Hurghada, March April 2026

[TheBossBabyback]

On 3/29/2026 at 7:04 AM, whitemouse said:

It's middle of afternoon now, boring part of a day, sitting in coffee shop, reading news.

So, I checked out of my very private, very private entry apartment, except guests not allowed.

Looked around at Booking for full apartments, not all that many around Sheraton Rd, and the ones that are listed have insanely low recommendation numbers, like 3 out of 10, few are 1 out of 10, that's quite a feat in itself, you got to really make an effort to get scores this low. Guest descriptions often say that apartment is nowhere near where its listed location, some have no windows. 

Booked a hotel just off main road, less than a km. Cheap, and seem dead empty, but it was around 11am, so who knows.

Now a good thing, reception only 1 guy, no English, took him about 5 minutes to make copy of a passport. That's good signs, it doesn't look like major tourist hotel. There was one other guy, he stepped out of corridor and receptionist tells him something in Arabic, but receptionist gave the room key to me, so what's the need for a bell boy? Turned out, he was needed to grab a towel and walk up with me to the third floor.

This bellboy, towel boy, around 30 maybe, super handsome and he kept smiling. In the room he took his time to demonstrate how the lights switches work, all with a great smile. I tipped him 40 local money, 70 cents US, he seemed happy.

He started to walk out, I said something to get his attention and slapped my hand  on the bed, I was sitting in the bed. His smile got even wider. And he sort of stopped, but did not sit next to me. So I slapped the bed again, and made a hand gesture, come sit. Before all this he hardly spoke, I don't think he speaks much English. But to my slapping the bed 'mating call' he said one word - later. So I'm hopeful.

Walked out, weather is on a hot side, took a inDrive motorbike to Cornish, the public beach area, about 4 km, price 57 cents US, 30 EGP. It's insane how cheap it can be here.

Walked next to the beach, sat outside in the shade, opened Grind. About 30 messages, mostly no user pic whatsoever, replied a few, out of boredom.

This one guy replies back, sends expiring photos, super handsome, swimmer built, says age is 20. He wants $30. I said can do $20, he agrees immediately. But the strangest part, he says he can host. They can almost never host here, same in Morocco, nobody lives alone. 

He sends coordinates, I click inDrive, I'm there in 6 minutes. I text him that I'm outside, he says he will be right there. And he did, pics are his, the only thing that struck immediately, he looks younger than on the pics. Another thing, his English was very good, all replies at Grind within half a minutes, certainly no Google translate, many use ggl translate. His English in person very good, too good. 

He needs cigarettes. Normal enough, they never have cigarettes. We walk to corner shop, LM are 100 EGP, $2 for pack of 20. All is good, and then he starts chatting with shop keeper, guy maybe 35-40. I pay with 200 local bill, he needs to give me chance, 100, but he hesitates. I put my hand forward, and he gives me 100. Then my young Grind friend tells me, give him tip, give him 100. Now, this is not normal. I put my 100 in the pocket and slowly walk away, back towards the street corner where we had just met. The guy is not following me, I look back, don't see him, first thought was, he just needed cigarettes and never intended to do anything else. But no, minute later he was running to catch up with me. We stopped at the corner and I asked, how old are you. 20, he says.

Thing is, he looked younger. Arab guys age quickly, 20 yr old can easily look 30. But this guy looked way too young.

I ask ID, just plainly like that, be it rude or not. He doesn't have it, but he has it in his home, lets go in and he will show me. I said no, bring it, because I'm not going to enter a residence with someone who can easily be under 18. Trick is, they lock the door, try to extort money, they declare that they are not of age. Certainly not a pleasant situation, I imagine, it has never happened to me, but there are reports online about this sort of scam. The way out is to sit down and say, ok, call the police. They won't. But there is some chance that they work with police, and if  that's the case you are fucked. Paying your way out can be expensive, I believe.

So I walked away. He started texting furiously, but he never called out in the street, although this street was very quiet. I blocked him.

Now, how does someone like he have a place of his own? At 20. It is highly unusual. Why is his English so good, nearly fluent? Everything about him seemed off. 

It 2pm now and the day has barely started. 

Not sure how to find a private apartment here, will start looking now.

 

 

The level of details and clarity of your report reads like a novel. I feel like I'm there beside you. I love your trip report!