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You can lose everything, but nobody will take away what you saw and what you experienced...
............ 
Dec 30, 2020 10:00 PM Happy New Year!
I am waitimg impatiently for the bloody year 2020 to escape.
I am still locked. No dancing, no meeting with the friends.
Let's the New Year 2021 will bring us return to normality, open borders, exciting and free travelling!
Have a happy new year!
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Dec 23, 2020 10:00 PM Merry Christmas dear Friends!
The terrible year of pandemic is coming to the end. But we still suffer, isolated from our families and friends.
Have a Merry Christmas anyway dear Friends!
In the morning I was decorating with my grandsons our 2,5-m high Christmas tree.
We believe that in the evening, after our traditional dinner and singing the carrols Santa will bring us the gifts. I am expecting new air ticket :)
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Dec 18, 2020 10:00 PM Leave shells and corals...
The authorities of Marsa Alam airport require that passengers must be in the airport 3 hours before departure. Why? They will screen all your luggage just in the entrance looking for banned shells and pieces of coral. So it is better to leave them in the Red Sea. Once cleared you will be directed to the check-in stand. To Warsaw - only 23 passengers will be flying in the 130-seater boeing of Enter Air. Then you go to the passport control (fill up departure card before!) and to crowded waiting hall. There are souvenir shops to spend your last Egyptian pounds. but the shopkeepers accept also dollars and euro.
It is necessary to bargain!
We departed at 1.30 pm.
For the great views of the Red Sea take a right side window seat. Soon Sinai peninsula was visible and then - the Suez Canal - it is on the picture..
It was only 1 deg. Celsius when I landed in windy Warsaw. One more fantastic trip is over!
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Dec 17, 2020 10:00 PM Last day in the sunny paradise
Sorry, tomorrow I will be flying back to Warsaw... So today is my last day in Marsa Alam, to be precise - 40 kms north of Marsa, in the middle of nowhere, where on the coast of the Red Sea they built my hotel....
The sea is rough today because the strong wind. I tried to swim anyway, but it was not the same pleasure... Water was warm as always, but there was a strong current pushing me to the north and the waves were covering me from time to time.
In the afternoon I started to pack my backpack again. No need to use an alarm clock. The first calling from the nearby mosque will wake me up at 5 am! :)
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Dec 16, 2020 10:00 PM Shisha for 2 euro or 2 dollars
On the beach which belongs to our hotel they established something like a club, where the tourist are going at the sunset time to try some snacks and to try coffee prepared on taditional way. First they bake the coffee beans on the coal. Then they beat the baked coffee in the mortar addin some ginger. Finally the product goes to jabana - special dish with round bottom (I brought such a ceramic jabana from Eritrea) adding sufficient amount of water and boil it on the coal. The coffee prepared on this way is thick and almost black. It is recommended to add some water. Take care - it is very strong and will not sleep after big dose!
Coffee is free for the guests but if you want to smoke shisha (the water pipe) it will cost you 2 euro or 2 dollars. Sorry - this service is temporarily unavailable due to pandemic :)
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Dec 15, 2020 10:00 PM Coastal walk to the south
Tourist industry in Egypt suffers from pandemic. In the Marsa Alam area only 8 hotels are open and the have very few guests, so they must reduce expenses. Friendly cook in my hotel keeps portioned butter underground for the special guests. I am lucky to be one of them since I know few words in Arabic, they know that I visited all Arab countries and I am ready to socialize with them...
OK. Today I decided to take the coastal walk south from the place I stay. Just at the beginning I passed the poor post of Egyptian coast guard (eh, Egyptian army... soldier in charge wear the uniform only when he saw me at the fence :)
Then there was little, idyllic and completely empty bay... Further south I too a photo of two local fishermen using the net - I am not sure if this is legal in the Red Sea full of color fish...
Later I passed the ruined Cindarella Hotel -it seems that nobody cares about cleaning this part of the coast.
Finally I reached huge Acacia Hotel. It is closed now. The guards did not allowe me to continue my walk along the beach. That's life... I still gain some new experience!
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Dec 14, 2020 10:00 PM Along the coast
Sea is a bit rough, but the sun is shining... The adwantage of Marsa Alam's hotels are that the distance from hotel A to hotel B is minimum few kilometres. Today I enjoyed the walk to the next resort heading to the north. It was nice walk and I found "Novotel" nicer then the hotel I stay... Beach (partly rocky) was completely empty...
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Dec 13, 2020 10:00 PM All inclusive under the palms...
It is the first case in the long history of my travelling that I stay in the hotel where the drinks are included in the room rate. But I must add here a comment: Egypt is Muslim country where alcohol is officially forbidden. No bottle shops even in big cities, if your are a beer lover it will be very difficult to find the bottle... Except, if you are in the good hotel or resort where they want more and more foreign tourists.
To save the money they do not offer imported, well-known brands, but Egyptian products only. So you will be surprised that there is Egyptian whisky, Egyptian vodka and brandy and Egyptian white rum (recommend!). They have also Egyptian beer and wine but for some strange reason ithe wine is served only durind the lunch and dinner time. Barmen do not drink, so the choice of wine is like the lottery: there is only one white and one red. You order dry but you never know if you will get dry or sweet....
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Dec 12, 2020 10:00 PM Back to the Red Sea
We are coming back to the coast. It is about 5 hours drive from Luxor to Marsa Alam. Every tourist bus in Egypt is escorted by the armed policeman. And there are many control points on the route... You are always stop at they are checking documents of the car, destination and the number of the people inside...
First part of today's driving to Qena was very interesting - through the window of the bus I saw the life - people working, donkey carts and lush nature with many bougainvillea flowers jn blossom... Then we turned east and started to cross rather monotonous Eastern Desert. We reached our hotel in the darkness.
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Dec 11, 2020 10:00 PM West Bank of the Nile
Opposite the Luxor, on the west bank of the Nile there are many monuments from the time of the pharaohs. Probably the best known is the Valley of the Kings with 62 tombs of the rulers. The entry costs 240 egyptian pounds and gives you the right to visit 3 tombs of your choice. The Tutenhamon tomb is excluded and worth extra 300 pounds if you can see it. It is interesting place to see with fantastic decoration on the walls, but for me much picturesque is located nearby the Temple of Queen Hachhepsout - the only woman who ruled in Egypt. The temple is located at the bottom of the high cliff. Polish Archeo Mission was working hete long time to reconstruct the temple and the result is excellen - just see the picture!
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