Kitesurfing utopia

“Click”…”Do you really want to refresh this page?”…”Yes”…”11 knots”…”Another windless day” I sighed. Every day for past three weeks or so I was checking wind outside with hope. Kites ready under the office table and the board in the car. No luck and I started to feel kite sick.

“Click”…”You have new email”…”Because of the F1 Race week Envac site office will remain closed from 28.10 to 2.11.”…”Jiiipiiii” I cheered and immediately opened Windfinder in search of the windiest spot around where I could go for a week to heal my kite heart J Vietnam? No wind. Ibiza? Too far. Mauritius? Too expensive. Egypt? That’s the place!! So on 28.10. at 4am I was flying with my favorite orange 12m RRD to Hurghada.

Directly after landing at 11am I took a taxi to the nearest kite beach – Magawish. This time I was much better informed than in Thailand so I quickly negotiated the price from 80 Egyptian pounds to 30. Unfortunately I didn’t have exact money so I paid 40! Rule No. 1 J I rushed to the kite center already a bit worried because I didn’t see palms moving how they should be. And my worst fears came true. No wind now and for the rest of the week!!

I bought a beer and started to chat with Petr and Dominik, owners of Czech Harakiri kite school & shop and discovered this situation is real bad luck, because in previous years they didn’t have any problems. Pity! We sadly packed up and they showed me how to negotiate a taxi. For 15 pounds got to their hotel on the other side of the town and then the taxi was driving further using my GPS to the location of my Golden Rose hotel.

Finally we got into a district only full of half finished concrete building skeletons with no sign of any construction activity. “We should be here” I said looking to the GPS. The driver already a bit pissed of driving in circles stopped and angrily “Where now?” On the webpage where I booked the hotel there was a Google map location, but after calling to the hotel and after the guy explained to the driver the correct location, we had to go all the way back, much before where the guys lived J

I assembled the board, packed the kite bag, set the alarm for 7am because possible morning wind and fell asleep.

The next day was typical. I came to the beach, sat under the umbrella, bought two beers and was whole day watching bored spiritless people passing around with or without kite equipment. No wind, no fun! “I can’t stay like this another day” I thought.

So in search of some action I went to have a beer with Harakiri guys to their hotel. Around midnight and I was returning with a local minibus public transport. These old half broken Toyota Hiace 12-seaters are running through the city without any schedule and you can stop them in any place along the way, even if the stops would be after 10 meters! Anyway…after few minutes all Egyptians got off and I was alone, but now for long because a group of drunk Russian teenagers got in.

“Come with us to the disco?” said one of them. I didn’t feel going to sleep yet so I answered “OK…why not”. The disco itself assured me of what I noticed before. That there is a hell lot of Russians in this town!! I ordered a beer and asked one girl “Am I the only non-russian speaking person here?” She nodded with smile J And when they started playing Russian hip hop, I was so out of there!

The next day I went to the nearby city El Gouna at least to not to drink beer at the same place. I took a public minibus, bigger that the minivans, but running the same style. El Gouna is an artificial village only with tourist resorts, so there was a security gate. We stopped there and a policeman was checking ID’s. I didn’t have any, but it wasn’t necessary, because the cop just randomly checked the locals and randomly picked two guys and kept them at the gate. And we continued. Not for long, because at one stop the bus engine stalled. “Aasif… Seyyara tamaninat…” said the driver. “Ummm…Mabrook tahanina…emshi…” passengers angrily murmured and started leaving the bus. “Oh no…I’ll have to walk with all my gear” I thought. But when I was about to leave also, the bus started moving and right after that the engine started. “They were pushing the bus” I laughed when all returned and we continued J

When I got to the kite station, yesterday program repeated with only small difference. Beer was cheaper, there were a lot of Germans instead of Czech and I didn’t even put the board shorts on. Rest was the same. People sadly sitting bored in the shade silently suffering while thinking “Why me?...One week nothing. Such a waste!”

“I can’t stay like this another day” I said to myself and bought one day snorkeling trip to Utopia Island south of Hurghada. Russian story continued as I was the only non-russian speaking person in the minivan and on the 30 people boat was only one French family more. Even all the local guides spoke Russian and no English. In the agency they showed me a map where Utopia Island looked quite big and I was expecting stopping in 3-4 different places for snorkeling around the island and far from the mainland. But the reality was different. I should have expected that, because a proven fact is that no guided tourist tour ever paid off J

So accompanied by some Russian folklore we went one kilometer to the shore at the opposite side of the bay for the first dive. “Island…later…after lunch” said the guide when I asked him where is the Island. Second spot was 300 meters from the first. Still no island.

