I've just returned from a staff meeting at my dive centre and was told the following:
Regarding travel - most European countries, Russia and the US have issued a travel warning to Egypt. This means that travel insurance from these countries will be invalidated by the underwriters. It also means that tour operators are not legally allowed to sell holidays.
At the moment, the UK is still on "alert" for travel to Egypt, with a recommendation to avoid Cairo, Suez and Alexandria particularly as these are the biggest cities where the majority of protesters are congregating. Sadly for my centre we do not command a large percentage of the British market, but at least they are coming.
I am trying to contact DAN to find out what this means for diving insurance but I just keep getting an answerphone at the moment - DAN is not an insurance agent itself but is underwritten by separate companies around the world - which is why we have different organisations sharing the same name. I am of course insured by DAN and British, but many of my colleagues are not from the UK and therefore I need to know if our own insurance is not valid!
I spoke to the owner of my centre and asked if there is any way we can get local insurance for visitors. There are schemes in place, but they do not appear to exist in Sharm at the moment - but I've seen this before in other countries where insurance is required to dive - you can pay 20 bucks and get a week's worth of diving insurance.
The big centres in Sharm are still open for business, because we can afford it - but some smaller, but well known centres are completely closed. Given that I represent myself here I am unwilling to say in public who is open and who is not, just in case I provide incorrect information. If you have booked a trip and are concerned, please contact your dive prospective dive centre (who really should have contacted you already).
The political unrest itself has entered a period of stalemate whereby the protesters' single demand is for Mubarak to leave, and he will not. In the middle sits the army, comprised mostly of people who probably also want to see him leave, but are under his control as commander-in-chief. The "West" and Israel want him to stay in order to conduct an orderly transition because Mubarak is an important asset in their own political agendas but we have seen time and time again that external politics have very little to do with what is actually right for the people of the country involved - because they are self serving morons with no understanding of local culture or demographics.
On the other hand, reports suggest that the demonstrations are more populous than ever - and Friday after prayers might see the largest number of people out on the streets. Of course there is the potential it will turn bloody, but all of the major diving destinations remain quiet and free of protest. Sharm, Dahab, Hurghada, El Gouna, Marsa Alam - if you didn't have a TV you would never know what had happened, apart from wondering where all the people have gone. We wait and see.
Diving wise - there could be no better time to visit the Red Sea since the 90's. It's stunning out there and some of the best reefs on the planet are almost empty. You're guaranteed to be on a boat in a small group. The big centres are actually sharing boats at the moment - we all know each other well, and so if one centre has a boat to Ras Mohamed, we invite other companies to share - and our divers might take another company's boat to Tiran. It's actually pretty cool for both us and the guests. I shared a boat with an instructor (absolutely stunningly gorgeous young lady) from a different dive centre and all day there was a very friendly banter between both us and the guests about who does what better, who makes the best food, the best dive briefings and so on (I won that competition, by the way, but I would have dived with her in a heartbeat given the chance! :cool2
I have no idea what's going to happen - we need people to come here and prove that everything's okay and then the officials will relax their travel bans - and in fact the head honchos of several tour operators are being wined and dined in Sharm to prove that there are no problems. The uprising could peter out into nothing and we end up with the same old corrupt regime as before (just with a different name) or it could descend into civil war.
The staff - both Egyptian and foreign - are leaving, or have been told to leave. We are currently operating with a skeleton crew but nobody can afford to stay anywhere unemployed, and with all the faffing about trying to get work permits and so on, visitors may find that when they are able to return, their choices are rather limited.
I'm not here to sell anything, I have no political agenda other than happy lives for every single person in the world, and maybe other countries need to start throwing a few stones at their own rulers, because a lot of what I hear from this, that and the other government is so laughably uninformed, unintelligent and ridiculously self serving that it would be farcical if so may people hadn't died already.
Me - I'm going to enjoy the free diving I am entitled to as long as I can afford it - and everybody who got their holidays canceled is missing something special here. It's quite amazing how a small number of people - world leaders - who would all comfortably fit on a London bus with room to spare, can affect the lives of 80 million residents of their own Country, whilst counting the number of zeros in their bank account.
A BBC report suggested the president of Egypt is worth 70 BILLION US dollars, and has accumulated a personal liquid wealth of 17 BILLION dollars - enough to write a cheque that will wipe out the debt of three or four whole countries - including their own - and yet the average wage of an Egyptian national is something like 100 bucks per month.
Okay I got political - malesh.
For those of you planning to visit the Red Sea - ask careful questions of the powers that be. I'm gonna stick around and see what happens.
