Egypt Update

[macrobubble]

Hmm, funny the only hotels in the world I've stayed in with crash barriers in front of them ... were all in Egypt.

But maybe I'm misguided and not being objective. But how about every Department of Foreign Affairs urging extreme caution when visiting Egypt.

1 - That´s nonsense! You´ll find that in other countries as well.
For example: in Berlin the whole of "Pariser Platz" where the famous Adlon Hotel is located is has crash barriers. Even in the US, the Security Act deals with upgrated security messures of hotel, including protective barriers in the driveway. Some hotel have followed these guidelines, e.g. the famous Sagamore in upstate New York. So barriers are not something typical for or only found in Egypt.
2 - Again, a half truth: So does the german ministry of foreign affairs currently issue a travel warning on its website for Cairo, Suez and Alexandria only! They specifically mention that trips to the tourism resorts at the Red Sea are safe! I don´t think, you would want to visit Tahrir square or the headquater of the egyptian television.

But I think this discussion is going nowhere, since you have already made up your mind about safety in Egypt, ignoring reality.

 

[Skydiver1]

Stay safe, whatever you're doing (even if that's pooping)

C.

Likewise, even if your artificial, cordoned off tourist areas with beefed up security are perfectly safe anyway.

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Somebody entered this thread "blaming his luck" that his other half doesn't want to come to Egypt right now, which indicates that he, himself, was more than willing to pay a visit. Then all of a sudden the very same person started on throwing stones.

You never know the intentions of people.

 

[Crowley]

I have no problem with the fact that I live in an entirely artificial tourist resort, because I work in one of the best diving locations on the planet, and I get to do it every single day.

Please understand that I have lived in Sharm for 2 years, dived here for over 10, Solly lives in Cairo, Macrobubble lives in Dahab, RedSeaShadow lives... somewhere in Egypt... others such as Samaka and the DiveBunnie live and work in the Red Sea also, European and Egyptian nationals both and much as we love to promote our region, I for one cannot be accused of covering anything up or brushing things aside - one only has to read my excessive amount of blog-style posts to get that idea I think.

We did worry about the revolution - there was a small, but significant chance we could have ended up in the same situation that Libya faces now but Mubarak, for all his faults, finally did the decent thing and removed himself from office. If it was dangerous here, I wouldn't be here - and if diving was dangerous, I wouldn't do it - and certainly not on the scale that we deal with in such a high volume tourist resort.

Consider - last year my centre had roughly 8000 guests - includes intros, DSDs, divers, courses, etc. Let's say they made an average of 2 dives per day, including confined water sessions, over 5 days of diving - that would be 80,000 dives or underwater experiences, not including the staff, who can easily clock up 400 dives/immersions per year (at least), at an average of 20 working staff for us, adds another 8,000 underwater experiences. Okay this makes a lot of assumptions, but one can get a scale of the operation from these figures. Number of fatalitites: 0 Number of serious accidents: 1 minor case of DCS, 1 stonefish injury. And that's just my dive centre, and we are not the biggest, nor does it take into account the myriad smaller diving centres... and this is just in Sharm.

Number of foreign staff hurt or accosted or otherwise physically harmed by the revolution: 0

So - much as I loathe statistics, in this case I think it paints a fair picture of life in the Red Sea. I am not trying to put anybody down here or start another argument, but we live it, so it would be nice for people to respect our opinions and perspectives. I can see why governments put travel restrictions in place because when you see people fighting on the streets on TV, it's understandable, but there are also financial and political ulterior motives for doing so which extend beyond personal safety of the tourist.

I'm not going to put anybody down who is still not comfortable traveling to Egypt and diving here, everybody has the option to make an informed choice based on the facts available at the time. The problem arises when focus shifts to a smaller part of the bigger picture.

And please come back to Egypt - we MISS you guys!

Cheers

C.

PS Sorry for the babble, my customer cancelled today so I'm in thumb-twiddling territory again

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

RedSeaShadow lives... somewhere in Egypt...

Do you still think I'm "real"?

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Consider - last year my centre had roughly 8000 guests - includes intros, DSDs, divers, courses, etc. Let's say they made an average of 2 dives per day, including confined water sessions - that would be 16,000 dives or underwater experiences, not including the staff, who can easily clock up 400 dives/immersions per year (at least), at an average of 20 working staff for us, adds another 8,000 underwater experiences.

How pathetic. 16,000 + 8,000 = 24,000 dives per year, and you're one of the big guys. When Bret Gilliam used to work in the diving "tourism", he used to run 1,200 dives PER DAY, and that was back in 1988. So your year is 20 days on his scale.

Read the full article in the second issue of Tech Diving Mag. You can download it for free at Tech Diving Mag | Free online technical diving magazine

 

[Crowley]

what's pathetic is my poor attempt at statistics - told you I hate them!

Err... I forgot to multiply by the number of days diving per guest - 16000 dives would be 2 dives per vacation, not per day - so that's 80,000 dives per year!

And that's still a conservative estimate - I personally clocked up over 600 dives last year, other guides easily more than that... and most divers get three dives per day and many are here for 10 days diving not 5, for sure in the peak of high season with 12 boats out at sea and a maximum of 300 customers per day and 30 working dive staff, we are hitting 1,000 dives per day. Easy. Doesn't sound quite as pathetic now, eh, Shadow!?

C.

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

Now that sounds just fine

 

[rigdiver]

How pathetic. 16,000 + 8,000 = 24,000 dives per year, and you're one of the big guys. When Bret Gilliam used to work in the diving "tourism", he used to run 1,200 dives PER DAY, and that was back in 1988. So your year is 20 days on his scale.

Read the full article in the second issue of Tech Diving Mag. You can download it for free at Tech Diving Mag | Free online technical diving magazine

1,200 dives per day? Please elaborate. Was that the cruise ship out of New Orleans that was for divers that did not last?

 

[Red Sea Shadow]

1,200 dives per day? Please elaborate. Was that the cruise ship out of New Orleans that was for divers that did not last?

Complete info in Bret's article "Behind 90s" in the second issue of Tech Diving Mag.

BTW, you'll also find a couple of nice photos for the Red Sea (particularly Sharm El Sheikh and Nabq) in my artcile "The Golden Compartments".