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Scuba Forum / UK Scuba / March 2007Ras um Sid
Or however you prefer to spell it . . . Does anyone have a map of the headland - the land bit, not the divesites - or equally useful info please; Is the area just a collection of hotels, or does it have a town / resort area with independent bars, restaurants, shops, nightclubs, banks etc on the lines of Naama Bay? Ken > Or however you prefer to spell it . . . > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Ken I stayed at Ras Um Sid Chrimbo before last at the Hotel Club Fanara. It's right on the head land by the light house overlooking Temple and Ras Um Sid dive sites. There is a shopping area a short walk from there but it is a hell hole, worse than Naama Bay. You cannot have a walk without eventually having a very blunt conversation with a "Shop Keeper". I find the environment in Egypt outside the hotel complexes to be incompatible with family holidays. Not a problem when passing through to your liveaboard with a bunch of hairy arsed divers, you can just tell 'em how it is. Also came across a big place that sold its self as some kind of big night out. Food and cabaret I think. The whole Ras Um Sid area is quite sprawling and I've only seen the majority from taxis and buses. I might be wrong but I don't think you will find much outside your hotel. There was a "famous" fish restaurant just the other side of the light house but I don't know if it still exists. The distance to the Travco Marina, when you have had enough dives on the local reefs from the shore, is a lot less than from some resorts. This might be of use: http://www.goredsea.com/en_streetmap+1-sharmelsheikdestinationstreetmap.aspxLots of other stuff on that site also.I am off back to the Sharks Bay area for Chrimbo and New Year this year.Handy for the airport and plenty far enough from Naama Bloody Bay!!Paul Correction to URL > http://www.goredsea.com/en_streetmap+1sharmelsheikdestinationstreetmap.aspx Paul > Or however you prefer to spell it . . . > [quoted text clipped - 6 lines] > > Ken Mainly Hotels .. the good ones on teh seaward side .. Renaissance, Hilton Waterfalls etc. Some good resturants in the Hotels - Accapulco Joes for example ... No shopping other than expensive Hotel shops ... there is a place 'fantasis' nearby. but it's tacky, crap, awful etc. etc. Taxi to Naama is only 10-15 Le (£1.50) ..and quick enough to run in for meals & drink. Although a trip into Old Sharm is best place to eat. Some of the Hotels with beaches have excellent house reefs. > Or however you prefer to spell it . . . > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Ken Diving Ras Um Sid these days makes me extremely sad. I dived it first in 1990. The reef was pristine with shoals of barracuda and other fish abounding. These days it is the pits with hardly much of anything. Loads of rubble cascaded down the reef from the hotel building. Last year a tourist boat ran down my DSMB while I was doing my 3 at 5. Just come back from Hamata. Good diving there. I dived with Orca Divers, a German run company. Dive briefs mostly in German with added English on completion. That two and a half hour journey in the dark from Marsa Alam to the Zabargad Beach resort was a little trying though, to say the least. Eddie >> Or however you prefer to spell it . . . >> [quoted text clipped - 14 lines] > of rubble cascaded down the reef from the hotel building. Last year a > tourist boat ran down my DSMB while I was doing my 3 at 5. It is inevitable that as more people - divers and non-divers - go to these places the reefs become worn. Apart from the malicious damage done by some, there is the innocent damage done by the unknowing (e.g. some sun-seeker walking on the reef plate) and the damage done inadvertently by those who know - drop a torch, bump into something etc. While I have found as you have, it is also the case that this damage is confined to a relatively small strip parallel and very near to the shoreline. Go anywhere in Ras-Mo, anywhere in Tiran, and everything looks just great. Though you do have to wonder about some of the antics that some who ought to know better get up to. For example, it's not unusual for an absolute novice to be a bit heavy, and so it's not surprising to see one being held up a bit by an instructor above- not ideal I know, but it happens. That it should happen above a sandy bottom at 12m is one thing - but that you should see this at Ras-Mo where the bottom lies at 900m is something else altogether! Or what about the divers, one breathing off the other's okkie, at 