Sharm - would you?
Discussion
if I make it back from Sharm I'll post a pic of a custard wearing camelgadgetmac said:
I just hope those planning on going aren't making the decision for children.
At this point in time I believe it is reckless in the extreme to take kids to anywhere where there is a known insurgency/terrorist threat/civil unrest.
By all means go yourself but please don't endanger your family or other innocents who are not able to make the decision themselves about whether its safe to do so or not.
Could you name exactly where there is "a known insurgency/terrorist threat/civil unrest" exists I looked at the foreign office website and the terrorism threat (high) in Tunisia and Egypt is the same as France or Spain. Morocco is listed as general, the same as Germany. At this point in time I believe it is reckless in the extreme to take kids to anywhere where there is a known insurgency/terrorist threat/civil unrest.
By all means go yourself but please don't endanger your family or other innocents who are not able to make the decision themselves about whether its safe to do so or not.
I don't expect you to cover the whole of Europe or Africa but how do you rate say Morocco Spain France or Italy?
el stovey said:
Could you name exactly where there is "a known insurgency/terrorist threat/civil unrest" exists I looked at the foreign office website and the terrorism threat (high) in Tunisia and Egypt is the same as France or Spain. Morocco is listed as general, the same as Germany.
I don't expect you to cover the whole of Europe or Africa but how do you rate say Morocco Spain France or Italy?
+1I don't expect you to cover the whole of Europe or Africa but how do you rate say Morocco Spain France or Italy?
Blown2CV said:
yea... but have you seen the PRICES
I know you keep saying it but it's not actually cheaper to go to sharm than many parts of Spain, Greece Cyprus or Portugal. The poster before said itt was cheaper to go there than the Caribbean or the Far East. Which might be true depending on where in the Caribbean or the Far East. Sharm might not be everyone's cup of tea but it's not the cheapest place to go for holiday by a long way.
popeyewhite said:
Petrus1983 said:
Sadly I wouldn't bother - I've had some great times in Eygpt with both Nile cruises and Sharm chill outs - however I can't see the point of going on vacation if in the back of your mind you're worried about possible attacks.
Egypt's been an area of unrest since considerably before the present trouble with ISIS. Didn't stop any of the thousands of divers I've seen over there. However a lot of the places I've been diving in Egypt have been further down the coast towards Sudan. Sudan? SUDAN??
Anyway risk/reward scenario:
Late summer sun, good hotels, quite cheap, good convenient diving and snorkelling much closer to the UK than anywhere else.
Miniscule chance of being attacked by a loon with a gun.
Petrus1983 said:
I can't edit my post but just to add, the anti west guy was taking pop shots at us.
I hope you mean 'pot shots'. 'Pop shots' means something else entirely.http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pop...
Or perhaps the bloke outside your barge really liked you.
el stovey said:
I hope you mean 'pot shots'. 'Pop shots' means something else entirely.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pop...
Or perhaps the bloke outside your barge really liked you.
bhttp://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=pop...
Or perhaps the bloke outside your barge really liked you.
ks to autotype - will look up the alertnative!!Petrus1983 said:
Interesting you say this. I wasn't going to mention that on my last Nile cruise which was about 6 years ago an armed anti-West guy was shot dead outside our boat - the Eygptians took tourism very seriously. It was passed off as a one off and not much else was thought of it. When visiting Cairo we were assigned a government issued bodyguard, great guy, but at the time we didn't appreciate the simmering sentiment that must have been around. I'll stand by my original feeling though, fascinating country with largely lovely hardworking people.
I was down south (Marsa) a few years ago and a couple of weeks earlier a party from a nearby hotel had taken a trip to Luxor. The whole party was kidnapped and ransom was demanded. I can't remember what happened or who was responsible but unaccompanied rides across the desert to Luxor were banned altogether afterwards. Egypt's always been a dangerous place to wander off the beaten track, and Israel used to be as well in the 70s-80s.el stovey said:
popeyewhite said:
Egypt's always been a dangerous place to wander off the beaten track, and Israel used to be as well in the 70s-80s.
sharm was even part of Israel in the 70s. The airport was built by the Israelis as an airforce base. popeyewhite said:
I know, I hitched there (Sharm that is). I was based near Haifa on a kibbutz in the late 70s and during some down-time cadged a lift with two Norwegian girls in their minibus as far as Eilat. Various lifts from there to Sharm. Stayed on the beach and got massively stoned for a week. Did you know a number of the dive sites further south were named by hippies from those days? There's a site near Abu Soma called 'hash market' I believe (that's the translation from Arabic!).
brilliant. We're there many hotels then? How sad that it's now full of massive resorts with armed guards to stop jihadists trying to kill the visitors.
davepoth said:
I was looking at this on a map at work today with someone. Sharm is incredibly isolated, and there are few ways out. It wouldn't take a huge number of mad people with AK-47s to do something terrible and it would be hours before anyone could get there.
Loads of army and police are already based in sharm., I think Mubarak even lives there.
el stovey said:
Loads of army and police are already based in sharm., I think Mubarak even lives there.
It doesn't really matter how many police or army are there - a few hundred nutters who don't care if they live or die could do massive damage there before anyone could react, and certainly before reinforcements could arrive from elsewhere in Egypt. If ISIL/ISIS/Daesh got it into their head that they wanted an atrocity or a hostage taking in Sharm, it could happen.
davepoth said:
I was looking at this on a map at work today with someone. Sharm is incredibly isolated, and there are few ways out. It wouldn't take a huge number of mad people with AK-47s to do something terrible and it would be hours before anyone could get there.
Bombing on the tube, wouldn't want to get trapped in one of those either 
WinstonWolf said:
davepoth said:
I was looking at this on a map at work today with someone. Sharm is incredibly isolated, and there are few ways out. It wouldn't take a huge number of mad people with AK-47s to do something terrible and it would be hours before anyone could get there.
Bombing on the tube, wouldn't want to get trapped in one of those either davepoth said:
el stovey said:
Loads of army and police are already based in sharm., I think Mubarak even lives there.
It doesn't really matter how many police or army are there - a few hundred nutters who don't care if they live or die could do massive damage there before anyone could react, and certainly before reinforcements could arrive from elsewhere in Egypt. If ISIL/ISIS/Daesh got it into their head that they wanted an atrocity or a hostage taking in Sharm, it could happen.
gadgetmac said:
At this point in time I believe it is reckless in the extreme to take kids to anywhere where there is a known insurgency/terrorist threat/civil unrest.
Well the official UK terrorist threat level from MI5 is SEVERE (an attack is highly likely). That's only one step down from the highest level CRITICAL (an attack is expected imminently). So for the sake of the children don't take them to the UK!Gassing Station | Holidays & Travel | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff