly world and moved to another, unearthly world, but so far within the Space-Time of our material world ...But you are in this prostration for only a moment, which is interrupted by the stormy applause of two hundred passengers to the captain and pilots airship, so skillfully performed the take-off maneuver
. The echo is muffled, like the blows of large hailstones on the skin of the aircraft from the outside, rolls through the cabin and falls silent, again providing space for the polyphony of two hundred passengers, babbling like geese in a large cage. Except one. I silently listen to all this, and put it from life on a sheet of paper, in the form of sketches of my future articles and essays ...
How many times I have already taken off, but I never cease to be amazed at this power, which lifts an airplane into the air, weighing tens of tons. And only to the fact that it “feeds” on some hundred kilograms of kerosene. That ordinary kerosene, which in my childhood my mother used to refuel "kerogas" and cook food on it, or kindle firewood in the stove of a rural house ...
After one or two, as it always seems to me, dangerous turns, when the plane leans so that it can fall down, climb with periodic laying of the ears and reaching the cruising altitude and speed, there comes a long monotonous “hum” of the engines and the slow movement of the liner relative to the clouds down below. Sometimes it seems that the plane hovered motionless in the air with the engines running.
We are flying, judging by the Sun, to the southwest, although Egypt is directly to the south. This is understandable, we are flying farther than Crimea, Sevastopol with Russian military bases, including missiles - out of harm's way. And in order not to tease the "friend", because anything can happen ...And only after about an hour, we turn exactly to the south. The aircraft sometimes trembles and vibrates heavily in air pockets. I see through the window how the tips of the aircraft's wings vibrate with a large amplitude.
But I believe, and I completely surrender to the designers and developers of one of the most reliable designs of the Boeing-737 aircraft in the world, and therefore I calm down.
We seem to be flying very slowly. The fact that the commander of the ship reported the speed of the aircraft at 800 km / h, observed in the window, is questioned. It can't be! We seemed to be suspended in the air. And below us is a snow-white plain, slightly hilly. And these "snow" hillocks cast small shadows behind them. And just looking closely, you see that relative to this "snowy" plain, our plane is slowly moving forward. And you begin to wonder: how does this slow movement allow you to cover a distance of three thousand kilometers in just four hours? And right there, all 200 passengers of this air liner are probably being fooled. I don't believe!
Okay, I think, let's wait and see: will we really be in Egypt, Sharm El Sheikh in (already) two hours, or will we land somewhere near Odessa on the Black Sea? ..
Such a visual impression is formed in connection with the inertia of our thinking and the binding of phenomena and our sensations to ordinary everyday situations, when we find ourselves in conditions that are significantly different from earthly ones.
In contrast to the visual perception of slow speed - the rumble of engines. And it is so powerful that even here, in the cabin, behind the seemingly sound-absorbing skin, it should not be heard. I can imagine what a frenzied roar of engines outside the cabin! I remember that even being on Earth, you can hear it tens of kilometers from the plane flying over you. Well, how can you fly slowly with such engine power, practically staying in one place? And you gradually begin to believe that we are flying very fast.
And, surprisingly, this muffled rumble inside the plane, with such evidence of its frenzied roar outside, does not frighten or disturb - as if it sounded under your ear on the ground. On the contrary, it calms and even, to some extent, pleases! Why? Yes, because he is here, at a ten-kilometer height - a guarantee of your life! And what could be sweeter than a life-giving sound? Moreover, stop it buzzing before you find yourself on Earth, it is tantamount to tragedy and death. And so you periodically listen to this rumble and, God forbid, even hear at least some interruption in its monotonous sound! This is how your mind affirms and makes you believe in it. And you believe it, that if this hum disappears, your life will disappear with it! Paradox? - Yes! But it is so.
In addition, under this already “joyful” sound (and not a rumble), I even allow myself to fall asleep for a short time, for about fifteen minutes ...Say what you like, but even though I’m flying for the ninth time during the year, but still, significant anxiety does not leave me, however, mostly in the subconscious: after all, the risk of life here, at a ten-kilometer height above the Earth, is huge! And therefore the organism, at the first opportunity, turns off the physical body, plunging it into a rehabilitation sleep.
This is already the second (after the seeming slow speed) example of the fact that you ended up in another world in which the laws of physics do not apply (in your sensations). And in general, you begin to doubt that our World objectively exists, and, as some philosophers say, this is the fruit of our subjective ideas ...
I wake up from the sharp smell of coffee and instant cream. It was a cart that drove up to your row and a smiling stewardess offers: “Tea? Coffee with cream? Water?
"I choose coffee, and drink water ...I absorb all this: coffee is faster, while it is hot, but in small sips, and I stretch a glass of water for about ten minutes. I am not a big connoisseur of coffee and rarely drink it, but my opinion on this coffee is that it is rubbish! And it somehow reminds me of the chicory coffee drink "Summer" in the same metal cans as real instant coffee, which we were so happy about in the "scarce" eighties of the last century.
And I'm writing...I'm not writing very fast, but I try to write down as many of my impressions of the flight as possible. But I don't have time - there are so many of them. And so I try to remember everything, absorb it into myself, like freshly drunk coffee, so that later I can recreate it all, down to the smallest detail.
And again I fall asleep with a pen in my hand over an unfinished phrase ...“For an hour”, under the roar of engines ...
I wake up from an unusual noise in the aircraft cabin, a changed rumble of engines in a different mode, voices on the broadcast “Fasten your seat belts! We are going to land” ...And a lot of other elusive things.
The sun is already half an inch from the horizon in the porthole, moving slowly towards sunset. The clouds below us became much larger and more curly, and in the thawed patches between them even the earth began to be visible, with strings of tracks and roads on it. And small "toy" settlements that connect these routes.
The light in the cabin is turned off - this is so that if we “crash”, so that we are not like blind kittens, but see what and where ...The engines are turned off, or they operate silently at the lowest speeds, there is a periodically sharp decrease, causing exclamations of passengers in cabin ...Ears also sometimes "lay", as well as during takeoff. You do swallowing exercises, and the balance of pressure in the inner ear is restored.
Until the next pressure drop...
Finally, a runway appeared in the window with a ribbon of lights along its entire length. The aircraft, as if attached to this strip of lights and attracted by the concrete base of the runway, and at great speed, which is noticeable by the rapid flickering of lights and various objects on the side of the runway, comes into approach to the runway and the landing gear wheels touches the concrete base of the runway. Again, the applause of the passengers echoed on the skin of the aircraft, but already more intense and joyful (there is, it turns out, joy in such a sound! ). The body of the aircraft, to the applause of passengers, shudders from the impact of the wheels on the ground, then continues to tremble from the vibration of the rotating wheels on the unevenness of the concrete landing concrete surface. The reverse is turned on (reverse rotation of the engine) and there is a sharp deceleration, as if the plane had entered some kind of viscous substance with its nose.
After a couple of seconds, the reverse is turned off, and the plane, already at a reduced speed, continues to roll along the concrete strip, while still quickly. There is, if not mechanical, then natural braking on dense layers of air and from the friction of the wheels on the concrete strip. So, with a decrease in speed, we move a couple of hundred meters more, until the exit from the runway, where a car with a flashing flashing beacon is already waiting for us, which should accompany us to the place of disembarkation of passengers, and from where, after a couple of hours, after refueling, food and water for passengers, and also after the inspection of the state of the aircraft, the loading of baggage and the departing passengers themselves, the same Boeing-737 aircraft will again take to the air for four hours ...
And we, the arriving passengers, joyful and excited about the upcoming vacation on the Red Sea, quickly go to the exit of the plane, load into the bus and drive up to the building of the Egyptian airport, to go through customs and passport control. After this obligatory procedure, we go out to the opposite side of the terminal building, where at least a dozen, mostly large transfer buses, are waiting for us. But there are also a few small "beads". We load, wait until the last passenger and under the TSU (valuable instructions) of the guide accompanying us from the tour operator, we each go to our hotels - the "alma mater" of our further rest ...
Hotel in Egypt
Even at the entrance to the hotel, you can immediately assess what awaits you, what level of service, comfort, food and everything else during all the days of your vacation.
And if your hotel is the last hotel in the chain of accommodation of bus passengers, then you are already winding your head for the future: where, what and how ...For example, we drove up to the Grand Rotana Resort & Spa 5 * hotel. Already the appearance of the gate assembly is impressive ...Further - even more impressive. In addition, security measures in our alarming non-peaceful-terrorist time: security with a large German shepherd dog inspects the luggage compartment for a possible delivery of explosives to the hotel territory. But this is only the first line of inspection at the entrance gate of the hotel - all passengers, including those who are in transit further on their hotels. There is a reassuring joy that all the other hotels, including yours, will not receive terrorist explosives.
Russians in the resorts of Egypt
Although the question immediately arises: who and why this terrorism is needed here in Sharm El Sheikh in hotels among vacationers?
The main object for ISIS terrorists - citizens of a "harmful" power for them - Russia in such a massive number as it was before October 2015 - the explosion of a Russian passenger plane over Sinai, with more than two hundred Russians, is no longer there. Passengers, mostly Ukrainians, are just as enduring Russian aggression and experiencing the hardships of war as the Muslims of Syria. It seems to be like brothers in misfortune. And why should they (that is, us) be blown up? . . And therefore we are relatively calm. Also calm are those few Russians who, by hook or by crook (this is under the law of Ukraine two years ago banning Russians aged 16 to 60 from crossing the border) crossed the border and in transit through Kyiv or Kharkov fly to Egypt on vacation.
True, like a year and a half ago, when I was vacationing in Hurghada in July 2015 at the El Samaka Beach 3 * hotel, during the Russian Airborne Forces holiday, the tipsy "fighters" of the Russian state, to put it mildly, were somewhat "buzzed", now they are much they are more modest and do not stick out their citizenship in front of us Ukrainians and, moreover, their attitude to military service, so as not to run into trouble. By the way, looking ahead, I saw with my own eyes a picture in the main restaurant of the SUNRISE Diamond Resort 5 * hotel, when the director of the restaurant calmed down a tipsy Ukrainian patriot of a fairly solid weight category (and, consequently, heroic strength) and culturally accompanied him to the exit under his cries : "Glory to Ukraine! » According to the reaction and behavior of my fellow countryman, it was obvious that he somehow disagreed with the Russian vacationer here.
The attitude of the Arabs from the service personnel to the Russians is twofold.
The same bartender of a simpler rank, for example, in a pool bar or on the beach, in order to enter into friendly relations with you, can proclaim the slogan: “Glory to Ukraine! ”- our countrymen-vacationers taught this. After that, how not to be friends with such an Arab, friendly to Ukraine and Ukrainians? And then how to resist and not give him a tip?
