Egypt was definitely an entirely different experience. We spent most of our week in Sharm el Sheikh
(a beach resort town on the Sinai Peninsula – Asia) and did a full day trip to
Cairo (in the heart of Egypt, Africa).
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| Na'ama Bay with the mountains of Sharm el Sheikh behind it. |
We learned a whole bunch while in Egypt, such as: we don’t speak/understand Arabic, if you talk
to somebody they will take you to their shop and force you to drink tea and make
you sign a book saying how nice they are (they don’t have a business card to give you no matter what they say), to shout and push during a
conversation is just part of negotiating, and if the guy with a gun tells you
to pull over and wait you better just do it.
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| View from our Marriott patio |
The Marriott we were staying in was on Na'ama Bay in
Sharm. It was a beautiful area with lots
of other resorts, restaurants, and shops on the beach. Since the area is a hotspot for European
travelers we met people from Holland, Russia, Britain, etc. We spent a lot of our time bouncing between
the beach and the pools, and only venturing out to the shopping areas when we were
ready to get a lot of attention. It took
me awhile to convince Jolene it was okay not to talk to everybody who said she
looked Egyptian and wanted to know her name.
Sharm is also world famous for scuba diving and snorkelling. Jolene and I both got a chance to snorkel a little bit, but it turns out that Jolene is afraid of fish! Especially those that appear to be protecting the edges of the reef from people like me who want to step on it (Arabian Surgeon fish). I wish I had bought a scuba mask worth more than two dollars.
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| Crowded streets of Cairo |
Our trip to Cairo is and will be something I won't forget
for a long time. Egypt is currently
under the control of its military after the four week “revolution” as they
await elections for their new government.
With tourism as their second biggest industry after agriculture, the
military takes the safety of their tourists very seriously. I never felt in any danger while in Cairo or
Sharm (just different), but the 6 to 10 hour trip between the two places is a
different story.
The Sinai Peninsula is still a turbulent area that has a
very high military presence controlling the roads, and they provide escorts to
tourist buses as well in and out of the area.
We of course had our bus break down in the middle of the desert on the
way there and on the way back got stopped at about four different military
checkpoints and were asked to wait (Jolene is convinced it’s because our bus
driver had an attitude problem, but as I’ve said, I don’t speak Arabic. The shouting he did at the military could be
a part of the process I don’t fully understand).
While in the heart of Cairo, we went to the Egyptian Museum where
they have many of the items they’ve dug up from the most famous kings' tombs,
the pyramids of Giza, a famous oils shop, and a papyrus shop run by the
government. We spent the entire day
guided around by Maya with only one additional young couple who were from
Britain. Everyone else that came in on
our bus was Russian so we apparently got split up due to the language barrier
(there may have been other reasons as well).
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| Cruising down the Nile in style |
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| Jolene's camel biting Mike's camel |
The pyramids were awesome.
We took the opportunity to ride camels around them and up one dune for a
better view. The best line ever was when a 10 year old Egyptian boy offered me a million camels for Jolene ... my immediate response is she is too old for you.
We went down into the
bottom of the smaller pyramid to get an idea what it was like. Jolene on the way out was showing off and
ended up getting the first pyramid injury that I know about (she could still
walk – only a slight limp). We also got
to see a minor sand storm which seemed serious enough to us since we had sand
all over us afterwards.
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| Sphinx! |
Even the oils and papyrus shops were fascinating. Jolene ended up buying an oil called Queen of
Egypt, which is mostly the extract of the lotus flower with a couple
others as well. I got a free Pepsi with Arabic on it out of the deal so I can't complain.
Excluding taxi drivers and forceful merchants (this is true
in every country for us), we had a great time and look forward to hearing about
further improvements to the way of life for the Egyptian people.
