Blogs from Sharm el-Sheikh, Red Sea, Egypt, Africa - page 3

Monday Jan 31, 2011 Easy and carefree times at the Stella Di Mare resort, here in Sharm El Sheikh. Guests mill about, planning excursions, sunning pale white skin and gather in mass at buffets. Hard to believe that this peaceful oasis exists while the rest of the country is being torn apart by protests and heavy handed government reaction. Serenity, as the rest of the country's tension grows, like a branch being bent, closer and closer to the point of fracture. This face of benevolence is deliberate and self preserving. Truths are bent and lies are told (Everything in the country will be restored to normal in 2 days; There are no more protests in Cairo) so that tourists will stay and continue to spend their vacation money. Without them, the economy would collapse here. In ... read more

Dear all, It's been a long time since I last wrote..but here I am In Egypt. Dan and I decided that we needed a quick week of winter sun and although Egypt is not my most favourite of places it certainly ticks that box! On Friday (Christmas Eve) Dan and I woke early with a plan in our heads of a relaxed day of packing and getting ourselves ready. We had plenty of time as our flight would not be leaving Heathrow until 10.30 that night. In true Dan and Wendy style we still had not achieved much by 4pm and we ended up having our usual rush to get packed! But we got to our flight, we took off on time and we caught our connection in Cairo which took us here to the Red ... read more

We get picked up at 8:40am to go to the Dive Shop, Just For Fun, that are running our dive trip today. We get to the shop and it’s packed with people, I cringe wondering how many are going to be on our boat! Finally we are loaded up into 3 mini-vans and taken to the Marina. There is over 100 people congregated waiting to get on their boats, we can see about 7 boats waiting to load. Our boat is called Dar Esalem. We try to keep sight of one of the dive instructors that we know will also be on our boat. He’s a bit of a pretty muscle boy show off, wearing a bandana, tight muscle shirt, camouflage pants tucked into army boots so he’s not hard miss, although not someone you particularly ... read more

A whole nine months has past since we were last travelling. After a long cold winter we were desperate to get away. We chose Egypt as we only had a week off work so couldn't go too far but wanted guaranteed sunshine and good snorkelling. We were lucky enough to be upgraded to first class on the aeroplane but sadly soon after, things began to go wrong. As we waited for the bags to arrive on the carousel at Sharm airport I noticed mine coming around with the zip completely open. When I retrived it I discovered the zip was broken, I checked on my most precious object, my mask and snorkel, and breathed a sigh of relief that it was still in there. Other less important stuff was missing. We made our way outside to ... read more

We are now settled in at our resort in Sharm, and wanted to send a quick update. Rob arrived in Egypt on the 10th, and has been travelling up and down the Nile. We linked up in Cairo on the 20th, and caught a flight to Sharm soon after. Our resport is lovely - located right on the Red Sea with amazing sea life and beaches. We have been stuffing ourselves with great food and local wine. The weather is nice, although Kate has been complaining that it's too cold. We will be spending the next 2 days here, then moving back to Cairo for a couple of days of exploring there. Pictures and additional updates to follow soon. Miss you all, Kate and Rob... read more