Hurgahada Day 2

Egypt 8.4.2008

Did not get to write anymore as was talking for the rest of the trip with the people seated behind me. As I suspected the women were nurse, to be more specific nurses working with mentally ill. They went to another, more expensive hotel, all inclusive. There goes the salary increase which the nurses in Finland managed to get with a strike in the last fall.

After landing last night I exchanged some money and indeed the rate was much better than in Finland, about 8.5 egyptian pounds for an euro. We took the arranged transport to the hotel and I walked around the hotel gardens for a while until joining another lone Finnish guy for quest of finding a meal. It tells something about the Finns, that we had a meal, but did not introduce our names at any point. The meal turned out be a factor which makes me write this entry at 6.00-> as my stomach is keeping me from sleeping. Maybe it was the extremely salty Napolitan pizza or the slightly shady Luxor bier, but I managed to only sleep for four to five hours. When returning to the hotel I should have followed the hunch for finding some non alcoholic to drink. At the moment I only have a bottle rum in the fridge, which makes terrible noise every 5-10 ten minutes. So I am writing this blog instead of getting the needed sleep in HOR hotel. Who ever came up with the name did not seem to mind or was not aware of vocal similarities between whore hotel and HOR hotel. The hotel is a mixture of various low buildings connected by rather well kept garden. There is an entrance, a metal detector, a lobby, a restaurant and a bar in the building facing the streets. At the other end there is a pool and the sea. My room is located in one the middle rows of 3 store apartment buildings. On my both sides there are these hotel buildings, which I presume is a good thing as some Finns ended up in a room over looking the hotel waste dump instead. The room I got is modest, painted with orange and has two beds, which have not served their purposes tonight very well, as I am awake and sitting in a comfort chair at the corner of the room. There is no safety locker in the room, which makes me nervous of leaving the laptop and my money behind. Well if this machine will be stolen these words will never end up in the internet so you would not know. It's seven o'clock and the breakfast is being served so I will try get something down and hope that it stays there too. The wind is blowing hard, but the sun is shining.

When you wake up before six the day seems lot longer. It is only half past ten, but I am nacked already. I did not get to dive today or even try any of the equipment, instead we, me and two Finns from Joensuu watched PADI videos all day long. If you are ever considering a diving course keep in mind that they will ask plenty of questions about your health and ticking any yes answers leads you to consult a doctor before you can be approved to participate. This meant that no diving for us today because of my pneumo thorax (collapsed lung) ten years ago, which I admitted in the form. Fortunately, I was not the only one with medical issues and hence not the only to take the blame for change in the schedule. The videos were educational, but without hands on experience with the equipment or the water lots of the stuff did not imprint to my memory. Well, the most important thing in diving is to keep breathing constantly (oppose to holding your breath). That much I learned for sure in theory, rest of the stuff such as the use of dive tables, remain rather obscure. What struck me as slightly annoying in the PADI material was the constant advertising of scuba gear and underling the need to buy buy buy.

There would have been some irony in getting hit by a car in front of the medical centre, some of the local drivers have annoying habit of driving with out lights and I completely failed to spot a car which really halted just two meters away. The bill for the medical check in Hypermed was 40€ and probably it would not have been any cheaper to take care of the health check in Finland. It's a shame I did not bring camera with me as there was a pressure chamber for divers suffering from divers disease. I am little by little recovering from the dinner at the hotel restaurant (including liver prepared in a way I actually managed to eat it), so could pop out for some fresh air before going to bed. It is a early morning tomorrow too..