At the same time, the same bartender transforms and gets all thrilled when he sees a vacationer with a three-headed eagle on a Russian passport, recalling his and his family's comfortable existence two years ago, when an avalanche of Russian citizens brought their petrodollars to the resorts of Egypt ...I already wrote about this in Essay "Sensation! Russian vacationers are back in Egypt! ” above, in the chapter about the Poinciana Sharm Resort 4 * hotel.
And now, a year later, I can confirm the same thing on the following fact. Today I met two vacationers from Belgorod.
So one of them said that the bartender did not believe that he was a Russian citizen and asked to see his passport, which he did. The impression, according to the Russian, was indescribable, what he was incredibly proud of!
It just remains incomprehensible to me how an Arab bartender will behave if a Ukrainian and a Russian are in front of him at the same time: which side will he choose if he is obliged to serve everyone for the previously accepted tip?
Hotel lobby. Porter service (reception)
During my more than a dozen trips to hotels in Egypt and Turkey, I saw many different lobbies (hotel lobby). And they are all different, just like people's faces. There are no absolutely similar ones. Only two essential attributes are the porter service (reception) and the lobby bar.
The lobby of the hotel "SUNRISE Diamond Resort" 5 * is tastefully designed, in a simple classical style, without any frills. I would say, even in a too strict, as for a hotel, style.
Massive furniture throughout the entire area of the lobby is designed in the same colors: single and triple armchairs and sofas, and next to them are rather heavy octagonal glass tables, under the glass of which there is a golden carving on metal in the Arabic style with a hint of antiques. Such a small element of furniture surroundings as this jewelry table at each chair and sofa inspires respect for the hotel…
To the right is the reception desk, a quarter of the lobby in length - also lined with dark brown wood.
Opposite the reception, to the left of the entrance, there is a lobby bar, a permanently shaded room, conducive to relaxation and confidential, friendly and even, I would say, intimate communication with a female person. True, I tried to write this Diary in such twilight with a glass of OUZO or beer on the table, it did not work. And beer and "anisimovka" were absorbed excellently!
The very name "lobby bar" speaks for itself. Lobby - translated from English is a vestibule, foyer, reception. And therefore, even in comparison with the porter service (reception), it has a more significant value for the hotel guest. After all, you came to relax, and a lobby bar with a guaranteed quality of drinks and a higher level of service than at the same bar on the beach or by the pool, as well as a chic and comfortable environment, is more conducive to relaxation. It should also be taken into account that this is the only place where after five in the evening you can easily and naturally sit over a cup of delicious coffee or no less good wine (I have already mentioned beer and strong liquor and therefore I will not repeat myself), since all other bars after sunset close up. Especially the importance of the lobby bar increases in winter, when you can’t sit on the beach because of the cold after 3-4 hours, and before going to bed another 7-8 hours - what to do with? Of course - in the lobby bar!
And not at all in terms of significance, but because I arrived at the hotel late in the evening and there was no question of any sea and swimming in it in connection with creatures crawling out of the depths that are dangerous to health and even human life. But I was given the opportunity to enjoy the architectural forms and landscape design of the hotel territory all night long in the light of night lamps, lamps and other technical means of lighting, which I took advantage of with great pleasure. Naturally, besides, armed with two pens (as in a battle with pistols: suddenly one fails) and several sheets of paper. You can, you say, and run for a pen and paper in the room. But then you, dear, have no idea what the creative process is! And that interrupting it is even worse than interrupting sexual intercourse! Now can you imagine it? ..
But, everything is in order.
Entrance to the hotel.
You enter by transfer bus through a large gate with security on the upper, plateau part of the hotel. To the right are residential buildings. Between these two rows of buildings there are two swimming pools, and below is a water park, which was put into operation recently, in 2015. Closer to the main building, also on the right, there is a new amphitheater for concerts and evening animation. On windy and cold winter evenings, this amphitheater is not entirely comfortable for visiting, and therefore sometimes performances (except for the dance with fire) are transferred to a closed bar. (The old amphitheater was downstairs, almost by the sea, and now it is being dismantled. By the way, I lived just above this old half-dismantled amphitheater (my number is 2116) and I was lucky that at that time its concrete was not hammered with jackhammers to finally take it apart for garbage. But this is so, by the way. )
To the left of the road along which you drive up to the main building there are several buildings for household purposes and at the very entrance there is a medical unit and a number of shops with oriental souvenirs, drinks, vegetables, teas and more ...
At the entrance, you drop your luggage into a common heap and lightly enter the main building to the porter service (reception), where there is also a lobby bar, a restaurant and other services, such as fitness, photo, etc. You don’t have to worry about things: for they are being watched. Yes, and a motorized porter, who is also the driver of a microcar, is waiting for you to deliver you along with your things to your room and get a hood for it. By the way, they perceive a chocolate bar without much excitement; better than a dollar!
At the entrance door to the main building, the plateau part of the hotel ends and its “terrace” part begins.
But what set it apart was the panoramic view of the sea, albeit from afar. Here I was initially settled in absolutely the same located building to the left of the main building, but on the first floor - in room 1144. “Some kind of witchcraft, ” I thought.
First of all, I was struck by the fact that everything else, from the main building and further down to the sea, the layout of the SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel is almost the same as the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel where I was in August of last year, and therefore his paintings are still fresh in the memory. It is possible that this is due to the fact that both hotels are located on the same slope, by the way, on the highest above sea level Om El Seid plateau in Sharm El Sheikh. And therefore such a solution in the form of cascades of residential buildings, gazebos, fountains and other architectural forms from the top to the sea, in such conditions, is the most appropriate.
The hotel grounds are beautiful and well maintained.
And I unmistakably determined this on the very first night of my tour of the hotel terraces and was confirmed in the morning during a photo shoot of the same views. Unlike the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel, there is no elevator so you can easily go down to the sea or go up to the restaurant. What is the connection between the elevator and the landscaped area? - You ask. Yes, the most direct. At first, I considered this a disadvantage, but on the very first evening I was convinced of what a beauty it is to climb a serpentine alley, alternating steps, from bottom to top, while discovering something new and unusual at every step. Can you see such beauty from the elevator? “Obviously you are depriving yourself of the opportunity to enjoy the beautiful. And that's why here, at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, you feel the beauty of the territory open before you, which you can't help but see. And, if you look from below, from the sea, then it appears as if on a huge screen.
And you can't even imagine that here, less than fifty years ago, there were bare rocks. (Sharm El-Sheikh began to be fully developed as a resort only in the seventies of the twentieth century! )
Imagine that after the dullness of everyday bustle and subdued night illumination of streets and squares, even in the capital, you immediately find yourself in a festive, with multi-colored lights, fountains and flowing streams of water, a fabulous performance. And you are not a spectator in the amphitheater, but a direct participant in this show.
From the top of the hotel, I was drawn down to where the cascades of various contrivances of human artistic talent could offer me no less amazing and impressive places and images. (Of course, with a glass of delicious beer, which I periodically “tasted”). And my expectations did not deceive me.
To the right of the exit from the main building, opposite the San Marino Italian restaurant, I spotted an alley with a stone parapet and flowers on top, which descended to the first local masterpiece, passing by which it is impossible not to notice its originality and not stop. This is a gazebo with two wooden benches and sand ashtrays on high bent metal profiles in copper color. The gazebo is a kind of observation platform at a long stage of comprehending the beauty of this resort world. And below, on the right, at a height of at least ten meters above the lowest platform by the sea, as if in limbo (like the Gardens of Semiriad), were the buildings of the relaxation zone with the Relaxing Pool in the center. And below, from the very base of this rock mastered by man and to the very beach - a large pool - "Family Pool". And then to the full depth of the view - the sea ...
After resting in the gazebo and fixing my impressions on paper, I began to descend. And again a miracle: a multi-level fountain with a cascade of small reservoirs, illuminated by multi-colored lanterns. The sight of living water and its murmuring sound in the middle of the night made it clear that even at such a late time, vacationers can enjoy the beauty of the hotel and feel the hospitality of its owners. Unfortunately, the second cascade fountain, on the other side of the alley, more grandiose and majestic, did not work that night. Quietly dozing… I could not walk even a meter or two, so as not to stop enchanted, and not to write down what I saw, in the faceting of the feelings of my soul…
And at the very bottom I went to the main pool of the hotel. It's quiet and calm here. But joyful voices and laughter of vacationers, children, splashing of water, calls of animators for various games and gymnasts were still in the air ...
I went out to the coastal alley, and went along the sea.
But I did not go down to the sea: I was not ready for this meeting. He got carried away so that he quietly got into the territory of the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel and, apparently, went quite deep inside. And I guessed this from familiar places, when I came to reality after the guard called out and explained to me with gestures what and how. I had to return to my territory temporarily, accompanied by him. And it was already well after midnight, somewhere around two in the morning ...
This was my first evening-night acquaintance with the SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel. And I could not have done otherwise: after all, I had only five days in reserve. And "plans - a full head" ...
restaurants and bars
Restaurants
The main restaurant of the hotel "Half Moon", even on the first evening before my arrival, made a favorable impression on me with its design design.
And this stove is similar to those that we had in Ukraine in the past and are now being built in rural houses. And it makes you feel at home.
About dishes - a special conversation
For some reason, I thought that breakfast in hotels in Egypt is limited to one scrambled egg or scrambled eggs. And he was wrong. I, like a lark by nature, wake up very early and therefore by the time of breakfast I was already quite hungry, I quickly took scrambled eggs or scrambled eggs, but, most often, both, and throwing some vegetables on the same plate along the way , quickly absorbed everything and calmed down (until lunch). But today I decided to capture in the photo everything that is for breakfast. This is for a specific report in your Diary. And in the process of shooting all the dishes, I realized what a variety the chefs of this hotel prepared for us during the night! And when do they sleep? I have such respect for them for their overwork for the benefit of our gluttony! ..
I am not a barbarian by nature, and for the reader's (and viewer's) safety, I deliberately did not show my table with an assortment of dishes at dinner and then in an ala carte restaurant, so as not to drive you into wild horror ...But I will simply describe just below the words...
My next “victim” was visiting a la carte restaurants that require a preliminary reservation at the guest relay, sitting at a table with a laptop on the right at the entrance to the lobby (in front of the reception desk). “Khandahar” - an Indian restaurant, with a stunning view of the roof of the main building, and "Blue Bay" - located on the seashore, which offers oriental cuisine. You can sign up for these restaurants immediately, but on different days; time: at 18-00 or 20-00, which I did on the first day of your vacation, signing up for a later session for a well-founded reason.
