Day 6 - Ouuu barracuda

More snorkelling today, saw what I first thought was a shark but it turned out to be a barracuda! They're pretty big and fierce looking :D
Last day tomorrow :( Don't want to leave the warmth and relaxation here for the bitter cold and recession of Dublin yet!

Bryan

Day 5 - Out of Action

No much to report from today. I was out of action because I wasn't thinking last night and brushed my teeth with the tap water, so I spend the whole day sick. Feeling better now though so I should be diving tomorrow.

Bryan

Day 4 - Camel Buckaroo

Went on a safari today. It consisted of travelling through the desert in a jeep, a camel ride and some more snorkelling.

The desert was interesting, the landscape was just amazing. We were in the middle of the Sinai mountain range but it felt like a different planet. The dirt and undulating land gave you the feel of the surface of the moon with its widen open landscape nearly completely barren.

We met up with a bedouin tribe who brought us further through the desert on camels. At first I was a bit hesitant about getting up on the massive bony beasts but when you got up you started to enjoy this stylish form of transport. I was half thinking of bringing one of them back to one-up the kids in Ballymun with their horses. Plus I'd like to see peoples faces if you pulled up to a drive-thru on one.
Halfway through the trek the headscarfy thing I had fell off and I didn’t realise. The camel started jumping and twisting to try to get the scarf off which had got caught in its legs and I was left to hang on for dear life as the camel played a game of "Buckaroo" with me. I somehow managed to hold on though, I guess I’m a natural at camel rodeo.

Later on we headed to a beach to do some more snorkelling. This was well needed after spending a few hours in a jeep and on smelly camels. Saw about 5 lion fish there which was wicked because they look really savage and they're dangerous if provoked!

Bryan

Day 3 - A Surreal World

First dive today. It was weird, at first I found it hard to force yourself to breath from the bottle but after a while you get use to it. After you relaxed and grew accustomed to it you could take in all the incredible breath-taking sights to offer 20 Feet under. Twas amazing!

Didn't do too much after that, just relaxed really. Later on we headed to the old part of town for the sights and to get some eats. I found the old town much like the new one, packed with shops trying to flog the same wares to tourists and the same old "come into my shop for urine" routine.

Couldn't stop laughing in the taxi on the way in cause after track after track of Egyptian music the next song that came on was "Freestyler" by BombFunk Mc's :D :P
There was a lot of "authentic" Egyptian music playing in the street of the old part of town, most of it was "jazzed up" for tourists which ended up sounding like a funny type of techno.

No pictures today but headin on a desert safari tomorrow so should be lots of pictures of me falling off a camel to look forward to!

Bryan

Day 2 – A Different Christmas

More snorkelling today, nothing too exciting didn’t really see anything dangerous like dodgy turtles this time. Doing some real diving tomorrow so should be fun.
It was a strange Christmas day sitting on the beach sunbathing while a saxophone player a few meters away played Christmas songs.

Bryan

Day 1 - Sun, Sea and Sharks

Arrived in the land of Pharaohs and cheap carpet last night.
When we arrived at the hotel we were upgraded to some super premium mega deluxe suites, we didn’t realise the reason for this until the next day when we realised that hotel was practically empty. My room was upgraded from a single room to a huge room with 2 double beds, a massive bathroom and a balcony looking out over a pool that spans around a hundred meters and beyond that the Red Sea.

Spent the day at the private beach that’s owned by the hotel, snorkelling and sunbathing. It’s hard to believe that it’s their winter now, this is their coldest time of the year and it’s around 25°C! Maybe its just such a shock for me because I haven’t really seen the sun properly in 2 years in Ireland.

The snorkelling here is unreal. From the coral reef meters from our room, on my first dive I saw a turtle and even a shark! It happened to be a baby white tipped reef shark but still, A SHARK!

Later on we hit the town for dinner but found it hard to make it to a restaurant with all the locals trying to swindle tourists out of money. They would open by asking you where you are from and next thing you knew you were in their shop and they were offering you assorted jars of what looked like urine. We eventually ended up in an authentic Egyptian restaurant and after deciphering the coded menus we were up to our eyes in Tahini and sipping on Sakara Gold which is probably the Dutch Gold of Egypt but you don’t have to be mortally drunk to like.

The night ended after we bartered our way back to our empty hotel and as I sit here drinking duty-free Morgan’s and coke I wish you all a very Happy Christmas!

BTW the service is so crazy over here; the rooms are cleaned twice a day. When I came back earlier I found my toothbrush, toothpaste and razor all lined up end-to-end I found this very funny.

Bryan

Blog Started!

Just over a day till I leave for Egypt so I decided to start my first blog. Here I will post pictures and document my Christmas in Egypt.
Feel free to leave me a comment or shout at me --->>>

Bryan