Up at 7.10 and packed for 7.30 breakfast. Out of the door by around 8.05. We walked back past the small restaurant where we had lunched the day before and bought 4 more of his rolls for the trip. We got to the bus well within the time limits (8.30) and by 9 we were on the road.
The first stop was Nasser City which is in the Giza area after which the buildings slowly became less and the sand more. After about an hour and a half, we got our first glimpse of the Red Sea. From there we drove along the toll road (very fancy Toll Plazas) and stopped at a lunch spot at around 11.30. We traveled on a Go bus which is a luxury bus with a couple of TV screens (one of which didn't work - sadly individual speakers - and a toilet on board. The bus ride was comfortable and the 6 hours passed uneventfully. 
We stopped half way at a large eating place reminiscent of those that we had stopped at in Thailand. Everywhere along the way there was building. The coast will eventually become one huge tourist resort.
The bus terminus in Hurgharda was somewhat run down and, as in normal, we were approached by a very persistent taxi driver. We told him where we were going and the negotiation began. Starting at 80LE, I eventually got him down to 20LE. Our travel book told us that we could get the trip in a minicab for 1LE (which subsequently turned out not to be true!) so I felt I had a good bargaining chip! Once the price had been agreed upon, he transformed from agro to friendly. The roads were relatively quiet, but the taxi driver still drove as if he had just come from Cairo. Once we got close he asked us which Sinbad - beach or aqua. I chose Aqua. He took us to the front door. It turned out that I had made the wrong choice and we were walked to another resort (not far). They asked us to sit while the receptionist went through the check in procedure. He seemed to be doing lot of phoning around as if there was a problem with the booking. We got our key and a man insisted on taking s and our baggage to the room - which turned out to be 10m away.
We were shocked by the stat of the place. This was a 4 star establishment. The couch in the lounge was dirty and sagging, the bed cover old, the fridge rust, and the bathroom door waterlogged. Although the apartment had large windows, the view was over a broken wall which still seemed to be a building in progress. I had booked a 4 star suite with two bedrooms! I went back to the reception - extremely angry - and reminded them of this fact. The receptionist came up by offering the adjacent room. I pointed out that my main issue was the state of the room. He told me to go back to the room and wait. After about half an hour, there had still been no response. I asked for a copy of my booking which he game me and I tried to phone RCI. Before I could get through their endless options, my money ran out on the phone. He offered me another room but this one was not self-catering. The quality of this room was chalk an cheese. 
While still not really 4 star, it was a decent hotel room. It was hard to believe that one hotel could have two such different rooms. The porter mentioned to me that the problem was that all the self catering rooms were similar to the first room. The new room had 3 beds and a veranda which overlooked a treed courtyard and was not far from the pool and then the beach. Far more suitable, but the kids were not happy with the concept of sleeping in the other room. Guy even offered to sleep on the floor. I went out to get more airtime and within a few minutes fighting their system blew another 30LE - after that I gave up. By this stage we were all tense and there was a need for a compromise. I told the receptionist that if he could give me an extra bed in the new room, I would take what he had to offer. The del was done and a nasty fold up bed was provided.
We took a walk down to the beach to see the rest of the resort. The hotel had a small bay with a pier. There were two fancy looking speed boats and two submarines docked as well as a number of other boats. As we watched the sun set, we slowly began to relax and get back into holiday mode.
It was around 7pm so we decided on a swim in the pool before going out to find food (to much to expect us to make our own tonight!). There was no-one around so we got in and started the long swim around the circular pool. After a short time, w avery uspet looking man approached us to tell us that the pool was closed. We were not phased (or particularly surprised as there had been no-one about) so we cot out into the chilly evening air and returned to our room.
Once freshened up, we went out and started checking out our surroundings. Very different from Cairo with tourist oriented shopping malls and more (but not excessively) expensive restaurants. We walked further down the road and found a small shop selling vegetables and cheese and the kind of stuff that we would need to cater. Finally, I think we felt that we could enjoy our week in Hurgharda with minimal disruption using one room as a sleeping room and the other for catering.
After our initial recce, we decided on a restaurant in the first mall we had visited. Fiona and Lauren settled on mexican chicken and Guy and I had chicken cordon bleu. The restaurant also sold beer (never seen in Cairo) so Fiona and I had a Saccara beer each. The prices were much better than expected (quart beers for 10LE). In spite of the more eurocentric food, there were people smoking shishas all around us. At the next table we heard the sound of English and a couple of others speaking Dutch. This was surprising as in Hurgharda, the dominant language is Russian. They were staying at a place about 20km away building a resort. They provided us with a lot of useful advice about where to go in the area and how much we should pay to get there. After an enjoyable meal, we returned back for coffee and chocolate.