Indian restaurant "Khandahar"
Expected, according to advertising, a stunning panoramic view did not turn out due to a sharp cold snap in the evening and a piercing wind (it happens in January in Egypt, especially on the hills). And that's why I didn't get two sweaters to compensate for weather disasters and enter the "panoramic comfort on the roof". Yes, and with feeling and arrangement, slowly tasting the provided dishes of Indian cuisine, when the wind blows the self-assembled tablecloth and everything that is collected and displayed on it, I didn’t succeed ...The only thing that I remember well was thick bamboo sticks, and whole tree trunks, of course, without a crown, inserted into impromptu flower beds, each with three pieces. Small, but a piece of the plot of India ...
Oriental restaurant «Blue Bay»
What was my amazement when, after an Indian restaurant with a "panoramic view on the roof", on the second day I visited the Blue Bay Oriental restaurant on the very seashore! I can hardly describe this miracle in words, since there are no such words in our world to convey these feelings.
Imagine. Summer, in the middle of winter, night. Desert coast of the Red Sea. And only in one place are bright lights and moderately loud music. This is a small, thirty seats, restaurant with transparent plastic walls, through which a wonderful panoramic view of the sea, the full moon, the moon path and the barely audible music of the surf opens ...
And I say this not as an amateur, but with knowledge of the matter. I spent more than a dozen, or even a hundred nights (sleeping or awake) to the sound of the sea wave on the Black Sea coast in Alushta - in a wooden beach house ...(I then worked as a lifeguard or on duty on the beach of the Kaskad pioneer camp.
» And they bring the ordered drinks for a “drink” - a slow tasting while the chef prepares the dishes. But here the dishes are already prepared in advance. And they are solemnly carried out on a blazing brazier. Placed on a stand on a table...
What is a brazier? - This is a rectangular metal container with chased walls in an oriental style, inside which there are burning coals, and on top it is tightly covered with foil with grilled meat products: kebab, chicken and liver - each in two large pieces. And from above everything is covered with a thick layer of oriental greenery. The convenience of such a brazier on your table is that you can stretch your pleasure at the restaurant table for an hour or two, and the dish will be constantly hot and therefore especially fragrant and tasty. And not frozen like a stone after ten minutes in normal conditions and restaurants.
Fascinated by the second, but most important, main course, I forgot to say that the table was still served: a side dish and seasoning sauces in bowls. And it's all under strong, at 42? drink "Ouzo" and delicious Egyptian beer ...
An hour and a half flew by. And before leaving, thanks to the waiters, I thought: after all, here we are shown the class level of the hotel, service, service and food - how the SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel can do during its normal, non-crisis existence. And I hope that soon such a moment will come for Egypt!
Only one thing surprises me: why out of more than three hundred vacationers in this hotel, only ten people signed up for such an excellent restaurant (except for me there was a noisy "Ukrainian" company of six people and three young people). Only. And there were more people involved in organizing such a feast than guests. Even somehow it became a shame for the hotel staff and their work with low, due to the fault of vacationers, efficiency.
The next day I asked my friends about this restaurant, so many did not even know about it. Yes, and the hotel guide on the first day at the meeting about these a la carte restaurants mentioned only in passing.
As a result: in the five days of my vacation at the Sunrise Diamond Resort, I visited three restaurants, according to the concept of the All inclusive system. Due to my limited financial resources, I have not been to San Marino, an Italian restaurant with a buffet open for lunch and dinner, and therefore, as an eyewitness, I cannot describe it.
With regard to restaurants and the level of food in them, I have come to a very interesting conclusion. And this is after looking at the reviews of vacationers about hotels, I noted a certain trend. Imagine, you have visited a hotel, you liked the quality and range of food in the main restaurant of the hotel. You, like other vacationers with you, write a positive review, sometimes even with delightful epithets. There is nothing wrong with this
. But sometimes it happens that people, believing your assessment, go to the same hotel and get disappointed in those moments that you really admired. And you are perceived as a liar and a swindler, receiving money or any benefits for custom articles, when in fact everything is much worse. But you are not to blame, and wrote sincerely. And the thing is that the quality and range of dishes is very tied to the time factor. Today is good, but the next few days it will be worse. This is especially true during a crisis. Hotels do not have the reserve of funds to smooth out this sinusoid. And the sinusoid arises due to various periods of mass arrivals of vacationers and dead seasons in the tourist flow. For example, on New Year and Christmas holidays in most hotels the full house and prices for tours increase, even several times: in the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm 5 * hotel - up to $ 800 and more per person for 7 days All inclusive.
And today the price of the same tour is only $324!
In the restaurant, as well as in technology, there is, it turns out, inertia, the essence of which lies in the fact that after such a massive influx of tourists and, naturally, the receipt of significant funds, restaurateurs can continue to keep the bar at the level of holidays for some time . But not for long. Nothing comes from nothing. According to my vacation at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort from January 7 to 12.2017, I can say that the food even in the general restaurant remained at the level of holidays throughout the entire period of my stay at this hotel. Only towards the end, beef began to appear, not melting in the mouth, but a little harsh, apparently, there were not enough funds to purchase more expensive meat. (But this is such a trifle that it did not affect the general level of restaurant service for vacationers, and I brought it only to confirm my theory. And all the objective reviews about this hotel are only positive).
I knew about this in advance, choosing the date of arrival, so that it was both cheap and high quality. And my assumptions were justified in practice. Still, the classics of Marxism-Leninism were right when they asserted that the criterion of truth is practice!
At the same time, looking at the reviews of vacationers in the nearby Royal Grand Sharm 5 * hotel, which I know firsthand, because I recently rested in it. There were significant comments on the quality and range of dishes in the main restaurant. Compared to this hotel, the SUNRISE Diamond Resort 5 * hotel is part of a chain of eleven hotels in Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, and therefore can neutralize such "sinusoids" and therefore, as I think, it is more preferable for relaxation, according to compared to other hotels.
bars
The SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel offers seven bars to its guests: Lobby Bar - located in the hotel lobby, Relax Bar - next to the Relax Pool, Family Bar - next to the Family Pool, Blue Oasis - next to the Active Pool, Blue Bay - on seaside, Blu Sky - rooftop bar, Victiria Pub - disco bar.
Lobby bar. The most solid, in my opinion, bar - both in terms of interior, comfort, and in terms of the range of drinks, service and duration (until 24:00) of service. It is located opposite the porter service (reception), practically in the lobby and, as it were, in its continuation, in a small recess. Soft massive armchairs and sofas, as well as glass tables on massive bases - racks - are the same as in the lobby. And that's why it's also, if not more comfortable here than in the lobby. The only thing that is puzzling is that it is difficult to find a free seat and enjoy this twilight of comfort due to the limited area of the bar. And this is with three and a half hundred rooms in the hotel! This is especially sensitive in winter, when almost all bars on the hotel territory close at sunset, and this is until 17-00.
Relax bar. Had the opportunity to taste my favorite Ouzo drink in this bar.
The hospitable and sympathetic bartender offered me to taste, or rather, wash down my strong drink with lime juice with water and sugar! I constantly make myself a similar drink, but I did not know that in some bars, outside the established concept, there is such a thing. The bar and especially the bartender - the soul of a man, I liked it.
Blue Oasis. Great bar! And, most importantly, there is no way around it on the way to the beach and back from the beach. Firstly, it is so located, and secondly, that there is a point for issuing towels next to it. Well, how to bypass it? Every time you have to slow down your hurried step, take two glasses of beer and, sitting right there at the table, drinking beer, enjoy the bright blue of the pool, wooden arched bridges, palm trees and, of course, the sea ...
In winter, I recommend taking bottled beer, not draft beer. It is less cold. But to taste, what else is excellent!
Because the real, and not the powdered “chemical”, as we have in Ukraine, is for mere mortals. And here you can drink a bucket and your head will not hurt in the morning. And, most importantly, that the "roof" will not go, as from our folk beer. And therefore, having known (or rather) remembered real beer, upon arrival in Kyiv, I will completely refuse from my own, even though it is national, and I am a patriot!
Blue Bay. Well, this is a special bar! Even I would say bar-restaurant! And it differs not only in its huge scale (in the evenings, from 18:00 and from 22:00, by magic, it turns into an oriental restaurant, which I spoke about with such rapture above.
This restaurant complex, during the day from 10:00 to 17:00, consists of a bar with a large number of tables and a kitchen with two ovens: for grilling and for making pizza. And by 12:00 here, from all the beaches of the hotel, and there are more than 5 of them, vacationers hungry after an omelette-egg breakfast come here for delicious pizza!
I once tasted it, but even now, and more than ten days have passed, I still feel its taste on the tip of my tongue and breathe in a delicious aroma with my nose. It’s a pity that I didn’t remember the name of the skillful Pizza Magician, but you will recognize him in my photos!
Some of the vacationers do not even go to the main restaurant for lunch. And not because it’s far and uphill - they are lazy, but simply here they cook tasty and satisfying food. And for pizza there are all kinds of salads, and for a snack - various sweet vegetables (for example, melon - all the time) and fruits. And for children, and adults, this bar also indulges in ice cream every day. I tried. Very tasty too.
What is also impressive about this bar-restaurant is a large oven - for grilling and similar dishes. True, pizza is always cooked in an oven with a gas burner fire. (But I would like at least once cooked on a "natural" fire). And it is prepared very quickly, within five minutes by an Arab chef.
And every time I pass by, having greeted the chef "Asalam alaikum", I can not refuse the invitation and not be tempted to try his pizza. Even if, after a full meal, you “loaded” yourself “to the eyeballs”, there is always a place for such a delicious dish with a cold beer from a bar nearby. His benevolent smile with the words: “Maybe pizza? Ten minutes! - you are completely disarmed and you remain at the mercy of his art of making pizza. With deft movements of his hands, he takes the already prepared pita bread, rolls it slightly and puts the necessary components on it, having previously learned what you prefer. Then the prepared pizza is put into the oven, and after 3-5 minutes it pulls out the finished pizza with a “tack”. You look at these movements and marvel at his dexterity.
Speaking of bars, it is impossible not to mention once again the delicious and, most importantly, natural beer in Egypt.
Yes, tasty chemists have learned to make absolutely everything - and from their product - chemistry. But natural is now a rarity. And I remember natural beer from the 80s of the last century, when we started building Czechoslovak lines in Ukraine. One of which was on Baburka in Zaporozhye, where I previously lived. There was good beer in Kyiv in the early 70s in vending machines on every corner - 10 kopecks. cup! Therefore, there is something to compare ...
Hotel rooms
After all, it’s a sin to hide, the rooms are not all the same, first of all, in terms of location relative to the distance from the sea and the entire basic infrastructure of the hotel, including the main restaurant, bar, pool, etc. And, naturally, they differ in repairs . I knew all this. I knew that the very first number would be offered to me, like to anyone else, not the best.
