I always use a hole in the wall when I get there for Egyptian pounds. There'll probably be one at or close to your hotel. Just checked the weather forecast for next week. Teeming all week. A bit unlucky there I'm afraid.
As Trigsy said, most Hotels have cashpoints now. i tend to have anything from the hotel on a tab and pay on the card at the end of the week, just taking cash out for taxis and for meals etc in Naama Bay.
If you go into Naama Bay, DO DO DO eat at the Dannineer, which is great fish and steak house and vey reasonably priced a bit further down from McDonalds (sorry) on the left hand side..
Also on arrival, you get a visa in the arrivals hall. Don't get fleeced! Some will charge £10, some will charge £15 and some may do a deal for 2 for £20. Don't be afraid to ask people coming out of queues how much they paid. I think the bank tellers sell them cheaper than the travel agents - you'll see what I mean when you get there.
Have fun!
KT
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I can absolutely, definitely, 100% guarantee that no animals were harmed by submitting this posting! Maybe.
Got back late Tuesday night and straight into work Wednesday (no rest for the wicked)
Only managed 4 1/2 dives, too much to do, Quad biking and horse riding in desert. Will say diving in Sharm was excellent but isnt the place a sh%thole? More rubbish on the streets than here in the UK.
Dived Ras Mohamed Ntional Park area and Ras Kati plus 2 drift dives in the tidal red sea itself. Sealife was amazing, saw fish I never knew existed including a crocodile fish...
Also had an 8 minute dive with 2 referal divers (1 AOW who hadn't dived for 18 months and 1 OW who hadnt dived in 12 months) Dive guide thought current was too dangerous for them so pulled us all out (Not impressed). When I asked the blokes, from Doncaster, why they dont dive in the UK before they go away to save all this crap their response was "GET A LIFE" to which my response back was..
"If you did your referal back in the UK you would waste a day of your holiday and a day of mine" this was greeted with a bit of a hostile remark of "Why would I want to dive in the UK, I'd rather get hit by a bus, get a f'in life will you" to which I replied "Well if you would have been hit by a bus you wouldnt have f*&ked up a day of my holiday". Things nearly got heated but the other guy stepped in to calm things down.
I thought most people would have got a bit of practice in before going away? or is it me being obsessed with the sport at the moment?
I thought most people would have got a bit of practice in before going away? or is it me being obsessed with the sport at the moment?
Ian
Well Ian, I agree. It would seem common sense to most of us but there are people who are just tourist divers and as the link attached shows, this is what can and did happen. This happened last year, I think, and whilst it makes sense to get a bit of practise in, the attraction of the Red Sea is what makes a lot of people dive, not practising in the Delph or the likes. If you read the usual mags like Sport Diver there will be incidents such as this month in, month out. The best thing to do is what your Dive Guide did and aborted the dive when the possibility of something going wrong occurred. Ask the lads in the club about the currents in Egypt, especially the washing machine. And whilst they came out the other side of it, spun at 1000 rpm, I bet it's something that they wouldn't want repeating.
Almost totally agree KT, practice makes perfect and if divers arn't up to it then they should not be in the water and having paired with a diver who hadn't dived in 40 yrs (honest !!) who got got in to all kinds of trouble, not least because he had never used one of these "new BCD things" I can sympathise with Ian for the ruined dive.
Where do I disagree.... I was up for a night dive at the Washing machine !!!!!
KT I agree safety is uppermost when doing our sport and my gripe isnt with the dive guide, he did what he thought was right in the situation and I applaud him for his decision, I didnt want to be in the water with somebody who may panic and take my life. My gripe is with the older diver who said he didnt need to practice even after not diving for 18 months cos he was an "ADVANCED OPEN WATER" What I've found in both Malta snd Egypt now is that the dive guides respect UK divers, face it if you can dive in UK water you can dive anywhere is what they say.
