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My first entry into the Red Sea was from the Saudi Arabian side taking a boat out of Jeddah, wearing a suit and carrying a duffel full of gear (one does not wander around in The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in the port for the Haj to Mecca in the province of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques wearing a bathing suit!) I changed into the dive outfit, and picked up the mask and rolled over the side with a Finnish pediatric surgeon who was assigned to me at the King Abdul Azziz University where I was Visiting Professor, because I had suggested that my honorarium could be better spent in Riyals than in dollars. Immediately, I felt like I had taken a plunge into the National Aquarium, complete with turtles, lionfish, big Napoleon wrasses, and well over a hundred colorful species that I would check in my Red Sea book later to speciate.
After an hour and a half of enchantment from surface to 40 meters, I came up for ten minutes of hang time at ten feet (I had to decompress for a while since I would be flying off on Saudia soon thereafter), I burbled as soon as I spit out the regulator "Now, you must see this all the time, but for me this is spectacular!" My dive buddy answered, "I do see it often, and it is very special for me each time also!"
When I peeled off the dive gear, I noted that it was all first class and new. "Is this a stock of equipment you keep here for guests?"
"What do you mean? It is yours!"
I said "Oh I couldn't even carry all this with me let alone accept a gift as valuable as this!" I later made a donation of it for guests who may be in Jeddah who would like to dive--and I have returned to use it myself as such a guest twice in my twenty subsequent visits to the Hijaz!