Sharm El-Sheikh: Great is the night and it smiles at you

Wednesday: December 15, 2010

It may be winter in the United States and Egypt, but it doesn’t feel like that here in Sharm El-Sheikh at the Renaissance Sharm El Sheikh Golden View Beach Resort.

Today I sat by two different pools, one of which had free Internet. Unlike Hurghada, there is no breeze here and it is very hot and sunny out. I like all the touring we did during the first few weeks of this trip, but I can’t complain about relaxing, reading, and napping by the pool. The pool with the free Internet is freezing while the pool without the Internet is heated, go figure.

Today a bunch of us ate lunch at Acapulco Joes, a Mexican restaurant at the hotel. Melanie and I split a serving of chicken fajitas (I caved and ate some chicken but there was so much food!). After, we returned to the heated pool, read, and soon fell asleep.

Mom: Don & Odett now work @ Pizza Hut Sharm

After the buffet dinner in the hotel dining room, some of us took a taxi to Naama Bay, about a 10-minute drive from our hotel. We fit 5 of us into a cab and it only cost us 25 pounds (5 pounds each=less than a dollar each, wow). Naama Bay is a nicer version of the Luxor market and it was also much bigger. The nightlife at Naama Bay is awesome and there are tons of shops. There are lots of hookah bars and touristy shops lining 3 or 4 streets. There was also a McDonalds (which I didn’t have), a Pizza Hut (which was huge), Hard Rock Café, TGI Fridays, and a Baskin Robbins! I shared an Oreo Cookies and Cream milkshake with Melanie and it was the best 30 pounds I’ve spent in a week. A lot of people went to a nightclub, but I was too tired/not in the mood to spend 100 pounds to get in. Four of us took a taxi for 25 pounds back to the hotel around 1am.

Tomorrow, more relaxing and more Naama Bay nightlife. Unfortunately, it is also the last day in Sharm El Sheikh as we then travel to St. Catherine and climb Mt. Sinai (where my mom works).

Once again, the Internet situation will be sketchy until I return to Cairo on Saturday the 18th. Keep those comments coming!

And yes, Little Chief Tunis, it was real and it was alive.

The Red Sea Isn't Red

Sunday: December 12, 2010

It’s official: The Read Sea isn’t red…but it sure is beautiful! Snow in the United States? The Minnesota Metrodome collapsing? 12 degree Fahrenheit wind chills in New York this week? All this while I was relaxing on the beach at our resort. It was a little breezy today which made it a tad cold to be at the beach, but it was sunny and relaxing nonetheless.

I continued reading “Moneyball” on my kindle today and I’m 20% through it, so hopefully I can read some more tomorrow. The breakfast and dinner buffet here is pretty good. They have a cheese carving and omlet stations in the morning and a pasta bar in the evening. Lunch is not included, but Melanie, Shelby, Cellie, and I went to the beach restaurant where they got cheeseburgers and I, unwilling to test my stomach, got a personal pizza.

Other than relaxing on the beach, I’ve been lounging around and enjoying the sea (the water is a little cold though). Later in the evening, a bunch of us left the resort to check out the shops in the area. Professor Ghaly says that the big market is a taxicab trip and none of us were willing to travel that far so we walked across the street. It’s funny how all the vendors said “No Hassle! No Hassel!” when we know they are trying to hassle. Because all the vendors said this phrase to us while we were walking around, none of us went into any stores…we just weren’t in the mood for it, I guess. We made a u-turn back to the resort and went to the restaurant and got hot chocolates. Relaxing, beautiful, pleasant, and very chill…can’t ask for more.

The internet is a lot of money here and no internet cafes are in sight…very annoying. Talk to you soon!