El Gouna and the rest of the Story

Another couple of weeks have flew by, and still no blog, why was I so much better at doing this back in the day. I guess it is that part of actually having a job. The last few weeks have been challenging, rewarding and interesting to say the least.

Much has happened starting with our regional training that was held here in Egypt. The company was flying in several teams from around the Middle East to do a regional training in El Gouna Egypt. I at first wasn’t that thrilled about the idea as I am sure you can image it is tough to get excited about working over the weekend, but I was truly looking forward to seeing friends that I hadn’t gotten to see in several months.

El Gouna was about 5 to 6 hours drive from Cairo so after we picked a few more people up from the airport we started making our way on the trip. It is amazing how much of nothing is in the dessert besides sand, the road we were on and the flames from the oil refineries that are out in middle of no where. The next day we had a full day of meetings and a few presentations on my part. It was interesting getting a little more of the corporate culture with power points and podiums. But keeping with the usual tradition of our “interesting corporate culture” of my company we had a few examples that were out of the norm like one of the presenters proceeding to put dead sea mud on his face and things like that.

It is funny again after day in and day out of being in front and meeting with CEO’s and government officials one would think that I would be a little nervous getting in front of my peers and bosses in the corporate setting. But I am glad to say that this job has hardened me to where it wasn’t even a factor. That night we got to hang out and enjoy the amenities of the hotel. It was quit interesting when we broke for lunch and after the day was over us walking around dressed up with briefcases in hand around the resort, we sure did get some interesting looks. Who knows what the people thought we were there doing, inspecting the place to buy or close it down who knows.

The health club was great, it was on a little island right where the club house was for the golf course, so you had to take a little boat with a driver that would take you over to it from the resort, which was surrounded by numerous water inlets from the sea with the most crystal clear water.

That night we all meet up around the harbor, I guess I should go back a little bit. El Gouna was built by a man named Serwies part of the Forbes 100 richest list. El Gouna is right next to the town of Hourgata a beach community where he, his family and friends of the socialite scene of Egypt had been going to for years. As the story goes though the town was extremely poorly planned out so, he decided he needed a proper place for him and his friends and families to be able to hang out at, and dock the yachts. This is how El Gouna happened it’s a master planned community right on the coast of the red sea, which beaches, hotels, private harbors, restaurants, clubs and of course many large vacation homes for Egypt’s Elite.

So we enjoyed a great dinner by the harbor then traveled from one club to another along the strand catching the night life as we went along. The next morning we had more presentations, and actually throughout the training it was very beneficial personally to be able to hear others successes what works for them, new ideas for the future and adapting different styles to what I am currently doing.

After the training session we had been invited to go on one of his private yachts for the day. Now this was fun, a crew, a stocked cooler and a private beach with a buffet just for us. The water I think was the most blue I have ever seen, and they would anchor the boat right out front of the beach then take us on a smaller boat that that came from inside the yacht to take us to the beach. There are several private deserted islands throughout the Red sea which we went from place to place. We also had every once in a while a couple of dolphins that would get curious of the boat and come and check things out.

That night we were told that we had been invited to fly back on his private jet to Cairo with the Minister of Tourism who would also be joining us on the flight home. Now this was particularly sweet considering that the drive is over 5 hours and I had never taken a private jet before. It really was a good taste of how the other side lives one that I am sure that it doesn’t take long to get oust to. We pulled up to the private airport they grabbed our bags, we got on boards, we had a few drinks and before you know it we were in the air. One of the coolest parts was the landing they left the door to the cockpit open so you could actually see out of the front window as we were landing. This was interesting because the plan does actually sway a little back in forth right before your landing. Now in Cairo when you land you actually land at the main airport but at a separate private jet terminal. So you jump off the plan they grab your bags and we were escorted to a 7 series BMW that was waiting for us. We were back in downtown from El Gouna in less then 1% of the time it would have taken us had we drove. Definelty an experience I will soon never forget.

Besides that life during the week has been the usual, the network is still coming along nicely we have found two great companies to profile one in which we signed on yesterday.

Speaking of last night though this was pretty interesting so, I am covering an Asian Television network for this project. Well it turns out the Prime Minister of Japan is in town and we got invited to go to a couple of functions he was at. As you can imagine security was unbelievable. We got a couple of photos with him as well were able to meet three or so ministers from Egypt. It was a fun night getting to meet and see everyone and the impact Asia is having currently on Egypt’s future.

I guess that’s all for now. Hope everyone is doing well and I will try to post again soon!!!

Chad