After lunch on the deck we finally came to the Island, but not for snorkeling. We were supposed to sit on the island, which was nothing more than a sand bank of the size of half the football field. I refused to go and share the tiny “Island” with another 100 people from the similar tour boats anchoring there at the same time.

Instead I started to read a book lying in my shelf for a long time and went to snorkel around. This was actually quite nice, because I saw a reasonably colorful coral reef and a lionfish. On pictures the reef looked better, but is probably with all tourist allurements!!

At the nearby kite center people were riding, but only two hours at the morning. “Uff…I would explode, if they had wind whole day while me sitting on the Russian boat!” I relieved.

When we returned I went full of energy to buy some cheap T-shirts and to have goulash with dumplings into one Czech restaurant I discovered. It was Czech food, cooked by Egyptians, served by Egyptians speaking Czech. Not a single Russian word J I felt almost like at home. After having a couple of beers with some Czech divers there, I was returning back to the hotel.

“Hmm…let’s check Ministry of Sound. How much they want” I got an idea. Famous music club was just 100 meter from my Hotel, so why not just to see. But I wasn’t in mood for hip hop and I didn’t want to pay 80 pounds entrance either, so I turned back. At that moment I heard some lovely dance sounds from the marina area. I turned right and walked closer to the music, which turned into a very nice melodic house. There was a wall, but the music was definitely coming from behind, so I sneaked around it on a sea cliff and I was in J

I sat into a comfortable armchair next to the pool and DJ and relaxed. There was hardly anybody in the club, but I spend the rest of the evening there anyway just chilling out and chatting with some Norwegians and club managers “on duty” J Nice end of the day!!

On Sunday I wanted to take a trip to Luxor, but I decided better to not take any chances. Idea of spending 10 hours in the certainly Russian bus to see some ancient ruins and tombs was not that attractive. So I spend another day in Magawish unsuccessfully praying for the wind.

My last morning I got up early, because of a good forecast, checked out and went to Magawish with all my stuff. And then it came. At 10 am gusty 14 knot wind hit the beach and I finally could borrow a 14m Naish Torch c-kite to try something new. Riding on a sand bank 500 meters from the shore was gusty and weird, probably because I’ve never been riding c-shape kite. I did some rather small jumps wondering why I don’t fly higher than guys on 12 and 11 meters!!

After an hour and a half, as suddenly as it came, wind dropped to zero and all kites fell from the sky like apples from a tree. There is a rescue service at the kite center, so me and some others got back with a boat. The others caught a gust after 10 minutes of swimming in the sea and reached the shore on their own.

I returned the kite and went back to my umbrella. “Nice…but too late and too little” I said to a couple of Slovak kiters Anci and Vlado. They were there already one week so they didn’t even nod.

Around 2pm gusty 15 knots returned and many kiters went back and were having fun with on their 12m. My orange express were sadly looking out of my already packed luggage. “I’m not lucky. I knew that the wind would be here. That’s why I arrived today!” said one German with a big portion of self-confidence. “Bullshit…forecast everywhere was crap until yesterday” I thought slowly sinking into the mood of bad luck, jealousy and sadness, that the next day I go to the office after one week, which I definitely could have spent better.

If I knew. If I wasn’t so into kitesurfing J

Small trip, big thoughts

Sometimes you’re up, sometimes you’re down, when you find that you’re down, just look around…

I was really getting into climbing lately. Doing 6c’s and practicing one 7a+ where I was getting further every week. As a stable part of UAE climbing community I’ve been given a chance to set up one route in The Wall. “Awesome. That would be my first route ever” I thanked to Feras and directly next Friday I spent 4 hours hanging on the sun and creating the green-hold monster. Because I didn’t have enough time I only hastily finished the last part and I tried to climb it for the first time next Monday. And exactly there above the overhang it was a bit harder than I thought. Motivated by others watching my first ascent of my route, I pulled hard on a small piece with my left hand and after a light crack in the finger I fell down. A typical climbing finger injury…stretched or partially ruptured tendon or ligaments and my days of climbing were over for a couple of weeks.

