jaro gruber ;-): 3/1/23

Thursday, March 9, 2023

egypt (luxor + hurghada)

10 days in egypt => luxor, hurghada (makadi bay), adult hotel makadi spa, ... btw, what does an adult hotel mean? well, it is a quiet place for elderly guests similar to a nursing home, i learned 😄

what about few somehow shoking and/or interesting experiences?

the hotel & service staff was NOT allowed to swim in the sea and to go & enjoy the (tourists') beach => so sad 😭
the corrupt and selfish police mocks and terrorizes the people: just one example: we have had to wait 30 minutes longer till the 'godlike' police officers finally opened the road from the coast to luxor in the morning. fuck them! why cannot they open the road on time and let other people do their business? only because their salaries provided by the state does not depend on any achievements aka output? egyptians hate their police & military. what a tinderbox (pulverfass), if you asked me ... the result for us? our 20 people tourists group missed the visit to a banana plantation + crocodile farm + small ZOO at an island inside the nile river. the result for egyptian business? many eygyptians missed their opportunity to earn some money (boat drivers, travel guide, farm owners, refreshments & souvenir sellers, ... ) => so sad again 😭
unemployment + the poor salaries + tips all over the business life => ... coming soon or never
crazy currency devalvation + consequent consumer price inflation in the last 4-6 months before our arrival

1 EUR was below 20 EGP in november 2022 and 4 months later in march

already 33 EGP => 65% devalvation against the weak euro in 4 months 😓

sahara desert => ... coming soon or never
beduins => ... coming soon or never
demographic growth:

in the time of pharaos => approx 2.5 million people

1800 => 2.5 million

1900 => 12.5 million

the recent years? just see the table below. with a growth rate of 2.4% a year there are

almost 110 million egyptians today. quite a jump up in the recent 60 years, wouldnt you

say? the next tinderbox / powder barrel (pulverfass), if you asked me ...

demographic growth. source: wikipedia

rural egypt: mr. donkey meets prof. tractor and wins many times. why? through the demographic growth are the fields often that small that you can't work with machinery there ...
the nile river => assuan dam changed the flooding agriculture to all-year-water-obtainable agriculture => the nutritious mud which was available to farmers for millennia stays for 40-50 years in assuan ... there is sooo much water which evaporates in all that artificial dams down the road, too ... on top, by some strange treaty by the english belong about 80%-90% of nile's water to egypt and sudan. foolishly comes approx. 90% of nile's water (through the white nile + blue nile rivers) from the other 8 nile adjacent countries like ethiopia, burundi, south sudan, DRC, tanzania, kenya, uganda .... these countries probably also want / need part of the water and will build dams for themselves ... what a tinderbox (pulverfass) again! read more about the nile water treaties on wikipedia here
pharaohs (pharaos) + their plundered graves (by the priests?) in the valley of the kings, luxor => ... coming soon or never
sun + water + coral reefs in makadi bay => ... coming soon or never
great massage every 2 days at the beach in front of our hotel
any SPECIAL BONUS? the siwa oasis + desert fox photographed by my youngest daugter 2 weeks after our stay
etc.

i'm not sure i'll find the time to upload / sort / edit and comment my own pictures. so enjoy here few of my wife's pictures, will you? 😄