Exploring the grounds
I awoke early to find the room quite light and discovered that in an area high above the balcony door leading to the arched ceiling of the room coloured lights were coming in through a small triangled shaped stained glass window. When it was time to rise I was disappointed to see the wind had created white tops on the sea and it was feeling very cold. Still it didn't stop us climbing into our holiday clothes and going on the long hike to 'Limoncello' for an excellent buffet breakfast.
We had been invited to a reps meeting in 'On the Rocks' at 10.30 so decided that for once we would attend as the wind was still blowing. It was well attended, very informative, and unbelieveably short. We had all been given a pack of information on arrival and so were aware of some of the trips. Prices were in US dollars, apart from the Coral Island cruise which was in euros. Having been in this area many times, namely Eilat 19km from the border between Egypt and Israel in the late 1980's until 1994 when Keith had to give up diving, we were not interest in venturing out of the area. No pressure was put on the guests to do any of the trips and activities and so this was the first and last time we were to see our rep throughout our stay unless we visited his desk.
Now it was time to explore the hotel grounds. We had a map of the area and a plan of the hotel grounds. We began walking across the area with the sculpture pool, down a slope to a level where there was an olympic size lap pool, and an information board with a paragraph stating 'no children under 16'. Once again sunbeds had been neatly arranged around 3 sides of this pool. A water feature cascaded down to a large lawn and a giant chess board. One of the paths to the right lead down to a split pool, a jaccuzzi, and on the bottom level a smaller pool where the water was always cold. The 'Breeze' restuarant was on this level and even though it was open heavy clear plastic screens had been hung to protect diners from the wind. There was the addition of patio heaters for the really cold days. Studying the different blocks of rooms, which were all sorts of shapes and heights, and in public areas most ceilings were domed, some open to the elements and contained different designs of circles of lamps. The architect had a real vision when he designed this hotel, and was the first to be built, which is obvious from the mature landscaped gardens. Finally we came out to the sea water lagoon currently undergoing maintenance during our stay . This apparently is a popular place for families as there is sand around the area of sun beds leading into the lagoon.
Across a 1750 metre long jogging path is a wide stretch of sand with several jetties over the coral reef allowing access into the water. In several places buoyed channels were marked for swimmers to enter the sea but a lot of people, especially the Russians, were just going into the sea anywhere. Observant life guards could be heard blowing whistles and approaching these people making them return out of the sea. We followed the jogging trail which took us past all the seafront hotels and we decided our hotel really looked the best. At each hotel we were stopped by the security guard to have our camera bags examined discovering one particular guard was only interested in obtaining free cigarettes! The end of the track lead to the Diving Centre where guests could try various watersports. The Marina was also nearby but fenced off from the public.Adjoining the Diving Centre was a small restaurant and so we decided to have a long lunch break here.
As we left with the wind still blowing I noticed waves going in the opposite direction to those out at sea. Close to the water's edge we watched 3 dolphins just breaking the surface but the sight didn't last long as they must have heard the approaching dive boat returning to the Marina, and quickly disappeared. We were not stopped by the security guards on our return. By now several people had occupied the sun beds pulling the wattle screens in a semi-circle around their beds. As we stopped for a drinks at the beach bar we saw one man had braved the elements and was snorkelling. I had ordered a fresh mango fruit juice which was so thick I had trouble sucking the juice through the straw!
We pondered about going on the sun beds but realised it would not be long before the sun set behind the mountains. Tonight was 'Oriental Night' in 'Limoncello'. It was not Chinese as we expected but again excellent food. The roast chicken had so much flavour it was no wonder it was proving popular with the guests and I noticed Chef was now carving smaller portions.
The Cabaret was awesome with a man twirling non stop for around 20 minutes. During this time he created patterns using several different designed woven round baskets whilst the black and white harlequin skirts flared out to reveal his long white robes underneath. The lights dimmed and at this point one of the two skirts was pulled up to cover the top part of his body and then both skirts became illuminated, after which he discarded the top skirt. What also amazed us was at the end of the show he was able to walk in a straight line!
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