This is also natural: who will offer the best number when a person, according to the level of his needs and ideas, will be satisfied above the roof and with the most mediocre number. And a harmful and picky client will be dissatisfied with any number, even the best one, and will definitely find more than one drawback in it or in its location. In addition, if there are vacant rooms of a higher category and, therefore, more expensive, then it will be possible to offer the vacationer to significantly improve a comfortable stay for an acceptable surcharge, and, importantly, for a much lower price compared to the price that he would paid according to the original price list at his hometown travel agency.
For example, today on the site "Anex Tour" the price of the cheapest tour to the hotel "SUNRISE Diamond Resort" in two weeks (if not urgently) for the standard 7 nights all inclusive + per vacationer is $ 394 in the Standard room - $ 394, at the same time the same parameters, the price of a Superior room is $603, the price of a Family Room with Bunk Bed is $828, the price of a Standard Beach Front room is $994, and the price of a Royal Suite is $1.578. Can you imagine what the difference is? And why, then, are clients outraged when they are offered the same superior rooms and, naturally, at an increased price, but two or three times cheaper? If you don’t want to, you have the right to refuse, simply not to respond to such an offer. As well as the offer of any services at the resort, whether it be an excursion, massage or diving ...Unless, of course, these services are not included in the price of your tour.
The only thing that can rightfully resent is the decrease in the level of services provided, compared to that which you have already paid for, according to your tour.
For example, you have a Superior room category, and you are accommodated in a standard room, or you have an all-inclusive food system, and you are offered one breakfast (BB) ...
A very delicate issue remains the category of the hotel during the economic crisis, as it is now. After all, if today a 4 * hotel corresponds in terms of service and quality of services to a 3 * hotel in the pre-crisis period, then here, most often, there are complaints from vacationers - regulars. After all, over the many years of their vacation, they have already become accustomed to seeing the same “four” or “five” in the form they should be in normal economic conditions. And therefore, in reviews of hotels, I have to meet numerous negative reviews of hotels. At the same time, these clients forget that the price they paid for their tour is much, if not many times, less!
That is, in order to stay afloat and not go bankrupt, like many hotels in Egypt now, hoteliers allow the maximum reduction in prices for tours due to many of their main indicators, including food ...And vacationers should understand that they are not reduced tour prices at all for their pretty eyes...
Do not forget that in our world nothing happens for free! What you pay for is what you get. And this is almost always in the foreign hotel and tourism business. They look after their faces and think about the prospects of their business, and not according to the principle, as we have: "grab and run away. " And I felt this principle of keeping the brand of my business in one of the hotels of the Sunrise Resorts & Cruises chain at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, starting from the smallest details and ending with global issues.
The rooms in the hotel are almost all with good, and some even with excellent, fresh renovation. I happened to live in two rooms: in 1144 - this is to the left of the main building, on the first floor overlooking the garden.
And only the uppermost edge of the sea was visible. Repairs in this building - as if done yesterday, everything from scratch. And even a plasma TV with a huge screen. The size of the room is much larger than the "Standard" in other hotels, more suitable for the category "Superior Garden View Room" / DBL - these rooms are next to the Royal Grand Sharm Hotel - they are located to the right of the main building of this hotel. I rested there four months ago and I can say that the rooms in this hotel are no worse, and, in my opinion, even better. Due to the original layout of the area - not rectangular, but with a recess where a sofa with a floor lamp is placed. As well as oval arches with a pointed upwards, in the Arabic style - in the openings and at the exit from the balcony. Very impressive!
Room 1144 is convenient because there is a restaurant nearby, but you can go down to the sea on the left along a straight path past the flower beds with Ukrainian Chornobryvians (a unique surprise - you immediately remember your homeland, and the smell - you immediately move to your distant childhood ... ).
Or you can walk to the sea along a wonderful winding path past a gazebo, fountains (one was not working at that time, and the second was a miracle, especially at night with backlighting, and then past the pool, towels and, of course, a bar. How can it be without a bar - they are at every step! (On bars - see below).
The second room is not far from the main pool, from the side of the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel. I was kindly, even at no extra charge, provided at the reception at my request. You understand that for creative inspiration I need not only a view of a wonderful garden, but also at least a side view of the Sea. The second room is also good, but the renovation was done a little earlier. And a plasma TV, but the screen is half the size.
Rooms that start with 2 are on the second floor. And almost always one of them has an excellent view of the sea (directly or, as I had in 2116, a side view of the sea). This room is closer to the sea. But for me (64-year-old "grandfather") it is harder to climb up the mountain to the restaurant.
In such cases, I often remember the neighboring Royal Grand Sharm hotel, where they "managed" to make an elevator in a straight line from the sea to the porter service (reception) and the restaurant ...But in general, this hotel is much better, and not much more expensive.
January 8.2017 Sunday
Moment of morning blessing
The hotel continues to amaze me with many of its small and big surprises...
I woke up early, but in connection with yesterday's acquaintance with the territory of the night hotel, far after midnight, the sunrise still overslept. The sun has already risen for about forty minutes and rushed up to its zenith. And to me, through the half-open heavy curtains, as a greeting on the first day of my stay at the resort, they sent gentle, caressing their warmth, their rays.
And you are two steps away from it, you live on its very shore and sleep to the sound of the sea wave. This is the beauty of the first coastline of the hotel that I chose: to be directly by the sea and with the sea, to feel its direct touch on me with the smell, and the sound of the surf, a light breath of the sea breeze, and many more, so elusive , but clearly and vividly felt not only by a half-naked body, but also by his entire Soul. And on the wings of joy you fly towards the sea, towards your happiness. A minute later you are on the shore and, spreading your arms-wings, are trying to take off towards the sun ...And you take off and fly with your intangible essence, leaving your mortal body on the shore to experience no less happiness than the happiness of this flight ...And this moment turns into an eternity of bliss of the body and Soul .
Intoxicated with all this unearthly and earthly goodness, you return to the earthly existence of this World and, looking around with a wide look around, you realize that the realities of this material life here, in this hotel, are not much worse than sensual fiction. Yesterday's night pictures and landscapes under the moonlight, during the day, in the rays of the playing sun, take on a completely different look: not frozen and sleepy, as it was at night, but alive, breathing every millimeter of its surface and in constant, multidirectional movement - in such that from him even in the eyes ripples. And you perceive all this automatically, and realize it at the subconscious level ...At the same time, your second "I" moves around the hotel and in each new corner of it finds something of its own, original and wonderful, pleasing to the eye and creating a reason for the unrest of the Soul . All this is absorbed into you and fills the vessel of your physical and spiritual being.
And, having filled it “to the eyeballs”, it will transform you into a new form of your existence, which will remain such for a long time after you return home, in autumn slush or in frosty winter. And I clearly feel this now, on the fifth day after returning from the Red Sea to Kyiv, with its blizzards, meter-long snowdrifts and bitter frosts. And, moreover, I don’t just feel all this, but even continue to live with the southern warm sea, exotic Nature and landscape and architectural design of the wonderful SUNRISE Diamond Resort hotel. Such is the power of the inertia of thinking, which can continue the wonderful moment of our life not for a day or two, but for many years. And at the same time, our whole life becomes completely different, filled with that inexhaustible happiness of the past existence.
That is why we are sometimes so drawn to the South, to the sea.
And this craving is so irresistible that we drop everything and go, fly towards a dream in order to replenish that vessel of happiness, which turned out to be almost exhausted in the daily sewers of our life. And so, on the first day of my stay at the Red Sea, I clearly felt the filling of this inner vessel of mine with an unearthly blessing...
In order not to be forgotten for a long time and to be resurrected in memory to the smallest detail everything that was written last night in the light of the moon and today it appeared about all the colors of the rainbow, I photograph an incredible number of subjects: a wooden arbor and benches in it, amphorae and metal ones, in the color of copper, bent coasters for ashtrays with sand, paths, young palm trees, fountains ....And everything-everything that I meet on the way during the day bypass of the hotel territory.
Breakfast in the hotel
The Joy of the Soul that I experienced on the first day of my stay at the resort, with a claim to eternity, is good.
But it can be eternal, provided that the body is eternal. Or, at least not the eternity of the body, but the maintenance of its life as long as possible. And for this, in addition to air and water, which are still plentiful today, food is needed, like fuel for a car. Realizing this, I am surprised every time: “However, the eternal Soul managed to get such a harmful and pretentious being as a physical body as a fellow traveler in this World. I could have chosen something more impressive, corresponding to myself, to my level. And then it turns out like an unequal marriage ...
However, the physiology of my physical being on autopilot led me to the entrance of the restaurant. Although it was not so easy to rise from the sea to such a height! But, "hunger is not an aunt ... ", and does not work such miracles. And because of this, I had to break away from the contemplation of spiritual beauty and fix my eyes on the beauty of the earth - skillfully prepared dishes by the hotel's chefs.
And everything that I saw and that my stomach felt, taking inside all sorts of different goodies, I described above in the section “Restaurants. Bars "and therefore, in order not to rouse passions among readers who are currently not full and thirsty, I will not repeat ...
After breakfast, I went out, or rather, rolled out like a bun, from the restaurant and rolled down to the room, and then, dressed in a beach ensemble (swimming trunks), to the beach to relax and lie down, relieve fatigue from incredible work at the restaurant table ...On the beach, by the sea, to the sound of the surf, as always, I fell asleep for a short time ...I fell asleep for half an hour, as there was still a morning photo session of the hotel territory and a meeting with the hotel guide at nine in the morning. I didn’t even have time to dive into the sea and see the underwater kingdom - I postponed everything for later ...
This was my early morning of the first day of my vacation on the Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh, which, by the way, almost unchanged, was repeated every day of my only five days of the resort.
robbery in broad daylight
This morning, on the first day after arrival, as usual, the hotel guide arranges a meeting for new arrivals. I also decided to find out what's new in his repertoire. Everything turned out to be the same: for ten minutes more than twenty people listened to useless, useless information (I listened to it too), and then, as usual, psychological pressure began to “push in” inflated ones at a price of one and a half, two, or even three times, excursion vouchers. From his first words about these vouchers, which sounded very cheerful with a heightened emotional mood, I got up and went to the exit from the hall where this “meeting” took place, which greatly upset the hotel guide.
I don’t specifically name where, from which tour operator this guide is currently, because everything in its style and trying to fool vacationers is almost the same. But in this hotel there are as many of them as there are flies in the resorts of Egypt in late autumn. The same annoying and flickering in their branded attire throughout the hotel lobby. Okay, flies are attracted to honey, sweets in the hotel, but what attracts hotel guides from Anex Tour to the hotel? - Of course, no less sweet dollar harvest from just arrived, fresh vacationers and who have not yet squandered their dollars accumulated over the year.