17m and going down? > Just come back from Hamata. Good diving there. I dived with Orca Divers, a > German run company. Dive briefs mostly in German with added English on > completion. That two and a half hour journey in the dark from Marsa Alam > to the Zabargad Beach resort was a little trying though, to say the least. It's precisely that coach ride that puts me off - though temptation might get the better of me before long. How was the diving - the ORGANISATION of the diving, as well as the underwater sights? Ken > It's precisely that coach ride that puts me off - though temptation might > get the better of me before long. How was the diving - the ORGANISATION of > the diving, as well as the underwater sights? > > Ken Couldn't have faulted tlhe dive organisation. Very efficient! Free Nitrox although I kept to air. Taken to the day boat at 0830 every morning and back around 1700. Two dives a day. Experienced divers able to carry out their own diving in buddy groups. Dive briefs given mainly in German but backed up by an English briefing but not always when the dive marshall didn't have much English. Didn't bother me as I lived in Berlin for a couple of years. Food on the boat very good. Cost £20 Egyptian. Divers mostly German and Dutch, only two Brits there. Only gripe I had was that 12 litre cylinders for those diving on air seem to be filled to 180/185 bar on occasion.I shifted to 15l at no extra cost. Hope to place a write up about Hamata on the BSAC travel website, eventually!! :-))) Hope this helps! Eddie >> It's precisely that coach ride that puts me off - though temptation might >> get the better of me before long. How was the diving - the ORGANISATION [quoted text clipped - 16 lines] > > Hope this helps! It does! The habit of the "Red Sea Fill" was v common in Sharm when the floating filling stations were used, but the quality of the fills have been much improved since going to shore-based operations, I've found. Ken > Or however you prefer to spell it . . . > [quoted text clipped - 7 lines] > > Ken Mainly Hotels .. the good ones on teh seaward side .. Renaissance, Hilton Waterfalls etc. Some good resturants in the Hotels - Accapulco Joes for example ... No shopping other than expensive Hotel shops ... there is a place 'fantasis' nearby. but it's tacky, crap, awful etc. etc. Taxi to Naama is only 10-15 Le (£1.50) ..and quick enough to run in for meals & drink. Although a trip into Old Sharm is best place to eat. Some of the Hotels with beaches have excellent house reefs. ========================== Looks like it's a Naama Bay Hotel itself then - the Fayrouz perhaps. Ken > > Or however you prefer to spell it . . . > [quoted text clipped - 26 lines] > > Ken Having been to Sharm a few times, I am glad I have never stayed in Naama bay - would have been so dissapointed - to tacky, noisy, smelly and too full of crowds of Russians. I found it far better to stay outside and just go in on a couple of nights. On last trip in October stayed in Mexican Sharm, not in Ras um Sid, but still out of Naama bay, and a good value hotel. I may look at Sharks Bay Resort next time, and get a bungalow on the beach. On 3 Mar, 08:15, "Ken" <k...@k1at.freeserve.co.uk> wrote: > "Osprey" <rick_hug...@btconnect.com> wrote in message > [quoted text clipped - 31 lines] > > Ken Having been to Sharm a few times, I am glad I have never stayed in Naama bay - would have been so dissapointed - to tacky, noisy, smelly and too full of crowds of Russians. I found it far better to stay outside and just go in on a couple of nights. On last trip in October stayed in Mexican Sharm, not in Ras um Sid, but still out of Naama bay, and a good value hotel. I may look at Sharks Bay Resort next time, and get a bungalow on the beach. ================================== The first couple of times I went I stayed at the Naama Bay Hotel, but since Ocean Bay opened I've never stayed anywhere else. The noise of the tourist trap is NOT heard there (it's a couple of hundred yds up Prince Abdullah St) and while the hotel is basic compared to any of the Hiltons, it meets a diver's needs v well - there's no point after all paying for the seven pools, four restaurants, gym etc if all you want is a clean place to sleep. ONE nag - nowhere really suitable for drying kit at the end of your trip. Meanwhile you're close enough to the shops and restaurants to make your evenings varied, not held ransom to inflted hotel drinks and food prices. For example a basic meal at the Hard Rock Cafe or the Camel Club can be had for around £4 UK. Ken |
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