We headed out of sand-storm covered Cairo and had a quick flight to Sharm el-Sheikh. This is quite a new city, only recently begun after the Egyptian-Israeli War so about 30 years old or so. We’re using it as a stepping stone to Israel and the border so only spending one full day here. A lot of Europeans use this as a resort town and there’s a huge number of hotels all situated near the water.
The Good
Hmm... not much is great here. We have been extremely spoiled so far in our trip. We went snorkelling in the Red Sea just by the beach within walking distance of the hotel. There was an incredible amount of fish and the coral reef was pretty good. When you swam away from the part that looks killed by the tourists it became really picturesque.
The Bad
I don’t know if its karma or the law of averages working but our tour guide here in Sharm was quite unhelpful. He didn’t know where our hotel was, didn’t help us organise any tours or adventures and when we tried to ring him didn’t answer his phone. So our great plans for heading to Mt Sinai were dashed since our hotel wasn’t super helpful either. I think we got lulled into a false sense of helpfulness by our amazing previous guides and assumed that it would be the same here. We also were thinking of trying to go snorkelling out on a boat but left that for too late as well – again it would have been nice for the tour guide to give us a bit of assistance or warning. Hopefully someone else is involved getting us to the border tomorrow.
We went exploring our hotel that night (took all of 5 mins – even getting lost) and survived through some interesting Russian disco music. To escape we thought of going to our balcony. It’s actually got a nice view of the pool and that weather at night is very relaxing. All well and good until we wanted to head back into our room. I had closed the door to keep the cool air inside and for some reason it automatically locks. Oops. Mum and I were left outside on the 2nd floor balcony (too high to jump down) wondering how we’re going to communicate that we’re stuck. I just wanted to hide in the shadows – luckily Mum has no shame and was yelling at passing waiters until finally one came and helped us. Haven’t been out on the balcony again...
So what was going to be a day heading to get the 11th commandment turned into a relaxing resort day. However even that went bad after we got our snorkel gear from the dive club and tried to get to the beach. Since our hotel isn’t quite on the water (about 3 minute walk), we share the area with another resort – and to get there we had to pass some towel Nazi’s. Our first problem was that we needed a voucher from our hotel – which they might have told us about but we didn’t understand. Then once that was retrieved we weren’t allowed one of their towels. Our towels were back at the hotel – would have been helpful if they told us the first time we walked back. Argh...
Finally we got to the water, pretty clear which was nice and then I manage to lose a contact. Doh. I’ve snorkelled in the Great Barrier Reef and Fiji while wearing contacts but it just happens here that I lose one. So had a weird one-lens-working sight of the reef. And there’s 101 other things that are annoying us but I don’t want to cement the image that I’m a whinger.
The Russians
Now before you assume I’m calling the Russians ugly, I’m not. However I don’t think boardies have managed to reach their country and a few women aren’t being flattered by their choice of swimwear. It’s like seeing a picture of open-heart surgery, you can’t look away quick enough before the image is seared into your brain.
I’m talking about Russians because with Mum and I we bring the total number of native English speakers in this hotel to 2. For some reason we’ve ended up in a hotel set up for Russians. There’s a bit of English but most signs are in Cyrillic (is that right? The Russian alphabet?)
Anyways, it’s certainly an interesting experience and there are quite a few extremely sunburned Russians around. We’re going to go for a walk tonight and see what we can find on the coast. Off to Israel tomorrow so should be interesting!
Update – couldn’t find good internet in Sharm. Now in Jerusalem. Been a long day travelling so will write about it later. But found free internet in hotel!
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