By the way, all the other souvenir merchants and service sellers (masseurs, photographers, etc. ) on the beach work in the same style. For them, like electronic ionizers and fumigators for mosquitoes and flies, this hotel came up with a “repeller” - a red flag attached to a sunbed on the beach.
The idea is good, but too catchy for us, people from the former, collapsed Soviet Union, it is a symbol of a “happy” communist future. And, since there are 99% of such unjustified hopes and their descendants on the beach, no one used such a service. When they change the color of the flags to blue or green, maybe then this idea will come to life en masse.
Regarding the "pushing in" of tourist vouchers to vacationers at an inflated price. Regardless of the hotel or tour operator. This, it seems to me, is the only place in the tourist business of Egypt where a wild, I would even say, a gangster market of goods and services manifests itself. What a pity it is that all this happens under the roof, mostly decent and crystal clear, hoteliers in Egypt, which involuntarily puts on them an unjustified black spot of swindle and swindle vacationers.
And this is obvious from the reviews on social networks, where almost everyone scolds, almost curses, hotel guides.
But here, it seems to me, is much more complicated than it seems at first glance. The fact is that in this narrow segment of the business, a lot of money is rotated on travel packages, almost comparable to tours in general. Just imagine, in order to sell you a tour and provide a flight and vacation with meals at a hotel, thousands of people are involved, ranging from an agent in a travel agency to a cleaner in the rooms. And a lot of money is invested: in air travel, in a hotel, salary, food, and so on. And now (in winter) the standard price of such a tour per person is $200 - $300 for 5-7 days. At the same time, for half an hour or an hour of working with clients, the hotel guide charges almost $100 - $200 from each for excursions, which are clearly cheaper than air flights from Ukraine to Egypt, along with the cost of accommodation and meals All inclusive in the hotel.
The joy of morning weather grace on the very first day of my stay in Sharm El Sheikh continued no further than before lunch, and ended by four in the afternoon. After all, lunch here, starting at one o'clock in the afternoon and lasts until three o'clock, when the sun already has a tendency to set. And I didn’t have time to get ready for the beach after lunch (and my lunch dragged on for a long time - until the restaurant closed, just up to three hours), when a cold wind blew from land, because of the mountains. At first he was cool and caressing, but soon turned into sharply unpleasant and even angry and cold.
On the beach, for the second time after my arrival, I nevertheless appeared at four o'clock. And this is understandable. Do not stare forever at the beauty of the park landscape and architectural masterpieces, created by Nature and revived by man in the desert, photographing all this. After all, the main thing for which I flew here, far away, is the unique, one of a kind Red Sea.
- And this is not new...But I was waiting for something else - the revelation of the Soul in this wonderful place for it (and not for a mortal body) - on the seashore! And therefore, I ignored all the protests of the body in the form of these useless "goosebumps", "colds" and "sneezes".
I am sitting on a rock. Near the sea. Just two steps away. Sometimes it rolls its waves right at my feet. Seems like he's trying to play with me. But these are small waves near the shore, like little children of the big Sea, which in the distance seems no longer Red and beautiful, justifying its name, but dark blue and menacingly dangerous. I saw it so dangerous in the summer too, but only late at night, when all sorts of different predatory creatures swam out of its depths ...
But now it is January, as for Egypt, a warm month, and it is still daytime. With my mind I understand that the sea is warm, up to twenty-five degrees, and the eyes and the body trembling in the wind suggest the opposite: the sea seems even colder than the air and the prevailing breeze on land.
This is the inertia of our thinking with reference to the weather conditions in Ukraine: water is always colder than air. And therefore every thought of bathing is rejected. In fact, here the warmth and grace of the Sea is powerless against the Evil of the Land.
Nevertheless, despite the discomfort for the body, I continue to sit by the sea. I sit and write. I write from nature. But, most importantly, everything I write about, I feel, literally, and not figuratively, on my own skin, which is already at its limit, trembling and futilely trying to resist the cold and such an unfriendly wind.
Again, experiencing the evil of the Wind, I continue to assert that it is not the cold, but the Wind that is the greatest enemy of man. Even Siberian and Far Eastern extreme frosts are friends to man. But the wind even there turns a friend into a bitter enemy. But not only in winter. But even in summer, a draft, and this is the same modified wind, is a fertile condition for the development of pathogenic bacteria, up to epidemics ...
The sun has already completely hidden behind the towering buildings and palm trees of the hotel, located in a recess on the slope. But it was still above the horizon. And so for a while, but not for long, it was still light. And when twilight began to thicken over the Egyptian land and the voice of the mullah sounded, calling for the evening prayer, I got up from my stone by the sea and wandered to my room in order to warm myself and feel and describe the entry into my dominion of the darkness of night already in comfort for the body ...
I quickly jumped into my room and immediately put on two sweaters. Nevertheless, for a long time, with fading periodicity, I hiccupped like a child after a full meal. But one conclusion was drawn: no matter how many sweaters you take to the sea in winter Egypt, there will still not be many!
And I immediately thought: “But how did I not freeze in my Kyiv in a light leather jacket with three sweaters in the frost at twenty degrees when I was driving to the Boryspil airport, if here, in Africa, I freeze at twenty degrees of heat in two sweaters? »
I was surprised by this cold wind from the desert. I remember that the summer before last, while relaxing in the El Samaka Beach Hotel 3 * (Hurghada) in August, it was comfortable until a sultry, burning wind blew from the desert - so burning and unpleasant that at noon it was impossible to breathe even on beach and many at this time hid in the rooms under the "air-conditioning", and for an hour or two up to the neck, covering my bald crown with a Panama, I plunged into the Red Sea ...
But here, more precisely, in this winter January period, it turned out to be the opposite.
And all my expectations, just like last night, to enjoy the velvety night climate and admire the amazing pictures of the evening, and then the night hotel, sipping beer from a glass, incredibly quickly crumbled to dust. Walking around the hotel in one Swede, and even with a cold beer in my hands, turned me into a freezing donkey, and I hurried to put on two sweaters I had brought with me. The body became a little more comfortable ...
I am also surprised why, just yesterday, I perceived frosty weather in Kyiv at -18? With a much more evil and prickly winter wind, penetrating the body to the very bones, for granted, and today here in Egypt, I perceive a seemingly “fresh” breeze at +18 as an angry threat to my physical existence? No matter how hard I strained my brain convolutions, this paradox remained a mystery to me ...
So get ready and don't chill out at the winter resort in Sharm El Sheikh waiting for the heat around the clock. This happens here only occasionally and as an exception. I nevertheless happened to experience the joy of this exception last evening and night, and, as if knowing this “exception”, I stayed awake for half the night and enjoyed this blessing with pleasure ...
At the same time, I experienced real winter in an Egyptian resort with such strong winds that I did not know them even in Ukraine. And such winds were here, in Sharm El-Sheikh exactly a year ago, on Epiphany on January 19, when I was resting a little higher, at the Poinciana Sharm Resort 4 *, now, since the summer, "dead to die. " But the latter, of course, is not connected with that veil… By the way, based on that plot, I, sitting on the shores of the Red Sea and, imitating Ernst Hemingway, wrote my story: “The Old Man and the Sea Wind” (see above).
Nevertheless, at the end of the cons I raised the white flag and, in order to shorten the waiting time for dinner, I retreated to the cozy and warm lobby bar, where the furious wind did not penetrate. At dinner, which began at half past six, I had a purely symbolic bite, knowing that at eight that evening I had a table reserved for me at the Indian restaurant on the roof. I have described my impressions of this restaurant in the corresponding section of this Diary, and therefore I will not repeat myself. The only thing I remember most of all was that two sweaters were not enough and I regretted not wearing the third one, which was left in the room ...
January 9.2017 Monday
Mystery of the Sea
It so happened that in the late afternoon I was again at the Sea. Maybe because at these hours, when there is no one else on the Sea, it is most disposed to communication and can tell something. And I go to it also because it calls me, pulls me to itself, hoping that I will hear and understand what it will tell me about.
I went.
Sat down on a rock. And all genuine attention to the Sea. While listening to the Sea and looking at it, trying to hear and see the Sea deeper than just its perception. But so far I can only hear a conversation, more precisely, a monologue of his wave with the shore - surf with land. The coast throughout the beach, except for a small area, is rocky and therefore the noise of the wave is special. I am sitting on a rock. And when a wave hits a rock, I hear a voice with notes of indignation that some kind of silent and gloomy block, hanging over the Sea, stands in its way. And the wave with evil hits this rock and splashes in different directions in the form of a fan of splashes and drops ...But on the way of the wave, it happens that there are gentle boulders and a coast with a gentle stone slope. And then, it seems to me, the wave communicates with them, as with brothers, gently, like a sister envelops them, as if hugging them with her arms.
Nearby is a shallow sandy beach and a wave rolls its waters far ashore and therefore makes a completely different noise, as it seems to me, with satisfaction, with a sense of accomplishment. And then, quiet and exhausted, she returns back to her sea element. But the newly oncoming fresh wave, having met on its way the extinct returning wave, hits it hard with its entire long front, foams and makes an indignant sound, as if reproaching the surrendered wave for its shameful retreat. Although she herself, in a few seconds, will be in her place, depressed and extinguished ...And so, with a frequency of 5-7 seconds, it repeats many times. Thus, along the entire long line of the coast, the wave, meeting various obstacles to its movement, makes various sounds, and, like in a symphony concert, the music of the sea surf sounds. And I enjoy listening to this music. Many consider it as just the sound of the surf.
Above the sand, the water seems yellowish, above the stones - greenish from the greenery of the simplest aquatic inhabitants that cover the surface of the cameos, and further, in the open sea, the color of the water changes from turquoise in the reflection of corals - to blue, blue and dark blue - at the very horizon , at the junction with the blue dome of the sky.
At the bottom of shallow water, with magnification, as through a large magnifying glass, even the smallest pebbles and shells are visible. Only sometimes they play unsteadily in the rays of the setting sun. But this is physics with its laws of optics - refraction of light in a transparent medium, showing me its tricks, hoping in vain for my ignorance in its science.
But I only admire this wonderful view, not allowing myself to be deceived by this trick of Nature, since I once studied at school ...And then I catch myself thinking: maybe in vain I irrevocably led myself away from the true perception of the World with my senses. Souls, inherently flawed technocratic-scientific explanation of everything that I see, hear and perceive with the other three senses? And that's why I wanted to shout loudly, to the whole world: “Don't go to school, children! »
And only now, far, too far from my childhood and infancy, when I perceived the world around me in the true light, I am trying to regain my natural abilities to truly see the World, to communicate, as with animated, its inhabitants - the Wind, Cold, Sea ...And I don't give a damn that this will seem to many as an abnormality at the level of a mental disorder.
