Sharm el-Sheikh

This past weekend I went to Sharm el-Sheikh with two of my friends, Celeste and Laura. Sharm is located at the very tip of Sinai on the Red Sea, and is very popular with European tourists. Once again, our trip started off interesting (this seems to be a trend in Egypt). Our flight was at 11:30 pm on Thursday and as we were nearing the airport in Sharm our plane seemed to be gaining too much speed as it neared the runway. Apparently the air speed caused us to over-shoot the runway, so just before nearing the ground, the pilot quickly began an ascent. We had to fly around for another twenty minutes, the plane continuously bouncing. One of my friends almost got sick. Luckily, the second landing attempt was successful. Our plane landed about a half hour late, but we still assumed that the airport transit we'd arranged from the hotel would be waiting for us. Silly us for assuming anything would run smoothly in Egypt. Our driver was no where to be found and because Sharm is such a tourist destination, the taxis charge exorbitant prices. To go to our hotel 15 minutes away, we had to pay 80 Egyptian pounds. In Cairo to go some place 15 minutes away, it will normally be about 25 tops.

Finally we got to our hotel, Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village. We found this place in one of my guide books, and it had great ratings and prices. There are three options for rooms and because the plane ride was so expensive, we picked the budget-option called the View-Huts. To get to the view huts, you have to climb 133 stairs (yay beach-butt work-out!), once you get to the top, the view is beautiful. We had a view of the Red Sea and surrounding islands. Our hut was literally a hut, although a nice one. It was maybe at most 10ft x 10ft and we had three beds squished in there. The floor was tiled and the wall and roof were thatch. We didn't have air conditioning, just a fan, which made it a bit difficult to sleep. We did, however, have mosquito nets!! The bathrooms were communal and required us to go outside. We had flushing toilets and running water, but just barely. The showers mearly dribbled water.

The lack of luxury in our sleeping arrangements didn't really matter though, because we didn't have time to sleep. Our first full day there (Friday) we got up early, had breakfast, sat on the beach for a bit, and then arranged for a snokeling trip to Tiran Island. The speed-boat ride was terrifying! Our driver was going super fast over the waves and I felt like we were either going to flip over, or I was going to fly out of the boat! We stopped somewhere in the middle of the Red Sea and snokeled a bit. There were so many exotic fish! We then got to see a wreck on one of the reefs from the 70s caused by some drunk Russians. Once we got to Tiran Island, we were all blown away. It was gorgeous. The Island is completely uninhabited and has beautiful rock formations jutting out to sea. It was amazing seeing the desert and sea, two contrasting images, side by side. We were allowed to explore the island and swim in the crystal clear water. Later that day we had lunch, and my two friends went parasailing. In the evening we went to Naama Bay, which is right near Sharks Bay, but it has more restaurants, shops, clubs, casinos, etc. We had a delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant and then walked around the shops a bit. It's a amzing how many Europeans vacation in Sharm. The shopkeepers were so suprised we were from America, and even more suprised when we said 'thank you' in Arabic.

The cab ride back from Naama was once again eventful. In looking for a taxi, we told the guy the name of our hotel and asked how much it would cost in Arabic. The cab driver wanted 80 pounds, but we refused and told him we'd only paid 50 to get there. We were about to walk away to find a cheaper cab down the road when the man changed his mind and offered 60. We accepted and got into the car. Apparently the driver had no idea where he was going. He only stopped to ask for directions when we told him he should. The people he asked, however, didn't understand that our hotel was named Sharks Bay Umbi Diving Village. They kept saying 'this is Sharks Bay.' Finally we were semi-able to direct him and once we got to our hotel, he demanded we pay him 80 pounds because he had driven around for so long. We refused and sternly told him that we had told him the name of our hotel in the beginning and that he shouldn't have taken us if he didn't know how to get there. We shoved the 60 pounds plus a few pounds extra in his hand and scurried away.

The next morning (Saturday) we got up at 5 am to go on a camel excursion through the desert to watch the sun rise. We were led to a bedouin hut where the "bedouins" (men sleeping beside their pick-up) made us fresh pita bread and tea. We watched the beautiful sun rise as we ate and then got back on our camels. Just fyi, camel riding is painful! All of our legs/butts killed, and it felt like we'd been on an intense bike-ride for hours. We even had marks on our backs from where our spines hit the back of the saddle! Luckily, we didn't have much else planned for the day, so when we were back at the hotel (8am) we just plopped down on some beach chairs and napped.

After a day of napping and swimming, we ate dinner at our hotel where we were mistaken for doctors (because of our glasses) and asked to hang out at the beach with some Egyptian boys (whom we politely refused) and then hung out at the cafe/bedouin bar/hut. We watched the sunset and the beginning of the US-Ghana world cup game. We were the only Americans in a sea of Egyptians and they kept looking back at us and laughing when Ghana scored. Soon it was time for us to go to the airport. Our flight was originally supposed to leave at 1am but when we checked in, we managed to get on a flight leaving at 11pm! Since we had school the next day, and we'd hardly gotten any sleep, this was wonderful news!