Just back from Photo Training Overseas in Egypt where it’s been an eventful (but for us, totally safe) couple of weeks! Having been delayed at Hurghada airport for over five hours last night we didn’t get home until 4.00a.m. this morning so this is just an interim report on our time in the sun. After two weeks of intermittent internet at our Egyptian hotel (mostly none at all), today I’ve been catching up on emails, phone messages and post at the studio, Facebook and Twitter. I’ve also been downloading and backing up pictures from the trip.
In spite of the political turmoil in Cairo and other major Egyptian cities, Janet and I have had a fantastic and very relaxing fortnight by the Red Sea at the Mamlouk Palace Hotel in Hurghada. Week one was full-on Photo Training Overseas with some great speakers and the usual friendly socialising and networking. The weather was kind too, so we enjoyed our first experiences of snorkelling in the Red Sea. Around fifty members of the PTO group stayed on for week two, which turned into into a very relaxing week around the hotel and the swimming pool as trips to Luxor and beyond were cancelled due to the troubles. Sometimes it’s good to simply slow down!
The sad part was seeing the devastating effect on the local tourism and the impact on the lives of the local work-force as hotels and local shops were forced to close. The speed of the economic slow-down as the tourists stayed away in droves was dramatic to say the least. Hopefully, with President Mubarak finally standing down in the hours just before we left Egypt, things will return to some sort of normality for the ordinary people before too long. Assuming the army allow it of course…
by admin