No climbing, no kiting also because no wind these days and I was getting restless. Tidy up the apartment, go shopping food supply, play some Magic Online are all important things, but not a proper replacement. And what to do at the weekend? Even bigger problem! OK then, let’s take the Metro and do Downtown and Dubai Mall, make some pictures and explore Dubai itself.

Weird, but you agree with me. If you live in one place, you always want to go outside saying that you can see the local stuff always. But after some time you realize that you didn’t go J

I like and admire the will and determination of the sheikhs to use all the oil money for being independent on them one day by trying to built an international commercial, business, tourist and transport hub. But their bad luck is that they have to build it from scratch and they don’t know how to build anything else than a mosque or villa. They want to change that fact by sending Emiratis abroad to gain experience and learn that there is more than one world. “I used public transport for a first time in my life. I’m so proud of myself” said in and interview one Emirati woman sent to Paris. But it will definitely take time ;)

The sheikhs have only a vision. So they pay foreign companies with know-how to make their vision come true. And new companies are founded with local top management to keep an eye on the vision and top level decisions, expats to do the thinking and cheap Indian labor to do the work. Sometimes not all the visions are technically possible!! But that is not what sheikhs want to hear. “What the heck! It’s not worth the hustle. In three years I’m gone anyway” says fixed contact bound expat engineer and makes it nice on the paper, but knowing that it will cause problems sooner or later. And everybody is happy J For now.

So a lot of beautiful projects with smaller or bigger flaws are created, like that there is not enough electricity to power up the lights, there are not enough access routes causing everyday traffic jams, sewerage network in underdesigned causing that the whole development stinks like shit or that your stay five minutes in the line for a ticket and five minutes to get to the train through counters.

Like almost everything here, the new Dubai metro finished on September has several superlatives. It is a longest metro built in one go, first metro in middle east region or the longest computer operated metro. So that beautiful sunny Friday afternoon I walked through a sandy construction site to the nearest metro station: Nakheel Harbour & Tower. Just for info, Nakheel is the biggest government connected Dubai property developer and Nakheel tower is the new projected highest building in the world surrounded by a brand new harbour of course. Nothing of that has even started. Sheikhs vision is wider than I thought J

I bought pre-paid ticket to avoid at least one queue and joined several tens of Indian and Pakistani families going to Mall of Emirates. I don’t know if the Metro was planned for people going to work from overcrowded and permanently jammed old town, for tourists to see all the Dubai prides or just to be the first who has done it…I don’t know, but the majority of passengers are Indians who have been given a cheap way to travel longer distances and enjoy the life more. Enjoying life in this case means going to a different mall or restaurant. A lot of passengers these days are also curious people willing to only experience this miracle for one day instead of taking the car. I was probably from a small third group using it for reason. I didn’t want to stay jammed in the center. Time will tell, after they finish all the stations and the second line, how many people are really using it.

It was for a first time I used it during the day. I have to say that I enjoyed it. I had time to see all the buildings and things from the flying fish’s view, because I didn’t have to pay attention to the steering wheel. I gained a better picture of what Dubai has, like all the villa and industrial areas hidden behind billboards. When walking to the mall I made some pictures of Burj Dubai and I actually for the first time in a year was closer to that 800m tower and could confirm that it is really high J The biggest mall in the world was as I expected. Huge building with tons of luxurious and expensive shops with basically no goods for me. No outdoor, no fantasy, no kites. I felt bored as fish in the big aquarium in the center.

But there were plenty of people walking around with bags full of clothes, just walking there because didn’t figure out anything better to do during the weekend or eating in one of several food courts. Weird was that they didn’t look bored as me. They liked that!

“Excuse me. Where is the bus stop to the Metro station? I don’t want to walk there again” I asked a Filipino receptionist. “Walking!!...” she replied in disbelief as she didn’t know what it was. After 10 minutes I found the bus, after 15 minutes the bus came and after 20 minutes we reached the metro, 1.5 kilometers further from the place where I asked for directions. “Damn…I could have been here twice already!!” I swore.

It was dark already when I was heading back. Seeing only street lights going to infinity, people going to have a nice dinner after whole day of resting at the pool or laughing while carrying bags full of new souvenirs, I thought about one thing. I can very well make the best of all the opportunities and options UAE offers to make myself happy and satisfied, but the way how I do it…”I somehow feel that I don’t fit here!”