I stood not just on a rock of stone - magma from an extinct volcano frozen millions of years ago, as it was in the Crimea during my repeated stay there. And I stood on the remnants of life, on the array of the History of Life, which raged here not millions, but billions of years ago. This is how the ancient world on the Crimean Peninsula differed from the Sinai Peninsula: there the Earth trembled from spewing fire-breathing volcanoes, with a hot stream of magma spreading along its slopes, and here, hundreds of millions of years earlier, life was already rampant in its original, elementary form. And here, most likely, there was the bottom of the sea, which receded over time, exposing the multi-layered remains of life - the most ancient relics.
And what kind of life was there in those days!
I judge its diversity by its remnants that I have under my feet: all kinds of tubular, fan-shaped rays of shell valves, openwork constructions in the form of perforated honeycombs, needle-like, flat, in the form of scales and others - it’s impossible to list them all ...Interestingly, many forms of life have survived to this day and they can be observed here, nearby, if you swim in a mask under water along the reef. They are not much different from the ancient ones. But the fact that you are standing on a rock of relic remains of life that flourished here two billion years ago speaks volumes. And, above all, it is a connecting link between you and that ancient world, like a bridge through which you can penetrate into that world, cognize it and describe it in your "travel notes". Which I later did thanks to meditation.
I imagined how for millions of years, far in the past, here, in favorable, as now, climatic conditions, life flourished violently, its various types and forms were created. Separate individuals died and froze on this rock in the form of petrified remains, giving life to new generations. And it all happened right here where I stand.
I am standing at the farthest edge of the beach of the SUNRISE Diamond Hotel on the border with the Monte Carlo Hotel - where the foot of a spa visitor rarely steps, and therefore this foot allowed me to contemplate and even photograph this wondrous beauty of the Ancient History of our Earth.
I realized that it was no coincidence that I was here, and not for three days out of five stays in this hotel, I went to these relics, but went all my life, step by step, approaching this reserved place step by step.
I had to fly to Egypt a dozen times, stay in various hotels in Hurghada and Sharm El Sheikh in order to prepare myself for this meeting, so that this ancient World would let me in and reveal its secrets. Which is not given to everyone. And I was convinced of the latter a little later, when leaving, I looked at this place with an independent look from the outside: it did not differ in any way from other, similar coastal cliffs along the entire two hundred-meter coast of the hotel. The same dull beige and rubbed with the feet of vacationers in fine sand ...
This is a reserved place. One of the few on the coast. And I wonder why the Egyptian authorities, who issue environmental laws for the Sinai Peninsula and so scrupulously monitor their implementation, could not identify and protect such unique islands of antiquity from barbaric destruction.
I mentioned “barbaric destruction” - not in the direct and purposeful sense, because the simple location of a sunbed in this place or even walking barefoot, and even more so in beach shoes, means to break the protruding edges of the relics, and in a month or two and turn everything it's a marvel in plain sand. I was convinced of this when I lightly pressed my finger on a tubular relic protruding above the surface with a snow-white smooth pearl surface inside, and it easily broke off at the base ...And even if you enter this relic site in shoe covers and soft museum slippers, it’s all the same it is possible to damage these uniqueness and turn it into an ordinary rocky beach, which are now many coastal areas of the Red Sea in Sharm El Sheikh, ten years ago, everywhere keeping the distant Ancient History of the Earth.
Speaking about reserves for this type of places, I involuntarily remembered the Kara-Dag Reserve in the Crimea, where, according to local residents, even a stone cannot be taken out of it. From Egypt (the airports of Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada) it is also impossible to take out corals and other marine life, and if you try, it is punishable by large fines. But the increased exploitation of the coastal territory in order to maximize the pumping of finances from the tourism business, the pollution of the coastal waters of the Red Sea both by tourists and by the hotels themselves and pleasure boats, leads to the fact that in the Sharm El Sheikh area, as well as everywhere in Hurghada, in a few decades, according to environmentalists, this amazing world of corals will completely disappear.
Perhaps, for a longer period, corals will remain in the five reserves of South Sinai, as museums of Nature.
There are also two of five such reserves in the Sharm El Sheikh region: this, 25 km southwest of the city, at the extreme southern point of the Sinai Peninsula, is Ras Mohammed National Park, and in the northeast, 35 km from Sharm El Sheikh - Nabq National Reserve.
But so far here, in Sharm El Sheikh, there is still one of the few corners on earth where a malicious person has not put his vile little hands and ruined Nature. Therefore, for the destructive action of man on Nature, contrary to the precepts of Jesus Christ, I began to hate man ...By the way, I myself belong to this species ...So it turns out, I hate myself!
But I am justified only by the fact that with my physiological needs in order to live and survive (of course, there is a share of destructiveness in the realization of such needs), I am aware of this harm and strive to reduce it to zero, for example, by switching to vegetarianism, which will not greatly reduce my evil to Nature, and my attempt to call myself a "pagan" in order to join the god of Nature, Pan, is just my good wish.
In addition, in my life, spiritual priorities prevail over physical ones. And this, in my opinion, is the most important and defining thing for the Man of the Future, whom I called “Ozarwek”.
Have you ever felt Nature?
Have you ever felt Nature? - So, for real, to the very depths of the sensitivity of the Soul. Yes, so as to cry, as they cry from sensitive tenderness.
This little flower answered me the same - the same trusting caress as a baby can answer his mother. Or a truly loving girl - to her beloved. This flower stirred its petals and, surprisingly, emitted such a quiet, penetratingly blissful voice that I, from his voice and, in general, from his gentle response to my caress, silently wept with tenderness and delight. My Soul was crying with incredible joy, which could not contain the whole gamut of feelings perceived from this baby with blue petals like the eyes of a girl. And the feelings were so strong that they could not be kept within its limits and manifested themselves outward in the form of already natural tears of the sensitivity of the soul. I believe that such tears are the highest gift for a person from a world higher than ours, an increasingly pragmatic and stale physical world.
And, for some reason, this bed seemed to me like a cradle for a newborn child ...It also seemed to me that the sky was preparing an elegant retinue for the meeting of the Sun: clouds (which in itself is rare in the Egyptian sky) of a bizarre shape, more and more filled with a solemn crimson color against the blue sky. And even, as it seemed to me, they were whispering to each other about something of their own ...And the whole east, in the place where the Sun was supposed to appear, was heating up, but by no means not in red, as I expected, but with a burning yellowness, which happens when a steel blade is hardened or in a furnace with molten metal.
The bed has already been prepared, and the retinue froze in solemn expectation ...And now this solemn moment has come! In the center of all this expectation, above the sea, on the border between heaven and Earth, to the barely audible music of a silver flute, a small, pea-sized, but incredibly bright dot appeared.
This is by the standards of that world where much more Great Luminaries also live…
And then everything happened naturally, without any special mysteries and secrets. The sun more and more rolled out from behind the horizon, turning into a huge fiery disk in the brazier of the heavenly furnace. And it was already impossible to look at its brightness without dark glasses. But, interestingly, without losing its brightness, but increasing it even more, besides adding ever-increasing warmth and heat to its light, the Sun eventually turned into a small disk, with a size of ten kopecks, which during the day already few people pay attention. Is that sunbathing on the beach resort.
But, nevertheless, the beauty of this process was striking in its perfection and originality, unlike any of its manifestations millennia before and will not be identical for the same number of years in the future.
It's already eleven o'clock. The sun is approaching its zenith in the sky. It, within five hours after its appearance in our World, continues to gain strength and radiates more and more heat, despite the winter month of January, which is futilely trying to appease it. Therefore, at this time, you can even get a good tan, and stupidly, even get burned.
A very interesting geographical position of Sharm El Sheikh and features of the relief surrounded by the city. Here, in the Sinai, in Sharm El-Sheikh, just like here in the Crimea, in Yalta, protected from the cold of the peninsula from the west by high mountains, Summer has found a year-round refuge in the coastal bowl. Only sometimes in January-February the mountains cannot hold back the shaft of cold winds and let them through, forcing holidaymakers on the shore after a twenty-degree sea font to wrap themselves in beach towels, or even drive them into warm rooms.
But for me, on this trip to Egypt, to one of the best hotels in Sharm El Sheikh, on a tour of only five days, these five days were a double pleasure. Firstly, a pleasure for the body - a warm sea, a tan on the beach, an excellent room, service and, most importantly, food and drinks on the All inclusive system. Secondly, for the Soul, this is the realization of creative potential to the maximum extent.
But the question today is not in this, but in the psychology of the creative process. And this is a mystery of mysteries. I have already gathered material for a whole book to present attempts to explain this process. Nevertheless, I believe that in my knowledge of it, as I was, and still remain, practically at zero. And therefore, experiments and the promotion of new ideas in this direction, which may even seem absurd to some, continue with me ...
In this perspective, today on the beach, sunbathing under the rays of the hot midday sun, at the same time, at the same time, at an accelerated pace, I sketched everything that I felt and what was “going on” on a sheet of paper, when I suddenly felt the important role of the Sun in my creative process. I do not rule out that this idea was a continuation of my ideas about the Sun and the World, which originated early this morning during the morning dawn. Surprisingly, the name of the hotel where I am now is translated as "Diamond of the morning dawn. "
Representing the Sun as the dominant phenomenon in our world throughout the day and, especially, during its stay at its zenith, I suggested that it cannot but influence all the processes that take place under it, including the creative process.
And now, basking under its rays, and drawing the symbols of writing onto a sheet of paper, as the final result of the creative process, I saw only three actors in all this action: the Sun, my spiritual and my physical essence. And no one else. Moreover, the first two actors, with the primacy of the Sun, performed the main “creative” role, and the physical essence was assigned a secondary, “routine” role of an extra and fixer on paper what the Sun and my spiritual essence produced.
Within this trinity, the birth of creative ideas took place, their development in the Spiritual world and a "breakthrough" into our physical world through my physical essence. And in the first two stages of this process, the dominant role was assigned to the Sun! And the higher it rose to its zenith, gaining more and more strength in this World, the more it had an impact on my creative process.
The sun, as an influential teacher, dictated to me what I should write down, and I, as an obedient student, wrote it all down on a piece of paper. And everything happened automatically. I was like a robot, not daring to resist his will, and I had no chance to insert at least something “on my own”. But I did not try to do this, because I perceived this phenomenon as a high level of presentation of the Truth by the Sun, against which my reasoning and conclusions looked like baby talk or like primitive rock paintings of an ancient person. And I had to grow and grow to the level of the Sun ...and more than one life. But in this World, I can hardly rise even an inch in this matter. In our World there is a certain bar - the limit level, above which the entrance is ordered to the physical essence of our World. This is the postulate of this world, which concerns everything that is connected with the physical essence.
But I contrived, as in this case, to violate this postulate.
