As summer around the Mediterranean shifts into high gear every August, the world s beautiful people and everyone else hoping to ride their coat-tails can usually – predictably – be found at the tried and tested destinations of Ibiza, Saint Tropez, Mykonos, Bodrum et al, while the more discerning folks head to Croatia, Formentera, Panarea, Morocco and other supposedly undiscovered parts of the Med.
However, the rugged sparse coastline of the south-eastern Mediterranean in Egypt is still an area that remains unknown to most people outside the Arab world, and possibly even outside Egypt itself. While Red Sea resorts like Sharm El-Sheikh and Hurghada have become famous international destinations, not many people have been to – or even heard of – the far lovelier northern coast of Egypt, stretching west from Alexandria to the Libyan border.
For this summer I was fortunate to be invited to spend a long weekend on the North Coast and I was not about to pass up this opportunity to discover a part of the world I had, hitherto, known nothing about but felt like I should know.
Wednesday, August 15
5:00 pmUpon arrival at Alexandria’s rather decrepit – and small – El Nozha airport (the other one at Borg El-Arab is slightly better I’m told), any residual celluloid images of heads of state and glamorous movie stars descending the stairs of sleek jetliners instantly evaporate; those days are long gone. But the advantage of a small airport is that you’re out of there and on the road in less than 20 minutes. So off I went with my designated chauffeur on the road west to the increasingly famous (some would say infamous) North Coast, better know among locally as “Sahel Shemali.
The drive there takes us through Alexandria’s city limits, and onto the faded grandeur of Agami, a once popular resort town among Cairo and Alexandria’s elite, and then onto the main coastal highway that goes west all the way to Libya.
Agami has in recent years been relegated to backseat status, mostly because the resort town grew laterally through shantytowns, leaving the pretty villas more or less barricaded in the center. Enter the North Coast, a new destination that promises more outdoor life, a diversity in activities, and the hope that maybe, just maybe, the master plan will be done properly so that holiday makers won t find themselves trapped in some kind of urban hell all over again.
The drive to my destination – Haciendas – was an eye-opening microcosm of how the affluent class of Egyptian society spends its summers.
The 1952 “revolution ostensibly ended the rule of King Farouq and abolished titles such as “pasha and “bey (officially at least), but Egyptian society remains obsessed with titles and has taken meritocracy to a slightly perverse level where everyone is introduced as Doctor X or Engineer Y or even Consultant Z. This obsession has manifested itself in the strange names given to some of the many resorts/compounds that dot Egypt’s north coast.
All along the desert road heading west I was confronted with places called “Air Force Pilots Village, “Doctors Town or “Diplomatic Village (affectionately known as “Diplo ) and so on. The logic behind this, presumably, is that the government built these compounds so that its high-ranking employees would have something to do during their summer holidays. Whether they’re actually populated by pilots, doctors and diplomats is up for debate. These were cement jungles for the most part, eyesores on an otherwise gorgeous coast. Standing as relics to their time and comparable in their ugliness to similar resorts on the Black Sea and other former communist “hot spots, they reminded us that socialism may have been well-intentioned, but it definitely destroyed Egypt s architectural landscape; a tragedy really, when we are in a country so painfully beautiful.
As we progress west, the “villages start looking newer, fresher and marginally more tasteful, especially the rather large Porto Marina which is the size of a small city complete with a lake and numerous villas, apartments, cafes, restaurants and hotels.
I didn’t stop in to inspect it but you could get a fairly good idea what to expect just by driving past it, and I’m told it’s very lively if a bit too crowded. Interestingly enough, billboards advertising Porto Marina dot the coast, flashing images of maki rolls, and cocktail glasses, but once you are actually there, there is not an alcoholic beverage in sight, lending a decidedly conservative air to the place. Indeed Porto Marina is the darling of religious holidaymakers who are happy to swap a wine spritzer in Haciendas for a shisha and mint tea in the middle of 70 degree weather in Porto Marina. It demonstrated that there was something for everyone, and as some friends mentioned to me later, for the Muhajabat that still wanted to wear their Victoria s Secret bikinis, there was even an all-female beach nearby.
The drive became more pleasant and less congested as we progressed further west, and the villages became fewer and far between, with miles of empty white beaches bordered by sandy hills and an obscenely azure sea, until we reached our destination, Haciendas: Egypt’s answer to the Hamptons for lack of a better analogy.
7:00 pmHaciendas is a beautifully landscaped compound/village/resort with villas built in full-throttle Mexican hacienda style (hence the name), either owned or rented by their residents. The project was designed by Shehab Mazhar, son of the late screen idol Ahmad Mazhar. It is also the site of Andrea, a chic 6-room boutique hotel and outdoor nightclub/restaurant owned and managed by the Omar Rateb, a lovably gruff character who is notorious for his unpredictably selective door policy. You haven’t been to “Sahel if you haven’t been turned away by Omar at least once.
Thursday August 16th
1:00 pmNobody sets foot outside their villa before 1 pm, and even that’s a bit early for some but I was itching to hit the beach.
Haciendas has several man-made lagoons on the beach as calmer swimming alternatives to the slightly choppy sea. Each summer there is news of a drowning, as it is an open sea and currents can be deadly. The same dazzling deep azure water continues here and its temperature is perfect.
Andrea also has a daytime outpost on the beach called Al Cabina, purposely built for long lazy lunches and lingering cocktails, and boasts a view and scene to rival any of its equivalents around the Mediterranean, minus the Eurotrash debauchery and idiotic spraying of champagne. One regularly runs into the familiar faces from Andrea all catching up on the previous night’s gossip; overly warm greetings punctuated with air-kisses as if they hadn’t seen each other for years.
As I tucked into a juicy burger at our 5 pm lunch, I had a sparkling beach a few meters away on my right, and Faten Hamama, Youssra and Hisham Selim greeting fans on my left. This was Egyptian pop culture, beach life and holiday spirit all rolled into one, and it was a sight to behold. Drowsy from too much sun and food, and with a big party ahead of us that night, it was time for the requisite “disco nap from 7-9 pm.
10:00 pmWe kicked off the evening over cocktails at home and a heated discussion over the right time to show up at “Superfunk, notorious promoter Ahmad Ganzoury’s party featuring UK mix-masters The Freemasons, presented by ID Edge and sponsored by Vodafone. If we go too early (i.e. before midnight), we risk looking too eager and if we go too late we might miss some of the action. Since it was my first time on the coast and I wanted to take in as much as possible, I voted (decreed actually) that we go at exactly midnight with a pit-stop at Andrea for more cocktails, where again we were told that midnight was too early for the party but we went anyway.
12:00 amAfter an hour of mingling and drinks at Andrea, and a round of friendly sparring with Omar on the way out, it was time to move on. The party was further west at Ghazalah Beach, in front of a rather non-descript and soulless family hotel whose name escapes me, but fortunately it was ou
tdoors where they had erected a makeshift club/lounge with a massive sound system to suit the killer House tunes being played all night. In addition to the Freemasons, there were assorted dancers and vocalists all adding up to a wild night that ended at 5 am. A raffle for 8 Vodafone Blackberries was simply forgotten because everyone was having too much fun and didn’t want to stop the party for a raffle. That would ve been a major buzz killer.
I staggered home at 6:00 am and passed out, safe in the knowledge that outrageous partying was alive and well in Egypt.
Stay tuned for more North Coast adventures in Part II next week
Ziad Al-Duaij is a freelance writer living and working in Kuwait. His ramblings can also be found on his blog Kuwait Unplugged (www.kuwait-unplugged.com)
