h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

July 2000
Just spent two weeks in Sharm El Sheikh diving with New Waves Dive School. What an experience! My group of 13 were given instruction up to PADI Advanced Open Water Diver standard. The Instructors, Anita, Mark, Mike and Ash were all extremely professional and we were certainly satisfied that at all times we were given the best tuition going.
Favourite dive boat was the Oriana, well laid out and plenty of room for us all. It's used as a safari boat too. Food was good and crew were well skilled.
Diving conditions were brilliant, visibility always greater than 20m, water temperature around 25 degrees C.
Currents were all manageable when drift diving and the coral and other sea-life kept our eyes glued to the front of our masks.
Didn't see any sharks (not overly disappointed about that!) but swam past a couple of Giant Moray eels that were completely out of their holes. One decided to avoid the attentions of my instructor and I, and left its barrel home in search of better lodgings. At around six feet long it was a sight I won't soon forget. Turtles were seen by most of the course and viewed us with blatant disregard, happy in their own travels.
Baracuda were seen in abundance, not that they did any dancing you understand, but we were quite happy to stay a distance away from these mean looking beasties.
Some of the guys dived on the Thistlegorm ( a World War Part 2 wreck) and raved about it. Always remember to put film in your underwater camera....otherwise the results are disappointing.
Lodgings took the form of the Rosetta Apartments in Naama Bay. Comfortable and clean with plenty of toilet rolls for all (believe you me they were needed!)
10 minute walk from Naama Bays centre.
Food availability - the obligatory MaccyD's, Pizza Butt, Kentucky underfried as you'd expect. The Bus Stop had good food and the disco upstairs (are there disco's anymore or is club the right word?.....getting old was good for a bop.
The Camel Bar was the place for beer and an English atmosphere.....don't drink Stella (not the artois variant) as its full of headache inducing chemicals I'm told. Sakara is the beer to ask for (still managed to get a headache from that.....or was it the 10 Bacardi and Cokes). The Camel Bar has a Cyber cafe attached (there are at least two other cybercafes in Naama Bay area), tokens for use over the bar as you order your headache juice. It has stairs to a roof lounge...watched England win against Germany on a giant TV screen under the moon and the stars.
The street it's on has more restaurants, the Chinese was good, the Tandoori was almost OK but didn't quite make the grade (but then I've been spoilt by the great Glaswegian Curry Houses in a past life).
British Egyptian Bank on this street sells cash from its fruit machine and works if you have Cirrus on your cashpoint card. There are Mastercard terminals along this street too, and a small supermarket that sells everything (we bought an elephant and a set of Toyota spark plugs).
I managed to bugger up my ears diving and was sent to the Baro Decompression chamber to see a Doctor Adel. He is the recognised authority in the Sharm area for diving medical problems (DO NOT see an hotel doctor) and should be your first point of contact if you run into ear problems etc. All the Dive Schools know where he is located and will pack you in to a taxi to get there.
OH MY GOD I nearly forgot the taxi's..... Peugot seven-seaters 70's vintage...no seatbelts, loud horns and held together by the will of Allah. Manage Mach 2 downhill. Sitting in the very back is no guarantee you'll be furthest from the impact zone!
Dive the Red Sea ? More please!

Iprefersrats.

I went snorkelling at Sharm el Sheik in about '81, when it was still part of Israel and you walked across a desert marked with tank tracks, barbed wire and pits everywhere to get to the sea from the Youth Hostel.
But under the water was incredible. Couldn't believe the numbers and varieties of fish. I almost lost my nerve when a ray lifted out of the sand just below me in shallow water.
No pizza, burgers or fried chicken back then. Just a barn like supermarket for the army holiday campers.