All good folks,
C.
Regarding travel - most European countries, Russia and the US have issued a travel warning to Egypt. This means that travel insurance from these countries will be invalidated by the underwriters. It also means that tour operators are not legally allowed to sell holidays.
At the moment, the UK is still on "alert" for travel to Egypt, with a recommendation to avoid Cairo, Suez and Alexandria particularly as these are the biggest cities where the majority of protesters are congregating. Sadly for my centre we do not command a large percentage of the British market, but at least they are coming.
I am trying to contact DAN to find out what this means for diving insurance but I just keep getting an answerphone at the moment - DAN is not an insurance agent itself but is underwritten by separate companies around the world - which is why we have different organisations sharing the same name. I am of course insured by DAN and British, but many of my colleagues are not from the UK and therefore I need to know if our own insurance is not valid!
I spoke to the owner of my centre and asked if there is any way we can get local insurance for visitors. There are schemes in place, but they do not appear to exist in Sharm at the moment - but I've seen this before in other countries where insurance is required to dive - you can pay 20 bucks and get a week's worth of diving insurance.
The big centres in Sharm are still open for business, because we can afford it - but some smaller, but well known centres are completely closed. Given that I represent myself here I am unwilling to say in public who is open and who is not, just in case I provide incorrect information. If you have booked a trip and are concerned, please contact your dive prospective dive centre (who really should have contacted you already).
The political unrest itself has entered a period of stalemate whereby the protesters' single demand is for Mubarak to leave, and he will not. In the middle sits the army, comprised mostly of people who probably also want to see him leave, but are under his control as commander-in-chief. The "West" and Israel want him to stay in order to conduct an orderly transition because Mubarak is an important asset in their own political agendas but we have seen time and time again that external politics have very little to do with what is actually right for the people of the country involved - because they are self serving morons with no understanding of local culture or demographics.
On the other hand, reports suggest that the demonstrations are more populous than ever - and Friday after prayers might see the largest number of people out on the streets. Of course there is the potential it will turn bloody, but all of the major diving destinations remain quiet and free of protest. Sharm, Dahab, Hurghada, El Gouna, Marsa Alam - if you didn't have a TV you would never know what had happened, apart from wondering where all the people have gone. We wait and see.
Diving wise - there could be no better time to visit the Red Sea since the 90's. It's stunning out there and some of the best reefs on the planet are almost empty. You're guaranteed to be on a boat in a small group. The big centres are actually sharing boats at the moment - we all know each other well, and so if one centre has a boat to Ras Mohamed, we invite other companies to share - and our divers might take another company's boat to Tiran. It's actually pretty cool for both us and the guests. I shared a boat with an instructor (absolutely stunningly gorgeous young lady) from a different dive centre and all day there was a very friendly banter between both us and the guests about who does what better, who makes the best food, the best dive briefings and so on (I won that competition, by the way, but I would have dived with her in a heartbeat given the chance! :cool2
I have no idea what's going to happen - we need people to come here and prove that everything's okay and then the officials will relax their travel bans - and in fact the head honchos of several tour operators are being wined and dined in Sharm to prove that there are no problems. The uprising could peter out into nothing and we end up with the same old corrupt regime as before (just with a different name) or it could descend into civil war.
The staff - both Egyptian and foreign - are leaving, or have been told to leave. We are currently operating with a skeleton crew but nobody can afford to stay anywhere unemployed, and with all the faffing about trying to get work permits and so on, visitors may find that when they are able to return, their choices are rather limited.
I'm not here to sell anything, I have no political agenda other than happy lives for every single person in the world, and maybe other countries need to start throwing a few stones at their own rulers, because a lot of what I hear from this, that and the other government is so laughably uninformed, unintelligent and ridiculously self serving that it would be farcical if so may people hadn't died already.
Me - I'm going to enjoy the free diving I am entitled to as long as I can afford it - and everybody who got their holidays canceled is missing something special here. It's quite amazing how a small number of people - world leaders - who would all comfortably fit on a London bus with room to spare, can affect the lives of 80 million residents of their own Country, whilst counting the number of zeros in their bank account.
A BBC report suggested the president of Egypt is worth 70 BILLION US dollars, and has accumulated a personal liquid wealth of 17 BILLION dollars - enough to write a cheque that will wipe out the debt of three or four whole countries - including their own - and yet the average wage of an Egyptian national is something like 100 bucks per month.
Okay I got political - malesh.
For those of you planning to visit the Red Sea - ask careful questions of the powers that be. I'm gonna stick around and see what happens.
All good folks,
C.