We in our conception of our World are guided, first of all, by physical, and not by spiritual and sensual ideas. And, most often, we are based on the laws of Physics, Chemistry, Biology and other natural sciences laid down from the school bench. By doing this, we put blinkers on our eyes and can look through them only in a narrow segment of the reality around us. It is also a kind of zombie of our consciousness. And only when you break out of the nets of this zombification, as I described above, you begin to see not only our Physical World in all its beauty and charm, you discover previously inaccessible secrets, but also penetrate into other worlds, several orders higher than our World.
For example, in accordance with the laws of physics, we represent the solar system with the Sun in the center and the planets, including the Earth, revolving around the Sun.
Let us imagine the Sun as worthless in the other world, where there are completely different, not physical, but spiritual values, and where its light and warmth do not play any role ...And let us ask ourselves the question: “What is the Spiritual Luminary in the other world? Is there Light or Darkness there? And who is the master of both, who or what dominates there?
In ancient times there were people endowed with the ability to see and understand the worlds beyond the limits of our material World. This did not fit into the concepts of reality, explained by the real vision of things and phenomena, and therefore was difficult to perceive. And therefore, so that everyone who was before us and it was clear to us, due to the inferiority of the Mind, such concepts as God (the Most High) and the Devil, his opposite, were invented ...But this already goes far beyond the scope of this topic and further reasoning will be presented in another section.
Only here it is appropriate to note that creative inspiration from the other world can be drawn from both light and dark forces, and a creative person can walk both under God and under the Devil, which is easy to determine based on the results of his work.
I am not making a discovery with this. Everything that I have now described is experienced by any Master every time in the process of creative inspiration… Only none of them has yet described this process and has not laid a theoretical basis for it.
Reef. Underwater world of the Red Sea
While the beachgoers have not scared away the most shy large inhabitants of the Red Sea, I am on a pontoon and from it I dive in a mask and snorkel into the underwater world of corals and colorful, in our opinion, "aquarium" fish.
First of all, I want to say that the pontoon at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort was installed with skill: the most prosperous part of the reef was chosen. Especially on the right side, if you stand facing the sea.
When I was in the month of August last year at the Royal Grand Sharm Hotel (the one next to it, on the right), it was a mystery to me why all of a sudden the only pontoon is located in the farthest corner of the two hundred meter beach? And now everything became clear: because of the best part of the reef! And the pontoons of these two hotels are located, practically, side by side.
I will describe in more detail the bottom of the sea. From the shore, corals go a hundred meters. Near the shore they are covered with sand and only low stones and rocks protrude from the bottom, and here the sea is knee-deep, and even less at low tide - many corals protrude above the surface of the water. Therefore, not always, but children can swim here on a small, 50-70m long sandy beach (twenty umbrellas and about a hundred sun loungers). Parents also come along with their children, hand in hand with them, to admire the fish swimming on the shallows together. But these fish here, compared to the reef, are very few and they are not so colorful.
After a hundred meters, the corals in such a mass settlement end, and a huge cliff appears under the water - an abyss, fifteen meters deep. And this is the height of a five-story building! And this cliff, or rather the inner wall of this cliff, is called a “reef”. Sometimes, as it was especially evident in ten meters to the right of the pontoon, the corals protrude into the depths of the sea, forming a small island where you can stand and rest after a long snorkeling trip. The coral on this site, apparently, is dead and therefore allows you to safely stand on it. And if you look at the very bottom of this coral ledge, you can see a fabulous grotto through which the rays of the Sun fall into the shadow of the coral.
This stretch of coral reef on the border of two hotels is the most beautiful and with the greatest variety of corals.
But, I must say that from the surface it seems that deeper than three or four meters at a depth there are significantly fewer inhabitants than in the near-surface zone. It is possible that this is due to poor visibility. Although the water is quite transparent and the bottom, although visually blurry, can be seen to the entire fifteen-meter depth. I am convinced that the bulk of the fish are found near people swimming, and this is partly because the resort people often, in violation of the prohibition law, feed the fish. And unique fish, in this regard, with a violation of their diet, may die. Confirmation of the fact that the Red Sea fish are "friends" with vacationers is the fact that the largest number of them are near the pontoon, and under the pontoon even in the form of numerous flocks.
I have witnessed an interesting phenomenon.
When one girl entered the sea from the pontoon, who, as it turned out, had previously fed the fish daily with baked goods from the hotel restaurant (and they are really tasty), she was surrounded by so many different fish that the water “boiled” around her from them. And everyone who was with underwater cameras barely had time to capture interesting scenes in photographs. And at this time the girl did not even feed them. It is explained simply by the conditioned reflex of fish to the familiar smell of a girl, when it appears, they (the fish) start a delicious and plentiful lunch ...And on the opposite side from the pontoon, where the allowed swimming area ends, the beaches of the neighboring Monte Carlo Sharm Resort begin & Spa”, where I, as a researcher, swam out of curiosity, so there are practically no fish, with the exception of one or two who accidentally swam.
Now in more detail about the inhabitants of the Red Sea, which I saw on the reef near the SUNRISE Diamond Resort.
corals
South Sinai is rich not only in a variety of coral species, but also in a mass of beautiful fish. In the Ras Mohammed reserve, which is south of Sharm El Sheikh, there are more than a thousand different species of fish. Near the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, near its reef, I saw no more than a dozen of their species, as I observed them in the near-surface layer of the sea, without sinking to the depths. But here they do not swim alone, but in whole shoals of up to fifty or more “flock” individuals. Butterfly fish live here mostly in such a “collective” way, moreover, all of the same bright colors. And deeper you can see flocks of young fish of various types of fish, which break up into separate independent individuals as soon as they grow up. Separately and in pairs, larger fish swim, up to forty or more centimeters in length - this is a surgeon fish.
All fish are constantly pecking at something, taking out invisible living creatures from the surface of corals. Fish swim calmly, without fear of humans.
It happens that a school of butterfly fish swims right at you, then “washes” you from all sides and then swims without paying attention to you. Only if you make a sharp movement with your hand in their direction, they instantly rush into the scatter.
But these are all reference materials in dry clerical language. And what feelings did I experience, plunging into the waters of the Red Sea? Everything from the beginning and in order.
When you go with a mask to the edge of the pontoon to the reef for the first time, you do not know what awaits you in the underwater kingdom. What you see from the air is distorted by the refraction of water and is hidden behind the glare of the sun on the surface of the water. But when you put on a mask and dive, all barriers and distortions disappear, and you see the underwater world in its natural form. True, with some increase, but this does not spoil, but even improves the visual effect of what he saw.
) into a decrepit old woman ...Do not take your eyes off the morning or evening dawn, which suddenly arises and disappears just as quickly, giving way to either a sultry (rainy, frosty, etc. ) day, or the dark horror of the night ...And all this is a rare and fleeting beauty against the background of dullness and everyday life. By the way, sometimes we don't see, we don't even pay attention to individual manifestations of the beauty of Nature in our world because of the inveterate routine.
But when you dive into the water world in the Red Sea near the reef, not only do your eyes open wide, but the pupils expand with surprise and a desire to see the unearthly beauty of the underwater kingdom as much as possible. And, moreover, the impression from what he saw is so strong that it does not leave the feelings of the Soul indifferent and indifferent. Impressions penetrate into your inner spiritual world and awaken it, which usually, if not sleeping, then dozing.
You see and perceive with your senses this eternal beauty that lives and continues for centuries, not interrupted for a second in subsequent generations of the same growing corals or fish. The beauty of the fish does not depend on the mating season: they are no less beautiful both in "infancy" and in adulthood, right up to their natural death.
Having written this, I thought why in our airy world beauty, which, according to philosophers, should save the World, is so fleeting and turns into its opposite - into ugliness, but in the watery world of the Red Sea - eternal? Conservation properties of sea water and redox reactions with increased rates in the air, I do not take into account. Here is something different, fundamental from the standpoint of the existence of our World as a whole.
But these are all passing thoughts.
The main desire is to absorb this beauty as much as possible and keep it in yourself, take it home, to Ukraine and live with it until the next visit to Sharm El Sheikh.
And, importantly, to share this beauty with friends, which I am currently doing on the pages of my Diary.
Again on the relic shore
Evening. Less than half an hour is left before sunset. I am again at the farthest corner of the beach at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort 5 *. This place, remote from the local “civilization”, somehow reminds me of my favorite island on the Dnieper under my balcony in Kyiv. Here and there the foot of a man rarely sets foot and such places are for people who are calm and focused on their own inner world, trying to comprehend at least a small part of the Truth. This, I would call, those notorious gates on Earth through which you can enter other Worlds.
There are many such places and they are tied not only to the geographic coordinates of the Earth, but to the essence of a person and the inner mood to make such a transition. And favorable places for this are just catalysts for this process. I was convinced of this more than once in Kyiv. When in any place, whether it was a bus stop or in a subway car, I immersed myself in the creative process and drew information from these subtle worlds.
Here, on the shores of the Red Sea, in this reserved place, a special magic found its manifestation, which cannot be described in words. And feelings are not transmitted by any means of our world ...And no matter what I do during the day, wherever I am, and in the evening this invisible magic draws me to itself.
Here, for the benefit of vacationers, hoteliers drove three vertical columns into the rock and hung umbrellas from dried palm leaves of intertwined vines on them and placed four sun loungers - they made something like a mini beach. But still, a vacationer here is a rare guest. This is a place for a hermit. Now I am also a hermit: the sea, the rocks and I, no one else and nothing. Everything else recedes into the tenth plan. A rare vacationer comes here: and go far to the bar on the beach for a cocktail or beer, pizza for lunch, or just swim in the sea: the cliff does not allow you to enter the sea so easily. And therefore, as for me, this place is reserved - this is how I feel it. My soul is drawn to this place.
I see a futile attempt to make money on equally poor Ukrainians - now, perhaps, the only mass tourists in Egypt after Putin's blockade of tourist Egypt by Russia, as well as thousands of closed retail shops, the owners of which have switched to work as taxi drivers or to small part-time jobs. Tightly closed hotels, such as Poinciana Sharm Resort 4 *, where I had such a wonderful vacation a year ago and wrote a lot of kind words about it, sadden with nostalgia and bring tears to tears.
I understand that the state, and even more so the hoteliers, do not have the funds to make those small territories with unique relics, which I wrote about above, into reserves and protected areas.
With a little, and you can’t enjoy underwater views for hours - you have to go to the beach every half hour and bask ...
And between all these stages, and even during these stages, especially in the underwater kingdom (it’s just a pity that they didn’t come up with waterproof paper and a ballpoint pen under it) - intense creativity with active “scribing” of paper with words, phrases and expressions that appear from nowhere in my mind. It was the latter that caused considerable surprise among others. However, none of my new acquaintances around me bought any of my books, even about the resort and about love. But they read with pleasure and, to no lesser extent, praised ...Such, apparently, is the fate of the Poet. And such is the contingent of tourists of this 5 * elite hotel: in 3 * and 4 * hotels my books, especially aphorisms about the resort, about a woman and about love, were in great demand ...
