Blogs from Red Sea, Egypt, Africa - page 18

After the best part of a year with each other, Louisa and I prepared to bid each other farewell… but not without a romantic getaway to Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt. Eating and living like royalty was a highlight, as was our stay at the 5 -Star Novotel, made possible because of the supreme power of the English Pound. We spent our days lazing poolside under the warm Egyptian sun - in a quest of unearthing an Arabian tan. One of the highlights of Sharm would have been its world renowned snorkeling. The turquoise coloured waters of the Red Sea had to be seen to be believed. Wading face down along the coral reefs opened my eyes up to just how spectacular what lies beneath really is. As millions of exotic fish passed by my very nose ... read more

As-Salaam wa 3laykum! So I've been here about ten days, and thus far have had a decent time. At the beginning I mostly just slept, ate really good falafel, and attended my "crash-course in colloquial arabic" class until we went to orientation at the Red Sea. You know how I said I was scared that I had forgotten all my Arabic and wouldn't be able to speak to anyone? Well, the bad part is that yes, I did forget a lot of it, but the good part is that for 3miya (colloquial) everything changed--so it's probably a blessing that I didn't waste my time trying to re-learn Modern Standard Arabic (MSA--which is all they teach at Penn). Someone in my class suggested that the best way to get a handle on the difference is to think ... read more

A new chapter to my travelblog!! (Slightly delayed posting as usual) Me and Simone (younger sister) had decided it was time to take a break from our busy studies and booked a lastminute - splurged a little - and that's how we ended up in Egypt 2 weeks later! Being two girls on holiday alone in this male-oriented society was (how shall I put it) interesting, and we certainly got enough attention to give us an ego boost. Especially at the bazaars (markets) there was a lot of hissing and Arabic whispering and they said "Shakira" or "Hello- you are like two beautiful cats!" and "Marry me I will pay 100,000 camels" (a good offer) We felt we should stay reasonably covered up for cultural reasons even though it was HOT (30-35 degrees) not that everyone ... read more

After the fairly rough tourist centre of Luxor we were quite pleased reach the UK winter escape destination of Hurghada. After checking into Al Gizera we booked in for a diving trip the next day. Even thought it was windy and a bit cold, the Red Sea was apparently still 22 degrees, which is not too bad. The men in Hurghada were obviously a bit more sophisticated in sales, I even heard one attempt at “bridging to a sale” (for those that haven’t worked for Telecom bridging is a fairly self explanatory sales technique where you establish a customers needs and then use them to bridge to a solution). After a shopping trip to buy fruit we were all walking along with our tour guide Sean leading us and he was greeted with “My friend, all ... read more

Onze eerste vakantie samen. Lekker een weekje zon, zee, strand, duiken én van elkaar genieten. Drie dagen heerlijk gedoken. 2 duiken per dag. 1 nachtduik met heel veel Lionfish (Koraalduivels). Als ze met hoge versnelling op je lamp af komen dan is dat toch een hele andere ervaring dan die 'suffe' beesten die het overdag lijken.... read more