3.3.2019 / Sport camp on other continent

Egyptian in Egypt

At the turn of Sunday 17th of February an unusual event awaited some people of Sonkal school. A trip to a training holiday in Egypt on Sinai peninsula with the final destination in Sharm El Sheikh. This was an idea of our head-instructor Ondřej Vrábel. The main reason of this trip was to visit our other instructor Vladimír Švanda who is on business trip as a soldier in this locality.
Despite the interest of this visit among trainees was great at the beginning there were eventually just seven of us who made that trip. Ondřej Vrábel, Veronika Holečková, Pavel Šnábl, Jna Veškrna, Jiří Huml, Yegor Popov and Jan Dvořáček.

Whole trip was aimed on recreation rather than training. We flew overnight and we arrived around 6:30 a.m. After short briefing with Achmed about the rules at the hotel we went to the beach were we waited until our rooms were prepared for accommodation. We lay down on some deckchairs and all of us immediately fell asleep to make for the sleeping deficit during flight.

The first day was truly exhausting for it took too long till we get our rooms to accommodate. The last of us accommodated between 3 and 4 p.m. Early in the evening we finally met with Vladimír who took us for sightseeing under cover of the night. After a-few-moth staying he was accustomed with every corner and the best shops in the locality. All of locals were trying to gain some profit from us and they lured us to their clubs and shops. Especially I became an object of their interest and they took fancy to me. I was almost afraid they would keep me there forever and not allow me to pass the checkpoint at the airport. Right the first morning one man on the beach asked me whether I was an Egyptian, even though I had not taken the impact of the sun yet. Since then I was confronted with such questions many times. Finally I found out why. I was told I looked like an Egyptian football player named Mohamed Salah Ghaly.

Almost every day was in the name of lying on the beach and snorkeling in the sea together with one Taekwon-Do training a day. On Wednesday Vláďa prepared a surprise for us. He took us in his military base. We had training in local gym which was really spacious. Lunch and dinner we had together with soldiers from whole world in their dining room. We also visited private beach of the base where we tried to play beach volleyball with locals. And, of course, we swam and snorkeled among coral reefs.

On Friday we tried one of local attractions, a trip into the desert on four-wheelers. There was large group of us, maybe 20-30 people. Approximately in the middle of the trip there was a stop at Bedouins camp where we were served a tea. I tried a little ride on the back of camel, just one times around a courtyard. Anyway, it was great experience – you are sitting quite high and it is quite rocking. It was walking slowly. I can´t imagine what it is like when it is running. I had scarf around my face and sunglasses. With those I truly felt like a local.

On Saturday we spent whole day with a trip to St. Catherine Mountain and visiting local monastery. From our hotel to the mountain it was around 250 km so we were almost sitting in a minibus all the time. Our guide was truly sympathetic and he entertained us with a story of St. Catherine and history of the monastery which was renovated during history by Russian tsar Alexander the 2nd for instance or the French conqueror Napoleon Bonaparte.

The flight back home awaited us on Monday early morning. We left the hotel at around 3 a.m. The plane should have departed at 6:05 a.m. but it was delayed for 45 minutes. It seemed that Egyptian airport took great care of its safety for right at the entrance we were checked for our passports and luggage. Those we had to pass later a few times more. Because of that and the fact that I did not sleep the previous night and not even during the flight I decided that next time I will think twice about a trip to Egypt. Even though I enjoyed the staying and relaxation and I am glad I could be there.

Jan Dvoracek