And all this cannot but cause a desire to write - to get rid of the exorbitant load of positive emotions that overwhelm your soul. And, if you give them free rein, then in a free stream they pour, in addition to your participation, onto a piece of paper in the form of endless beads of small letters and words. The desire to quench your thirst is to write, forgetting about time and space, day and night, in any conditions: be it in a restaurant, on the beach or during excursions around the hotel. Is there any joy in this world greater than this? And I doubt that under these conditions, if I had 7 or 14 days, the impressions could be exhausted, both in quantity and in the depth of their perception. And the reason for this lies not in my subjective peculiarity of creative nature, but in the objective reality of not only the SUNRISE Diamond Resort, but also the nature of Egypt and the Red Sea in general.
By the way, I remember how I began to comprehend the Crimea in the 80s of the last century.
Now, on the Red Sea, as then in the Crimea in Alushta, a new level of cognition of the Truth is revealed to me. Only then was the truth created by the Nature of the subtropical climate in natural conditions. And now - natural only in the Red Sea, and on the shore - man-made. But even here, on the shore, the role of man in the birth of this beauty, only as a catalyst: more fresh water, skillful planning, planting and careful care ...And everything else will be done by Nature herself and a climate favorable for this - an oasis will grow in the desert, pleasing to the eye and healing body and soul! Nature will raise palm trees to a ten-meter height, reveal amazingly beautiful flower buds, cover lawns with a fluffy carpet of grasses, pour fruits and berries with healing nectar ...
And I observed all this at the SUNRISE Diamond Resort and wrote these lines from the nature of this beauty.
Is there any joy in this world greater than this?
Farewell exit to the relic corner
And, not restrained inside - this storm was so strong, it broke out. At first, it manifested itself in the form of tears that non-stop splashed from the eyes, and then a real cry of despair escaped from within, comparable to the cry of a wounded beast ...
“Look around! Look around! ”, - sounded a plea behind me, gradually fading away, “Look! Look around! . . "But for some reason I knew that, looking back, I would forever and firmly tie myself to this relic world, perhaps even forever remain in that world and would never be able to leave it. And that is why he moved farther and farther away from him, gradually thinning the thread of connection with him. My physical essence triumphed, and only the spiritual essence suffered more and more, manifesting its suffering in an already unrestrained roar and a stream of tears ...
I went to the barbaric world of my fellow tribesmen - "humans". I, in fact, returned to myself, to the world of my material essence, physical reality.
And in order to fulfill the testament of the relic coral world, I must blow up this (and mine, at the same time) physical world from the inside. And this is clearly not for me.
I moved further and further away from the relic world. And this departure was not calculated in steps or meters of distance from the coast, where the history of the Earth manifested itself and the agony approaching it was felt ...I was leaving something more significant and incomprehensible to the human mind and consciousness ...At the same time, I blamed myself for leaving away from those who trusted me so much and expected that I could help them at least somehow ...
I wrote all this from nature, not missing a single detail, because I knew that in a moment or two other material and physical problems would appear and all my visions of the subtle World, like a dream, despite their brightness and impressionability, would disappear forever, and I can't even remember it in general terms.
The full moon replaces the daylight in its place in the sky. “A holy place is never empty, ” a popular proverb aptly says. And now I see confirmation of this: the Moon took over from the Sun, although it does not shine so brightly, but still the visibility of its presence in the night, as a night star, shows. The moon also has its own retinue - from numerous stars. There would be much more of them if the Moon did not extinguish them with its brighter light.
But no one in this night world, except me, knows that the Moon does not have its own light: it is she, like a mirror, that reflects the rays of the Sun, which has gone to rest after the evening dawn, where the peaks of the mountains have posted their guards for the calm sleep of the day master of the sky. . And I know that because I went to school and studied Physics. If it were not for this unfortunate fact in my life, I would perceive this World in a completely different way, in all its charm - with the sensations of the Soul, and not with my flawed mind ...
But the past cannot be erased.
The Moon on Earth also has its followers. Waves in numerous numbers, from the horizon and almost to the very shore, reflect its light, play with it, as if they want to throw it above the surface of the water. And from these yellow reflections on the surface of the sea, a wide lunar road was formed, going into the distance and there narrowing to a point. This road is so enchanting and seductive that you just want to jump on it, right from the cliff and run along it, barely touching its golden coating with your feet ...But, alas! Again, the same malicious school Physics does not allow me to do this and deprives me of such pleasure ...
The entire coastline is completely exposed to moonlight. Everything is illuminated by her milky-matte light. And therefore, every object on the shore casts a blurry shadow on the ground. And in these shadows you try to find nocturnal inhabitants: various monsters and kikimors. You know exactly what they are.
After all, there can be no night without its permanent inhabitants. And where can they hide, if not in the shadows? Do not go out into the bright moonlight! I would be afraid of them and run away to my safe haven - to a hotel room, but curiosity and the desire to paint the night from nature and everything that happens in it take over. And I hasten in the light of the moon to record everything I see, and moreover, what I feel, in my clumsy handwriting on a piece of paper until this or that night phenomenon or impression from it has disappeared.
It's windless down here by the sea. Only there, at the top, the breeze is still walking and the pink flag is waving on the flagpole. In Egypt, in January, it is rare that at night, starting in the evening, the windmill does not show its violent temper. And so I have the opportunity, with some relative comfort, to admire and enjoy the night over South Sinai.
Daytime noise and discordant din of vacationers was replaced by night silence.
Some deep, as if at the bottom of a wide well of our World, this night silence is hidden. Only waves measuredly rustle their crests along the coastal strip, sometimes making a splash when they hit the rock. In general, they are calm and obedient at night. After all, she is now the mistress of the world. And this even surprises me a little: the Sun cannot appease the exorbitantly frisky “crown of nature” - man and other inhabitants on land, and the Night has found control for everyone! Great power (or maybe spell? ) of the night! But I am not afraid of these nocturnal charms, if they really exist: on me, consecrated in the Pechersk Lavra, a wooden cross on a harsh thread ...
The night put everyone to sleep, immersed them in their night trance. Everyone except Sea. The sea continues to be awake, especially in its depths.
Despite the stupid and half-blind night (it was already about three o'clock), I was still allowed (Her Majesty the Night allowed) to examine the sea and sky, their color. Moonlight makes its own adjustments to all colors and shades, and they are mainly black, gray and silver. And all of them are reflected in the sea and in the sky. Gray near the shore from shallow underwater corals, and then black, maybe even dark blue closer to the shore. And the sky above the horizon, between the black sea and the rest of the sky, interestingly, is gray, like a dim glow. And such a color of the sky above the horizon is explained by optical phenomena ...
Without finishing the sentence, I caught myself thinking that again I explain all the phenomena of our World by the laws of physics, forgetting that in our World a significant place is occupied by the astral World, the Spiritual World, which pervades it everywhere, the concepts and images of which can describe any process in an accessible and colorful way. or a phenomenon in our World, which was done above with several examples.
January 12.2017 Thursday
Last day of the winter resort
Eleven o'clock. Consider my winter spa already over. Ahead, in the coming hours - the fuss of packing bags, leaving the room, handing over the keys to the room and a card for a beach towel at the reception, the last lunch and departure to the airport.
Since the plan - be sure to check out the room before 12-00 and early transfer (15-10), with a late departure (19-00). I still don’t understand why you need to leave the hotel four hours before the plane’s departure, when the road to the airport takes no more than twenty minutes ...
And therefore, my daily routine is compressed to the limit: breakfast, a couple of hours at sea, and at half past twelve I should already be in the room - to pack my things so that by twelve, as expected, I can vacate the room.
Everything was going well until I went into my room to start packing. And that was half an hour before check-out. And then there is a knock on the door and the cleaner, without asking, tumbles into the room and starts cleaning. And it's only half past eleven! I have my personal time for another half an hour! I tolerate it.
I have already put everything in my bag. The janitor is messing with something in the bathroom, sometimes staring at me . . I tolerate his impudence, it seems like my upbringing does not allow him to be removed from the room just like that.
Let, I think, a person enjoy cleaning, because he didn’t clean the room every five days (my kind soul sometimes relieved him of such a duty, since I, as a bachelor with many years of experience, could keep clean and tidy myself). But, to my regret, the cleaner did not understand me, or pretended, as the Arabs know how, that they do not understand when it is beneficial for them. And when I began to seal the bag in film and tape, he briskly jumped up to me and also, no less intrusively, began to “help” me, or rather, interfere. Moreover, at the end he also asked for a thin tape as a gift. Of course, I didn’t give it, because I counted on it as a unique seal on the bag, because such adhesive tape is sold only in Kyiv. In the end, the Arab got me and I kicked him out.
I'm guilty, I even provoked the Arab cleaner to some negative action.
This is followed by a chain: porter (or microcar driver) - storekeeper. And who can take under personal guarantee the safety and security of things along this chain? The hotel owner? - Not at all! When you check into the hotel, you are given instructions for review, which clearly states that the hotel administration is not responsible for things left outside the safe ...But you have already moved out of the room and said goodbye to the safe. And therefore, the passport, the remaining money, the camera, the laptop, the phone and other valuables are obliged to carry around the hotel in the form of a huge bag for three hours. And the rest, sometimes, is no less valuable and significant for you? - You leave it to "uncle. " I left my bag, sealed with film and tape, on the "uncle" and I.
Assuming that the salary of a cleaner, a porter and a storekeeper during the economic crisis is meager, and they can “earn extra money”, as they say in Odessa, “to steal on trifles”, I still left something in my bag.
But, by no means, not like the Serpent-seducer of Eve with an apple of paradise, but because you won’t carry everything with you for three hours before departure! ..
What was my surprise when, three hours later, twenty minutes (! ) before boarding the transfer bus, I found barbarously torn film, adhesive tape and household items rummaged upside down: clothes, food prepared for the journey, and so on. Only small things were missing, some of the food and drinks in cans that can be quickly “fused”. At the same time, my protest against the unauthorized opening of my personal belongings on the eve of departure met with misunderstanding both among the representatives of the hotel administration and Anex Tour.
Full text: "Holidays in Egypt" https://www. facebook. com/sashasim. Egypt/
And in the book: Sasha Sim. Red Sea: Corner of the earthly Paradise. Travel notes from Egypt. - Kyiv: SIM & HAM Publishing House, - 2017. - 535 p. , illus. ISBN 966-8802-17-9
© Sasha Sim (Alexander Golovko), 2017
Translated automatically from Russian. View original
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