Blogs from Sinai, Egypt, Africa - page 6

During our cruise, we still hadn’t planned the remaining four days of our vacation in Egypt. We decided to head to the Sinai Peninsula for some relaxing on the beaches of the Red Sea. We stayed at the Hilton Sharm Waterfalls, located right on the beach. Alex enjoyed his first morning of not setting an alarm, and we snorkeled on the reef next to the hotel. For the next two nights, we headed into Na’ama Bay, a very touristy outdoor pedestrian thoroughfare. There were hundreds of souvenir shops and restaurants. We chose TGI Fridays both nights because they had a seriously awesome drinks list and a non-smoking section (very rare and elusive in Egypt). During our last day, we went out on a glass bottom boat ride to see some amazing sea life (see video), and ... read more

Hey, das ist ok, kein Fleisch, alles Leber! Shares Cousin hat uns in Luxor abgeholt, dann zu seinem Haus gebracht. Mitten in Luxor ein kleines vierzimmeriges Appartment. Cate und ich haben als Gaeste das Zimmer mit den zwei Betten und der Klimaanlage bekommen. Die Familie schlaeft mit den zwei Jungs im naechsten Raum. Wir fuehlen uns wahnsinnig wohl und Warda und Ahmed sind das herzlichste und gastfreundlichste Paar ueberhaupt. Wir werden jeden Tag massenhaft bekocht (Heute Fruehstueck frischer Fisch aus dem Nil, geroestet und Zwiebelreis mit Limetten und Seegras, mmmmh!) und man ist sehr pikiert wenn wir nichts Essen. Wie zum Beispiel gestern, als es ein Riessen Teller fuer Cate und mich mit obskurem Fleisch gab. Ich hab also an den Tomaten genibbelt und Ahmed hat besorgt gefragt, warum ich denn kein Fleisch essen. Ich habe ... read more

Shabbat Shalom from egypt! I want to start out with a foreword of MANY sincere thanks to everyone for reading my words and enjoying them! That last post was quite a bit different for me and I am excited that it was received so positively. One interesting note...it wasn't meant to be one single poem, but seems to workout coherently as one. each verse was a new string of thought. I haven't attempted to write like that in a long time! But it's easy when the words write themselves... Setting the scene: Today I did two dives as part of my advanced diving course and I just got out of the water here in bannerfish bay. I decided to go out with my fins and mask and see what this freediving business was all about. As ... read more

It has been a while since my last post and I am now in a new country, Egypt, Mitzraim. I crossed the border on shabbat, making it difficult to get an early ride from Eilat to the border crossing...such that I missed the 9am bus from Taba to Dahab, and the next one wouldn't leave until 3pm...it was 10:15 when I entered Egypt. I paid 100 shekels to leave Israel, 65 dollars for a full egyptian visa, and another 75 egyptian pounds to actually enter egypt. My taxi ride from Taba to Dahab was 40 dollars. If he hadn't afforded me a unique cultural experience by stopping at his home in Nuweiba for tea on our way, I would have felt that I was surely being taken advantage of by the entire Egyptian system. As his ... read more

Getting from Luxor to Dahab is a serious trek. There’s nowhere really worth stopping along the way so I decided to do it in one on the overnight bus. I’d heard some serious horror stories about the bus taking up to 20 hours. Someone even told me to get my hands on some Valium. To add to things my iPod died just last night. There was a large red X on the screen saying to contact Apple support. Not particularly useful in Egypt. So I set forth with a bag of food and the acceptance I wouldn’t be getting any sleep. I ended up sitting beside a young Egyptian kid with no English. The conversation prospects weren’t looking too good! But the kid had a bag full of chicken fillet rolls which he insisted on sharing! ... read more