By Stephanie Beacham
Last updated at 4:30 PM on 26th January 2012It's the beginning of January and I'm reclining in a bikini on a rattan sun lounger, mango juice in hand, 75F rays on my legs, staring at waving palms and a sea that varies from navy blue to brilliant turquoise, having just had the best massage ever, ever, ever.
Imagine the most delicate and polite Thai masseuse gently washing your feet in a bowl of bergamot oil and petals, then turning into a tigress as she sits astride you digging her knees and elbows into your back. Brilliant.
Queen of Egypt: Stephanie soaks up the scenery at her Cairo hotel
Hurghada on the Red Sea was a good choice, and the flight on Egypt Air with its new flat-bed seats was utter luxury.
Mind you, look carefully at the brochures – as my partner Bernie and I were whisked from the airport, we passed some garish neon-outlined sub-Vegas hotels before arriving a couple of miles down the coast at our glamorous destination next to the very upmarket new resort of Sahl Hasheesh.
Once through the gates of the Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh Hotel, the atmosphere of peace and beauty is immediate. An avenue of magnificent palm trees leads to the main reception. The suites are individual domed houses set among palms like a traditional Egyptian village.
The details are exquisite: towels folded into hearts and swans, beds scattered with petals, the arches of the colonnades, the beaten copper lanterns that light domed ceilings.
There are cool marble floors and, in our case, a sunken marble bath – conjuring visions of Cleopatra demanding several gallons of asses' milk.
Actually, I could do with a pint of ordinary cow's milk. What is it about milk as soon as you cross the Channel? It doesn't taste the same.
On the other hand, there aren't many places where you find kumquats served with star aniseed, bananas with vanilla beans or lychees with rosemary – all intriguing combinations they serve here.
I had come to relax and prepare for the second half of a theatre tour, but it would be mad to go to the Red Sea and not go snorkelling, even if flippers feel a bit of a effort.
The hotel couldn't have made it easier. You stepped down from a small jetty right on the beach into the world of pretty fishes. It was like pulling teeth dragging ourselves away from the beach and the beauty there.
Oh dear, poor us, off to the Great Pyramids. Arriving in Cairo was a shock. A teeming city of 17 million people with contrasts between rich and poor as deep as anywhere in the world.
King of Egypt: Tutankhamun's death mask is the undoubted jewel of the Cairo Museum
Photographs on the Mena House's walls show that many famous visitors – including Churchill and Montgomery – had suites named after them.
The greeting was so profuse that anyone would think I deserved to be on that starry wall. But Egyptians are so welcoming that they make all their guests feel special. The hotel has expanded over the years, and the new wing still has a brilliant view of the Pyramids.
After settling in we waved aside offers of camels and horse-drawn buggies and made the short stroll up the hill to see the wonder for ourselves. Probably built at the same time as Stonehenge, many of the stones are equally enormous. That's a lot of slave labour, and the riddle of the Sphinx must surely be how did they get all those stones in place?
After a couple of hours, our camera batteries flat, we traipsed back to our oasis to recharge with a swim in the fabulous heated pool, then a steam and massage.
The spa facilities are new and very swish. Yes, I know, two massages in eight days, but a hard slog lies ahead.
You can't visit Cairo without going to the Egyptian Museum, which is packed full of jaw-dropping stone images of pharoahs, mummies and Tutankhamun's treasure, including some fabulous jewellery.
Suddenly I knew what I wanted as my memento of Egypt – a lapis lazuli necklace. When we left the museum we saw several jewellery shops but between them and us was an eight-lane highway of horn-honking madness with no crossing point.
We stood there like lost children until a tall elderly gentleman introduced himself as a schoolteacher called Moses. Without warning he took my hand and pulled us, horrified, across all eight lanes of speeding traffic, which parted and somehow didn't kill us. Another Moses, another miracle.
The jewellery shops of Cairo are great fun but a nightmare of choice, and with my ignorance I had no idea whether I paid the right price for the lovely pieces I finally bought. I used to enjoy haggling and beating down the prices, something that became instinctive after time spent in Morocco.
But the desperation we sensed in shopkeepers and people offering tours and taxis took the dignity out of the game. Recession? I don't know, but being out in the streets of Cairo alone is certainly not for the faint-hearted. I wish we had hired a guide on day one and saved ourselves a deal of stress.
Truly splendid: The Oberoi Mena House Hotel looks out at the Pyramids
We spent our last evening in the Mena House at its new Italian restaurant, Alfredo, which overlooks the pool. A romantic setting to lift our glasses and mull over an adventure- packed week.
Travel Facts
Western & Oriental (020 7666 1234, www.wandotravel.com) offers a ten-night holiday to Egypt from £1,195pp. This includes return Egypt Air flights from London/Cairo/Hurghada, private transfers, three nights B&B at the Mena House Oberoi in a Garden View room and seven nights B&B in a Deluxe Suite at Oberoi Sahl Hasheesh. Price includes early-booking discount when booked by April 15.For more information, visit www.egypt.travel.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/travel/article-2091766/Egypt-holidays-Massages-magic-Hurghada-Cairo.html
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